Silence Is Golden **WATTYS 2018 LONGLISTED!** The Mancini Connection Book1

15: The FBI

The Feds: Chicago
Agent Sam Dee

"Sir, do you have time? We might have something."

"Come in, and close the door." The Deputy Director placed his paperwork aside and gave us his full attention.

"Sir, we can't find a lot of information on Evangelina and what we do have it's fragmented. Is it possible to reach out to the Italian authorities any, and any intel they have on her would be a great help."

"She's an American citizen. Surely we have enough on her?"

"We don't place surveillance on the children, so we have nothing on her. So, I went to the school district, and I found something interesting. Both girls attended school under their mothers maiden name, Scarpetta. It's hyphenated, so they dropped Bettini, I assumed, for the girls' anonymity. Back in O-seven, the school board cautioned and reported the Bettini's to child services. For an unexplained absence, it was three weeks in total where Evangelina wasn't in school. The English teacher responsible for the initial report Died in a car accident a week later."

"Car accidents are a fact of life tragic, but it doesn't prove anything."

"The Bettini's excuse. They forgot to notify the school of her visiting a grandmother overseas. I checked the dates they don't match; in fact, the exit is three weeks later. That's a total of six weeks she was out of school. So I called Chicago girls grammar high school and talked to Gloria Applebee. A school administration secretary, she's worked there for twenty years. I get the distinct impression she omitted quite a lot. However, she did say Evangelina had been, excepted, into early admission, program at MIT."

"Where we know Bruno attended." The Deputy Director said as he wrote notes down.

"Yes, it appears that from the age of twelve, she lived in Italy visiting only once," Dean said. "At the age of fourteen in o-nine, Evangelina stayed three months before exiting the country. On a Quest freighter, she was the last-minute passager from what the customs office said. Then she returned to the states at the age of seventeen in two-thousand and eleven. And from what I can piece together while at college. Evangelina never returned to Chicago once in that three and a half years. Every school vacation coincides with a trip to Italy. Why?"

"Which grandparent did she live with?"

"Um, Maria Bettini," Dean said as he shuffled through the file.

"Jesus Christ, she's the one that's been raising her?" The sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard filled the room. "What was the name Evangelina enrolled under at MIT again?"

"Lina Tofini," Dean said.

"Tofini is Maria Bettini's maiden name; it's also her business name."

"We both have been digging, and we don't have the whole picture yet, but we do have something." Dean nodded in agreement as I continued. "I've been busy searching taps and combing through surveillance photos." I hadn't had time to fill Dean in entirely with what I'd found. So, this was going to be big news. "Now, this wasn't flagged. It was a call between Francesca and Tito Bettini from early Tuesday morning.

Francesca - Papa, please don't hang up. Piccolo called. That thing we don't talk about ever?
Tito - Grunts.
Francesca - One of them was with Elmo at the airport. Piccolo said you know what to do.
Tito- Positive?
Francesca- Si, Papa make, him feel what piccolo did.
Tito- Grunts.

That's a hit. I'm one hundred ten per cent sure. It took me a bit, but I've confirmed Emilio Mancini is, in fact, Elmo. The nickname was given to him by Evangelina. So I called Cedar Junction. Tony Panini died in the shower block Wednesday night. But the thing is, piccolo means baby or small child. It could be entirely possible, with Evangelina being the youngest child in the family—"

"Give me definitive proof that piccolo is Evangelina, and I'll bring her in myself. Preliminary findings on Panini are they available yet?" The deputy director asked.

"Just what the warden passed on, he had been beaten, raped. Neutered, and his mouth stuffed with that extremity."

The bile flew up my throat as my stomach flipped, but the deputy didn't even flinch as he asked. "What else have you got?"

"I reached out to Chicago PD, offering the use of our labs in connection to Bruno. They turned down the offer."

"Do we have a body yet?"

"No, but we have confirmation the family crypt had been opened and an urn placed inside. If it's Bruno, then all DNA evidence is gone," I said.

"I recall an attack on Raphael Scamardo's daughter. It was incredibly vicious. Also, I'm certain she attended the same school. So check the dates. I still believe she knew the attacker but was too scared to finger anyone."

"Sir, she is listed, as Panini, next of kin," I added.

"Get eyes on her, for the next couple of weeks, see what turns up," the deputy director ordered.

My mind was racing, trying to place this mess in chronological order. "Dean, are you listening at all? Sir what if, Evangelina wasn't travelling overseas? What I mean is Panini was at the airport with Emilio. Feel what piccolo felt. It sounds personal, I think. It's payback. Look at the way he died. Hypothetically what if she was abducted? Tito kept it under wraps? But then I still have the same questions, why did she grow up in Italy? When, her siblings, grew up here in the states?"

"Valid questions, but that's a huge bloody leap. Find me the evidence to back it your theory."

I had started to form a picture, and it was, sickening as Dean continued to rush through his explanation. "We never look at the children without cause. Imagine using them to set up something like that? I wouldn't put it past Aldo Mancini to use kids for his plans."

"I'm letting you run with this, but I want hard facts and irrefutable evidence. And keep it under wraps. It's an absolute, shit, fest! Tread very carefully because if I'm putting this together right. We will come off looking unequivocally, like the biggest assholes, even though it's our job."

Thank you for reading