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“Wanted to invite him to dinner. It’s been too long,” Caleb answers without missing a beat.
“Someone bungles an attempt to kill you two and you’re paying late-night visits to strip clubs to make dinner plans? Come on guys. Do you really expect me to buy that?” Her tone is patronizing.
Lewis is here in our driveway and not in an interrogation room, which means she has nothing on us, not even enough circumstantial evidence to haul us in. She’s fishing, hoping we’ll trip up.
“Obviously we didn’t suspect our own family of trying to kill us,” I add, tempering Caleb’s flippant response. “But we’re happy to see you so focused on our safety. Please let us know what you find out during your investigation, and if we have anything to worry about from them.” It’s a good thing Bane is an expert at what he does. Those bodies will never be found.
“You know what else I’m working through? Why you and your crew”—she glances at Farley—“ended up in Vegas at the very same time Camillo Perri and his four sons were there.”
“Vegas is a popular destination. And, like you said, we’re big gamblers. I’ve heard they like to dabble at the poker table.”
“And it just so happens to be the same trip that someone murders three of them.”
Caleb gasps. “Oh shit, is that for sure for sure?”
I ball my fists. I’m used to my brother’s glib attitude, but I’m ready to strangle him.
“Not for sure for sure yet. It’ll take time to identify the pieces. But all the preliminary evidence points toward it.” She pauses, as if deciding what more to say. “Security footage shows Camillo, Miles, and Leo leaving their hotel on Thursday night, and based on various street surveillance footage, arriving at the Mage around ten p.m., pulling into the underground parking. It’s interesting though, that the Mage’s camera system malfunctioned around that time and remained down until the next day. Specifically the cameras in the garage and the service area elevators.”
“Yeah, that place isn’t run very well. We weren’t impressed,” I hear myself say. We knew if the feds dug, they’d find that oddity soon enough.
Caleb drops his voice to a mock-whisper. “Between you and me, the owner is going to run that place into the ground.”
She smirks. “When did you two last see Camillo, Miles, and Leo?”
“Gosh. Years, I’d say. Years, right, Gabe?”
Before that night, yeah. “Probably since Camillo was on trial for murdering our mother. You remember that one? You guys fucked up the investigation and he got off on a technicality.”
“You’re right, he should have been put away for that, but it was the state police who botched that. It sounds like you still hold a grudge though.” She watches me closely.
“Nah. Bygones. But they clearly pissed off someone. Good luck though. Sounds like you’re up to your eyeballs in missing people and unsolved crimes.”
“There have been a string of gang-related murders as of late. We assume they’re tied to Luiz Navarro.”
“Who?”
She snorts at my feigned innocence. “The leader of a drug cartel who our intel suggests has been working his way deeper onto US soil.” She begins slowly pacing back and forth in front of us—three steps to the left, three to the right. “I imagine business has been challenging for all of you lately, what with Navarro picking off your distribution channels, one by one.”
Caleb frowns. “I don’t know what you’ve heard but our night club has been rockin’ lately. We’re up, what, 30 percent versus year ago, Gabe?”
“Thirty-two percent.” My voice sounds wooden. They may suspect a lot, but they can’t prove any of it and we all know it.
“Thirty-two percent! See? Business is good. We can’t speak for the Perris’ wineries though. You’d have to talk to Camillo about that. Or, I guess Merrick and Vince now.”
“Well, that’s the thing. We’ve also lost track of Vince and Merrick Perri after we saw them in your penthouse. You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”
In hiding, waiting to see if they have to stage their own deaths to keep this charade with Vlad going. “Probably home with their mother. That’s where I’d be.”
“That’s what I thought but we’ve spoken to Gina Perri and she hasn’t seen or heard from them. They never made it back from Vegas. She was worried that something might have happened to them, especially given what we suspect of the others.”
We know for a fact that’s not true. They were at Camillo’s Napa Valley house when Caleb phoned Merrick and told them the plan. They’ve coached their mother well. I wonder, if our mother was alive, if she’d conspire with us like that. “What exactly are you insinuating here, agent? That we had something to do with them going missing too?” It’s best if the rumor that Merrick and Vince have gone missing is floating around. It’s likely to reach my father’s ears.
