Frank Famulari leaned back in his brown leather chair. He beckoned Dino and Benny to take a seat on the matching sofa that was caddy-cornered to him. “Dino, you first. What do you have?”
“I made some inquiries down in Miami and had some of our guys poke around some of the families up here. Unless they’re all doing a good acting job, it appears that this didn’t have anything to do with business.”
“And you believe them?”
Girardi shook his head. “Of course not. But that’s all we know right now.”
“What about the coroner’s office?”
“We were able to get to someone inside. Vinny overdosed on a sedative. It’s called midazolam.”
“Suicide?” Frank said, skeptically.
“No, it doesn’t look that way.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. The drug was delivered with an injection. A needle.”
“A needle?”
“Yeah, that’s what they said.”
“Vinny didn’t like needles,” Benny added, shaking his head. “Ever since he was a kid.”
“With all due respect for the dead,” Dino said, “he got a needle in his ass. The coroner is going to release that information to the police later this afternoon, so we’ve got a leg up on it for now.”
“Okay. Benny, you got his computer. Did you find any business on it?”
“I looked, but I’m not that good with computers. Only what Vinny taught me.”
“So, we don’t know if he kept anything on it. I don’t like that.”
“No problem, Frank,” Dino said. “I’ve got a guy. He’s good with this stuff.”
“What about his sister’s place?”
Benny cleared his throat and said, “Rosalie’s got my aunt over there. I’m goin’ over to pay my respects this afternoon. I was gonna go sooner, but my aunt, she wasn’t up to seein’ anybody. Told me to come later.” Benny thought back to how much time he and Vinny had spent together. And, he was pissed. Very pissed. For him, whacking someone was just business. He didn’t like it or dislike it…it was just his job. But this was different. Vinny was blood. Benny hoped he’d have the chance to deal with whoever killed his cousin and best friend.
“Okay. Now, back to this thing. Someone killed him. I want to know who and why.”
“Let’s start with the girl,” Girardi said. “We know he went down there to see her. He met her on the Internet. The question is: How do we find her?”
“I just thought of something,” Benny offered. “When I was with Vinny and we was looking at some porno sites, I asked him how he could remember all those names. Christ, trying to remember all that stuff would give me a fuckin’ headache. So, he says he doesn’t have to remember them. Whenever he finds a site he likes, he just clicks on somethin’ and the computer remembers it. Only I don’t know how that works.”
“I’ll have my guy check it out, Frank,” Girardi said.
“Good. Get right on it. And get back to me before dinner. I want to find this girl before the cops do.”
