The Boss's Son | ✅

6

When Mike turned into my street, the spot where he had stood earlier and had waited for me, was taken. The same street lamp that had turned on the glow of his dark skin, was now throwing its light on a midnight-blue SUV.

"Why is Stan's car parked in front of my house? You told him that I went out with you tonight, didn't you?" I asked when Mike parked one spot further down.

"Sure did. God forbid, he would check on you and get all worried." To the sound of the engine dying down, we both squinted through the windshield to my door. Mike pointed at a man next to Stan. "That's a colleague with him. Stan can't but have noticed my car, and yet they knock like good citizens. They must be here on official business."

I groaned. Stan being here on official business meant, I had the police knocking on my door. "You think Rizzoli made an official complaint about my behavior earlier?"

Amusement danced in Mike's eyes when he threw me a look over his shoulder. "You are convinced that Rizzoli is a big, bad mafia boss and yet you consider him running to the police for something like that?"

"Keeping up appearance?" My lower lip shortly jetted forward and I shrugged. "How shall I know how this man manages to keep his hands clean no matter what dirt I dig up that has hiss smell all over it."

"Nah. I thought, Rizzoli enjoyed himself tonight and rapidly forgot about your initial crosstalk." Mike pulled the key from the ignition and reached to open his door. "Let's go and see what this is all about."

At the door, Stan greeted me politely. To hear him call me 'Ms. Galo' like the next stranger was hilarious. But the nature of all our relationship was no one's business, but ours. Between my stepfather's most loyal and I, we kept things strictly a secret. They all had made career in their fields and lived their lives. Apart from Mike and I, we never acknowledge each other when we met in the company of outsiders. And Mike was the exception because one of them had to become my legal guardian after my stepfather's accident until I became of age. This secrecy was not last how my inside sources at the force and elsewhere had remained a matter of speculation.

After we all went inside and the necessary introductions were made, Stan left the talking to his colleague. Sitting in a chair across from me, this man with his first streaks of grey at the temples fished something out of his inside pocket of his coat. Holding two photos like a poker hand, he put one on the table in front of me.

"Ms. Galo, do you know this man?"

I picked the picture up. The kitchen light was bright. It reflected from the glossy paper as I twisted it in front of my eyes. Something about the face in the photo was familiar. But even after a deep dig through my brain, I wasn't able to pull up a match or even put my finger at what it was that established the familiarity. Maybe the feeling simply stemmed from the fact that the depicted man was the epitome of average white dude with dark hair.

"No. I don't think I ever met him," I replied at last and put the photo back down.

"But you know him?" The second photo appeared next to the first. Stan's colleague looked at me as if he had just completed a royal flush. I didn't know why he had that look on his face. Yet, now that the second photo was there, it was easy for me to explain the familiarity in the first. The two man in the photos must be related. There was no question.

I pushed the second photo forward. "That's Gabriel Lopata. But 'know' is too strong a word when it comes to him. I met the man this morning. It was a matter of minutes." I paused for a moment. A thought crossed my mind that made me nervous. "Wait. Is this about Tony? Is he alright?"

"He is fine," the officer let me know. He leaned into the back of his chair and crossed his arms. His bulky frame made the wooden construct underneath him groan in its joints. He didn't react to it. The man's watery eyes drilled into me, flitted over to Mike, and returned. "But I have questions about your relationship to the Lopata brothers, especially now that I can see that you are friends with Professor Harris."