3. Murders

HUGO'S POV

I was tired of working. I've been trying to find the killer for a couple of months, but he's so good, he leaves no trace, not even the bullets. All we know is that he is a professional and that he is killing people who work in mafias or small dealers, but despite that, they do not deserve to die at the hands of another person.

My partner, Derek, and I have been investigating these murders for months, and we haven't found anything about the killer. I was beginning to get a little desperate not finding anything, but this was not all. There were rumours that the leaders of the Russian mafia would come to Italy to do an arms smuggling business, and it is not known with whom yet, some think it is with the Titano di Ferro, but I am not so sure about that, yes. something I've learned in these years that I've been after that guy, is that he doesn't do business with the Russians, I don't know why, but that's what he does.

Just then my partner approaches me, and I know from his face that there is no evidence of the murderer in our new victim.

"We still have nothing." He said sitting up and raising his hands to his head. "I know, I can see it in your face." I took a look at him instead of the report I was finishing.

"This is starting to make me desperate, and I don't want to close the cases, no matter how much criminals they are, they don't deserve to die like this." He sighed and turned to look at me. I crossed my arms and tried to think of something we could do that would help us find the killer who was taking down all the criminals, but as is normal with this killer, I can't think of anything, which makes me even more frustrated if it's possible.

"I know, but they really are good whoever is killing them." Derek nodded and went to look at his screen, probably going through the cases to see if he found anything, which he wouldn't, we went through those reports too many times to find anything new in them.

"From what we know, it's just one person." He said moving the mouse around the screen and I continued doing the report I was doing before Derek arrived. "We can't take anything for granted, and from my point of view a person can't be so careful and leave no evidence behind."

I didn't need to look up to know that he was with me, because we had already gone for that theory and it seemed the least likely of all. "I know, but there is a possibility."

"I believe there is something behind these deaths. All present blows and then shots. It is as if they were trying to extract information from them and when they obtain it, they kill them so as not to leave evidence." All the cases were passed to Derek and me had no trace of evidence and all involved beatings and shooting, which led us to believe they were the same person or persons.

"Do you think the Italian mafia is behind this?" he asked, but it didn't make sense that it was the Italian mafia. I had been after the Italian mafia for years and they never did such a perfect job. What's more, they left evidence so we knew it was them, but we could never catch them because we didn't know who did it from the mafia.

"No, they're not that careful, they don't leave evidence, but you know it's them. On the other hand, with all these victims we have no idea who it was or the reason why they are doing it." I said finishing the report and sending it.

"Any new mob?" I denied, because it was impossible. A new mafia would make it more than clear it was them and we would be alerted beforehand by our street contacts. "If it was a mafia, they would make it clear that it was them, and that's not the case, they are hiding."

"We have to find them as soon as possible so we can focus on the Russians. According to my sources, they will appear here in a few days, and it seems the Titano di Ferro mafia is behind all this." That was not possible, because something the Titano had not done for years was associate with the Russians. We don't know the reason why, but we do know he doesn't do business and apparently hates them.

"It's the Russians, so I doubt it." I said "Years ago if you did business with them, you can come back." I denied, because something told me that what had happened between the Italian and Russian mafia was not going to be fixed and I would even less do business with them. "I don't know what reasons you have for not doing business, I just know that they don't do it anymore."

"I have no idea, but I've heard something else, and if it's true, it won't be good for us or the city." As soon as he said that, I straightened up in my chair and looked in his direction, because that didn't sound right at all. "What did you hear?"

"On the street there is talk that a war between mafias is going to start. They are arming themselves." This wasn't good, but I just hoped it wasn't what I was thinking it was, because as it was the Italian and the Russian, we had a big problem on top of us. "What mafias?"

"The one from the Titano di Ferro and another. I don't know which one, but it is said that these go against the Italians." I put my hands on the table, because this looked like the work of the Russians. There was no one so stupid or so powerful to challenge the Italians. "That's why I'm telling you we have to put an end to this mysterious murder thing as soon as possible, because if not, we're going to have a big problem."

"Yeah, let's get this over with or leave it for later. I think it's more important to prevent that war from happening than that we discover that murderer soon. I'm sure we'll catch them soon." He nodded and got up to go I guess I don't know where.

"So, are we going to put the case of the mysterious murder aside?" I nodded and got up to go see if my informants had heard anything that was coming, because right now I didn't give a shit about the mystery killer, we had bigger problems than a killer of dangerous criminals.

POV ALEXANDRA

At this moment we were in my room to put all the clothes in the suitcases, well, I was doing it by myself since Megan was sitting looking everywhere in the room. We had spent the whole afternoon playing with Alison, and I must admit I hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

"Why haven't I been in this room for a while?" Megan said, continuing to look around. It's not that my room changed too much since the last time she came in, basically it's like when Francesco and Analissa gave it to me, it's not where I spent much time, let's say, or I slept in Alison's room or I didn't fall asleep and went to train or look for information from the Russians.

"Well, I don't know, you should ask yourself that." I folded the shirt and put it in the suitcase. When I was done with mine, I had to do Alison's suitcase and at this rate I would end up doing Megan's. It was always something she hated and I didn't mind packing her suitcase despite her twenty years.

"Well, the truth is, I don't have the slightest idea why. It looks like nothing has changed since the last time I was here. What's more, practically nothing has changed since we came to live in the house" she said, stopping looking everywhere and focusing her gaze on me.

"Because I didn't do anything to change it, you know where I spend my time, and it's not exactly in a bed" She nodded and crossed her arms, becoming serious, giving me to understand she want to talk about what she wanted to discover.

"I get the feeling that we've both been working on the same thing, but separately" I agreed and closed the suitcase, ending up sitting on the bed next to her looking out the window. "I know what you're talking about, but anyway I'll let you explain to me what you mean on your part"

"Okay, I'll explain. The last couple of months I've been researching where we can find those bastards who kept us locked up for years and I've discovered things." She said getting up and starting to pace around the room. "What things?"

"The police were chasing them and they had to leave. Guess where they went." He turned to look at me with a twinkle in his eye. "To Russia, that's nothing new."

"So, I hope this is it. There is talk on the streets they will return in a couple of weeks to close an arms deal, I think." She stood in front of me waiting for my reaction, but she wasn't going to see any because I wasn't surprised at all.

"I confirm it, they are coming, and it is less than in a couple of weeks, rather, it is within a couple of days." It was at that moment her face changed in surprise, but I already knew that for a couple of days and that's why something told me this was why Francesco wanted to send us to the other end of the world, to keep Megan and I from going hunting those bastards. "What?"

I nodded and she sat on the bed looking at me a little over a minute ago. "What you heard, and if it weren't for this trip dad wants to take, I would have caught them and finished with what we were thinking of doing to them." I said clenching my fists, because it's something that bothered me. "Were you going to take revenge without me?" I look at her and put my hand on her knee. "No darling, I wasn't going to get revenge without you. I was going to let you know the moment we had them in my possession."

A smile appeared on her face and she put her hand over mine, turning to look out the window. "I like that." I nodded "I know, but I can't do it right now because dad wants us away from here for some reason, or at least I can get a slight idea of why he wants us away."

"I have heard a war is being waged." Again, I nodded, because I had heard that too. "Something like that I have heard, and that's what I was going to confirm tonight." She took her hand out of mine and looked at me with a frown. "And you weren't going to tell me." I denied, because it was something I wasn't going to do. "You know, apparently there is a murderer on the streets who is killing people who have to do with drug trafficking and all the things dad does and people he knows. She or he doesn't leave a single trace" I agreed.

"Do you know who it is?" She said surprised I knew who it was, but I really had no choice but to know who it was. "Yeah, if I didn't know, something was wrong with me." One of her eyebrows almost reached her hairline from the silent question she was asking me, but I didn't feel like talking about it right now. "Do we need to talk about this right now Megan?"

"I knew it had to be you, there's no one as good at it as you are." She said not the least bit surprised. She knew me better than anyone and knew everything I did when I wanted information on the Russians, or at least got an idea.

"I did it with the first ones to make it clear how I wanted the job done, now I don't need it and it's rare for me to do the cleaning part" I said looking ahead "For that you will have people at your disposal." I nodded, but that really had nothing to do with it.

"Do you have people and you hang out with dad's people? Above all, with stupid Adriano." I knew Megan didn't like Adriano at all, and I don't blame her, because he wasn't half as good at his job, but at least I knew he could get me whatever I needed despite his hiccups lately. I also know she thought I was sleeping with him, which made me wonder why she thought I'd sleep with someone after all we've been through, but I wasn't denying that either.

"First of all, it has nothing to do with me hanging out with dad's people, I do it because this way he's calmer, I can get away from them whenever I want, and second, Adriano may be useless at work, but he's the person one I trust and know can do the job" she turned to see if I was telling the truth, which I was, and when she confirmed it, she masked her disgusted face.

"I'm not so clear it's because of all you have him with you for that, but I will leave it that way for the moment," she said. "What I have to do is find people on my own to do the dirty work, to prevent them from telling anything in case Dad asks them the questions." She nodded and returned her gaze to the front.

"I can help you with that. I think it's better we join forces instead of going our separate ways." I nodded. "I agree with you, but don't worry about the team because I have the right people in mind. Give me a couple of days and I get the team."

"So, shall we unite? If separately we have already obtained information, together we can achieve everything we set our minds to do." I nodded and Megan ended up taking my hand. "It's the best but we have to keep all this between us. Don't let Francesco find out, because then we'll have it screwed up" Megan nodded and got out of bed

"We have to train like we did years ago, to prevent whatever comes, and I hope you don't make any excuses for me, because we trained even when you were pregnant with Alison. You won't have to take Alison's time, we'll just have to find the right time to do it. We don't even have to go to the university every day, it's not what we really need," she said, and the truth is, she knew that she often made the excuse that she had to study, because if anything, it was my sister, she was intelligent, she practically didn't even need to study, just like me.

"Aren't you the one who found it hard to study and for things to stay in your head?" I hesitated with a smirk on my face. She turned in my direction and with a smile that practically didn't catch on her face. "That's a cover for, theoretically, spending more time in the library..."

"I know, you don't have to tell me. Now go pack your suitcase, this time I'm not going to do it for you" She pouted and crossed her arms like a child. I know she didn't like packing, but even my six-year-old daughter didn't do that to get us to do what she didn't want.

"You're old enough to do it by yourself, so go do it and rest" She approached me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I hope you do too," I nodded, but it was too likely that I would sleep for a couple of hours and then wake up with a nightmare.

"Wait, before I go, weren't you going to go see a guy who was going to give you information?" She said turning back in my direction and I was hoping she wouldn't ask me to come with me. In the end, it's not she needed her there, she needed sleep, and if there's anything Megan appreciates more than anything, it's sleep.

"Yeah, what's up with that?" she crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow. "I'm going with you." I shook my head, practically knowing that he wasn't going to listen to anything I said. "No need, I'll manage by myself." She denied "No way, I'm going with you, besides, now we're a team."

I sighed and ended up closing the suitcase which I had left open. "Okay, but we'll have to go after Adriano."

She nodded and turned around again to head for the door. "I warn you, if you leave without me, I'll tell dad and I'll have him look for you all over Italy if necessary."

With that, she left Alison's room, one to go to hers to do her suitcase and leave early tomorrow. It was two in the morning and our flight left at six, so we had a little less than two hours to get all the information out of this guy and get back home so no one would suspect we were out, let alone Francesco. If he found out, we were dead.