Page 86 of Powerful Deception

Cryptic but those three letters wouldn’t stand for Detective Joseph Vitale, would they?

One way to find out.

I pull out the file and open it right away.

D J V does indeed stand for Detective Joseph Vitale because the file is filled with pictures of him. Everything from him in his car during a stake out, to him walking into the brownstone one random day.

There are so many pictures of him that just looking at them is making me teary eyed.

Dante was keeping track of my dad and all his movements but why?

I continue to shift through the pictures until I reach the end of the file and find a note.

Taking it in my hand, I see that the note is written not in Dante’s handwriting but in my dad’s.

My breathing hitches when I see his familiar scrawl, one that I didn’t think I would ever see again.

I push down all the emotions forming in the back of my throat and try to read what the note says.

My dad didn’t have the neatest handwriting, so it takes me two tries to comprehend what words are what.

G Mafia.

Drug smuggling.

Trafficking.

Will kill me.

There are more words to the piece of paper but those are the only ones that I’m able to make out.

Trafficking? Like sex trafficking?

Could Dante be involved in sex trafficking? The drug smuggling is something that I expected to come from the mafia, but sex trafficking? That never crossed my mind.

And G Mafia? What does that even mean?

So many questions are running through my head right now that I can’t even comprehend what I’m reading.

But the biggest question that I have is, if my dad wrote this note, why does Dante have it? Did my dad have it on him when he was killed and Dante took it? If that were the case, wouldn’t there be blood on it?

Nothing is making sense to me.

Knowing that I’m running out of time before Allie comes looking for me, I quickly take out my phone and take pictures of everything that’s in the file. Including the note.

Once I have everything that I need, I put the file back in its place and close the drawer. Looking around I check to see if I missed anything and when I find that I’m in the clear, I leave the office.

The second I close the door behind me, I let out all the air out of my lungs.

I stand there catching my breath for a quick minute.

I found information. It may not be information that tells me that Dante killed my father, but it's enough to tell me that Dante was watching him.

Even though what I just did makes me feel like I’ve betrayed Dante in some way, I make a plan to send all the pictures to Gallo later tonight.

I will send them to him and he can do what he wants with them.

I did my part, now I just have to see if I will succeed in this. In taking Dante Rosetti down.