Recap- “After a fiery Inferno takes the life of his mentor. A simple cartoonist is compelled into an investigation that implicates his father. This leads him to his father’s partner and his beautiful assistant who tell him his father left town weeks ago. Secretly the assistant tells him that Ray was involved with some bad people and that she was Ray’s Wife. She asks for him to look for the evidence which he gets which he runs into trouble. After this trouble he gets a message from someone that they need to meet. That person was his dad”
After the message I realized that this was the time to get my answers. I hit the shower and hit the hay like a pile of bricks. Hard and fast. I wake up the next morning. It was 6 in the morning and realize that I have been asleep for well over 12 hours. I got dressed, ate breakfast and was out the door by 8. I was going to meet Ellie at 10 and show her what I found and what it could mean.
I got to the diner early around 9. So, with some time to kill, I bought a coffee and a newspaper. Who says print is dead? Just the world. She shows up right on time. This time not as classy. She’s wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt with a bubble coat and still sexy as hell. I am guessing she had the day off. I hand her the drive and she stare at it. “Do you know what’s on it? Does it have what we need?” I look at her and tell her that it has a number of large deposits from her boy, but I didn’t get to look at it too well. I lied. “Ok I will look at it at home.” She seemed tense and making quick glances at the window every few minutes. I asked her if something was wrong. She waved her head No.
She left the diner. I paid for the two coffees and left. I had to meet Gino at the agree upon location. It was a dive bar called the Slippery Fish. A favorite of Gino’s. His place of business. He was once a part owner until he sold it to pay some debts. Not sure what that meant but I’m guessing it was big if he had to sell his favorite watering hole.
He was prompt at noon. He was dressed in a black suit, dark grey shirt and no tie. That means it’s all business, no pleasure. He was not in his usual track suit. He loves his stereotypes. It’s been 10 years since I last saw him. He put on about 50 pounds all in the gut but still a solid build. A few grey hairs but still a full head of hair. He sees me and nods. Great start, Dad. He sits down next to me at the bar. “Hey Kid, how have you been?” I said Ok. He nodded, sighed and said, “Visit your mom lately?” My mom passed about 15 years ago. Cancer. It’s part of the reason we haven’t seen each other in a while. I told him I visit the grave often. He nods with approval. Like I need his approval.
I asked him that his partner was looking for him and where was he all this time? “I was initially helping Ray with the people he was in bed with. The type of guys he didn’t normally associate with. I was his “liaison”. He used air quotes. Something I never thought I would see my father do. He continued “Then when he was murdered, I started to investigate, just like you apparently. I got some information for you.
After a couple of drinks and told him what I was up to, we head to a booth. It’s more private. We order some Nachos for the table and get down to brass tacks. He hands me a file. I open it to see the dead body of my friend Ray. The autopsy. Listed under Cause of Death was Organ Failure Due to Repeated Strikes. He had a broken jaws, broken arms and hands, bruising to the abdomen and broken legs. My God, he was tortured. And for what, some fake money? Something doesn’t add up.
Then he shows the picture and then everything adds up. A little too much.
To be continued…
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