Page 39 of Shakedown in Savannah

Her mind whirled. Had Costanza killed him? Maybe it was Danny Lombardo. Wouldn’t that be something—to kill your henchman and set it up so that a debtor who owed a lot of money became a prime suspect?

Another chilling thought occurred to her. “Tony, Mercedes and I were here yesterday and now Enzo is dead.”

“Luigi and I were asking questions about him and the other guy last night at the Black Stallion,” Vinnie reminded her.

“We can’t just leave him.” Carlita rubbed the sides of her arms. “I have a legitimate reason for being here. Technically, this property is still owned by Vinnie…by me.”

“Your call, Ma. If Lombardo didn’t take him out and Costanza didn’t take him out, they’re gonna think you’re behind this,” Vinnie said grimly.

Carlita placed her hand on her forehead. Yesterday, she thought things couldn’t get much worse. Boy was she wrong!

“I’ll have to figure it out. In the meantime, we need to call someone to come get him.” Carlita dialed 911 and briefly explained the situation, how she and her son were checking on a vacant property they owned and found a body upstairs.

“The police are on the way.”

Vinnie slowly circled around, studying Enzo. “This isn’t a typical hit.”

“Why?”

“They’re not gonna come inside a building, climb the stairs, corner the guy and shoot him. Hitmen are more of a drive by group. It’s a lot less messy.”

“This is definitely messy. I need to go downstairs and wait for the cops.”

“I’ll go with you.” Vinnie hesitated. “We should probably snap a couple of pictures. There’s something weird going on here.”

“Good idea.” Carlita turned away while her son snapped photos of Enzo’s body using his cell phone.

Back on the first floor, they made a beeline for the sidewalk, careful not to touch anything on their way out.

Carlita leaned against the building and closed her eyes. She felt a light touch on her arm. It was Vinnie. “You look a little pale. I can handle the cops.”

“I’ll be all right. To be honest, the police are the least of my worries. I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for this man’s death.”

“You didn’t kill him, but someone did. I’m gonna give Tony and Mercedes a heads up to be on the lookout for Costanza.” Vinnie typed out a group text, adding they would fill them in when they got home.

Less than five minutes later, two cop cars arrived.

Carlita greeted all four officers who emerged. “I’m Carlita Taylor, the owner of this property. My son and I were here checking on it and found a man’s body upstairs.”

“Do we need an ambulance?”

“Unfortunately, he’s deceased.”

“Show us where he’s at.”

“I’ll take ‘em upstairs.”

Carlita stood off to the side, letting Vinnie lead the officers into the building. She made a move to follow behind when the tips of her ears started to burn, a sure sign she was being watched.

She pivoted. Her eyes were drawn to a business catty corner to the property. Directly above the doors and in big bold letters, was Spiffy Clean Laundromat. Below it and in smaller letters was, Dry-Cleaning.

It was the same laundromat mentioned in the dated news story about the suspicious vandalism and destruction right around the time of Vinnie’s death.

Despite the black metal bars, Carlita could clearly see through the floor-to-ceiling glass window. A woman, well advanced in years and hunched over, stared back at her through binoculars.

Carlita took a step off the curb and hesitated. On one hand, she wanted to chat with the owner or manager. On the other, she needed to be upstairs to keep an eye on what was going on. Although she knew Vinnie could handle the situation. In fact, she wasn’t overly concerned about the police suspecting her.

She and her children were innocent. Her biggest concern was why Enzo was at her property and why his killer had left his body in her building.

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