Found dead not long after Mrs. Ferraza's murder from a drug overdose.
The file suggests Don Ferraza arranged the death as many around him have died from ODs. For that to be true, Don Ferraza would have to believe Ernie killed his wife.
Another question I have is about Sal. Did he know his brother was an informant? Was the second informant?
And was Ernie’s OD an accident, inflicted by Don Ferraza, or could Blackwood have used Ernie to kill Mrs. Ferraza when she became a problem, then eliminated Ernie when he was no longer useful or became a liability?
Am I really considering this?
My fingers fly across the keyboard as I search our database for "Salvatore Abruzzo." The screen fills with his profile, a mug shot, criminal history, known associates. His scowling face stares back at me, dark eyes challenging even through a photograph.
"Captain with the Calabresi family," I murmur, scrolling through his file. "Multiple arrests, no convictions..."
I stop when I reach the status update: Missing - Presumed Deceased (3 years ago)
The report is frustratingly thin. It’s unclear exactly when he went missing. The last sighting was around mid-December three years ago at the Winter Festival.
There is no official report of his being missing, which isn’t usual. Members of the mafia rarely look to law enforcement when a crime is committed against them. Ernie was already dead a year so there was no family I can see to report Sal missing.
I lean back in my chair, connecting invisible threads between these events. Ernie informs for Blackwood. Mrs. Ferraza dies. Ernie dies.
Isabella becomes an informant when she seeks information about her mother’s murder. But then Isabella marries into La Corona and Sal disappears.
Is Sal’s situation related to his brother and Mrs. Ferraza or something else entirely?
The web of connections grows more tangled each time I sort through possibilities. I decide to review my notes as I can’t investigate Dom without considering his membership in La Corona.
I see my note from when Blackwood asked me to make contact with Isabella Ferraza. He said she’d been forced to marry Marco Calabresi’s enforcer, Roman Ginetti, who must have taken her phone.
I’d found Isabella shopping in a fabric store with her new husband. He’d stepped aside to take a call, and acting like a shopper, I’d approached her and handed her a new phone.
I remember how she begged me to arrange her extraction.
She’d been so afraid.
I frown, scanning my notes further. If Blackwood had promised Mrs. Ferraza he'd help Isabella escape the family in exchange for information, why hadn't he fulfilled that promise?
Instead, he'd used the mother's death to manipulate the daughter into becoming an informant.
I skim to later when I met with her regarding the journal. I’d tried to bargain for information about Dom knowing Isabella was friends with Elena Vitale.
On that encounter, Isabella didn’t seem afraid. She was pissed.
I can remember the conversation clearly without my notes because she’d shamed me.
"Your mother would be disappointed," I’d said to her. "She risked everything to protect you from this life."
"How dare you," Isabella hissed at me. "You sit here and dangle my dead mother's memories like bait? You think I'm that desperate?"
Her words slapped at me, making me disappointed in myself.
"My mother would be disappointed?" Isabella continued. "You didn't know her. You have no right to speak for her. I've spent a year trying to find out what happened to her, and all that time the FBI has been holding her notebook? And now you want to trade it for information that could get people killed?"
She shook her head in disgust. "I won't be your pawn. I won't be Blackwood's pawn. And I certainly won't betray the only person who's shown me genuine kindness since I got caught up in your scheme.”
I tried again because it seemed odd she’d have found solace in a man she’d been forced to marry. “Mrs. Ginetti?—”
"You people claim to be better than the mafia," she’d said. "But at least they're honest about who they are. You hide behind badges while using the same tactics. My mother's death isn't a bargaining chip. I shouldn’t have to risk my life doing your job to get justice for my mother."
