Dario gave him the finger when the others burst into laughter.
What does that mean?Amaranthe asked.
Dario bought a beautiful piece of property on the lake in Chicago, a working lavender farm. He didn’t shut it down. He’s kept it running. When he had to give Brielle CPR, she said she remembered smelling lavender. It’s been a running joke ever since.
From across the room, the elevator doors slid open and Beniamino Latini, Geno’s cousin and one of his top investigators, handed Salvatore a folder and stepped back into the elevator without speaking to any of the rest of them.
“I think all the reports are available now,” Geno announced. He wanted to read the one Dario had brought.
Dario was included, along with Valentino as the various reports were distributed. Amaranthe and Geno pored over Brielle’s very detailed dispatch.
Geno found himself looking to Stefano, his gut churning. If what Brielle found was confirmed by even one other report, the implications were damning. He didn’t want to look at Amaranthe. She was an elite rider sent by the International Council to ferret out the reasons behind the murders as well as to find the murderers. Amaranthe was extremely intelligent. If he thought there was a direct correlation between Brielle’s findings eighteen years earlier and the murders now, so would she.
“Geno?” Salvatore asked. “Brielle’s report is very thorough. She doesn’t make mistakes. It looks as if she’s the only one of the investigators who caught that there were two branches of the Boutler family working in Queensland at one time.”
“It was well over a hundred years ago when the two families began working in Queensland,” Stefano murmured,resignation in his voice. “That woman is amazing. She doesn’t miss anything. One branch lived on the coast and one in the interior, but from what Brielle could tell, they were close. Apparently, it took some digging, but she found documentation of the families getting together often when the first shadow riders were assigned there. Theo and Meghan Boutler resided on the coast, and Theo’s brother Hamish with his wife, Felicia, took up residence hundreds of miles away in the interior, but they visited as often as possible. There’s a reason the other investigators didn’t go that far back.”
“Why would they?” Taviano murmured. “They were thinking in terms of eighteen years ago, not a hundred. Brielle is amazing. We’re all very sad we lost her to those underhanded sneaks Val and Dario.”
His comment provided some much-needed levity. Even Emmanuelle smiled.
“We were just faster at seeing how brilliant she is,” Valentino pointed out. “For once, Stefano, you didn’t win.”
“Don’t remind me,” he groused, staring down at the report Brielle had prepared for them.
“Theo and Meghan had five sons and a daughter,” Elie continued with the information aloud. “They trained all their children to be shadow riders. Of the six children, only the oldest, Erik, and the daughter, Rachel, married and had children. Erik had three sets of twins and a daughter. Rachel had two boys and a girl. Interestingly, Rachel left home early. Once she left, she never returned. She ceased shadow riding altogether, married and lived in Italy. Her husband, according to Brielle’s report, knew nothing of shadow riding and had no connection with it whatsoever, nor did any member of his family.”
It was Emmanuelle who continued with the reading of the extremely thorough report. “Hamish and Felicia Boutler had three sons. Lewis, Nate and Rogan. All three married and had children. They were trained as shadow riders and the women they married were shadow riders. Theyappeared quite close to the coastal Boutlers. Despite the distance, they were able to get together often presumably using shadows to travel back and forth. Brielle even uncovered several old photographs of family celebrations.”
Geno studied the faces. The pictures were grainy and in black and white. Not really black and white, more like faded brown.
“Despite the condition of the photographs, the resemblance of Hamish and Theo to the assassin who murdered the younger Australian woman on Miranda’s back porch is uncanny,” Geno told the others. “He was in his late fifties or early sixties, and very experienced at riding the shadows.”
Geno frowned down at the report. He almost wanted to snatch it away from Amaranthe as she studied it. The conclusions he was drawing, he knew she would come up with as well. How could she not? She was looking at it the same as Elie Archambault was. Geno figured he may as well just put it out there as calmly and matter-of-factly as if his parents weren’t part of some huge criminal conspiracy that had unimaginable repercussions eighteen years later.
“The same night Papa’s leg was amputated, there were twelve members of the Boutler family killed in accidents or assassinations. They were scattered all over Europe, which was why no one caught it. Some weren’t riders. Some were former riders. But all were members of the Boutler family formerly from Queensland.”
“Erik Boutler was the oldest of the five coastal brothers. He’d just turned seventy and resided in Vietnam. As a highly sought-after engineering professor, he taught at one of the universities in Vietnam. He took a fall from a third-story balcony. There wasn’t a hint of drugs or alcohol in his system. Erik was the only brother that married. He had seven sons and a daughter. Three sets of male twins and the girl. His wife died in a climbing accident, and it was right after that when his daughter, Rowina, left.”
“A climbing accident?” Stefano echoed. He tapped thetable. “That doesn’t seem likely for a rider. “I’m not certain I buy that. Was her death investigated?”
“They lived in Queensland, far away from everyone else. No one raised questions about her death that I can see,” Elie said. “Brielle noted she was a little suspicious, but there was no way to investigate further.”
“Jerico Boutler had a small farm in Costa Rica. He was in his sixties. He’d never married, and he’d been a rider for years in Queensland,” Stefano said. He frowned down at the report in front of him. “He died in his field when he was off his tractor, and it somehow continued moving and ran right over him. It was ruled a freak accident as no one was around.”
“Shawn Boutler lived alone in Indonesia,” Lucca added. “He was very wealthy, owned a thriving farm and employed quite a few locals. He was also in his sixties and one of Theo and Meghan’s sons. He died in his shower. The door was locked, and he was alone. It appeared that he slipped and fell on the wet tiles. His neck was broken.”
Valentino looked up. “Percy Boutler, in his sixties, also one of the brothers, lived alone in India. He ran a brothel there. He was found in the street just outside his home. It appeared as if he had been in a very vicious fight. There was a knife in his hand, but no blood on the blade. He had been beaten and he had several broken bones. He died of a blow to the chest hard enough that it literally stopped his heart. Whoever killed him was immensely strong.”
Geno glanced at Amaranthe. “These are classic kills.”
She shook her head. “Not classic, but the deaths seem to be planned and carried out all on the same timeline. The same night.”
“Then there was Arlo, the youngest of the five Boutler brothers,” Geno continued. “He lived in Thailand. Like his brother in India, he ran a brothel, but this one included underage children. It seems the Boutler brothers weren’t very socially conscious. Arlo was killed inside the brothel in the common bath. Arlo was drowned. That’s all five boys Theoand Meghan gave birth to. They all died on the same night no matter where they were living.”
“The only inland Boulter from that generation who died that night was Nate Boutler,” Dario said. “He was sixty-five, living in Pakistan. His wife left him when their sons, Mitchel and Monti, were teens. He was unable to ride the shadows, and she had nothing to do with the family, unable to remember them obviously. She died several months later in a horse-riding accident. The boys lived in Pakistan with Nate until they went off to college, still training as riders, but they never returned to Queensland. Nate died hard, of several stab wounds, mostly in the genital area. It looked as if it was a very personal attack. No witnesses and the murder occurred in his home.”
“That’s six of the twelve members of the Boutler family killed. The five male members of the coastal family and only one of the inland family, at least of that generation,” Geno mused.
