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

decided to use it for their various needs. That is where they decided to store the public city records and news articles from years past on the lower floor, and the upper floors were used for meetings and other city business needs.

I placed my handgun underneath my seat and grabbed my bag and headed toward the entrance. The lamps designed to look like old-timey gas lamps that were around the front of the building were a nice touch. I had to dodge a group of bees as I approached the door just like everyone else had, and I figured the city wouldn’t do anything about the bees until someone who was severely allergic got stung. I was greeted as I entered the building by a lady at the front desk who was the gatekeeper of the facility. A police officer stood guard with her next to the metal detectors. He gave me the all too familiar angered expression on his face upon seeing me. He turned and whispered something into his radio, but I couldn’t hear what he said. I wondered if he reported my presence at the Black Castle to someone at the station since I knew the police had to be watching me, but the Amaras had to be also. I figured they had fully suspected I had killed Ron and Joey by that point, and I needed to be extremely careful until I found a way to stop Wrath.

I turned to the woman and smiled. “Hi, my name is Brandon Farmer, and I’d like to visit the archive department.”

“Of course, I’ll just need to see your ID so I can sign you in, and then you’ll be good to go.”

I handed her my ID and signed my name on the visitor sheet as she handed me my license back.

“Okay sir, the archive room is located on the floor below us. Food and drinks are not allowed at any time on that floor. Here is your guest sign-on, and you can use any computer that is available.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” I said as I took the card and proceeded through the metal detectors and down the stairs. A few people were scattered about the floor, so I decided to pick a computer the farthest away from them, and one that faced the stairs so I could see who came and went.

I logged into the computer and went directly to the old city newspaper called The Black Castle Times and went back forty years. I remembered Phillip said he heard his parents talking about the corrupt city leaders when he was a kid, and since he was older than me, I figured that would be a good place to start looking and go from there with my search. At first all I found was headline after headline of the city partnering with various local businesses and other puff pieces before I found anything about corrupt city officials. But as I dug deeper, I discovered a thread that connected them all together.

The first story I came across about corruption amongst the city officials accused them of favoritism in giving out city contracts to their family members. The article talked about how the other businesses in the city weren’t given a fair chance in the bidding process, while some businesses said they were completely excluded even though they had followed the appropriate steps. I noted the name of the writer of the article because I had a feeling of what would come next, and sure enough, a few editions later, that writer had left the paper. I found a small editorial where the reporter said they had decided to leave town to pursue another career. Then I went back through the previous article and wrote down all the companies the city had partnered with up to the article where the corruption accusation was made before I continued my search.

A year after the previous reporter left town—or most likely went missing—another article was written about the mayor and the city council’s suspected ties with the Ricci crime family. The picture started to become crystal clear. I was surprised the article even made it into the paper with everything the reporter claimed the city officials were doing with the Riccis. There were not only allegations of giving city contracts to favored companies, but also bribes, special favors, and jobs in the city government were given to people who were clearly not qualified to work them, and there was even a picture of the mayor at the time meeting with the head of the Ricci family. That picture alone didn’t prove anything, but it was like the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Then a few editions later the reporter was found brutally murdered in his house. Apparently, he had walked in on a home invasion. The robber hadn’t expected him to come home, and when he did, the criminal killed the reporter by bashing his head in with an award they had won for their efforts in journalism. I did some digging and I discovered they never found the reporter’s killer. And why would they when it most likely was a mob killing?

If I was smart enough to figure out what really happened, I was sure everyone else did back then as well. The Riccis had the reporter killed for their efforts in exposing the truth, but as I continued on a year to the day when that reporter was killed in his home, a suspected high-ranking member of the Ricci family was found dead. Just like the reporter, the man was found in his home brutally murdered, a victim of walking in on a home invasion. A week later another prominent member of the Ricci family was found dead in his car in front of his house. Someone had shot him in the head while he was still in his car. I’m sure the top brass being knocked out so close to each other gave the Amaras the foothold they