Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“That’s six of the twelve members of the Boutler family killed. The five male members of the coastal family and only one of the inland family, at least of that generation,” Geno mused.
“That brings us to the next generation, Erik’s children,” Stefano said. “Jaspar and Beau were the bastards Taviano talked about. They were living in Queensland on the coast. I believed Eloisa killed them. Why I thought she might be outraged enough to risk her career or at least report the abuse to the Archambaults when she never gave a damn about her children, I don’t know, but when I heard they were dead, I believed, and so did Taviano, that she killed them. I asked my investigators to check if it was possible. They said no. She never left Chicago. As far as reporting to the Archambaults, no investigation was launched into Jaspar and Beau Boutler.”
“How could Brielle possibly know that?” Amara asked. “She didn’t ask them, did she? We wouldn’t want them connecting the dots on this until we know what we’re looking at and how to handle it.”
“Brielle is very discreet. She would never ask questions of the Archambaults, Amara,” Elie assured, keeping his head down as if reading over the report. “We know for certain the Archambaults did not bring justice to Jaspar and Beau Boutler, but they were killed by shadow riders. At least both had broken necks and appeared to have been killed by an assassin sent out to serve justice to them. The two men were in their forties.”
“Edwin Boutler and his twin, Gef, lived in Laos,” Dario continued. “Like Jaspar and Beau, neither married and they were in their early forties. They had a large farm where they bought unwanted children, paying top dollar for them, which was a real incentive for poor families. The farm produced crops they sold in the marketplace. The Boutler brothers were stabbed and beaten in their home. They were both in the same room. Big men, lots of muscle and well trained in self-defense, yet they were both killed.”
“Rowina, the daughter, left home for training in Greece,” Emmanuelle said. “She ended up marrying into that family of riders. They seemed to have a happy marriage. When her children were eight and five, the boy eight, the girl five, her brothers Edwin and Gef showed up for a visit. About two weeks after they left to go back to Pakistan, Rowina died by her own hand. If her husband knew why, he never said.”
There was a long silence. Amaranthe pushed her forehead into the heel of her hand. Stefano swore softly. “This is one fucked-up family. They got away with abuse for years because in the old days there was little communication.”
“And no one talked about it,” Geno said. “Especially if it happened to boys.”
“Generations in the same family?” Valentino asked. “Is that what we’re looking at? These men sexually assaulted children and eventually someone retaliated?”
“Several someones,” Amaranthe corrected. “We accounted for ten of the twelve deaths eighteen years ago. “Who else died that night?”
Geno scanned the report. A couple of the men had put up a fight, but it didn’t seem as if his father’s severe injury could have been gotten in either of those instances, and both were too far away for Eugene Ferraro to have survived.
“This is it,” he murmured aloud. “Salvatore. Lucca.” He wanted them to see the significance. “Nate Boutler lived with his two sons, Mitchel and Monti, in Pakistan. They were reputed to be good shadow riders from all the reports by the trainers, yet when they were old enough to be given a territory, they refused to return to Queensland or Pakistan. They migrated to Canada. Given where they grew up, it isn’t surprising they preferred wilderness and ended up in New York, establishing businesses guiding wealthy clients into the West Canada Lakes Wilderness area. They also took troubled teens into leadership and survival programs. Most of the time, they worked separately from different areas around that region.”
“Were they working that night?” Lucca asked. He turned the papers over as if that would answer the question. “Why were they both there?”
“Mitchel had finished a week’s work with a company, so he had a bigger group than usual,” Dario said. His voice had turned grim. “His usual routine was to take a couple of days alone time, but his brother had come to camp out with him. When they found the bodies of Mitchel and Monti, they also found the body of a young boy who had been buried in a shallow grave. He was covered in bruises and had been sexually assaulted.”
Amaranthe slipped her hand into Geno’s. He slid his thumb along the back of her hand, needing the contact.
“Hikers found the bodies,” Geno said. “It looked as if the two men had been in a vicious battle with bears, because they seemed to be torn apart. Around them the ground was saturated with blood. Wild animals and insects had gotten to the bodies. An investigation was launched, and the conclusion was the two men had sexually assaulted the boy, strangled and buried him and then were attacked by an unknown man or men. The axe the brothers used to chop firewood was missing. Not only did both men have cuts from an axe, but the cuts also matched the slices on the firewood. The police concluded whoever had attacked them had used the brothers’ own axe against them.”