Page 139 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

M y first witness was Dario.

Not because he had any evidence that directly incriminated Fausto, but because I wanted to lay out the timeline of everything that had happened.

His taking the fall for our family…

His incarceration at San Vittore…

Our father’s death while Dario was still in prison…

His ascension to Don and eventual return home…

The Turk’s attack…

Mezzasalma massacring the Agrellas in Florence and his attempted murder of Adriano…

And finally, the assassination attempt on Dario’s life.

Throughout, I refrained from blaming anything on Fausto.

All that was about to change.

“Don Severino,” I announced, “for my next witness, I would like to call the assassin hired to kill my brother: Rachel Bauer.”

The room murmured in shock.

Sofia called out, “I ask that the witness NOT be allowed inside this chamber.”

“And why is that?” Don Severino asked.

“Because she is an agent of the British Intelligence Agency MI6.”

The room exploded with panicked exclamations.

I’d been expecting this. I was ready.

“Signorina Toscani is lying,” I said contemptuously. “Rachel Bauer is not an agent of MI6.”

“Was she ever an agent of MI6?” Sofia asked in a steely voice.

“You should know, you were there when Fausto hired her,” I shot back.

“Quiet!” Don Severino shouted, silencing the room. “Niccolo – was Rachel Bauer an agent of MI6 in the past?”

“…she was a former agent,” I admitted. As the murmurs began again, I raised my voice. “But now she’s a free agent and does contract killings, which my uncle took full advantage of.”

Sofia scoffed. “Setting aside these stupid and baseless accusations, letting an MI6 agent into this chamber – ”

“Former agent!” I yelled.

“ – would compromise the safety of everyone here. There is NOTHING to guarantee she wouldn’t tell her colleagues – ”

“FORMER colleagues!” I shouted.

“Former, current, whatever,” Sofia said angrily. “She could still identify every person in this room to MI6.”

The other dons began shouting at Don Severino not to allow her to testify.

“Signorina Toscani is correct,” Don Severino said to me. “This is not a risk we are willing to take. The witness is disallowed.”

“As I understand it, the primary objection is that Rachel would be in the room?” I asked. “And thus able to identify anyone here?”

“Yes.”

Sofia saw where I was going and tried to speak –

But I beat her to it. “What if I just call her on a cell phone to get her testimony? That way, she won’t see anyone here.”

Sofia had made her entire case about Rachel being a threat if she saw people in the room. Once I removed that threat, she had nothing to stand on.

Over Sofia’s objections, Don Severino allowed me to call Rachel. I dialed her on my cell phone.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Rachel, it’s Niccolo,” I said. “Time to answer some questions.”

I asked her who had hired her to kill Dario. She confirmed it was Fausto.

She described in detail how she had been hired, including the date and the location where it had happened. She also described Fausto, Aurelio, and a ‘mystery woman, young and pretty, with long brown hair and glasses.’

No one in the room could miss that it was a perfect description of Sofia.

I even asked Don Severino if I could take a picture of Sofia so Rachel could identify her, but Sofia protested, saying Rachel could then betray her to MI6. In the end, the answer was no.

When I finished interrogating Rachel, Don Severino said, “Now, please give the phone to Signorina Toscani.”

I walked across the room and handed the phone to her.

When the tips of our fingers touched, there was an electric current that seemed to run between us.

We looked into each other’s eyes…

And then she turned away.

When Sofia began to question Rachel, she took a tack I wasn’t expecting.

“Your name is Rachel Bauer, correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“I find it odd that you’re testifying on behalf of the man you say you tried to kill.”

Now it was my turn to freeze as I saw where she was headed.

“I suppose,” Rachel admitted.

I tried to interrupt. “Don Severino, may I – ”

“Quiet,” he barked. “Proceed, Signorina Toscani.”

I just sighed and waited for the rest to play out. It was like watching a train crash you can’t prevent.

Sofia smirked at me, then asked, “Don’t you have some sort of relationship to the Rosolini family? Or, rather, to someone who works for them?”

Rachel paused.

“…yes.”

“Would that be Lars Henriksson, Dario Rosolini’s Enforcer?”

“I don’t know his job title, but – ”

“Lars Henriksson is Dario Rosolini’s Enforcer,” Sofia interrupted. “That is not in dispute. What is your relationship to him?”

A long pause.

“…I’m his wife.”

All the dons muttered and laughed in incredulity.

“REALLY,” Sofia said in a shocked voice, though it was all for effect. “When did that happen?”

“Two days ago,” Rachel muttered. She knew she was being forced to dig her own grave.

“Two days ago!” Sofia exclaimed in surprise. “I’m confused… you tried to kill Dario Rosolini almost a month ago… and then you married his Enforcer two days ago?! That’s rather astounding!”

“Lars and I knew each other from years before,” Rachel protested.

“So you knew Dario’s Enforcer before you tried to kill Dario – and then you married him four weeks later?”

“…yes.”

“With Dario Rosolini’s blessing?”

“…yes.”

Sofia looked around at the dons. “That’s what some people might call… unbelievable.”

“It’s not like – ”

“No further questions,” Sofia said –

And hung up on Rachel, cutting her off.

Sofia had played her hand surprisingly well.

She’d gone up against a witness who had actually been hired by Fausto to kill Dario – and who had seen Sofia there, to boot.

Yet, in the end, Sofia had completely cast doubt on Rachel’s reliability.

Coupled with the attempt on Dario’s life, the details of Rachel and Lars’s romance were hard to believe – even for someone like me, who had known Lars for almost a year.

To a stranger, the story would sound extremely fishy.

The Council had no formal rules about what constituted burden of proof.

All Sofia had to do was call into question Rachel’s version of the story…

And she had done that masterfully.

“You should not have hung up on the witness,” Don Severino admonished her.

Actually, the ‘mic drop’ moment was well worth the reprimand.

“Mea culpa,” Sofia said.

My bad, essentially.

“Do you wish to examine the witness again?” Don Severino asked me.

If I did that, I would open Rachel up to a second interrogation by Sofia – and potentially more undermining.

“No,” I said genially. “I’d like to call my next witness – my twin brother, Roberto Rosolini.”