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“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Gabbriello said through clenched teeth.
“It sounds like we have another rat in our family.” Rinaldo added as they walked out of the building
* * *
Gabbriello made his way back to the Emerald Club and found his men huddled in the back alley behind the building. Gabbriello stared into the dumpster and saw Samantha laying on top of the garbage. Her dark hair was matted to her skin with a mixture of trash and blood. What used to be soft hazel eyes were now cold and empty as they stared back at him. Her beautiful brown skin was partly covered with garbage. Gabbriello took a handkerchief out of his pocket and used it to gently close her eyes. “Who did this?” Gabbriello asked.
“Don’t know,” Nicholas responded. “One of the bartenders found her when he was taking out the trash.”
“What about the surveillance cameras?” Gabbriello asked.
“Nothing, the camera must have malfunctioned. There was no footage from the last twenty-four hours.” Nicholas added.
Rinaldo looked at Gabbriello. “How did the cameras conveniently malfunction?” Rinaldo asked.
Gabbriello gave Rinaldo a knowing look. As they both walked towards the backdoor of the club.
“Something’s not right, boss. Big D may be right,” Rinaldo whispered so that only Gabbriello could hear.
“Boss, what do you want us to do with the body?” Nicholas asked.
“Nothing,” he replied, “tell the employee that found her not to say a word. The company that picks up the trash will be here in a few hours. Let them discover the body and call it in. We need some time to figure things out and the last thing we need is police snooping around here for answers before we all get our story straight.”
CHAPTER 8
“No, Layla, the decision is final. End of story.”
Dan Peters walked down the long, narrow hallway to his office on the eighth floor of the FBI field office in Philadelphia. It is 8:30 in the morning and way too early for him to deal with Layla Bancroft. He held his coffee in one hand and a manila envelope with the crime scene photos from a case that was being handled by the local police. Dan tucked the envelope under his arm and opened the door to his office. He needed to have a conversation with Layla that he wasn’t looking forward to having.
“You’re being ridiculous,” Layla said as she followed Dan into the large room. For a moment, she stared out the large window behind his desk to see the overcast day. Even for a cloudy Tuesday morning, it was still beautiful.
“Excuse me?” Dan yelled.
Layla averted her hazel-colored eyes from the view and looked at her boss. Despite Dan being a few inches taller and weighing at least one hundred pounds more than her, Layla would definitely win if they had to go head-to-head in a fight. Dan was overweight with a large beer belly and the only time his heart rate was ever in the target zone of one hundred and twenty-five beats per minute was when he pulled an all-nighter and drank three monster energy drinks in a row. He had done that twice this year. Once because of a missing six-year-old girl that was taken from a mall in Center City and the other because he procrastinated on writing some documents that needed to be turned in to the DA’s office for a death penalty case.
Layla couldn’t be more different from her boss. Her toned muscles and tight core allowed her to have the upper hand in nearly every physical activity. She ran a six-minute mile and could squat one hundred and eighty pounds. Among the many things she had learned in the military, the ability to train properly and use her body as a weapon was by far her favorite.
“Sorry, sir,” Layla said flatly. “I just think this is totally unfair.”
“Well, life isn’t fair. Deal with it.” Dan pulled out his leather chair and sat at his desk.
“Can you at least tell me why?” She asked.
Dan looked up at her with his bloodshot eyes and raises his caterpillar-like eyebrows, revealing his thick wrinkles in his forehead.
She has the audacity to ask him why.
“Tell you why you’re on probation?” he repeated what she said.
Layla nodded.
“Because you assaulted a suspect in custody.” He said through his teeth as he tried to stay calm.
“So, what if I hit him a few times? It’s okay for him to beat and rape a random woman off the street, but he can’t take a few slaps?”
Layla rolled her eyes.
She hated men that abused women.
