Page 25 of Matteo
“It’s looking like the FBI is going to be taking over this case. We’re probably going to have more questions for you.”
Rolling my eyes, I took the card from him, his fingertips brushing against my own. Static electricity hit against my fingers, buzzing quickly down my bones before disappearing.
He grinned again. “Have a good afternoon, Rain.”
After he left, I locked the door behind him. He sat in the parking lot talking on the phone for a few minutes before driving away. It was then I realized I’d been holding my breath with his business card clutched against my chest.
I tossed the card in the waste bin by my desk and then I found my phone ringing. Figuring it was Nora calling again, I got the shock of my life.
It’d been a very long time since I had seen that name pop up on my screen. Kenji Ito was calling.
“Hello…” My voice was soft, almost scared.
“I want to see you tonight,” his voice was the opposite of my own. Hard and unfeeling. “Meet me at the Hellfire Club, nine o’clock. And make sure you come the fuck alone…”
With no warning the call ended.
Chapter 9
Matteo
Holding up the blood-splattered white card to the sunlight streaming in through the window, I reviewed the evidence.
The contents of the woman’s purse had spilled out onto the carpet of her floor beside her. Whoever had broken in and killed her must have been scared before killing her. Not too far away her husband lay nearby, deceased as well.
“Kazou Gentetics,” I said reading the name on the business card out loud.
“It means family,” Jason’s voice was barely a whisper as if he were spooked, his eyes surveying the crime scene slowly.
“Bag this up,” I motioned to one of the techs.
He took the card from me and I came to stand by Jason’s side.
“Another Japanese family, with crime ties…there is no way this is a coincidence,” he murmured. “And in less than twenty-four hours…’
In front of us were Susan and Shin Taoko, both with alleged ties to the Taoko crime family. Although it seemed Susan ran a genetics lab, while Shin ran a construction conglomerate it was still heavily implied that they were in the family.
Walking over to the deceased male, who was face down on the carpet. He must’ve been getting out of the shower because a sea foam green towel had wrapped his waist. Tattoos covered this entire upper torso stopping at the forearms.
I signaled to the forensic tech photographing the woman. “Make sure you get as many shots of his body as possible.”
Jason’s cell phone had started to ring and I watched as his face contorted before answering. “The Director wants us to come in.”
The two of us exited the crime scene together but split off to go to our separate vehicles. Noting the time when we arrived parking on opposite ends from each other, I realized the victims hadn’t lived too far from here.
Jason met me at the door before we walked in together. “I swear this man gives me the creeps. Imagine, how I sound saying that.”
A raven’s caw echoed through the air and I found my eyes landing on a tree in the parking lot. In the sunlight, a sleek black raven was perched and watching. I wondered if it was the one who’d sat outside my office window the other day.
“It’d be nice if he’d opened the curtains,” I remarked following him through the office doors.
We rode up together in the elevator, the two of us quiet. The soft whir of the elevator was familiar as it carried us to what always felt like our doom. Dealing with the director always felt like a trip to the principal’s office and you hadn’t done anything wrong.
Cigar smoke filled my lungs the second we walked in.
“Close the door behind you,” his voice sounded hoarse when he spoke.
The metal of the door knob felt cool under my fingertips. As the last rays of fluorescent light vanished from sight, I outwardly cringed.
