Bertelli Investigations Volume 1: Noteworthy Mysteries

Chapter 20

Tuesday, May 2nd |   9:00 am

It was the day of Jade's funeral. A warm, cloudy, rainy day at that. The rain tapped against the windows of the funeral home as the drops ran down the windows and merged into each other. Grief was in the air and left a subtle stillness as gloom from the dark clouds lingered, and the smell of the air reeked with the strong scent of dead flowers and mist. It was never a pleasure to bury a youthful body. It left a stain on the day of the funeral home workers whenever a younger person was laid to rest.

The funeral had been held off as long as it could be due to the entirely unexpected death. Nobody had thought that Jade would die so suddenly at such a young age, especially in the horrible manner she went. It was hard for the family to not only accept the fact she was dead, but to also plan a funeral on top of that. The Bertelli brothers were getting ready, with Tony once again rummaging through their closet.

"We have to look like we just casually blend in with everyone else.", Tony said looking at their suits, making sure they were in check. "You know, not like detectives. We have to be undercover."

Tino laughed at his brother's whole undercover idea." So, we're going to look undercover but announce ourselves as detectives?"

"How about you wear your dark gray suit with your matching tie, and I'll wear my casual black suit with my dark blue tie?", Tony asked, ignoring Tino's statement.

Tino didn't care much about fashion as Tony did. He was more into getting education and reading books. He left the clothing options to his brother, always agreeing with whatever he picked out for them. "Sounds good to me."

"You always say that.", Tony said, getting their suits out of the long walk-in closet.

"Because you always have such great taste", Tino replied, patting his brother on the back.

Tony got a call on his cell phone. It rang in and he looked at it with his eyes widening. It said 'Madelyn Hart'. Tony started jumping up and down like a little kid who just got a new toy. "It's the coroner!", he yelled excitingly to Tony. While it wasn't common for people to get so excited over the Coroner's office calling, it was exciting for them. This could tell them so much more evidence they had against Jade's killer and Tia's kidnapper.

Tino smacked his hands together excitedly and started laughing out of excitement. "Yes! This is it, bro! We got our full report!"

As they were both celebrating, Tino realized the phone was still ringing. "Answer it!", he yelled. This was a prime example of why the Bertelli brothers tried not to get excited over work matters; it made them both unfocused and unprofessional.

"Hello?", Tony said as he hurried to answer the ringing phone, his hands shaking as he tried to hit the speaker button so they could both hear.

"Is this one of the Bertelli twins?", Madalyn asked in a professional tone.

"Yes, I'm the handsome one, Tony", he said with a smile.

Tino playfully hit him on the arm. "And the stupid one", he mouthed.

"This is Madelyn Hart, the Coroner over the body of Jade Thompson. How are you guys doing today?"

"Great now that you called", Tino replied, quickly regretting what he said. His face slightly turned red, and he smacked his forehead lightly.

Tony laughed." He means because we've been anxiously waiting for this report.", he said, saving his brother.

"I understand", Madelyn said trying to not laugh at the grown detectives that were acting rather childish. "So, I do have some good news."

"We're ready.", Tony said with enthusiasm.

"We did obtain DNA off of the body. It appears that whoever killed her had kissed her at some point, leaving saliva behind."

The Bertelli brothers were both shocked at what they were hearing. They knew that DNA would probably show up somewhere, but it was not common for it to show up by someone being simply kissed.

"There was no sign of sexual contact?", Tino asked.

"None. And I did go ahead and send some DNA off to be put through the FBI criminal database but there have been no matches. So your culprit does have a clean slate."

"Is there anything else you could tell us?", Tony asked with not so much enthusiasm as before.

"Yes. I confirmed Jade died due to a gunshot wound. The cause of death is listed as murder. It was actually probably the second shot that automatically killed her, as it pierced her internal organs. I did remove the bullets if you need one to match to a gun."

Tino knew that every piece of evidence could've been crucial at this point. "Well we actually found the third bullet. But yes, hang on to them. You never know when the bullets could've come from different guns."

"Yes sir." Madelyn answered in a happy tone. "Also as routine, just to let you all know, she was in perfect health before her death. There was no sign of serious medical issues. "

The brothers both took a deep breath, accepting the added information that they had been given. It wasn't much, but it was more than nothing. "Thank you, Madelyn. It means a lot to us that we have that kind of info.", Tony said.

"We do have a DNA sample to run by", Tino added. "But we really aren't worried about it being a match."

"That's okay. Run it by at my office with the other bullet you found. I'll send them over to forensics. They can examine the bullet and let you know if they're from the same gun or not."

Tony looked at Tino and chuckled. "Sounds great. We will give the DNA to the police department, and they should be over there later as soon as they can get there. And Tino might be with them too."

"Good to know," Madelyn replied awkwardly as she hung up the phone.

Tino smacked Tony again in the arm. "Dude! Why would you say that?!"

Tony grabbed a hair tie and started putting up his long curly hair in a ponytail. "Because you're single, and you've not dated in a very long time.", he said casually. "It's time for you to get back at it."

Tino stared getting dressed, trying to ignore his brother. Tony and Tino could not have been more different when it came to women.

"Well?", Tony asked, trying to get his brother's reaction.

Tino rolled his eyes." Look we've talked about this before. Right now, I want to focus on our career. That's all. No girls, no parties, just work."

"I date and I focus on work." Tony pointed out.

"Yeah, and you and Vanessa are having problems", Tino added. "Anyways, we've got a funeral to go to. I got a good feeling we are going to get on to something good for this case."