“What do you know?”
“That you shot someone—dead. It is not something I would have ever thought you could do, just because you are not that sort of person.”
“Is there a point you are going to be getting to?”
David realized how out of line he was, and he bowed his head.
“Son, you have been dragged through the mud because of some case that you took. You have changed so much, even though you haven’t realized it, and if I know you right now, you need to talk about all of this.”
He pushed his plate towards his father and watched as he picked up a fry. He took in a deep breath. “First the shooting… it came down to him or me. I went there to save an innocent person, who only got dragged into it because of me. But in the end I had to shoot to get us out. It came down to him or me. I had no choice. So, I have all of this information to clear the name of a dead man, but to convict the real murderer is going to be damn near impossible. All of this was a cover-up, and I have no physical evidence linking him to any of the murders.
“You know what my father told me?”
“No.”
“He always said that when you are standing too close to something, you only see part of the picture. If you take a step back, you are able to see everything clearly. You need to take a step back and let everything come into clarity for you.”
There was not too much he could do at this point other than take that advice. His father always knew best, and that was something he had learned.
“After everything that happened, it would be difficult to take a step back. It would look as if I was giving up.”
“Then make it look like that. David, you are smart and I know that you’ll get to the bottom of this.”
David knew that it sounded crazy, but he was absolutely correct in saying that. “I will. Thank you.”
His father smiled at him and nodded. As he looked at his father, he was more than certain that he would never be like his dad. It was probably a good thing he did not have any children.
Chapter 21
Two Weeks Later
Olivia had left herself in the dark, going underground, and she was finally comfortable. She was unaware of where her sister was at this point, but she really didn’t care all that much about it. James knew that Marissa was not to be trusted, and he had evidence supporting why he felt that way.
Peering out her window, she wished she had the opportunity to see him again, but she was more than certain that she wouldn’t be able to. It was a crushing feeling, knowing in her heart that he was gone. She didn’t want to accept it, or give up hope, but she finally did. There was no way that he was still alive, and she wondered when, and if, they would ever find him.
Thumbing through old photographs, she began to reminisce on the way her life had been. If he had stopped doing this, would he still be alive? Who was she to have him stop his own investigation, though anyway? He was clearing an innocent man, and even though she had accused the man, and she was the reason he was put away, James loved her. He took care of her and loved her despite it all. But did he actually love her?
She had found fighting with herself to be a challenge, because she wanted to believe that he loved her truly. James could have done this investigation without being married to her, but still she felt as if he had used her in some way.
Wiping away her tears, she heard her phone begin to ring. As she looked at the caller ID, she didn’t recognize the number, and she finally answered, “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Mrs. Shapiro?”
“Yes it is, may I ask who is calling??”
“Of course. My name is Linda Hoffman, and I am the medical examiner. I am sorry to inform you that a body was found this morning, matching the description of your husband. We were hoping you would be able to come down here and make a positive identification.”
There was no way for her to speak… she felt as if she was drowning. She had told herself he was dead, but to actually hear it made it seem as if everything around her was collapsing.
Swallowing and taking a deep breath, she quietly said, “I will be there.”
Olivia was not prepared to head down there, and she didn’t want to be alone, but there was no one to call. Marissa was a traitor, and David was the kind stranger who was attempting to help her with all of this. Attempting to push back her tears, she was unable to do so and began to shake and cry.
###
David could not help but feel as if he was suffocating. Everything in his life was falling apart, and he could not help but be frustrated. He had severed his ties with Emily; it would be safer for her not to be a part of this, and Nancy—Nancy no longer wanted to deal with him. After everything that had transpired, he could not blame her.
Looking at everything around him, he had all of the papers pinned to the wall, and everything was coming together. Olivia too had kept her distance, but they communicated weekly. She refused to share where she was staying, but he was certain that she was safe and she was seething.
There was no way for him to tie any of this back to William Gemangini, and he wanted to find something, anything at all. Sleep had eluded him for days, and he didn’t want to rest until he knew he could see this through. He couldn’t stand the fact that William was always able to find someone to take the fall for the crimes he was committing.
Sitting down on the couch, he realized how tired he was, but he knew he was not going to be able to sleep. It was just something he was not willing to do. He heard a knock at the door, and he felt as if his heart had dropped. How the hell did someone get through the outer office door which he was certain he had locked?
“Boss,” he heard her say, “I know you are in there, and I am more than certain you are losing your mind, so can you please let me in?”
Quickly getting to his feet, he did not understand why Emily was here. It had been made very clear to him that she disliked him at this point. He had chosen Nancy over her, but not for the reasons she believed. David wanted to tell her that he loved her and he wanted her to know that he was only with Nancy to try to get her off of his mind. Even if he said that though, he was certain he would be making everything worse.
Opening the door, he saw Emily there. She was still in a wheelchair, but despite the hell she had endured, she was beautiful. He could not deny the way he felt, but he did not have to share his feelings either.
“Is everything alright? Where is Tom? I would have thought he would be here with you.”
Emily shook her head. “Tom disappears on and off. He receives phone calls, and he finds a lame excuse to leave.”
“I thought you didn’t want to speak to me anymore.”
“If it was a perfect world, everything would be different right now, right? But this is not perfect, and I had told you I would finish this case before I was officially gone.”
“But that was before all hell broke loose, and you—well you know.”
“It will not be easy to forget. Anyway, I am here because there is just something that does not make sense to me.”
David shut the door behind him and Emily wheeled herself to his desk. “They had people waiting for you to get Nancy. Ultimately, they wanted to kill you, so how was Tom able to get to me without getting himself into danger?”
“They were waiting for me,” he said simply. “If you hadn’t noticed, Tom and I do not look alike.”
“No, you surely do not, but that still makes me question why they allowed him in. Obviously they didn’t know who you would pick.”
David felt as if he had been slapped, and he wanted to tell her that he had wanted more than anything to be there for her, but he refrained from admitting anything to her.
“I see your point, somewhat. Is there something specific you’re getting at?”
“Yes. Tom has been able to quit his other jobs,” she began, and he cut her off.
“Yeah, because he no longer had to pay his grandmother’s medical bills.”
Emily shook her head as if she knew something he did not know. “Tom is supposed to be drowning in debt from those bills on top of his school tuition, and he is not. He is perfectly fine, and I am beginning to wonder why.”
“Do you honestly think that low of him?”
She appeared taken aback by what he asked, and she shook her head. “Tom is wonderful, but there are too many things going on right now that would make anyone suspicious. I think that they are using Tom.”
“Well that is a leap. Why would they use him?”
“No one else in the building is struggling the way he is. The man has no family, and they are using that to their advantage. This sort of thing happens all the time.”
“And what exactly are you proposing?”
She rolled her eyes. He was too tired to deal with this. He wanted to know what was really going on, but she was not telling him. Of course, Emily had a plan, and he wanted to know what it was.
She sighed. “I believe I know how to get this done. If I play my cards right, William Gemangini would be locked up for his crimes.”
“What is your plan?”
Emily smiled and she shook her head. “That will be something I will share with you once you’ve gotten some sleep.”
He would never understand why she was so tender towards him. Everything about her was different. He finally relaxed, and he allowed himself to drift to sleep.
###
Olivia was being escorted down to the morgue, and she felt as if the walls around her were beginning to close in. She wasn’t able to breathe, and she couldn’t bring herself to do it, but she knew she had to. James had never been a coward, and she wasn’t going to be—one either.
The assistant medical examiner opened the door for her, and she saw a woman standing over the covered body. She seemed upset as well, as if this was difficult for her to do.
“Mrs. Shapiro,” she said softly. “If you are not ready for this, you can take some time to collect yourself.”
“I just need to do it and get it over with.”
Dr. Hoffman nodded and she pulled back the sheet. There was a hole in his head as if he had been shot. She was not too sure how long ago he had died, but it did not seem to have been that long. She looked up at the doctor, and she felt the tears streaming down her face. “Where did you find him?”
“In a stolen car out near Dodge City. Nothing was on him and—and whoever got to him left no evidence behind.”
“He was not killed in that car, was he?”
“No. It looks as though he was killed elsewhere, and we have a team looking to find more information.”
“How long has he been dead?”
“That is another thing that is hard to decipher. After he was killed, his body had been frozen, and that is going to make determining the time of death all the more difficult.”
“Could I have a minute?”
Dr. Hoffman nodded and Olivia took a step closer. She knew he would not have revealed anything to them. He was strong. He always had been, and he did not deserve to die. Putting her hands on the slab his body was on, she felt as tears ran from her eyes and down her face.
“I will avenge you, James, and I will see this through.”
Stepping away, Olivia knew what she needed to do next. She did not need a clear head to think about any of it either.
###
Marissa wondered where her sister was. They had lost her, and she was untraceable. What was worse, when she attempted to attain information from David Orlando, he had shut her down. He claimed that Olivia no longer wanted his services, and that she wanted to go about this herself since he was not going anywhere with it, but she did not believe that. He was a terrible liar, and she had been watching him, but her sister still had not shown.
“Maybe she really did leave,” Isaac said. “I mean, she has no answers, and there are obviously no leads about what is going on.”
“If that is the case, why would she cut me out of her life? She trusted me, and something must have changed that.”
“Have you given her a reason to trust you?”
Thinking on it, she was more than certain she had. Everything they had been through was more than enough for her to trust, and yet she was gone. At first, Marissa could not help but think that depression had consumed Olivia and she had dealt with it her own way. However, she knew her sister, and she was too strong-minded to allow that to happen.
“What are our next steps?”
Isaac shrugged. “I don’t think we have any. Everyone is backing off, and Castro was found dead. There is absolutely nothing that will lead back to us.”
Marissa froze for a moment. “Well, of course there was nothing that would lead back to us. Castro killed all of them. There is nothing for us to hide.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. I am just talking about what had happened to James. You know they found him, right?”
“No,” she said harshly. “If they found him, why are we not at the morgue waiting for my sister?”
“Because your sister has not been called yet,” Isaac lied. He knew that Marissa was gullible, and it had always worked to his advantage. “We’ve been monitoring all forms of communication going in and out of that place.”
“Alright, so what do you propose we do since all of our bases are covered?”
“Well, I’m going to head back home to my family, and I think it best for you to come with me. It looks like everything is clearing up, and I’m more than certain that Olivia will show up.”
Nodding, Isaac grabbed her hand and he squeezed it. She was certain he was right about this.
Chapter 22
Emily was looking at his laptop, and she recalled him telling her that they had sent him a disc that he put in. However, she was more than certain that they had a form of monitoring him on this, as well as other viruses that were being used to get all the history and information from his computer. They had trashed all of her computers, but once she had fixed one of them, and she had discovered they were attempting to do the same to her. However, she had the proper firewalls and blocks, so they were not even able to access her computer.
Glancing over her shoulder, she was watching him to be sure she didn’t disturb his slumber. She was still angry with him, but she had time to think it over, and she understood why he had done what he did. He trusted that someone would be able to get her, but he didn’t think anyone would be there for Nancy. She knew that if things had been different, he would have been there for her.
Looking back to the computer, she had duct taped the video camera, and she was now rummaging through all of the files. There had to be a digital fingerprint in here that could point directly back at the Gemangini family, and she was hoping to find it quickly.
Continuing to read through everything, she saw the files they had accessed, and she wondered how. She finally found what she was after, but what she found was a dead end.
She wanted to throw something because she was very frustrated, but she knew she could not do that. Taking in a deep breath, she saw David was stirring from his sleep, and he slowly sat up.
“Hey,” he said, as he was rubbing his eyes. “I wasn’t too sure I would actually be able to see you when I woke up.”
Smiling at him, he was completely different than every other person she knew, and it was nearly impossible for her to stay mad at him. “There were a few things I was looking into,” she said. “But what I was hoping to find leads us nowhere.”
He was getting to his feet, and he looked at her in wonder. It was obvious to her that he was still not completely awake yet, and she spoke. “They left behind a fingerprint, and the software they used was from Castro Industries. I will try to get an IP address, but it is probably going to lead nowhere again. They are very good about covering their tracks.”
“Since when were mobsters stupid?”
“It would make it so much easier if they were,” she said. David was stan
ding extremely close to her, and she began to question why they were using software from Castro Industries. They had wanted to destroy him, and they used him as the fall guy, yet they were still using technology from his company. None of it was making any sense.
She watched how David looked away from her, and it was obvious his mind was somewhere else. He turned towards her and shook his head. “They stopped distributing his technology when he was convicted. All of his assets were frozen, and he was no longer able to profit. There is a way for us to get William.”
“And how exactly would you be able to do that?”
“Castro’s software is specific to the user, and there is a way to trace more than the IP address.”
Emily saw how excited he was, and she understood what he was getting at. It was something she should have been able to think of. She smiled. Maybe she wouldn’t leave after this was over. She was truly happy here, and she realized that she was not normal. Everything that she had been through would make anyone abandon this, but she too was different than every other person out there.
“I will see what I can do.”
###
Olivia was prepared for what she had planned, and she stayed pressed up against the ally wall. She saw the headlights, and she knew he was here. They were finally close enough to her, and they turned the headlights off and killed the engine. She watched as someone stepped outside the car, but it was not a man.
“Are you my buyer?” the woman asked, a bit surprised.
“Yes,” she said, as she took another step forward. “Is there an issue?”
“No, not at all. I just had a different image in my head.”
She nodded, and she gave her the cash, and in exchange she gave her the gun. It would not trace back to her, or to anyone else. She also handed her two packages of ammunition, and Olivia bowed her head, and she walked away.
Walking several blocks away, she knew her car was in the commuters’ lot, and she saw that the lights here were out. There was nothing but darkness around her, and she had a sinking feeling.
Stopping where she was, she thought about everything that had happened. They wanted James to be found, and they knew she would be going to the morgue to identify and claim his body. She knew she was being followed, and she looked around herself. Nothing stuck out to her, but that made it more difficult. Maybe she was not being followed, but she knew how absurd that thought was. Of course she was being followed.
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