The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) by Matthew Newson (moboreader txt) 📕

face down in a ditch somewhere. An example must be made in this situation, so no one, not even another wise guy tries something like this again.”

“Do they know what the killer used to do this kind of punishment to Joey?” Enzo calmly asked the question as he continued to study the photographs. “It’s clear to me that whoever did this wanted Joey to suffer tremendously before he died by the various impact areas of blunt force trauma to the body.”

“How do you know that, Enzo?” I barked through clenched teeth.

“Because this killing looks to be personal to me. If it was just another run-of-the-mill hit job, the killer would have just shot Joey when he was out on the street somewhere and been done with it. They wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of getting him in his restaurant and then tying him to a chair to do all of this. It appears to me that Joey was clearly worked over with a bat, a pipe, or some sort of blunt object, because I don’t even see a single puncture wound. Did your police friend find the murder weapon yet?” Enzo meticulously inspected the picture for the answer he sought.

“They police haven’t found a murder weapon, because they are saying there isn’t one.”

My answer broke Enzo’s concentration, and caused him to look away from the pictures for a moment as my answer rolled around in his mind. “What do you mean?”

“The police are saying that based off of the markings on Joey’s body that he was beaten to death by the guy’s bare hands. You know, Joey had that same kind of talent. The way he could work a guy over who refused to pay up was incredible. It was one of the reasons I had him doing what he was doing for us. I remember this one time when we were moving up in the ranks this guy always said he couldn’t pay up because he had a death in the family. When Joey got his hands on that guy, he beat him so bad the guy never talked right again after Joey punched him in the throat, but the guy always paid on time after that. People didn’t think Joey had it in him, but that little man had a meanness in his bones that enabled him to chop anyone down like they were nothing. It was like his fists were made of metal or something.”

I paused to let that sink into Frankie and Enzo for a minute for them to appreciate what we had lost.

“Did Joey’s cameras happen to catch who did this, and what did their forensics guys find at the scene?” Enzo asked.

“The killer took the drives and destroyed the rest of the surveillance equipment, so we got nothing there. Joey didn’t back anything up to an offsite server just in case the cops ever found out about it and wanted to seize it for evidence against us.”

“That was a smart move,” Frankie said.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was. Joey was good at thinking things through like that. Anyway, the forensics guys didn’t find anything at the scene, not even a print from the killer on Joey’s corpse. They didn’t even find a single hair or skin sample. The guy must have used gloves and had on a special suit or something. He was definitely smart enough to cover his tracks, I’ll give him that. Let me ask you guys, have any of you heard anyone talk about having a beef with Joey out on the streets or anything?”

“I haven’t heard of anyone say anything like that, Skeeter,” Enzo spoke up while he continued to go over the pictures.

“I bet you it was Ron’s old partner,” Frankie blurted out. “What was his name? Brent or Brandon? Maybe he did this?”

“Oh yeah, you guys remember how hard up he was to get even with us after Ron’s trial.”

“Well Frankie, my police friend doesn’t know if it was Brandon, because they don’t have evidence linking him to the scene. However, they did say that Brandon was there that afternoon and talked to Joey in private in the back. Brandon said he went there to warn Joey, he said he thought Ron’s killer was going to go after him based on something the killer said to him at Ron’s house. The next thing we know, Joey is beaten to death in his own restaurant.”

“I can most certainly see that as a possibility, but by any chance could this be the work of the Riccis? It might also be a family member of someone we had to take care of in the past.” Enzo looked up from the photos. “I just want to make sure none of us jump to conclusions and go after the wrong person while the real threat is still out there.”

“You bring up some very valid points, Enzo, so thank you for that. We all know the Riccis are finished in this city, we all saw to that personally. It could be a family member of someone we killed looking to get revenge. We have all seen that stuff before, but like Enzo said, it’s usually done quick with a gun.” I leaned back and lit the cigar I had wanted to smoke all day. I took several long puffs and savored the taste before I exhaled the smoke in the air to give everyone a minute to remember anything that could pinpoint who killed Joey.

“What do we know about this then, Skeeter, and how are we sure about what Joey and Brandon talked about?” Enzo asked.

“Brandon was picked up and gave a statement and said that he wasn’t sure if Joey was a target, and that he wanted to warn him just in case. Brandon also said he didn’t do it, but he’s convinced it was the same guy in the red suit who killed Ron. If you ask me, that’s all a load of crap. This has revenge written all over it.”

“How do