by Ginger Ring
“Who’s that?” Roman motioned with his thumb.
“I was at the station today looking for kids to mentor and Ryan brought him over.”
Madison grinned and Roman frowned.
“That still doesn’t answer the question. Who is he and where does he live?”
“Oh my god. Roman. This isn’t Chicago. If Ryan says he’s okay to have around the place, I believe him.”
“But if he is known around the station as needing special attention, there is obviously a reason. Did he get caught stealing or dealing drugs?” His face was set in a frown.
“Roman, hush. He might hear you.” She held a finger to her lips. “I really don’t know what his story is. Just that he needed a job. Something about his father being killed and his mom needed help with the bills. He seems like a nice young man.”
“Well, get me his last name and I’ll have Arlo check him out. If he and his family truly need help, we will see what we can do.” She gave him Tyler’s full name and her heart softened. Roman may have been a thorn in her backside at times with his over protectiveness, but he was also known to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. His phone buzzed and his face darkened when he read the message.
“I’ve got to go.” He got to his feet and locked eyes with Dominic, who was on the other side of the room hooking up a flat screen television to the wall.
“Is something wrong?” Madison also rose.
“Nothing for you two to worry about. Maddy, you stay here and I’ll be back soon. Dom, I need a word with you outside.” The man put down his tools and followed him.
“Well, that was weird,” Madison said, and rushed over to the window. “I didn’t even get a kiss goodbye. Either the honeymoon phase is over or something big just went down.”
“I’m thinking the latter.” Their faces were so close to the window it fogged up. “And Dom’s coming back inside instead of going with him.” They turned to face each other after witnessing Roman get in the SUV with Arlo and head off down the street. “I don’t like this at all. What do you think is up?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to give up until someone gives me an answer.” They both rushed to the man who’d just come in the door.
It took a while of nonstop pestering to get Dominic to crack but he did. Valentina didn’t know all of his history but she did know he’d been tortured and abused. The fact that he often gave in to her demands meant he had a soft spot for her.
“What do you mean, ask my lover boy?” She tilted her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“You know that badge that was here earlier.” He brushed a piece of long hair behind his ear. For being so scary, the man was drop dead gorgeous. Dominic was from the old country, as made obvious by his slight accent. His skin always had that sun kissed tan to it and his long dark hair was the envy of any woman.
“That badge is not my lover boy.” Although she wasn’t opposed to that happening, she wasn’t going to admit it. “If you don’t tell me right now, I will call Roman and ask him. It must be important so I’m sure he won’t want me bothering him.”
Dominic took a deep breath and placed the hammer he had in his hands on a nearby counter. “There’s been another death of a young woman. It’s looking like Genoa might have a killer on the loose. Roman went to find out more.”
“What?” Madison gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Things like that don’t happen here.”
“Bad things can happen anywhere.”
“I know, but this is one of the reasons I left Chicago, and this is my new home.” Valentina’s face was white. “I just can’t even imagine.” She hugged herself. “Wait. Who was murdered?”
Valentina said a silent prayer as she did a visual count in her head of all the good people she had met since moving to Genoa. Thinking that any one of them could be a victim made her sick to her stomach.
“I don’t know.” Dom leaned against the wall. “But I am not to let either one of you out of my sight until Roman is back.”
Valentina glanced in her sister-in-law’s direction and met her gaze. Both were very stubborn women, but right now neither wanted to test Roman’s instructions, at least not until they knew all the details. The news had put her on edge. If there was a killer on the loose, that would be the last person she wanted to run into. “Where’s Tyler?”
“I sent him to get us some lunch.”
She was on the verge of pulling her hair out when the kid finally walked in the door, his arms loaded down with sandwiches, pasta, and drinks from the kitchen of Firenza. “Wow, what a cool place. I can’t believe you own that,” Tyler said, in awe of her other business. “Are you hiring?”
“You want another job?” Valentina started to unpack their meal.
“No, I think I will be very happy here. I was just thinking about my mom.” He set the box of food on the coffee table.
“I thought she had a job.”
“She does, but it’s at a bar and she works really late hours.” He tapped his toe a couple times against the leg of a chair. “I think it would be safer for her somewhere else.”
He had her at the word safe, especially if the rumor of a possible killer of women in the area was true. “Let me make a call and we will see what we can do.” Even if they didn’t need extra help, she was getting Tyler’s mom in. She couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her when Valentina could get her work somewhere safer. The security at Firenza was first rate. It had to be in their business. She stepped into her office and her fingers flew across the laptop as she sent off an email to her human resource person.
Her thoughts turned to Ryan. Law enforcement was a dangerous business, even more so today, but it really hit home now. Did she want to get involved with someone who might not come home at night? For some reason that didn’t deter her from considering him as a potential romantic partner. She’d spent her whole life with the scary thought of many of her family members not returning at night—and some hadn’t.
“I better call Ryan and see what I can find out.” Not knowing what was going on was making her jittery.
“Leave him be. If he’s in the middle of an investigation, the last thing we want to do is bother him.” Madison had grabbed a to-go container and stuck her fork into some spaghetti. “I’m sure we will hear from Roman soon. That was where he was going, right?” She pointed her fork at Dom.
“Yeah, he’s hoping to find out what happened and see what we can do to catch the bastard.” It was no secret that Dominic loved to get rid of men who harmed others, especially women or children. In medieval times, he’d have been an executioner attired in black robes and a hood. Today, he was in a pair of tight jeans, work boots, and a long-sleeve tee.
“Catch who?” Tyler asked. “Did I miss something?”
“We just heard that there was a murder,” Val informed him.
“We don’t know for sure. Let’s not panic.” Madison was the voice of reason.
Tyler whipped out his phone and sent a text.
“Who are you texting?”
“My mom. The girl who died the other day lived next to our house.”
“What?” Her jaw dropped. That was way too close. Not only was she going to get his mom a job, she would find them a new place to live.
“Yes, she was our neighbor. Nice lady.” Tyler visibly relaxed when a text came back from his mother.
“This was in another area of town. At least that was where Roman and Arlo were headed.” Dominic was usually the quiet one but the thirst for blood had him in a rather talkative mood. “I’ll text Arlo and see what I can find out.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.” Madison left half the food on her plate and started to pace. “Stuff like this doesn’t happen here.”
“Damn tourists from Chicago,” Tyler muttered under his breath.
“I’m from Chicago and so is Officer Ryan,” Valentina interjected.
“You’re not tourists. You live here.”
>
“Until we know more, I don’t think we should speculate.” Despite Madison trying to calm the group down, she kept walking back and forth. “I’m glad my mother and father are on vacation right now so I don’t have to worry about them.” After being separated for years, they’d been reunited, newly married, and traveling the world ever since.
“No one would dare harm you.” The tone with which Tyler said it had Dominic glaring at him. “Well, it’s true. She has bodyguards and is married to the biggest badass town. It’s the rest of us who have to worry about getting killed.”
“It’s doesn’t matter who you are.” Dominic’s voice was cold. “If someone wants to kill you bad enough, they will find a way.” He picked up the hammer again. “I know, I’ve done it.”
Chapter Eleven
This was the second time in less than a week Ryan was standing over a dead body, this time in the back room of a laundromat. It was not something a person wanted to get used to. Everything was the same and yet it was different. This was murder. This was planned. The victim was a mess.
The name on her pink smock said Amy. From the looks of the office, she didn’t go down without a fight. There were chairs tipped over and spots of blood smeared on just about every surface. Her body was a crumpled heap on the floor. Her blonde hair was a mixture of red and white strands.
“Looks like trauma to the head again.” Were Tracy and Amy somehow connected?
Danny’s gloved finger pointed to a broken stapler lying on the floor. “Death by stapler? I don’t think so, but there was definitely a struggle.” Pen, paper, and even the contents of a trash can were lying about the room. It was messed up no matter what way you looked at it.
“It was more likely this.” She picked up a heavy cast iron item next to the stapler. It had some blood and hair on it.
“What the hell is that?” Ryan asked.
“Obviously, you don’t know antiques.” Danny held it by the handle. “It’s called a sad iron. They heat it on the stove and then use it to press clothes. It must have been a knickknack or paperweight on the desk.”
“This is fucked up.” Ryan squatted next to the victim as Danny continued to take photos from every angle.
“That’s for damn sure.” She snapped a few more shots. “How long do you think she’s been like this?”
“From the condition and temperature of the body, I would say maybe late last night, early this morning.” The coroner jotted down some notes. The vet had arrived at the same time he had. “This is one of those twenty-four-hour places. She could have been in the back about to lock up the office and been hit from behind.”
Ryan glanced inside the store’s open safe. “No money seems to be missing. So robbery is out.” The deposit bag was still sitting there full of money, leaving him to believe she’d just unlocked the safe before being attacked.
“Tuesday, huh?” Danny stopped taking pictures and carefully shifted through a stack of items on the floor with her glove covered hands.
“You got something, Dan?” She was new to the force but Ryan already respected her keen senses. Danny often saw things the guys missed.
“It makes me think of those old towels.”
“Towels?”
“My grandma had them.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Go on.” The coroner was also listening.
“Monday was wash day. Tuesday was for ironing. Wednesday was for something else. Could be a coincidence, but just made me think of it. Tracy had a basket of laundry on the floor. We have an iron in a laundromat. I’m sure you can find some reproductions of the towels at a store. Let me check.” She dug her phone out and did a search. When she found the right image, Danny handed it to him. Sure enough, there was an activity for each day of the week embroidered on flour sacks. Wednesday was mending day.
“Did you find any of those images here?”
“Not yet, but I will search the list for the other crime scene and see if there was anything there.”
“Interesting, but what does it tell you about the killer?” the coroner questioned.
“Your guess is as good as mine. They hate housework? Who knows?” He was used to drunk and disorderly calls, not murders. “Danny, do a search of similar crimes and see if anything comes up. Also see if Tracy and Amy knew each other.”
“Got it.” She’d been jotting down notes and clicked her pen and put it in her pocket. “Anything else?”
“Nope, just get copies of the photos printed and wait for the others to get here. Does the victim have any next of kin?”
“I checked her phone for an ICE but nothing.” It always surprised him how many people failed to designate someone as their in case of emergency contact on their phone.
“Look at this.” The coroner lifted the collar of the victim’s smock. “It’s some kind of puncture wound.” It was as if someone had tried to stab her once, it didn’t take, so they stabbed her again.
“Donavan?”
Ryan jumped when he heard his name being yelled from the other room. He recognized it as Roman Caponelli. Just what he needed. The guy probably wanted to chew him a new one for visiting his sister. The tall Italian in a suit strolled into the room.
“This is a crime scene. You shouldn’t be in here.”
“I had them add me to the list.” He said it as if he was on the police payroll.
“You have no right to be on the list.” Ryan glared at the new recruit at the door who meekly held a clipboard. Whenever there was a crime scene, they kept a list of everyone who came in so they could either add or delete people’s DNA that might pop up in any test results.
Roman approached him so that they were out of anyone’s earshot. “I want to know if there is anything I can do to help. Word is this might be a serial killer. We might be able to hunt them down and take care of the problem if you know who it is.”
Just what he needed, a mafia posse out to take down a desperado.
“As much as I would love to have you hunt down and dispose of the problem, I don’t know who it is. Plus, Caponelli, I am an officer of the law, and things don’t work that way.”
“Look, you know and I know that sometimes these bastards slip through the cracks. I have a wife and a sister here and I want this guy caught before anyone else gets hurt.”
“And I don’t want him caught?” The nerve of this guy thinking that the police weren’t doing their jobs. These things took time. “The last thing we need is you going off and taking out the wrong person. Then where would we be?”
Roman turned his attention to the body on the floor and his jaw twitched. “What the hell? She’s so young.”
Grabbing him by the elbow, Ryan led him out the door. “And so was the other one. You can’t tell anyone what you saw here. If word gets out, we could have copycat murders and god only knows what else.” Police often kept a few clues from the scene from being public knowledge, something that in an interrogation only the true killer would know.
Tugging loose from his hold, Roman faced him. “I only let you lead me out of there because I know you have to show that you’re in charge and I wasn’t supposed to be in there, but if you ever put your hands on me again, you’ll be shooting left handed.”
“Are you threatening an officer?”
“No, I’m threatening Ry, the kid I went to high school with.” Roman stepped back and smoothed his hair back with his hand. “You know I’ve got connections. If there is anything I can do to rid this town and the earth of the monster that did this, you let me know.”
“There is. The other woman, Tracy, had a name in her appointment book, A. Man. Does that mean anything to you? Any mob men around we don’t know about or anyone with that name?”
“Not that I can think of but I’ll get some men on it. See if there is anyone who shouldn’t be here.”
An ambulance pulled up to the curb. Amy would be going for an autopsy and Danny would be riding with her to keep the chain of evidence intact. Hopefully, something would show up that might giv
e a clue to not only her death, but Tracy’s as well.
“In the meantime, have someone with Madison and Valentina at all times. We don’t know who we’re dealing with here,” Ryan instructed.
They were quiet a moment as they nodded a greeting to the ambulance crew that walked by.
“Believe me, Madison will not be leaving my sight, and I’ll have Dominic camp out at Val’s place.”
Ryan stiffened. “Are you sure you can trust him? The guy’s a killer. I don’t like him being anywhere near her.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think. I trust him with my life and hers.”
“But I don’t. I will be upping patrols. I have to stop by later to get Tyler anyway.”
“Speaking of which. How do I know I can trust that kid?”
“He’s a good kid, just going through a rough patch that I’d like to get smoothed out. I think it would be good for him to have a job, and Val needs the help.”
“If she needs any help, any help at all, she just has to ask me.”
“Maybe she wants some independence from the family.”
“There is no getting away from the family, and we protect our own. I won’t turn down the added security. We have cameras on all our residences and businesses so I’ll have extra eyes on those as well.” Roman and he may not have agreed on how things got done, but Ryan knew they both cared about keeping the people of their small town safe. “I want this murderer brought down, and fast.”
“Finally something we can agree on. Just don’t go off halfcocked. I don’t need any more bodies in my town.”
“It’s my town too,” Roman added.
“Then let’s agree to keep it safe.” Ryan held out his hand.
“Agreed. Keep in touch.” Roman shook the offered hand and headed off to the black SUV. His always present bodyguard, Arlo, opened the door for him. The guy was the size of a linebacker. It just reaffirmed how different Valentina’s life was from his. There were no cameras at his house, no bodyguards, and no family to protect him.
Ryan returned to the crime scene and greeted the ambulance guys that he’d met during car accidents and other scenes they were both at.