Page 56 of Little Rabbit

“Knowing Parisi, he probably got tired of waiting,” I remark. “But you’re right, it’s been far too quiet. And when he found out that Sienna and Gia were in Sicily, why didn’t he fly home? What’s changed?” Suddenly it clicks. “Shit, the other women.”

Lazaro and Alonzo nod. I glance over at a stone-faced Nico and a tense looking Dante. “It would also explain why none of them have been focusing their efforts on trying to take us out,” Dante interjects tightly. “Which means they’ve figured out there are more of them, and they are focusing their energies on getting to them first before we can again.”

“So why did Marco attack here then?” Alonzo wonders aloud.

“To distract us, probably,” Lazaro supplies. “It’s a standard diversion tactic.”

“Dario probably called home and told his father you have Sienna, and so they decided to spend their time finding the others,” Dante agrees.

“But how did they find out about the other women?” I ask, frowning. “Sure, we found Sienna, and she is a full blooded sibling to Gia, but what would make them think there are more?”

“There has to be something we’re missing,” Lazaro says in frustration, running a hand through his hair.

“Wait,” Dante says sharply, rounding his desk and tapping away furiously on his computer. “Shit, there was a report a week ago a couple of Leonardo’s staff were found beaten to death. Reports were that he was in a rage; it was assumed he was pissed that Sienna got away, but what if that’s not the reason?”

“You think he killed them because they had something to do with smuggling Sienna out,” Nico summarizes.

Dante nods. “It would make sense. But he’s always killing his staff, so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. And he dumped them in the exact same spots that he usually does.”

“How many were there?” Alonzo asks.

“Four. Two men and two women,” Dante answers after a moment. “All of them were long-time employees.”

“Long enough that they would have worked there when his second wife was still alive?” I ask, leaning forward and bracing my elbows on my knees.

Dante nods. “One housekeeper, one guard, one maid, and one of his long-time gardeners. Fuck, why didn’t I make that connection sooner?”

“You said yourself this is a normal thing for him,” Alonzo points out. “How often does he kill staff?”

“Reports are that if he’s in a particularly angry mood it can range from a few to a dozen a week. The most has been twelve at once, but he spread their bodies throughout the city.”

“What about their families?” Nico asks tightly. “Anything on them? Are any of the four still alive?”

Dante taps away and he curses after a moment. “All of them are dead, including their families. One in a fire, two straight out execution style, and one was reported as a driving accident, but from the rate of speed and tire marks on the pavement, it looks like a high speed chase.”

“Probably trying to get out of town,” I say grimly. “Who was killed execution style?”

“That would be the maid’s family and the gardener’s,” he replies. “Makes me think that they were some of the masterminds.”

“Not necessarily,” I point out, standing to pace and think. Fuck, this was a mess. “If we’re handling betrayal, execution style is the last kind we go to. It’s too quick. No signs of torture mentioned?”

“Nothing in the police report. There are defensive wounds, but only from the wife of the gardener, and the eldest son of the maid.”

“How many kids were killed?”

“Since most of them were older, the only kids killed were the maid’s, who had a son late in life, and the gardener who had two younger kids. Both were killed in their beds. The kids never knew what happened. A small mercy. The maid’s son appears to have woken up and gone downstairs to see what was going on and ended up dead himself. He was fifteen.” Dante’s eyes are hard and his lips thin.

It’s different when children are involved, and a burning anger fills my gut at the thought of them all losing their lives far too soon. We’ll make them pay for it before this is all over. “So that leaves the housekeeper and the guard,” I summarize. “Whose family was killed what way?”

“Housekeeper’s was the fire and the guard’s family were running,” Dante answers before clicking a few more keys. “In the car was the guard’s wife only. They didn’t have any kids, but she had a couple haphazardly filled suitcases and a box of papers, but the box had bloody handprints on it when the cops got there, and only a few papers were left.”

“And they ran her off the road?”

“It looks like the woman lost control around a turn just outside the city limits,” he answers after a moment. “She crashed into a pole with enough speed that she was physically ejected from the car since she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. Died on impact. Best I can guess is that they checked her pulse to make sure she was dead, saw she was, grabbed anything that could incriminate Leonardo, and took off.”

“Maybe those documents contained information on the girls,” Lazaro points out grimly. “Which, if that’s the case, could give away the details of the people who adopted or at least took charge of any additional girls.”

“The guard would have been fucking stupid to keep those around,” Nico argues darkly.

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