Page 66 of Shackled By the Mafia Boss

I jump when someone pulls out the seat across from mine. My eyes shoot up and I’m relieved to see that it’s Taylor. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” He plops down on the seat. “What caught your interest you didn’t hear me come in?”

I push the folder to him. “He wasn’t strangled with a rope or a cable.”

Taylor nods. “I noticed.”

“And it says here that he was murdered at five a.m. today.”

“I saw that too.”

I reach out and pull the folder back, staring at it intently as I think. “There’s no CCTV footage of the time of his murder.”

“About that…” He glances down at his fingers. “The CCTVs weren’t working.”

“Of course not,” I say with a resigned sigh.

I close the file. It gives enough to point at murder but not enough to find out who is responsible. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

He scratches his temple. “What are you thinking?”

“Something is not right. He had at least three policemen outside his room, how did the killer sneak into the room and how is it possible all the cameras stopped working at the same time? Isn’t it obvious it was an inside job?”

“Beats me.” He cracks his knuckles. “What would the killer’s motive be then? We all know Rodriguez didn’t care about the Hell’s Kitchen’s cases.”

I think about that for a moment. Taylor’s right, Rodriguez getting a lead on the Hell’s Kitchen’s cases could not have been the motive for his murder. But if not that, what then? “Do you think it was something else?”

Taylor gives an indifferent shrug. “Don’t know. Don’t care. That asshole deserved what he got.”

My face scrunches involuntarily. “What?”

“Nothing.” He brushes me off. He peers around and leans forward. “I got something on your Dad’s case.”

My interest is piqued. “What?” I ask, my voice only a breath of sound.

“Your Dad had the same marks on his neck as Rodriguez.”

The world stops around me for a moment and I can’t make sense of what he is saying. “I’m sorry?” I laugh nervously. “My dad was shot. He died from a gunshot wound.”

Taylor shakes his head. “No, he didn’t. I checked his autopsy report and the bullet didn’t even hit a vital organ.”

“Then he couldn’t have bled to death.”

“He didn’t. He was strangled in the exact same way Rodriguez was. And then his body was left in a warehouse for hours until the police found him.”

My heart throbs painfully and I raise my hand to rub my chest. It is hard to breathe and I clench my fingers. “You mean…” I swallow, “whoever killed Rodriguez, killed my father?”

“Right.” He snaps his fingers. “How does it feel to know that?” Taylor is staring at me with an expression I can’t quite make sense of. It’s almost as if he is amused.

I shrug the thought off. I’m being paranoid, I’m reading too much into this. He is only trying to help me. “But…Why…What warehouse?”

“You’re finally asking the right questions.” His tongue darts out to wet his lips. “You should ask Marcus. He’ll give you a more appropriate answer.”

I’m able to push the words out through the lump in my throat. “What does that mean? Did Marcus have something to do with my father’s death?”

Taylor stands and smooths his leather jacket. “You should ask him.”

My eyes are watering as my gaze follows him to his des. I pick up my phone and send a text to Marcus to meet me after work.

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