Chapter 5 - MOOSE
Cole reached the elevator before anyone could stop him.
Emma followed.
So did Hale.
“Cole,” the detective said, “do not turn this into—”
“My dog is gone.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
Moose had been the only living thing that stayed with Cole through every ugly year.
When Cole slept in warehouse offices at twenty-one, Moose slept beside the door.
When bullets shattered the back window of a car in Cicero, Moose threw his body over Cole before anyone opened the opposite door.
When Cole came home at four in the morning smelling like smoke and bad decisions, Moose never asked where he had been.
He just followed.
Now the leash sat abandoned.
Security footage showed a hospital orderly wheeling an empty laundry cart toward the service elevator.
Moose followed because a familiar voice called him.
The camera caught the man’s face.
Not Vincent.
One of Vincent’s drivers.
Hale radioed units.
Cole stared at the footage.
“He knew Moose would follow him.”
Emma looked at him.
“Did the dog know that driver?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why Vincent used him.”
Cole said nothing.
Again.
Trust turned into access.
Ten minutes later, Cole’s phone rang.
Vincent.
Hale signaled to answer.
Cole did.
“Where’s my dog?”
Vincent laughed softly.
“You always did care more about that animal than people.”
“Where?”
“You sound angry.”
“Vincent.”
“Remember when I found you sleeping in the pawn shop office because your mother changed the locks?”
“She didn’t change the locks.”
A pause.
Interesting.
Cole continued.
“You told me she did.”
Vincent’s silence lasted half a second too long.
Emma noticed.
So did Hale.
Cole’s voice went quieter.
“You’ve been lying longer than eight years.”
Vincent sighed.
“I’ve been cleaning up your family longer than eight years.”
“You stole from my mother.”
“I managed her.”
“You made her homeless.”
“She refused to cooperate.”
Cole’s hand tightened around the phone.
Emma touched his sleeve.
Not to stop him.
To remind him he was in a hospital.
Cole breathed.
“What do you want?”
“Records.”
“What records?”
“The ones Dennis gave the police.”
“I don’t have them.”
“You can get them.”
“And then?”
“You get the dog.”
Cole looked at Hale.
The detective shook his head.
“No deal.”
Vincent continued.
“Midnight. Old Ashworth pawn shop.”
Cole’s chest tightened.
The first property.
Where everything started.
“Come alone.”
The line died.
Emma said immediately, “No.”
Cole looked at her.
“You don’t get a vote.”
“Neither do you if you plan to walk into a trap.”
Hale said, “For once, she and I agree.”
Cole paced.
Rebecca came down the hallway.
“What happened?”
“Moose.”
Her face fell.
Margaret could not know yet.
Not while recovering.
Cole looked at Hale.
“You have Dennis’s documents.”
“Yes.”
“Copies?”
“Obviously.”
“Then give me the originals.”
“No.”
“I don’t need real ones.”
Hale stared.
Cole continued.
“You want Vincent.”
“Yes.”
“I want my dog.”
“No weapons.”
Cole almost smiled.
“Detective, you know me better.”
“That’s exactly why I said it.”
The plan was simple because complicated plans usually failed.
Cole would arrive with a folder.
Police would surround the block from distance.
No Vale men.
That was Cole’s choice.
For the first time in years, he trusted public law more than his own organization.
That fact made him uncomfortable.
At 11:52 p.m., he stood outside the boarded pawn shop where he had made his first illegal loan fifteen years earlier.
Snow had begun again.
The windows were dark.
Cole entered.
“Vincent.”
A light switched on.
Moose was there.
Chained near the counter.
Alive.
His tail slammed once against the floor when he saw Cole.
Cole exhaled.
Vincent stepped from the back room.
He looked older than Cole remembered.
Fifty-two.
Gray beginning at his temples.
A man who had eaten at Cole’s table more often than his own relatives had.
“You came.”
“Let him go.”
“Folder.”
Cole tossed it onto the counter.
Vincent opened it.
“Original?”
“Yes.”
Lie.
Vincent flipped pages.
Then smiled.
“You learned from me.”
“That isn’t the compliment you think.”
Vincent looked almost hurt.
“I made you.”
“No.”
“I kept you alive when you were a kid pretending to be dangerous.”
“You stole from my mother.”
“I gave you the freedom to become what you became.”
Cole stared.
“What does that mean?”
“Every time she called, you got weak.”
Cole felt cold.
“You blocked her calls.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because every conversation ended with you questioning everything.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“You’d say maybe you should leave Chicago. Maybe you should sell. Maybe your mother was right.”
Cole remembered.
The early years.
Mom’s voice.
Come home.
Vincent had always been there afterward.
You’re building something bigger.
Vincent continued.
“You think you built this empire because you were ruthless?”
Cole said nothing.
“You built it because I kept cutting away every soft piece.”
The words should have made Cole furious.
Instead they made him tired.
“What about my father?”
Vincent’s face changed.
There it was.
“Did you alter the life-insurance policy?”
“No.”
“Did he?”
Vincent smiled slightly.
“Your father trusted me too.”
Cole’s stomach tightened.
“What did he want?”
“He wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“Everything.”
Cole stared.
Vincent continued.
“Your father spent years running money for men above him. Then he got scared. Bought insurance. Built an investment account. Planned to take you and Rebecca away.”
Cole had never known.
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because he died.”
“How?”
Vincent smiled without humor.
“Heart attack.”
Cole watched him.
“Natural?”
“Yes.”
“Then why steal his insurance?”
“Because he owed me.”
“Two-point-eight million?”
“He owed me a future.”
Cole almost laughed.
Vincent believed this.
That was the frightening part.
“He promised me partnership. Then decided to run.”
“So you forged the beneficiary.”
“I corrected an agreement.”
Cole looked at Moose.
“Just like you corrected my mother’s finances.”
“She would have dragged you back into poverty.”
“She was freezing on a sidewalk.”
“For one night.”
Cole’s face changed.
Vincent realized too late what he had admitted.
“You knew she was outside.”
Silence.
Cole stepped closer.
“You knew.”
Vincent raised a hand.
A small pistol.
Cole stopped.
Police listening through Cole’s hidden microphone heard everything.
Vincent pointed toward the folder.
“You brought copies.”
“Yes.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Of course.”
Moose growled.
“Easy,” Cole whispered.
Vincent looked toward the dog.
“This thing always hated me.”
“He had better judgment.”
Vincent laughed.
Then the back door opened.
Emma stepped inside.
Cole’s heart stopped.
“What are you doing?”
She held both hands up.
Vincent turned the gun toward her.
“Interesting.”
Cole’s voice became dangerous.
“Emma.”
She looked at him.
“You left your phone in the car.”
“What?”
“Your mother called.”
Cole stared.
Emma continued.
“She remembered something.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“She said your father left a safe-deposit key.”
Vincent whispered, “No.”
Cole saw it.
Fear.
Real fear.
Emma continued.
“Margaret kept it.”
Vincent stepped toward her.
“Where?”
Cole moved between them.
The gun shifted back toward him.
“Where is the key?”
Emma looked at Vincent.
“With the police.”
Lie.
Probably.
Cole could not tell.
Sirens erupted outside.
Vincent cursed.
He grabbed the folder and ran toward the rear.
Moose lunged against the chain.
The metal hook tore loose.
The dog slammed into Vincent.
Not biting.
Just enough force to knock him sideways.
The gun skidded under a shelf.
Police entered.
Within seconds, Vincent was on the floor in handcuffs.
Cole dropped beside Moose.
The dog pressed his giant head against Cole’s chest.
Emma stood behind them.
Hale walked in.
“You brought a civilian into my operation?”
Cole looked at Emma.
“I absolutely did not.”
She shrugged.
“Nobody invited me.”
Hale rubbed his face.
“I’m retiring.”
Vincent began laughing from the floor.
Everyone looked at him.
“You think this ends with me?”
Cole stood.
Vincent’s smile widened.
“You still don’t know where the rest of the money went.”
“What rest?”
“Your father didn’t leave two million.”
Cole went still.
Vincent whispered:
May you like
“He left twenty.”
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