ILARIA (book 3)

10. ASAHI

The car makes a sharp turn. "Three more bodies showed up in an apartment complex. All male." Avery, another agent, says.

Then she sighs. "Uh... 6 more bodies. 5 male, 1 female."

"What apartment complex is it?" I ask.

"Armani Suites."

My heart thuds. Ilaria lives there.

I was there 20 minutes ago.

"Hamada wants us to check the apartment complex first. He's sent the cops to the nail salon."

Within five minutes we arrive. Police were here already but it was only a few patrol cars. "FBI." I announce, stepping over the crime scene tape.

The lead detective at the police station, Monae, walks to me. "One victim has the same MO as the two down at the nail salon, but the other eight have completely different MO's, seem to be victims of opportunity rather than premeditated." She explains, walking me to the first body.

A woman. She has a bullet hole through her head. I pull gloves over my hand and check inside of her purse. "Ana Maria Farrell." I look at the ID. I then call the tech. "Get me all the information you can on Ana Maria Farrell."

I hear his fingers clicking. "Uh... The two victims at the nail salon are Mario Fusco and Dante D'Acampo. Both are authorised bodyguards, however the individual they're protecting has been completely sealed and even I can't hack into the data base for that. Ana Maria is a maid, but an authorised bodyguard again, the identity has been sealed."

I know the identity.

Ilaria Reign.

"What do you know about Mario and Dante?" I ask as CSI start piling in.

His fingers tap more. "Oh." He says. "This is gang related. Mario and Dante are both members of the Reign gang, they have a very noticeable crown tattoo on their chest. Can you check and see if Ana Maria has the same?"

I look around her body, she had one on her shoulder. "Yeah, shoulder."

"If I had to make an educated guess, whoever they were protecting is very high up in the gang, and somebody wants them."

"Send me all the details you have on the Reigns." I hang up, then I call Ilaria.

She answers. "Hey, you can't come over."

"No shit. Where are you?" I ask.

"With my mama."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. How'd you-"

"I'm working the case. I'll call you later." I hang up.

I go to examine the other bodies. One right outside of the elevator, three in the lobby and four in the garage and a familar mustang wasn't parked there anymore.

CSI took notes of that. "A car was quick to leave the scene." One of them say. "Any way we can get into those?" He points to the security cameras.

"No." Detective Monae walks over. "We're not even allowed to investigate in the private elevator or know whoever owns the penthouse. All a private security database, we need a warrant."

One of the police officers start walking away, saying they'll work on it.

"These victims all have their baby finger missing." CSI points out.

I call my tech again. "Do you know any gangs that have their baby finger missing?"

"There's a Mexican drug cartel that cut the fingers off the gang members who steal the drugs."