Chapter 23 #3
“Yes, Mr. Ellison. We interviewed every club employee that night, including the dancers. And she confirmed she went in with Mr. Petrucci, did her thing, got paid, and then both of them came out. Five minutes later, the explosion occurred.”
Victor takes a few seconds, carefully analyzing the information. “Is there a blueprint of the building available?”
“Yes, right here,” Reece says and slides a photocopy across the table. “We were trying to figure out how the bomber got in and out completely undetected.”
“Did you?”
“Unfortunately, no. The club owner died from a heart attack a week after the incident. And the ladies at city hall said the blueprint they had was filed over ten years ago. There was no telling what modifications may have been made in the meantime. Our CSI investigators looked, but they didn’t know exactly what to look for either. ”
Victor shakes his head in dismay. “I find that highly unlikely. Unless…” He leans forward, looking at one particular section of the blueprint. “The back room is this one, right?”
“Right.”
“And there’s an office and storage room here, with six feet of solid wall between them and the back room.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“I think you need to go back to the club and check the back room’s southern wall.
Something tells me that if anyone wanted to sneak out of the room without going through the front, they could’ve used a secret access point to the office or the storage room.
If the club owner wanted it kept secret, he wouldn’t have filed an update with city hall, either. ”
Reece scowls. “You seem to know a lot about building permits and secret tunnels, Mr. Ellison.”
“That shouldn’t surprise you.”
It doesn’t surprise me either, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense now.
“What’s your theory exactly?” I ask Victor.
“I don’t know why or the logistics behind it. I can’t think of a motive right now either. But someone could’ve taken Stefano’s place in that back room during the private dance. That someone ended up at the front, smack in the middle of the explosion, and wearing Stefano’s personal items.”
A troubling implication. But given what we know now, not as far-fetched either.
“And Stefano would’ve snuck out through a secret passageway or doorway into the office or storage room,” Reece adds with a furrowed brow. “Someone would’ve picked him up from the back alley. There were no cameras there. It would’ve worked. But why?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Stefano did not die that night,” Victor says.
Reece seems to agree with him. “I’ll get my men back in front of the investigative board before lunch. We’ll follow up with each staff member, particularly the dancer who handled Stefano’s private session.”
“She could be the key to everything,” I say.
“Give us her name, and we’ll get you all the information you need,” Victor offers with a cool smile.
Reece isn’t falling for this. He shakes his head and laughs lightly.
“No dice, Mr. Ellison. I know how you folks handle your business. I need that girl alive and unharmed so she can eventually testify when the time comes. I’m seeking justice for the people who were killed that night, not vengeance. ”
He doesn’t leave room for persistence either.
Once we’re back in Victor’s car, however, he’s already texting Officer Doyle.
“I’ll get us that dancer’s name sooner or later,” he says.
I’m still reeling from everything we’ve just learned, dizzy and queasy and tired from all the mental gymnastics. “What do we do next, Victor?”
“We’re taking you home, Valentina,” he says. “I’ll need to address this with Luca today, however.”
“I’m not sure how he’ll react.”
“Me neither. But I do know how he’ll react if he finds out from someone other than me,” Victor replies.
Walking through the Petrucci mansion’s doors, the air seems different.
It’s quiet, far too quiet. From Susie’s texts, I know she and Michael are up in his room, napping for at least another hour.
But the ground floor seems abandoned, clad in shadows and unspoken anger.
I noticed the hard looks of the security guards when we walked in, and I hear the footsteps of the maids rustling around in the kitchen.
“Something’s wrong,” I tell Victor.
He doesn’t say anything. I follow him into Luca’s office, and that is where it hits us both—this bone-chilling air of raw anger coming off my husband as he paces around the room. As soon as he sees us, Luca stops.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he asks, his voice low, his eyes blazing.
“Luca, let me explain—”
“You took my wife out of the house without my consent?”
“Hold on,” I cut in. “We can explain. We had Elias and David with us. I wasn’t on my own.”
“I’m talking to Victor!” Luca shouts, his voice thundering across the room.
His tone cuts directly through my heart, leaving me speechless and trembling.
The look on his face and the heavy way he’s breathing show that his self-control is slowly slipping away, and if I’m not careful, the flood gates might open.
I don’t know what will happen when they do.
This startling intensity is a side of Luca I’ve never seen before.
Victor, on the other hand, appears incredibly calm, like he’s familiar seeing Luca display this kind of rage.
“It was something that we both needed to be involved in,” Victor tells Luca, “because it concerns her, too.”
“Raymond is in a private clinic,” Luca replies. “Even after what I did to him, he still swore he didn’t betray me, and I believed him. Maybe a little too late, but I believed him.”
“What did you do?” Victor gasps, his eyes wide with horror.
“My cousin couldn’t have betrayed me. I had my people go through his entire life with a fine-tooth comb, which only leaves you, Victor, as the traitor in my organization. And I’ve been wracking my brain for the past couple of hours, trying to figure out a way to handle this—”
“Luca, stop,” Victor says. “Stop. It’s not what you think.”