I hated that I had to leave Stephanie in the hospital. I was supposed to win her trust and staying with her in the hospital would have taken me inches closer to my goal. Leaving before the results of her mother's tests was brought was against my plans. But if Julio's suspicions were correct...then the cunt responsible for testing the shit on Greg had better start praying for a safe passage to hell.
I strode into my office. Julio, Andrea and Simone were inside already. They were here because they were of unquestionable loyalty. They were the only ones who had earned my absolute trust.
Usually, we would have left the work to the security team working in the security room, but we knew the footages would be from the newest cameras–the ones only a few knew about. Julio and I installed them almost two months ago. Most of the staff already knew all the blindspots in the club's surveillance, so we installed them to transmit directly to us and give us feed. We even had these cameras in the restroom vestibules which was not exactly a legal thing to do. But when did the mafia ever follow constitutional laws? Then again, only four of us had access to the footages and the feed from there was never really checked.
This time however we needed everything possible to nail those responsible.
I walked into the suite where Julio's and Andrea's laptops were already on the table, the footage from the cameras playing on the screens. Andrea and Simone were on the sofa going through the remaining footage with keen eyes. Julio stood up when he saw me.
"What did you find?" I asked.
He waited until I sat down before he turned the laptop my way and pointed at the screen. "Here," he said, pointing at a much-too-young looking guy in a baseball cap heading to the club's entrance. "This is Greg McConnor. And those idiots behind him are his schoolmates."
My hands fisted. "How did he get in?"
"No idea," Julio sighed in dismay, shaking his head. "Not through the main entrance though. He played the remaining footage where the bouncers barred Greg and his schoolmates, requested passes and turned them away when they provided none.
My eyes narrowed as I focused on their movement. "They look like they are drunk or high or something."
"Exactly what I thought," Andrea interjected, his eyes still fixed on the screen.
"Looks like they've been partying long before they hit out club," I mused.
Simone grunted in agreement. "If they'd stopped the moment our guard kicked them out, then maybe the kid would still be alive now."
Julio leaned over the computer and switched the recording. "Now look at this," he said, pointing at the screen. "This was thirty minutes after they were kicked out."
I looked and saw Greg walking–or rather swaying–through one of the staff-only corridors. "What the fuck was he doing here?" I hissed. "And where are the rest of his friends?"
Julio gave me a thin smile. "That's exactly what we're still trying to establish."
"Maybe he was the only one who got inside," Simone suggested.
Andrea let out a breath and leaned in his chair. "The question is how he got in. My guess is that someone with an employee's pass must have let him in through the back door."
"Do we have a footage from the back of the club?" I asked, glancing at Julio who loosened his tie.
"Someone broke the camera above the back door. It happened two days ago."
My blood began to simmer. "And why did nobody report it? Two fucking days!"
Julio cleared his throat. "I already fired the tech guys who were on duty the day it happened and yesterday."
I sucked in a breath through my clenched teeth. "How about the stairs? Do we have a footage from there?"
"Here," Andrea said, turning around his laptop and played the recording from the time Greg had somehow gotten inside. "As you can see, we have the backs of those ascending the stairs. No faces."
I stared at the screen for a few minutes, beginning to wonder if it wasn't a complete waste of time until I saw it. "There's Greg!" I pointed at the guy in the baseball cap.
I remembered his clothes from the previous recording and knew it had to be him. Then my eyes narrowed on the man who climbed the stairs beside him. He was dressed in black slacks and a black jacket with the sleeves slightly up. It wasn't hard to guess he was the one who let Greg in.
"Does anyone if you recognize the fucker?" I asked and waited until Simone and Andrea stepped beside me and played the recording.
The man patted Greg's back as they ascended the stairs then he turned to him, partially exposing his face. I rewound the video and paused, trying to capture his features. The video was quite blurry but I could still make out the man's short, black beard.
"Honestly, I don't think I've seen this guy before," Andrea said.
"The tattoo on his hand looks familiar though," Simone pointed at the screen. "See? He has a snake on his forearm with the head ending in his knuckles. I've seen it before."
I focused on the tattoo and cursed before looking at Julio. "I saw it too. A guy with this tattoo was at Drake's wedding. I remember seeing him with Bernoulli Bernini.
"Fuck," Julio groaned, dragging his hands over his face. "That means he's probably one of Vinci Bernini's men." He faced me, his face turning grim. "Do you think Vinci is behind all of this? The drugs and Greg's murder?"
"I doubt it," I said. "Vinci couldn't have planned all of this in one day. Besides, we still don't know how this guy got his hands on our employee's pass."
"He must have bribed one of ours," Simone mused.
"It might have been days ago," Andrea groaned. "I'm sick just thinking about the long hours of videos."
"We need to find out who gave this cunt our pass," Julio grunted. "And when we do, he's dead meat," he said determinedly, squeezing his fist.
"Keep looking and keep me informed about everything," I told them, standing up.
"And where are you going?" Julio inquired, his brows inching up.
"To visit Vinci Bernini," I replied casually, with a cold smirk on my face. "I believe it's time for him to answer a few questions."
*****
"This way, Mr Giacomo," a tall woman dressed in a dark business suit said and led me through the long corridor of Bernini's mansion.
Two of his guards followed behind me, noting every of my move with their trained eyes. I had come alone and surrendered my gun at the entrance. I told Vinci I wanted this to be a peaceful conversation–a lie just so he would let me in. If I found out he had anything to do with the guy with the snake tattoo, even his strongest guards would not be able to stop me from beating the shit out of him.
The woman in the suit opened the door and gestured for me to enter.
It was Vinci's study. I found him inside, sitting in a leather chair, drinking whiskey. His face was even more grim than it was the other day. The grief was visibly taking its toll on him. I doubted the more if he had anything to do with the drugs and killing Greg, but I had to check and be sure.
I walked over to Vinci and offered a curt bow. He nodded and motioned with his chin at the two sentinels who had followed me in, dismissing them.
The door closed behind them a second later.
"Have a seat," Vinci muttered, placing another glass on the coffee table and filling it with fine scotch.
I nodded and made myself comfortable in the sofa in front of him.
I was about to ask him about the guy with the tattoo but surprisingly, his lips parted first. "I checked the footage. Guess it was like you said," he said, his lips forming a tight smile.
I fixed my eyes on him. "Did you find out what happened to Bernoulli after my boys dropped him in front of his house?"
"He dissolved into thin air," Vinci replied and a bitter laugh tore through his throat. "He fucking disappeared. He rolled on the floor for a while, got up on his feet, staggered into one of the blindspots, and that was it. He never made it to the main entrance."
"Then he must have been attacked in the blindspot area, I assume," I said, snatching my glass from the table.
Vinci nodded thoughtfully. "It was like someone was waiting for him there. That is the only place without any cameras."
As tragic as it was for a father to lose his son, I couldn't ignore the fact that Bernoulli had it coming for him for a long time. Unlike Greg, he had made a mistake and it cost him.
I drank from my glass and returned it to the table. "I came to ask about a guy who might be working for you. I saw him with Bernoulli before so I figured he might be one of yours."
Vinci pursed his lips. "And what did this 'man who might be working for me' do?"
My eyes locked on his. "Broke into my club, forced a minor inside and fed him the drugs that got him killed."
His face creased with an angry frown. "Are you accusing me of something, Francesco?"
I shook my head. "Not until I find that son of a bitch and beat the answers out of him."
His lips peeled back in a snarl. "Do you seriously think I'll kill a minor just to screw you over?"
Of course he was capable of doing far more screwed up things. But this? Selling experimental drugs was not his style. He always preferred something more old-school.
"While I believe that people often go rogue, I'd rather believe that you're not responsible for this, but I'll need to find out the one who is behind all of this."
Vinci worked his jaw and set his glass on the table, letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine," he said. "Show me a picture or give me his name and I'll tell you whether or not he works for me.
I pulled my phone and opened the image we had cut from the footage. I had been careful enough to expose his tattoo. "That's all I have," I said, turning the screen towards Vinci. "This is from the cameras in my club. It is so unfortunate that we couldn't capture his face. But we got the snake tattoo."
Vinci's eyes widened then his face turned pale.
"I...this man..." he stuttered and stopped, looking at me nervously before swallowing. "I don't know who he is but I saw him before."
My eyes narrowed. "Saw him where?"
His hands fisted. "The night Bernoulli died, that man was in the footage. I thought he was just someone passing by..." he drew another breath. "Now I'm beginning to think he was the last person to see my son alive..."