Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

85. Celestial combustion

Cat follows Gabe into an empty interrogation room, after asking him to meet her at he station.
"What's going on? You sounded upset on your message. Does it have to do with those missing VHS tapes?"

"I'm glad that we got a chance to bond over my mom earlier," she starts and he smiles, "but I also have to do my job...Someone heard you arguing with the Mayor's aide at the park."

"Okay?"

"And I followed up. The Mayor's office said that you asked for her endorsement as a future candidate and she refused."

"That's why we were arguing," he says truthfully, "You got me."

"I also know, that you got a call from the sniper right before the shooting." Cat walks closer to him and his smile starts to fade to a look of confusion.

"Wait," he blinks, "am I a suspect?" Gabe looks at the room they were in.

"Not officially, but - "

"Oh oh," Gabe laughs, "Bishop's really got it out for me."

"Joe doesn't know," Cat says and he frowns.

"This is coming from you?" Cat just looks at him. "Well that it the last time I show up at your mother's grave with flowers," he quips sarcastically, walking around the table to the other side, and towards the door.

"Gabe, I know how badly you want to bring down Muirfield and Mayor of New York? That's power."

"You seriously think I'd try to have the Mayor killed? Look, I know the shooting must have been traumatic for you, today of all days, and maybe you're just displacing your anger towards your mother about - "

"You transferred 25 thousand dollars to an unmarked account," Cat interrupts him before he can finish whatever drivel he was about to come up with. She was not displacing a thing.

"How do you know - " he starts angrily.

"Was that to hire a hit on the Mayor?"

The two stare each other down. Gabe keeps eye contact when he speaks.
"A private investigator."

"For what?"

"You know the crack in the headstone? I actually noticed it a few days ago." He walks back to the table.

"You've been there before?"

"Just once. Right when I found out who she was. When I saw the crack...
Well, you know how cagey Muirfield can be," he shrugs.

Cat is once again left speechless by this man. "Okay, so what did this PI find?"

"Well, I was gonna wait until after the anniversary of your mother's death before I told you but..." He takes a deep breath when she glares at him. "The cemetary paperwork says your mother's casket was exhumed two weeks after she was buried."

"So she was moved?" Did Heather lie? Or did she not know?

"Reason listed is a gas leak repair but there's no corresponding city record of any leak or of any other work being done."

Cat frowns, trying to make sense of it.
"Wh - " She shakes her head. "Why? Why would Muirfield do that?"

"Maybe they were looking for something."

"Like what?"

"Catherine," Gabe sighs, "did you ID your mom? After?"

Cat shakes her head. She had been way too traumatized to look at her again after she was killed in front of her, she'd already seen her. 
"No. No I didn't have to. She was shot right in front of me."