Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“I buy and sell companies,” Geno offered. “I try to save them, if possible, but there are times I can’t. People lose their jobs. I have no way of knowing if someone lost their job years ago and is holding a grudge. Why would they kill my parents? Or relatives my mother was raised with, but I had little interaction with? It wasn’t like my brothers and I spent holidays at their homes.”
Patrick looked up at Francesca when she put the plate in front of him. “Thank you, ma’am. That was kind of you.” He picked up the fork she laid by the plate, looking for all the world as if he was on automatic pilot when it came to food.
“You need to eat if you want brain cells working,” she replied.
I love you, Francesca, Geno said. You’re an amazing woman.
Francesca flashed him a smile and took a seat beside her husband.
“My brain cells haven’t been working for a while now,” Patrick muttered. His eyes met Geno’s. “This may have nothing to do with it, but it’s been nagging at me. When things bother me and won’t let go, I find I’m usually on the right track.” He indicated Terence. “My partner and his wife like to go clubbing.”
Terence grinned. “Met my wife at a dance club. We go out most weekends. Try to drag Patrick as often as possible.” He took the salad bowl Salvatore offered him. “This is damn good. I was starving.”
Patrick ignored the byplay. “I was at the bar, and a woman came up to me. She was really cute, had an accent and was flirting like crazy. That doesn’t happen in my world. I’m not very outgoing. The club, by the way, was your club, The Fast Lane.”
“She was all over him,” Terence confirmed. “Little Australian woman. She danced the night away with him.”
The moment Terence identified the woman as Australian, Geno went on alert. “How long ago was this, Patrick?”
“About seven months. We dated for approximately two months, although not steady. I was uncomfortable with her questions. When we were in the club, she asked if I knew the owners. I didn’t answer her, but she was persistent and kept repeating the question. Eventually, I said I’d met you in passing, but we obviously didn’t run in the same circles. I told her I was a cop, and you were a billionaire. I think I laughed, and she let it drop. At least that night she did.”
Geno glanced at Stefano. Seven months earlier. Someone had been already setting them up. They did know about Patrick, so they’d done thorough research on Geno and his family. They knew about the connection between the Bowden and Ferraro families, which meant Patrick could be a target.
“Sometime after our third or fourth date, your name came up again. She asked casually if I’d been to your house. If you lived with your parents. If I had ever been to the house. She said the reason she asked is because she had been sightseeing and she saw the house your parents lived in, and it looked huge and quite cool. She claimed it looked like a mansion. Had she kept the conversation to the house, it wouldn’t have raised a red flag, but she kept bringing you into it and asking personal questions about your parents.”
“You dumped her,” Lucca stated.
“At first, I was polite and just tried to fade away by being busy. I’d told her from the beginning that I worked quite a bit. But she continued to call me,” Patrick admitted.
Geno had to smile. That was Patrick. He didn’t like hurting people. He might be a brilliant detective, but he was still that kindhearted kid his mother had raised.
“I think that Australian woman was a scout for the people who murdered my parents. My father had lost his leg and was using a wheelchair the night he was murdered, but both he and my mother were excellent at self-defense,” Geno said. “When I say excellent, I mean that in every sense of the word. My mother was facing my father. She wouldn’t have been so frightened she suddenly froze in place. She would have reacted in the manner she had trained in for years. There had to be a reason she didn’t. Patrick, we believe this killer isn’t acting alone. We believe there are two of them.”
Geno was watching the detective’s eyes, and he realized Patrick had already come to that same conclusion. “We also think the second killer is using a drug to incapacitate the second victim so they can’t move. We’ve asked our cousin to help us identify what might be used in such a scenario. The drug would have to be very fast-acting but then disappear from the system so the medical examiner wouldn’t find it.”