Amore Corrotto

CHAPTER III

It takes two flints to make a fire...

Imani POV

My shift had ended after a long busy 3 hours of back and forth serving, thank goodness I only had one lecture today
I went to the back to go change out of my uniform and as I opened my locker my eye caught the blue file I had been working on for months now, I decided I needed to call Detective Russo and see him soon.
After changing back to my clothes I opened my phone finding a seat on one of the benches and dialed his number, after about 4 rings he answered

"Ciao, Russo parlando, come posso"
aiutarti " someone answered

" umm, hello... I'm looking for detective Russo, please tell him it's Ms Josephs speaking"

"oh Imani, I never thought you would get back to me, how can I help you today" Mr Russo, whose voice I now recognized answered

"I, I was wondering if I can come in today, now if you don't mind" unsure of what I was really saying

"yes Ms Josephs, I'm open to seeing you, just tell me when and I'll be ready for you" he said

"okay, give me about 20 minutes and I'll be there" I said as I dropped the call

I walked out of the Cafe and called an Uber to take me to the station. My uber arrived in 5 minutes and I was seating at the back holding my blue file like my life depended on it...

"nice to see you again Ms Josephs, is there anything I can get you?" Mr Russo said but I was here for business so I handed him the blue file. He looked at me then the file and slowly took it out of my hand
"what is this?" he asked as he opened the file and shook took over his face
I looked down fiddling with my fingers trying to explain what exactly was in the blue file
"Angelo wasn't the first victim, well you clearly know that since you have every guy who has approached me on your investigation wall" I said chuckling nervously "I realized the pattern and I wanted to look into it but I always caught dead ends, I promise you I did not kill Angelo, I loved him with all my being and I'm willing to help you figure out who is behind all this" I said finally as my voice broke from the tears I was trying to keep inside

Before the detective could answer, I cut him off
"Cole was the first victim I think, he was the first guy who asked me out given we were the only two students that came from the United States... 4 days after he asked me out he disappeared and I was told he went back home to deal with something and I never really thought much about it until the pattern continued, it happened with Luca, Desmond, Sergio and Paris. They would either disappear or just distance themselves from me after they asked me out and it started getting weird and I needed to know why this was happening" I took a pause and looked up to see a very interested detective flipping through the file, he had on a look i could not really decipher, one that looked like a proud father...
"me and Angelo had been pretty close already but I didn't wanna involve him in this mystery because I was afraid he'd leave me too since it felt like I was the plague causing all this, when he asked me out it took me by surprise because he knew my love life was... Well non existent because of these patterns. I was hesitant even though I really liked him too because I thought something would happen to him to, I just didn't think he'd end up.... " I paused as tears broke out and I felt a pang of pain in my heart

" I get it " detective Russo said" I'm sorry for putting you through all this and have you relive the trauma while you still grieving" he said and I nodded my head while I wiped my tears to assure him it was fine, I needed to do this for me and for Angelo, I needed to know who was behind this.
Detective Russo passed me a bottle of water then he stood up and started pacing Infront of his investigation board as if putting two and two together

He turned around and looked at me and said "now it all makes sense, the little investigation you had going on might just help us after all, see we thought you were eliminating all these people but now I have reason to believe you have a stalker that is getting rid of anyone who might be romantically or attracted to you in anyway... "

I looked at him like he had grew 3 heads, a part of me wanted to laugh out loud at his assumption
" I literally don't know anyone here detective, in my two years here I've only been acquainted with Angelo and Elena my roommate, and if we counting my job as well that's Mr Penelope, his daughter Megan and my Co workers, otherwise I'm as good as i don't exist in Italy" I said confidently, there is no way someone could be after me, what is this a movie, I thought to myself as I laughed internally

As if he read my thoughts, the detective walked towards me and said "well this is Italy piccolo, anything is possible..."