Cold Brew and Bullets (Part 1 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 9- Tortellini Soup and Ziti

Alessio-

The hour or so that I spent at my desk did nothing to help me. Once I knew that Eliana had showered and was in a safe place like the hospital, I thought that I might be able to get some work done, to figure out what was going on and who had broken into Eliana's coffee shop. I was in the middle of explaining the whole thing to Leonardo, who kept asking why I had missed the Capo meeting again, when he asked a question which I hadn't even thought to ask in my haste to make sure that Eliana was taken care of that morning.

"Even if there aren't any cameras in their shop, wouldn't there at least be footage from a store around them that may have caught something?"

"Not sure," I muttered, leaning back in my chair and picking up my cell phone from my desk. Making sure to keep the message short, I sent one to Luca.

Cameras in surrounding buildings?

It was only a couple of seconds before I got his response.

Feeds were cut.

Stop by when you can.

I set my phone back on the desk, hoping that Luca could come by soon. I didn't really want to make idle chatter, I hadn't disclosed yet that I had taken Eliana to her apartment or much detail at all. It felt private for some reason, even if nothing personal had happened. I was sure that my right hand man was dying to know why I had taken such an interest in this little coffee shop and what appeared to be a basic robbery, but he didn't say anything, for which I was grateful. He may be wondering if our presence and association were to blame for the attack as well, he had gotten the same intel about the Russians suspecting our involvement with a store front to launder money. Leonardo was flipping through some paperwork and I let him do so for a few moments in silence before I began to muse out loud, hoping that it would help me piece everything together.

"This was no random mugging. No street thieves plan ahead enough to cut the feed on footage from every surrounding camera in the area, I don't think they could if they tried."

He nodded and hummed his agreement. As I was about to suggest another possibility, there was a knock at the door. I called for them to come in, and I was surprised to see that it was Luca.

"That was fast."

"We were just wrapping up at the scene when I got your text, the witness had just come back and she didn't want a cleanup team so no one had to stay. I brought you her statement, I said that I'd take them back to the station so I stopped on the way. I wanted you to read it before I turned the evidence in, but it'll have to be fast unless we want to raise suspicion."

He held out a folder to me, the first page in it had very feminine, but slightly shaky, writing. I glanced over Eliana's statement quickly noting where the script seemed interrupted or altered, like she had taken a break or set the pen down momentarily. If she had given this at the hospital while medical professionals were stitching her up and she was worried about her boss, it would make sense that she had to take a couple of breaks.

"She mentions that it was two men in suits," I held the paper out for Leonardo to read as well. "Not a random robbery, it's decided."

As my right hand read over the statement, he added, "She says that one had a Glock 19 and the other had a Beretta Model 92, those are hardly street guns either."

"The girl has a surprising knowledge of guns," Luca added. "Most people in a traumatic event don't notice details like that. Sometimes we're lucky if we can even get out a cohesive sentence."

Leonardo looked at him knowingly, "Not sure if anything Eliana does would surprise me. Gun knowledge isn't as rare as the ability to hold a conversation with our boss, yet I've seen her do it without flinching or running away in boredom."