Bertelli Investigations Volume 1: Noteworthy Mysteries

Chapter 10

The Bertelli brothers arrived back at home after leaving the bar. Tony slammed the door behind him, furious.

Tino threw his hands up in the air and started unbuttoning the rest of his shirt, tired after a long day of work. "So, Hayes' alibi checked out. So what? At least we deleted a suspect."

Tony started taking his anger out, yelling. "Or maybe they're just afraid! Maybe he paid those people off at the bar. Or threatened them. We need to get in contact with them in private."

"Tony calm down. They all plainly said he was at the bar on Sunday night from 10 to 2. There's nothing else to figure out."

"Then why are there already two people telling us that they think he killed her?!"

Tiny scoffed at his brother as he took his shirt off. "Because he's a dangerous man. Besides we got a handwriting sample from him before we left, and I can already tell you he's not the guy."

Tony grabbed a stress ball he kept in the living room on their coffee table, throwing it up against the door between their living room and kitchen.

Tino tried keeping his brother calm."Now look, I know you want to find Tia every bit as bad as I do. But we have to do this reasonably and not get our emotions involved."

Tony took a deep breathe. "You're right. I know you are."

Tino put his hand on Tony's shoulder consolingly. He knew how hard Tony took it that they weren't any closer to finding Tia. "Don't worry bro. We have got a hundred more things we can do to get to the bottom of this. We just have to work hard. We re-interview Sammy and interview Jade's husband. And in a couple of days, we'll know more because autopsy reports and DNA results will be in."

"Dad's calling, "Tony said looking at his ringing phone, answering it quickly. "Hey dad."

"Hey, is your brother with you?"

"When is he not?" Tony replied sarcastically.

"I was wondering how the investigations going."

Tony quietly sighed." We still have some people to interview. We are deleting some suspects though."

"That's great. That's a start. I want to run something past you guys. Do you think that it is possible Tia ever knew Jade?"

"That's a connection we've been trying to think about. "Tino replied. "But I don't think they exactly knew each other. But Tia's kidnapper and Jade's killer is obviously the same person."

"Don't worry. I know you guys will find her. Eventually we will have our Tia back. So that's kind of why I called.", Mario took a second to muster up some courage to apologize." I wanted to say I'm sorry for not being more supportive of you boys at the police station when the commissioner was talking to us."

"Dad", Tino quickly replied. "Don't say you're sorry. We know you were only looking after Tia."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. He started taking a few more breaths, finally calming himself down. "And we've all had a challenging time the last few days dealing with all of this. It's okay."

"No, I should've known better. I'm a police officer. I know that this guy wouldn't have Tia for 10 years to suddenly kill her because you are investigators now. Anyways, right now this family has to stick together. "

"That's it", Tony said, having a sudden thought. "Maybe Jade's killer is involved with our family."

Mario started thinking seriously over that statement. "You mean Carlo and his son?"

Mario's brother Carlo had been a part of the New York Italian Mafia since Carlo was 18 years old. He had raised his son Romeo in it as well. They were a part of the family that was never really talked about. Everyone in the Bertelli family had pretty much disowned them.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. "Tino replied. "Maybe Jades killer is involved with the Italian mafia.  Maybe that's how he would also know Tia."

Tony smiled, happy that his brother might be onto something." Maybe so."

"I'm gonna go check on something. I'll be back.", Tino said running upstairs.

"Where are you going?", Tony asked.

"I'll be back!", Tino repeated.

Tino went into the office, looking back up Jade's whereabouts they had obtained from her cellphone locations. There was the hair salon, a restaurant, the Bertelli office when she done her interview, and hundreds more. Jade had obviously liked to go out and do things with her time. Then in the middle of scrolling through all the locations...there it was. Jade had been at 1327 River Estates, the address where Romeo Bertelli lived.

"Wow", Tino heard a faint voice behind him.

He looked around to see Tony, walking up closely as he stared at the computer screen, now off the phone with their father."I do not get this Tino. What was she doing there?"

"I don't know. Sleeping around with our cousin?"

"Yuck", Tony said childishly and snarling his nose. "Even if that was true, neither Romeo nor Carlo would do anything to Tia. I mean I know they are part of the Mafia. But there would be no reason for them to have ever kidnapped her, and their number one rule is that nobody messes with family. They would've never done it."

"It doesn't have to be them, Tino pointed out. "I'm thinking Jade got involved with Romeo and one of his associates. Then Romeo's associate might've known the Mafia for a long time and had actually been the one that kidnapped Tia through them, even without the mafia's knowledge."

"Then what?" Tony asked. " Then when he found out that we started our own investigation business and learned Jade was going to be our secretary, was that the perfect opportunity to kill someone to try to scare us away from finding Tia?"

"Not just that", Tino said raising his eyebrows, "but he was also probably scared that if Jade worked for us, it wouldn't take much, and he'd be caught as Tia's kidnapper."

Tony folded his arms, thinking deeply about Tino's theory. " So, Jade's killer and Tia's kidnapper is probably buddies with our mafia family. And they have no idea."