“No, he didn’t. That was your mission. Like protecting me by staying at the Chronicle. Afraid I couldn’t handle losing Mom and Dad.” Gennie leaned toward him, resting her forehead on his. “You make yourself everyone’s savior, Gabriel. Me, our parents. Even Peter.” She ignored Gabriel’s warning look as he pulled back. “Mirren didn’t do right by Peter, so you start a new paper and give it to him to run.”

Gabriel studiously avoided Peter’s narrowed gaze. “I got fired.”

“You got yourself fired,” she corrected. “Because you think you let Mirren take the paper.”

“Dammit,” Peter cursed. “I told you I was fine at the Chronicle. And, by God, you didn’t let them take it. Mirren Enterprises is a media beast and it eats papers for lunch. The Chronicle in New Orleans, the Gazette in Atlanta. The Richmond Star. It didn’t matter. Unless you were Rupert Murdoch, Mirren was going to take the paper. He’d already started with your dad, before your mom got sick. You just happened to be at the wheel when we ran out of gas.”

“Enough. I’ve made my decision,” said Gabriel. To Gennie, he said, “I survived wars and famine and your adolescence. I can do this.” When she still refused to relent, he decided he’d give her time. “Erin? You want to tell them what you found?”

“We need to humiliate him,” she began, and sketched out her theory.

Chapter 19

The showdown occurred at the Ledger’s office at high noon.

“I demand to see Gabriel Moss!” Kenneth’s shrill order could be heard throughout the converted warehouse. Faces peeked over cubicle walls to watch the drama unfold.

The receptionist pressed the intercom. “Gabriel? A Mr. Kenneth Bernard is here to see you.”

“Doctor Bernard!” Kenneth shouted. “My name is Doctor Bernard!”

Rolling her eyes, she dutifully repeated to the dead air, “Doctor Bernard.”

Gabriel ambled up to Kenneth, shoulders deceptively relaxed. He thanked Patrice for her help, then took his first good look at a sociopath. They’d met before at university functions that Gennie had dragged him to. Kenneth Bernard wasn’t the remarkable type.

But he was the murdering kind.

“How can I help you, Mr. Bernard?” Gabriel stressed the title. “Having a problem with your subscription?”

Nearly apoplectic, Kenneth waved crumpled sheets of paper in Gabriel’s face. “This is libel, sir. I plan to sue.”

“I’m not sure I understand why you’re angry. Care to explain?” Keep him talking, Gabriel reminded himself. Kelly should have phoned Sylvie by now. Wait for the signal.

Kenneth noticed the interested folks watching him, and he tried to calm down. It wouldn’t do to disgrace himself in public. No, what he planned to do would be done in private. “If we can go into your office?”

Gabriel smiled pleasantly. “I don’t think so.”

“I’d rather not discuss this out in the open,” Kenneth hissed.