Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER DIED
Gunfire shattered the darkness.
I dropped to the floor.
Concrete exploded near my shoulder.
Gabriel pulled me behind a row of lockers while Leo fired toward the corridor.
“Stay down!”
“I am down!”
Another shot cracked.
Then silence.
Footsteps retreated.
Leo chased them only far enough to secure the stairwell before returning.
“Gone.”
Gabriel turned on his phone flashlight.
“Norah?”
“I’m okay.”
He checked anyway.
His hands moved over my shoulders and arms with surprising care.
When he realized I wasn’t hurt, anger replaced fear.
“Whoever did this knew about the locker.”
Leo looked at the boxes.
“And knew about Elias.”
Gabriel stared at the photograph again.
“I don’t have a brother.”
“You have a picture of one.”
“I remember my childhood.”
“Children remember what adults allow them to remember.”
That came from me.
Gabriel looked over.
Nursing school had taught me about trauma, memory, and developmental gaps.
“You were twelve here,” I said. “Do you remember that day?”
He stared at the photograph.
Slowly, his confidence disappeared.
“I remember the sweater.”
“What else?”
“A house with green shutters.”
“Rosa?”
“Yes.”
“The other boy?”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then his breathing changed.
“Music.”
Leo frowned.
“What music?”
“Piano.”
Gabriel pressed his fingers against his temple.
“There was somebody always playing piano badly.”
I turned the photograph around.
In the background stood an upright piano.
Gabriel opened his eyes.
“I remember him.”
The words came out like a confession.
“Elias.”
Back at the diner, we spread the contents of Rosa’s boxes across the tables.
The financial ledger suggested someone had been secretly paying Paulie for years.
Photographs showed Gabriel and Elias together until Gabriel was twelve.
Then Elias vanished from every picture.
Benny finally admitted Rosa had once told him there had been an accident.
“A fire,” he said.
Gabriel looked at him sharply.
“My mother supposedly died in a fire.”
Benny nodded.
“That was the story Charles Hayes gave everyone.”
“What actually happened?”
“I don’t know. Rosa showed up afterward terrified. She had burns on one arm. She said one boy had been taken and the other had been convinced he was dead.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Which boy?”
Benny looked directly at him.
“You.”
Silence.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Gabriel motioned for me to put it on speaker.
I answered.
A man spoke calmly.
“Norah Bennett.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Who is this?”
The man ignored him.
“You made Gabriel remember my mother’s food.”
My skin went cold.
“Elias?”
A soft laugh.
“So he found the photograph.”
Gabriel moved closer to the phone.
“If you’re my brother, come say it to my face.”
“I’ve spent twenty-six years waiting to do exactly that.”
“Where are you?”
“Not yet.”
Gabriel’s fist closed.
“You poisoned Paulie?”
“No.”
“You threatened Norah?”
“No.”
“Then what do you want?”
“To keep you alive long enough to understand who is actually killing you.”
Gabriel stared at the speaker.
“Who?”
May you like
Elias answered with two words.
“Ask Leo.”
