Chapter 10: The Call to Reyes
Special Agent Diana Reyes picked up on the second ring.
"Rossi," she said.
Not surprised.
Not warm.
The tone of a person who had been expecting a call from a complicated direction for a long time.
"Reyes," Gabriel said.
"I have something for you."
"I'm listening."
"A complete financial record of Victor Crane's operation in Allegheny County.
Shell company registrations, distribution ledgers, account numbers, named recipients including two county officials and a state licensing board member.
Thirty months of documentation." He paused.
"And a voice recording of Crane directing payments to one of those officials.
Explicit, dated, and clear."
Silence on the line.
"Where did this come from?" Reyes said.
"A witness.
Former bookkeeper inside the operation.
She copied the records before she left Pittsburgh fourteen months ago and has been in protective circumstances since."
"Protective circumstances," Reyes repeated.
"Meaning your estate."
"Meaning she was safe," Gabriel said.
"She's willing to cooperate fully.
She'll sign whatever you need her to sign and testify if it comes to that."
"And what do you want in return?"
"Crane tried to use a member of my organization to locate her," Gabriel said.
"I want him removed from the board entirely.
I want his operation dismantled.
And I want the witness to have whatever federal protection she needs while the investigation runs."
"That's a lot of wanting for a man who doesn't usually ask for things."
"I'm not asking," Gabriel said.
"I'm offering you the cleanest case you've seen in two years.
What you do with it is your business."
Another silence.
Longer.
"I'll need to see the materials before I can commit to anything," Reyes said.
"Petrov will deliver them to your Washington office by end of day.
Chain of custody documentation included."
"And the witness?
Is she willing to speak with me directly?"
Gabriel looked across the hotel room at Hannah, who was sitting at the small table with her hands flat on the surface, listening to his half of the conversation.
He held out the phone.
She took it.
"Agent Reyes," Hannah said.
"My name is Hannah Voss.
I worked as a bookkeeper for Victor Crane's operation for approximately three years.
I have documentation of his financial structure and a voice recording of him directing payments to public officials.
I'm prepared to cooperate fully with a federal investigation." A pause.
"Yes.
I understand the process.
I've been waiting to have this conversation for fourteen months."
She listened for a moment.
Then: "Yes.
That's correct.
I can confirm all of it."
She handed the phone back to Gabriel.
"She wants a formal meeting in Washington within 48 hours," Hannah said.
"She says if the materials are what you described, she can have a federal warrant in motion within the week."
"Good," Gabriel said into the phone.
"We'll be there."
He ended the call.
Tommy, who had been standing near the door, let out a slow breath.
"That's it, then?" Tommy said.
"That's the beginning of it," Gabriel said.
"Crane still has to be served.
His men still have to stand down.
The county officials will lawyer up immediately.
It won't be clean."
"But it'll happen," Tommy said.
"It'll happen."
Hannah stood up from the table.
She walked to the window and looked out at the street below — ordinary morning traffic, ordinary people, the ordinary world that had been moving without her for over a year while she lived inside borrowed names and hidden rooms.
"Gabriel," she said without turning around.
"Yes."
"After Washington.
After all of this." She paused.
"What happens to me?"
Gabriel crossed the room and stood beside her at the window.
"That," he said, "is entirely up to you."
She turned to look at him.
The morning light was on her face.
The exhaustion was still there — it would not disappear in a day — but underneath it, something else.
Something that had been pressed down under fourteen months of running and was only now beginning to surface.
"I don't have anywhere to go," she said.
"My apartment in Pittsburgh is gone.
I can't go back to my mother's until this is over.
I have forty dollars in cash and a duffel bag with a cut lining."
"You have the documents," Gabriel said.
"And the recording.
And a federal agent who is about to owe you a significant debt."
"That's not the same as somewhere to go."
Gabriel looked at her for a moment.
"No," he said.
"It isn't."
May you like
He said nothing else.
But he did not move away from the window either.
