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I waited until the light turned green then hit the gas, zooming away from the angry jeep. I might actually get to my father’s on time- holy shit.
“Butch.” I barked into the phone, losing patience with him. His new idea was only good if he shared it with me.
“Sorry boss. I was just thinking; I can’t find anything on your mother.” he paused and I gritted my teeth.
“Thank you Captain Obvious. How is this news?” I demanded and I could hear him clear his throat on the other end.
“Well… it’s almost as if she has been scrubbed…” He hesitated and the news sank in. He didn’t want to say it because the only people who are scrubbed are people who are dead, but not just dead; murdered. Murdered, bodies dumped and desiccated so badly no one would recognize them even if a trail could be made or the body found. That meant this was a professional job.
I took a deep breath and hung the right that I knew would take me down the street my father’s downtown office was on. How was I going to tell him his wife was murdered 15 years ago by someone who knew how to erase the dead? Or at leasthad enough money to make her disappear. Could it have been the Irish mob? We have been feuding for decades, maybe one of them got lucky?
Whomever it was, I was going to find out.
“Work that angle,” I told him as I entered the parking garage to the office. The car bounced on the speed bump even though I was going at a crawl and I winced. “See what you can find. Maybe they fucked up somewhere. I mean, we have better technology now, maybe you can find something they forgot?”
“Will do, boss.” Butch assured me and then a moment later. “I’m sorry about the news, Niero. I was hoping we would find her alive.”
“Yeah, me too, but you know what they say… Wish in one hand…”
“Shit in the other. I know. Still… if there is anything I can do…”
“Just find out who did it.” I seethed parking in my usual spot right by the elevator. “Find them and bring them to me so I can skin them alive while they tell me why they killed my mother.”
“Will do.” He said and hung up.
I slipped my phone into my pocket and got out of the car, listening to the familiar echoes of my footsteps on the concrete walls. I hit the lock button on the key fob and the loud beep told me it was locked. Not that anyone would steal my car, especially not here in this garage.
The whole building was owned by Siena Corporation, my father’s business, and everyone knew not to fuck with my father. I couldn’t count how many times I got into places or walked out of stores with whatever I wanted just based on my last name. Dad had built himself an empire in the legitimate business world; he owned restaurants, car shops both for selling and fixing, check cashing businesses, and even a few strip malls in the area that came with their own cinema. I walked into so many movies I had never paid for just because I was his son.
Of course, he was well known in the underground as well, being the Don of the Italian mafia. He was powerful in more ways than one and no one crossed him unless they had a death sentence, not even his childhood pals who helped him get to where he is today. I knew he had wacked at least one of them for trying to throw him under the bus with the cops.
It didn’t work; Dad had already owned the fuzz by that point. They told him what his buddy was trying to do and then helped him bury the body when he was done, or at least that’s how the story goes. He likes to tell it from time to time, especially when he gets together with the bosses in the area. He says it keeps them in line.
Some of them don’t believe it, but I certainly do. I wouldn’t put anything past Dante Siena.
I went up the elevator to the 8th floor and got out when the doors slid open. Three women dressed in business suits moved aside from me, all of them staring at me with gaped mouths. I ignored them, continuing down the hallway as if they didn’t exist because, to me, they didn’t. I could hear them whisper though and one comment in particular had me smirk.
“He’s so handsome… he looks just like his dad except friendlier… and hiseyes.”
I have deep blue eyes instead of my father’s dark, almost black ones. I got the blue from my mother, the one thing we had in common, it seemed.
I walked down the rest of the hallway and went left, then immediately took the right and opened the door to my father’s office. He had one at home, but he liked to meet with people here. I was pretty sure he would rather live here than at his house on the edge of town.
It was a corner office that had a large glass window, open to the city beyond. On the same wall as the door, there was the entertainment center with the giant screen TV and a large comfyblack suede couch in front of it. There was a glass coffee table that had a bunch of books and magazines on it, which matched his glass and metal desk that he had set up on the other wall, facing the view. There was a stool on the other side of the desk and a large leather desk chair in which my father sat, drinking his cup of coffee.
I don’t think I have ever seen that man without a mug in his hand or a travel mug full and ready to go within reaching distance from him. He took a sip and looked up at me, smiling.
“Ah, Raniero, there you are. What took you so long?” He asked, smiling. I shut the door behind me and crossed the room to stand on the other side of the desk.
“Traffic.” I said. It wasn’t a complete lie, but I still had nothing to go on when it came to my mother and I didn’t want to get his hopes up. The last time I looked into her disappearance, about 5 years ago, he told me that the lack of information hurt him. He told me to leave it alone and let her rest, wherever she was.
I couldn’t stop looking for long though. I will find my mother, with or without his help. Right now, I would do it alone, behind his back, until I had some sort of physical evidence or a lead to go one. Until then, I would spare him the pain and annoyance of the continual dig without getting any closer.
“Ah, yes, sorry about that.” He said, looking at his rolex on his left wrist. “I forgot about the perils of 5 o’clock traffic. Maybe I should have put this off another hour.”
I shrugged.
“I’m here. What did you need to see me about?”
