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“I followed them to the bar,” Fabrizio said. “I heard Tobias talking about taking her there, he always liked to take Claire to parties to show her off, even though she didn’t like it.”
“Okay, that information doesn’t leave this room,” I told him. “As far as anyone who’s anyone is concerned, you went out for a drink or two and just happened to see a classmate and her boyfriend.” Fabrizio nodded. “Why did you follow them?”
“I was hoping I could get Claire alone for just a second,” Fabrizio said. “I’ve been trying to talk to her for weeks, but Tobias was always there. I think he knew I wanted to help her and was making sure to get her out of the classroom the minute class was over.”
“You wanted to convince her to leave him?” I half-asked.
“Of course I did,” Fabrizio sighed, slumping against the table. “Anyone could tell she wasn’t happy. She was either holding on to how he was when they started dating, or she knew she couldn’t leave him. I thought if I could ask her if she was really okay with the way he treated her and gave her the resources to get out, then she would have. It didn’t matter if she didn’t end up with me, just—just not with him.”
“So you’re in love with her,” I clarified. I remembered what Selene had said at the breakfast table that morning about Fabrizio’s unrequited love for a taken woman and pursed my lips in sad understanding. My heart ached for Fabrizio. It also ached for Claire, whoever and wherever she was. I’d have to get her full name before leaving; I knew I’d have to talk to her, too. Her testimony could be crucial.
“I am,” Fabrizio said, looking pained. I reached across the table and patted his hand in what I hoped was a comforting gesture.
“So you were watching to see if he’d leave Claire alone for a minute, and you saw him drug her drink?” Fabrizio nodded.
“She was standing there next to him, just kind of looking around lost, so she didn’t notice. I knew confronting him in front of her would start a fight, and I didn’t want her to see that, so I went to the bar like I was going to order another, faked tripped, and knocked over both their drinks. Tobias was fucking livid. I said I was ‘so sorry’ and I’d pay for their next round, and told Claire she got some on her skirt so she’d go to the bathroom to rinse it out.
“Once she was gone, I glared at him, and he realized it hadn’t been a mistake, that I knew what he’d done. I told him we needed to talk outside, grabbed his arm, really hard, honestly, and took him out front. He didn’t really fight much. I think he knew what would happen if he made a scene.”
Fabrizio shook his head, running a hand over his face and making the long handcuff chain rattle. “I should have confronted him right there. I should have let it all go down where other people could see, told him I saw him drug her drink and let him throw the first punch—if I had hit him back it would have been self-defense and there would have been a ton of people to prove it.” I shook my head at him.
“Don’t think about what you might have done differently,” I told him, “you did what you did and now we have to minimize the consequences as much as possible. Tell me what happened when you got him outside.”
“I told him to stay away from Claire,” Fabrizio said. “I said that I’d put a hit on him if he ever came near her again.”
Okay, not great, but there was no audio so we could omit that part. We could just stay that he threatened to call the police and that’s when Tobias got aggressive.
“Well, obviously, he didn’t like that, and he was a little drunk so he decided to call me out. He said I didn’t have the power, that everyone knew I wasn’t part of the family business, and Richard was going to take over, not me. He said that meant I had no standing, no say in anything, and that meant I couldn’t order a hit.” I frowned.
“So you threw him into the street?” I asked.
“No!” Fabrizio said quickly. “No, no way. Something like that would never get to me. I know my family loves me, and I could be more involved with the business if I wanted to. I told him that wouldn’t stop me, and that he had to leave Claire while he still had the chance. That set him off worse, and he got up in my face, yelling that I was stupid for caring about her and that she was just a used-up whore.” He cringed as he said it, looking ashamed to repeat the words. “That’s when I threw him into the street.”
“Okay, go into detail. In the video you saw the car coming before you pushed him.”
“Yeah. I saw it come up over the hill just as he was telling me that, and I realized I could shut him up. I told him I wasn’t going to let him talk about her like that, and I tossed him. I—” Fabrizio’s voice broke.
“Take your time,” I said.
Fabrizio swallowed thickly before continuing. “It was supposed to hurt him, not kill him. I was going to stand over him and tell him this was a warning, and to stay away from Claire. I just wanted to scare him off, and if I did it with a few broken bones, that didn’t seem so bad.”
“So what happened?” I asked. Fabrizio pressed his lips together into a thin line, guilt sitting heavy in his eyes. I felt absolutely awful for him, but I was starting to put a case together in my head. I couldn’t get him out, but I could reduce the charges if I played it right.
“The car was going faster than I thought,” he said. “Like, way faster. When it started downhill, it looked like it was going at a normal speed, maybe even slow enough for Tobias to get out of the way, but it picked up speed so fast, and the next thing I knew, it was right on top of him. It hit with this wet sound, and he went down under it.
The driver didn’t stop; just dragged him a few feet before he, I don’t know, dislodged. He was—he was a bloody mess. His calf was snapped, just like hanging there, with his foot backward. And, and his side was open, from here to here, and I could see his ribs. I?—”
“Shh,” I soothed, anxiety spiking as Fabrizio started to hyperventilate. “Shh, just breathe. It’s okay. It’s over.” Fabrizio sobbed.
“It’s not,” he said, tears finally falling. “I killed him. He—he was still alive, and I tried to stop the bleeding but I felt him die, and I tried to do CPR but I pressed down one time and there was this big crack, and my hands went way too far down like his bones weren’t even there to stop me—he died. I killed a man, and I don’t regret it.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
RICHARD
Itook Mark outside the city to hunt. I needed to be somewhere I couldn’t hurt other people, somewhere isolated where it felt like nothing existed outside the trees. That was the only way I was going to clear my head. I knew it from experience and Mark did too, which was why he didn’t offer any resistance when I practically abducted him.
