Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Salvatore

There’s a guy Claudius uses.

A P. I.

The kind that’s off the records because of the way he works. He’s always able to find something, an ex-military man who goes by the name of Gibbs.

I called Claudius earlier and gave him the extra information I had.

Prior to calling I did a little digging around and spoke to Mimi when she woke up.

She filled me in on everything she knew. Right from the last sighting of William Russo to what she’d found out last night from Porter.

I searched online and found that the last place William was seen was at a press conference the week Evangeline Cipriani was murdered.

Nothing about him since.

I wished I had been more involved on this from the start. I think seeing that William had practically disappeared the same week as Mimi’s mom died would have raised my suspicion. Under normal circumstances I would have looked into it straight away, but my mind was split between everything else that was happening.

Mimi and I are sitting in the conservatory away from everyone. We’ve been talking and researching for hours. I’ve been trying to see what I could find on William and there really is nothing. The files I’m looking at are stuff we can access from our cop associates who are more like feds. They can get dirt on anyone. Anyone at all, but I don’t see shit about him. There’s nothing. No change of address yet his house states that he sold it. No listing of him anywhere. The only people I’ve seen like this are those under witness protection or something like that.

Or dead.

Dead in the sense that they disappear, except he’s not even listed as missing. Although listing him as such would draw attention.

I do my best not to show any of my suspicions to Mimi.

While that spark I love is still in her eyes, she looks pale and drained. It’s too much for her.

“The key is Adrian …” she states, running a hand over her hair. “Salvatore you should have seen how Porter switched up on me when I mentioned Adrian’s name.”

“I can just imagine. I figure we do need to focus on him. It’s just that he’s even harder to find than our friend William.” Adrian with no last name.

It’s like trying to pick a needle out of an ocean.

“Mimi….” I straighten up and reach across the table for her hand. “I want you to allow me to handle this. It’s too much. You may come across more that’s going to take its toll on you.”

She shakes her head at me. “I need the truth. I need to do this. I won’t rest until this is all solved. You know it’s that thing where you just have to push yourself, doesn’t matter what happens. I want to know what happened to my mother and be kept in the loop of whatever you find out.”

I understand. However that part of me that wants to protect her is on high alert. It comes out all the more the next evening when Gibbs comes by.

It’s really late, bordering on ten, but I wanted to see him and hear what he found.

The minute I look at his face I know whatever he’s about to tell me isn’t going to be good. I’ve never met him before but I know from the look in his eyes when he casts a cautious glance at Mimi. She was right by my side when I got the door.

“Baby, why don’t you go lie down and I’ll come up to you in a little while,” I suggest.

She’s already shaking her head before I can finish talking. Already shaking her head with a determined look on her face to stay with me and listen to what Gibbs has to say.

“I want to know. I’m not going anywhere,” she insists.

“It’s best she stays. This involves her too,” Gibbs informs us, and Mimi and I exchange curious glances.

We go back into the meeting room. She sits next to me, her knee brushes mine and she’s shaking.

“What did you find out?” I ask Gibbs.

He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out an envelope.

“I have a lot. Let’s start with this first. It’s an autopsy report. Probably won’t mean much to you but it was the first thing I got that made me look deeper. To the casual bystander it looks legit,” he points out. “Except for the name of the coroner who did the autopsy and the examination. Nobody there by that name.”

Fuck. I widen my eyes. I’ve heard of shit like this happening. I never believed it would happen to someone I knew though.

Gibbs hands the envelope to me and I take out the report. Mimi and I look

over it. I glance down to the bottom of the report and see the name Derrick Shaffer.

“How can this happen?” Mimi gasps. “How can that kind of thing just happen?”

“Someone was well paid,” I insinuate and she glances at me.NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.

“Exactly,” Gibbs agrees. “It happens when it’s allowed to happen, so I’m guessing the report is fake. It was logged and filed correctly, all procedures looked like they were done correctly. Just the name is wrong. So I have no way of looking past that other than to look deeper into the name than I have. I only know the name doesn’t exist because I’m the guy who can find out shit like that.”

No wonder Claudius works with him.

“So you can’t figure out more about her death?” Mimi asks and Gibbs shakes his head.

“Sorry sweetheart. There’s no way. The name led me nowhere, just a dead end so I can’t do more on that front. No one can. However, I’m also the kind of guy who can find people like Adrian.”

Now we straighten up.

“You found him?” Mimi asks glancing at me with hope filling her expression.

“I did. Found him and William. Well… I can’t claim to finding William because the person listed as being him isn’t him.”

“What? He’s not him?” I narrowed my gaze at him.

“He’s not him at all. I think something happened to him. The state’s attorney doesn’t just fall off the face of the planet without anyone knowing, but if you make it look like he stepped away from politics and the legal world, you throw people off the scent. That’s what they did. Whoever they are. I’m guessing the they in this scenario are your Fontaine friends. They made him disappear. And the only way that I was able to find Adrian was by going out on the limb.”

“What did you do? You did it fast,” Mimi says.

“It’s not about fast. I just know where to look. I know the places to look when people want to disappear and fall off grid. I know the right things to say. On this occasion I did exactly that. I said Evangeline Cipriani’s daughter needed a favor. I reckoned if your guy Porter reacted the way he did when Adrian’s name was mentioned, her name might carry some weight too. It did.”

“What happened?” I ask.

He pulls a piece of notepaper from his pocket and hands it to me.

It has an address.

“Staten Island?” I say when I look at it.

“Yeah. That’s where he is.”

“That’s where I have to go.”

“I’m coming with you,” Mimi jumps in.

“No, you can’t.”

“I’m afraid that’s not really up for discussion if you want the files,” Gibbs states. “He will only speak to her, no one else. You can go with her but he will only speak to her.”

I look back to him and my shoulders tense.

I don’t like it. not one damn bit. Fuck.

Mimi places her hand on my arm.

“I’ll be okay. Let’s just go and I’ll see him. We don’t know what finding the files could do.” She nods. I see she’s scared though. She’s scared and I am too.

For her.