“This is my brother’s kid we’re talking about!” Luca’s voice echoed in their run down office.

“Exactly,” Marco said. “Let your brother worry about it. You’re not getting involved.”

“A freak like you wouldn’t understand,” Luca said. “And you’re not going to fucking tell me that I can’t go looking for this guy.”

Bruno let out a low grunt, but kept his attention of his phone.

“Luca my friend,” Marco ran his fingers over the collar of his glossy blazer. “Use your head. We gotta get off the radar. We can’t do that if you’re running head first into a nest swarming with cops.”

“Oh that’s rich coming from the guy that wanted to use the watch so he could fuck some girls in a crowded café,” Luca yelled.

“Like you’re all high and mighty. You killed someone just the other day,” Marco pointed at him. “I’m sure Selby had a family too, but you don’t give a shit about that.”

Luca jumped out of his seat. “You son of a-!“

“Maybe they’re planning on hunting you down. Putting you out of your misery in a warehouse somewhere!”

Ferro rose his hand. “I’d like to say something.”

The three of them were dumbfounded. Ferro rarely spoke during meetings, especially when things got heated. The firmness in his voice was unlike anything Luca had heard from him.

Luca sat back down, still too riled up to say anything.

“You made a mistake,” Ferro stared at him with piercing eyes. “By going to that hospital, you put all of us in jeopardy.”

Luca looked around at Bruno and Marco, but neither of them seemed to be able to say anything either. Flustered, he turned back to Ferro, choking as he spoke.

“He’s… my nephew.”

“I realize that. Believe me,” Ferro went on, sounding as collected as ever. “But if someone saw you there, and I’m sure someone did, then that was your first strike. Not to mention that you said a boy knew about the watches. If he knew, there’s no telling how many people do. The police might even know.”

Bruno was looking up at Ferro from his phone now. Marco was the opposite, focused entirely on Luca as he listened. It was like he was studying his face as it reacted to each of Ferro’s words.

“If you go out looking and you end up getting involved…” Ferro said. “You’ll be on a suspect list before you know it. Second strike.”

Luca opened his mouth to speak, but Ferro cut him off.

“If you’re suspected, it’ll only be a matter of time before we’re suspected,” Ferro said. “You’re putting us all at risk here. Third strike. We’re out.”

Marco finally let out a cackle. “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard Ferro talk so much at once. This is great.”

Maybe he was right. Maybe he was jumping into this without thinking. After all, it was just the other day that he was worrying about how sloppy their alibi for the bank robbery was. Doing something as stupid as looking for the killer would be even sloppier, wouldn’t it?

No. This was different.

He didn’t have any intention of getting caught, but this was far beyond their little heist now. Far, far beyond it.

He could feel himself slipping. The image of a bloody girl flashed in his mind, then an image of Cory. That could have been him. Someone tried to kill his nephew. If he never woke up from his coma, then they already did.

“I get it,” Luca said. “I can’t argue with your logic.”

Ferro was silent again.

“But this isn’t about logic anymore,” Luca clenched his teeth. “I’m doing this. If you wanna stop me, you’ll have to kill me.”

Marco jumped from his seat, reaching into his blazer. He pulled out a revolver and pointed it directly at Luca’s head.

A silence descended on the room.

“I can see that the cylinder is empty, you dumbass,” Luca glared at him.

“There might be one in the chamber,” Marco smiled back. “You want to try your luck?”

“Fucking do it.”

An empty click rang out as Marco pulled down on the trigger. “You got me.”

“Idiot,” Luca smacked the gun out of Marco’s hand. It clattered on the floor.

“This is exactly why we can’t have you going after a killer,” Marco laughed. “You’re crazier than I am. You’ll get yourself killed for sure.”

“I’m not crazy,” Luca sighed. “I’ve just dealt with you long enough that I know when you’re bullshitting me.”

“Alright, I’ve hadda enough of this,” Bruno put his phone down. “Stop being a dumb ass, Marco. There ain’t no helpin’ it. Luca’s a man of principle, not that you’d understand that.”

“Bruno, you too?” Marco looked as disappointed as a child whose parents refused to buy him a toy. “Don’t tell me you’re planning on helping him.”

“Of course I am,” Bruno pointed at his chest with his thumb. “Quando l’amico chiede, non v’è domani!”

‘When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow’. Luca winced at the saying.  It was the bullshit people believed in until it became inconvenient for them. “I never asked you for any help.”

“Didn’t have to,” Bruno said, picking his phone back up with a satisfied grin. “Your heart asked for you.”

“There’s something seriously wrong with you, you know that?”

Marco bent down and picked his revolver off the floor. “Keep it low key, alright?” He said. “Otherwise this’ll be loaded next time.”

“Whatever you say.”

A bell chimed, signaling that someone was opening the door.

Although they ran a loan office, it was uncommon to have people just show up without calling first. Of course, from time to time, the truly desperate would trickle in. However, this was no client.

“How the hell am I supposed to get in contact with you if you don’t answer your phone?” Pietro stood in the doorway that lead out to the hall of the building.

“Take off your hat, kid,” Marco said. The revolver was still in his hand. “This Pietro?”

“Yeah,” Luca sighed.

Pietro didn’t comply, ignoring him and walking toward Luca.

Annoyed, Marco sat down on the couch and switched on the TV. He turned up the volume to a level just below unreasonable.

“How’d you get in?” Luca asked.

“Wasn’t hard,” Pietro said. “I told the guy downstairs that you’re my uncle.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Luca glanced around the one-room office. It was easy to see that his partners weren’t happy to see someone drop in unannounced, especially on a Saturday when they were supposed to be closed. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk about how we’re going to track down this guy,” Pietro said. “Especially before Liliana does something stupid.”

“Look, if you have any bright ideas then be my guest.”

“Here,” Pietro handed him his phone. “She texted me this about ten minutes ago.”

Liliana Moretti: Downtown café with Ocean. He made a page on CL to find killer. Want your help. Username is xxxx. Password is xxxx.

“When did she start trusting you to help her out?”

“I was at the hospital with her all night,” Pietro said. “It didn’t take long to figure out I wasn’t going to able to convince her, so I tried going along with it instead”

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“That girl’s insane. Nothing like her father.”

“The only way we’re going to stop her is if we find this guy before she does,” Pietro said. “We keep everything we learn from her, and find out everything she already does. That’s how we do it.”

“Alright,” Luca handed the phone back. “So what’s ‘CL’?”

“Clock Link,” Bruno chimed in. “Come on, get with the program.”

“That Ocean kid made some kind of page to try and collect information on whoever’s doing this,” Pietro said. “And apparently it’s getting a lot of exposure.”

Luca crossed his arms. “So what?”

“Don’t underestimate Clock Link,” Bruno said. “People’ve made pages and found their birth parents before. People have gotten famous from it. It ain’t no joke.”

“He’s right,” Pietro said. “A lot of people are using it. If we’re going to start looking for information, it’s all we’ve got right now.”

“So did you log into it?” Bruno asked.

“Yeah,” Pietro said. “But this really isn’t my thing. I don’t have my own profile, so I’m sure I missed something.”

“Leave this ta me,” Bruno put out his hand. “Lemmie see that password.”

Pietro placed his phone in Bruno’s gigantic hand. In mere seconds, Bruno input all of the information into his own and handed it back.

“That’s some typing,” Pietro raised his eyebrow. “Reminds me of a friend of mine. Another addict.”

“You’re missing out,” Bruno tapped away at the screen. “Some people are already sendin’ private messages. Doesn’t look like much yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it for anything good.”

Luca rolled his eyes. He really doubted anything was going to come of some page created by a kid on a social media site, but he could let Bruno pretend like he was helping this way.

“That’s all I have for now,” Pietro said. “Do you have anything to go on?”

Luca scratched the stubble on his chin before finally answering. “Maybe.”

“Whoa, you serious?” Bruno looked up.

“It’s just where Cory was attacked.”

“I saw it on the news,” Pietro grabbed a chair and sat down. “The mall, right?”

“Yeah,” Luca said. “It’s been bothering me.”

“You got somethin’ against the mall?” Bruno asked.

“No,” Luca sighed. “I’m sure you’ve heard about how cameras stopped working, and didn’t start again until everything else could move again. If you were going to attack someone during that time, would you pick a place with security cameras everywhere?”

“Wait,” Pietro said. “Why would it matter if they were stopped?”

“Because, if you were on camera when you stopped time, it would show that you moved when it turned back on.”

Pietro sat quiet for a moment. “Couldn’t they have just returned back to where they were before the stop?”

“Maybe,” Luca leaned back into his chair. “But I doubt it.”

“Here he goes,” Bruno said with a moan. “This guy reads those detective novels all the time. You know the type.”

Pietro didn’t look like he did.

“If we can assume the person who killed the girl on April 1st is the same person that attacked Cory, then nothing matches up,” he continued. “The news said that the girl was covered with deep cuts all over her body. He didn’t even finish Cory off.”

“What does that mean?” Pietro asked.

“It means that something… or someone, interrupted him,” Luca said. “He had to make a run for it.”

“Okay, so then how does that explain why he did it at the mall? Wasn’t it just by chance?”

“No,” Luca said. “I’m thinking he invited Cory there for something.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions now,” Pietro said.

“Look, whether or not he knew Cory, he picked the mall for a reason,” Luca said. “My guess is that he knew the placement of cameras. He stopped time in a part of the building where he knew the two of them wouldn’t be seen. That means he probably works there. Might even be security.”

“You’re a fucking Sherlock,” Bruno let out a dry laugh.

“You know, that’s usually used as an insult,” Luca said, shooting him a glance. It wasn’t hard for them to assume the killer looked for a blind spot. After all, they had done the same thing when they carried out their own crime.

“So what went wrong with their plan then?” Pietro asked.

Luca shrugged. “Hell if I know.”

“That just means we gotta check it out,” Bruno said.

“We’ll go out tomorrow,” Luca said. In terms of the number of police present, today would probably be the heaviest. After evidence had been collected, there would likely be a sharp drop in investigators. In fact, he doubted it would be even be open today.

They all sat quietly listening to the sound of the television.

After a few minutes, Luca spoke again. “Pietro, you sure you wanna do this?”

“Trust me, I want nothing to do with you,” Pietro glared. “But I know I can’t do this by myself either.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Luca said. “This isn’t a game. You might be killed. You might have to kill someone yourself.”

“I fucked up my chances already,” Pietro said. “I made nothing but bad decisions and they finally caught up with me.”

Luca couldn’t deny that he had the same feeling burning in the back of his head.

“I wanted to…” Pietro took a moment to collect himself. “I just wanted to teach Cory everything I wish I had known when I was his age. He was supposed to go to college… get a good job. He was supposed to be the one who made it.”

“You’re not so bad after all,” Luca said.

“Well I haven’t changed my mind about you,” Pietro got up and walked to the door. “I’ll get in contact with you tomorrow.” With that, he left.

“Nice kid,” Bruno said.

“Yeah, right.”

Time passed and the four of them resumed their usual work at their respective desks. None of them spoke. The clock ticking seemed much louder than usual, to the point where Luca was ready to take out its batteries just so he could get some peace and quiet.

Out of nowhere, Bruno started talking. “God damn, I’m craving some coffee.”

“Get some down the street,” Marco said. “And grab some for me while you’re at it. Need something to get me through the day.”

“Naw, I’m hung up on the stuff they have at Peace Café,” he stretched his hulking arms into the air. “Sebastian makes a mean cup of coffee.”

“Not worth the trip,” Luca said. “Maybe next time.”

Bruno let out a groan more befitting of a teenager than a man that was well over 6 feet tall.

This was the partner Luca was stuck with, and it didn’t look like he was going to get away from him anytime soon.