“I’ve been a single woman for a while, but Detective Plattman is cute, right? What’s his story? Is he married? Kids? Lives in this beautiful neighborhood?” I chuckled.
She grinned back at me. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love my husband, but every time he comes around, I swoon. He’s got a couple of kids, a pair of boys in elementary school, but is divorced. Very amicable, though. He’s even invited his ex-wife to some of our barbecues before. Lives up in Amberton Heights, where he has his boys halftime. He’s a great man.”
I plucked at his card with a coy grin. “Thanks, and sorry.”
“No, no.” She tapped my arm. “Go get him, girl. Let me live vicariously through you.”
I descended down the steps with a laugh and a wave, and after being blinded by the notably obnoxious floodlight, I made my way back to Cherri’s car. Cherri and Bennett watched me with agape mouths as I climbed into the back seat.
I handed the card to Bennett. “His name is Detective Cado Alcina, and his partner is Detective Joel Plattman. Apparently, Cado’s earned a little bit of strife for getting the lead detective position over some other guys who thought it should have been them.” I handed the paper Tessa had given for me over to Cherri. “There’s the list of guys in the crime squad, or some of them, at least. They’re the scorned ones, so if Mom’s looking for an in with one of them, that’s probably the way to go.” I nodded at Detective Plattman’s card. “He’s divorced with two kids. Lives in Amberton Heights. Not a big place. We could go there some other time and just wait for his car to show up.”
Cherri started laughing. “Holy crap!”
Bennett looked impressed. “Damn, Denise. Mom was right. You’re good.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Thanks, kids. Now let’s get the hell out of here. I’m hungry.”
Chapter Nine:Ashton
The rest of the week flew by once I knew I’d get to see Denise a second time that week. She seemed happier when I saw her earlier, which gave me at least a little bit of confidence that I might be able to successfully pull her out of her slump and get her back on her own two feet. If I could just restore her confidence and get her functioning at one-hundred-percent again, carrying out the Illiana assassination and getting her to pledge allegiance to my family was going to be a breeze.
“What’s with that dumb smile on your face?” Arturo huffed as he walked into the office that we shared and sat down at his desk.
The smile that I didn’t even realize was there faded away. “It was in celebration of you not being in the room, but now you are, so I guess that’s over.”
Arturo slapped his computer to wake it up. “I guess so.”
Things hadn’t always been so harsh between Arturo and me. In fact, growing up, we had that typical twin, attached-at-the-hip relationship, and we had even gotten into the habit of dressing the same because we found it hysterical when people couldn’t tell us apart. Even our parents would walk into the room looking for one of us and not know which one they were looking at. Arturo was always a dead giveaway because he had a way worse poker face than I did. If they confused him for me, he would start snickering immediately, and they’d know that they had him and not me.
“Where did it all go wrong, Art?” I asked. “We used to be close.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t change, so whatever happened, it happened with you.”
“You didn’t change?” I asked. “You don’t think growing up, becoming a serial womanizer, drug-user, and raging drunk is changing?”
He pounded on the desk. “Are you trying to piss me off? It’s not even ten in the morning yet.”
“No, it’s just…” I rolled my eyes, looking at the notes that I had going on my computer. “I don’t feel like I changed. So what happened?”
“You’re the brains. You figure it out,” he huffed back. “Now shut up. I’ve got work to do.”
“What could you possibly be working on?” I asked.
He didn’t respond, only held up a middle finger, then started clicking away at his computer. With the back of his computer facing me, I couldn’t see what he was up to, so I dropped it and turned my attention back to my screen. I was working on the takeover plan for my dad, but I was struggling to bring it all together. I had the families listed out, their heads, and their markets, but there was something that was bothering me a little too much.
Carmine.
Denise told me that Carmine Skully, Illiana’s son with the Skully family boss, Maximilian, was serving as Illiana’s right-hand man. That just didn’t sit well with me. Illiana had children with each of the major crime bosses, but she had two children that she called pure. Given Illiana’s constant paranoia and clear favoritism of the children she had with her own husband, it was pretty much expected that she would take one of those two children on as her underboss. To hear that she was entrusting the role to Carmine was sketchy, to say the least. Either she had a blind spot, or he actively worked to try and helm that role, and if it was the latter, then why?
“Hey, Art?”
“What?” Arturo hissed.
“What do you know about the Skully family?” I asked.
Arturo looked up over his computer at me. “The Skullys?”
“Yeah. Like I know their hierarchy and their market and stuff, but do you know anything else about them? Something weird that stands out?”
