Mafia Fall-Out

Chapter Fifteen

Luca

"Start from the beginning." I said flatly, fixating my flare on the woman. She was absolutely terrified, almost shaking with fear. She held on to her little girl as if her life depended on it, not fully trusting the fact that I wouldn't hurt her.

"I just gave him the key." She blurted out. "I swear, if I would've known they were going to take the baby, I never would have... I'm so sorry."

"Slow down a second. Who is he?" I asked.

"The man with the scar. I've never seen him before, but he was waiting by my car for me two nights ago." She bit her lip, tears falling freely as she told her story. "He offered me $100,000 for the key to your room. I thought he was just going to steal the jewelry or something. I never imagined he'd take the baby."

I rubbed my forehead, trying to decide if I believed her story or not. It made sense, especially with what Marco said about someone else being with Lucy at the airport, but who? Who the fuck was the man with the scar who was willing to pay $100,000 to get into my room? My gut told me that she wasn't lying. The woman was desperate to save her own family, and I highly doubted she would risk crossing me again. But if she was telling the truth, the outcome of this just got a lot more bleak.

"Why didn't you tell security that when they interviewed you, then?" Marco growled, glaring harshly at her. He still had his Glock pressed into the back of her husband who was laying compliantly on the ground.

"Because of the hotel found out, I would lose my job. I'm so sorry, Mr. Catalano, but I was desperate. We need the money so badly. My daughter is sick and we're about to lose our house. I didn't think... it wasn't supposed to go like this." She sobbed heavily.

"You said this man had a scar? Where was it?" I asked.

"His neck." She dragged her finger about four inches along the base of her neck.

"And you'd never seen him before he approached you after work?"

She shook her head wildly. "Never. I would have remembered him between the tattoos and the scars."

I clenched my jaw. Every single one of my enemies had tattoos and scars. At least one on his neck would be distinct, but I had never seen it either.

"Do you remember a car? Which Direction did he come from?" I started rattling off questions, grasping for anything that could help. I thought coming here would be helpful, and while we had a direction to work in now, that direction had about 1000 loose ends. It could be any number of the people in my world, hoping to gain something, or someone just out for revenge. That possibility terrified me.

"I don't know." She shook her head. "It was dark, and I was scared. I didn't see a car, and he was gone just as quickly as he'd come. All I really remember was him. And his voice. It was raspy. Like he was a smoker."

I held in a sharp laugh. Was there a mafia member in the entire history of its existence that didn't have tattoos and scars and smoked occasionally? This was a needle in a fucking haystack.

I rubbed my head in frustration. Marco recognized that my head was about to explode and intervened.

"You think you remember enough to make a sketch?" He said, letting the man up and shoving him towards the couch.

She nodded hesitantly. "I'll do whatever I can to help, but I only spoke to him briefly."

"Then do it." I said, standing up suddenly. "I need some air."

Just as I reach for the door, the woman stopped me. "Mr. Catalano, I can't tell you how sorry I am. For you, for your wife. For your precious baby girl. I swear on the lives of my own family that I didn't know the man's true intentions. I thought this was about money, and if I had any sign it wasn't, I never would have given him access to your room."