Page 34 of Stolen Kisses
“I found the picture by itself. My take on it is this. It was found amongst some fed files in the unsolved crimes unit. I think someone found it and was trying to figure it out. The numbers on the bottom of the photo suggest it was part of a batch.”
I looked at the little numbers and saw the numbers 019:20.
“Part of a batch and this one somehow got left behind. When Stephen was murdered it became an immediate federal investigation, because of who he was. They knew that if anyone was going to kill him it was going to be someone with power that wanted him dead. They wanted to be all over the crime scene. Feds picked up all his files and that was the only picture of your sister which means either the others were taken away or destroyed, or both.”
I stared at him trying to make sense of it. “This guy was someone you’d hire for serious shit.” I stated.
“Looks like the kind of shit you would need to get the best to work on,” Gio added.
Gibbs smiled wide and ran a hand over his beard. “I knew I’d like you guys. You make the work a lot easier. More interesting too. A picture can say many things. That one tells me Christina was with someone very, very important. Important enough to hire a guy like Stephen Archamey. He followed them and took these pictures. Then by looking at the dates I can see that this someone didn’t want the person who hired him to get these pictures. He died two days after the dates printed on the image.”
I looked at the date: 10/03/2008.
Christina was killed just three months later.
I placed my hand to my head. All of this really was deep shit. While I knew more, it still wasn’t enough.
Still no name. I still didn’t have a damn name.
“Who? Who do you think it is?”
Gibbs shook his head. “Son, I don’t know but in my experience shit like this always involves government types. They’re always the ones who want to keep their secrets out of the public’s eyes. Criminals and gangsters want the world to beware of them. You know the name far and wide for being notorious. These guys are like wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Government official.Fucking hell. I’d been looking in the wrong areas. All these long years and I’d done it all wrong.
I was looking for people associated with the Manellos and Antonellas.
“What do you suggest we do?” Claudius asked.
“Not a lot right now. I’m going to see if I can get my hands on the other images. I assume they’ve all been destroyed, but I don’t want to rule anything out until I’m certain. I want to go through the stuff the feds seized from Stephen’s house. If I can get his camera or possibly computer files maybe I can find more. There’s no point looking around when you don’t know what direction to look.” He pulled in a breath and straightened. “Cases like that are difficult to get information for and are always the ones that will be tricky. They lead to all manner of roads. We just have to make sure we pick the right path.”
“What about this place in the picture?” I asked. I was certain knowing that could help in some way.
“Well, that’s something that would help massively. I don’t know how you’d work out where she is though, because that’s just the front of the house. Not a lot there.”
I set the picture down on the table on top of the cards.
We stared at it for a few seconds.
Alex picked it up and balled his fists. “This.” He put the picture back down and pointed at something at the corner of the image. It was a statue, looked like a fish tail. It was bronze.
“What Alex?” I asked.
“I … I think I recognize that.”
“Looks like a fish tail.”
“Yeah, if I’m right I think it’s part of a group of statues in a fountain at Crowthorne Hall.”
The minute he said Crowthorne my blood boiled. The Crowthorne Society was the club, the hall was where they had all their official functions. As far as I knew the Antonellas did not own that, but damn it to hell I was certain this showed there was some involvement.
“Crowthorne Hall, like the society?” Gibbs asked.
“Yes,” Alex replied. “Um … I followed Jude, my brother there once.” He looked to Claudius then back to me. “Back when I suspected him, I used to try and follow him where I could. This was one of those places, he went to a fundraiser, looked like he wasn’t actually going to the event itself, but to meet someone. I lost him in the crowd, so I don’t know who it was he was meeting.”
I nodded, grateful for more direction and glanced at Claudius.
“If it’s Crowthorne the Antonellas and Manellos are still involved somehow.” I stated.
