A few hours ago

A meeting on the new developed firearm technology was put on hold when Diego could not catch a word said by the person from the other line. Multiple voices spoke at a time, Diego walked out of the meeting room and answered the call again. 

"Hello" he heard double voice again, Diego took off the phone from his ear to check if it's still good. 

"Hello? Hello?" double voice again.

"Shut up kids. You are in a conference call. There is Ella on one line and Diego on the other." boomed Thomas as he tried to control the too many 'hellos'.

"Oh okay" both muttered and kept quiet allowing the old man to speak. 

"I called you both to inform that I have found one of the girls Demetrio had been sponsoring for long time" 

"How?" Diego asked, surprised. 

"Well I used my ex-job position as a way to get information from the police officer who dealt with Demetrio's case. Unfortunately, by the time he could extract more information from his system, he had to leave for some other case." Thomas explained. 

"Who is the girl,  Thomas?" Ella asked this time. 

"Her name is Mia Boni, age 22, lives in San Nicola a Nilo Orphanage" Thomas read out the information in his hand. "Do you guys want to meet her?"

"Yes" Ella replied immediately

"Yes, of course. Maybe after work I'm in a meeting actually"

"Alright, six in the evening we will leave to San Nicola a Nilo"

----------

The flash news of Mia Boni's murder that have been doing the stir in all news channels kept running behind her mind. Ella couldn't shut her mind from the constant guilt hovering her. "If we had gone earlier today, we could have saved her" tears rolled down her cheeks. 

Ella was now seated in the back seat of Diego's car with Diego behind the wheels and Thomas in the front passenger seat, heading to the spot where Mia Boni was found dead. The news had hit all of them like a massive earthquake, they just couldn't handle it.  

That very morning Thomas informed them about her and now the news of Mia Boni is dead did not make sense at all. How? Was it coincident that the time Thomas found out about Mia Boni and the murder happened in the same time or was it all planned?

Diego had been constantly checking on the Ella through the rear-view mirror who's silently sobbing right from the time they picked her up from her office. The strong woman Diego knew for so long, now mourning for someone's death whom she doesn't even know. Sometimes Ella just stuns him with her actions.

"What are we doing here?" Ella's soft voice came from the back seat right after the car came to a halt.

"Thomas wanted to check on the location where the murder happened" Diego said as his eyes followed Thomas inspecting the area marked with the yellow-black caution barricade tape. 

Walking to Ella's side, Diego helped her out of the car. "This is going to be long" he said knowing that Thomas's inspection might take more time that he told. Both stood silently watching Thomas working the best out of his former job position to extract more information about the murder from the on-duty police officers.

"What can Thomas possibly find in here?" Ella asked wiping the tears off her face. 

"The first hand information" 

"First hand information? What do you mean?"

"We don't want Mia Boni's murder case to take a different dimension like what happen to Uncle D's death. Remember the police had changed the entire murder into an accident" Diego shifted his attention to Ella who looked confused. 

"Why would the police want to change the report? I don't get it" 

"The possibilities are high that the person who killed Uncle D and Mia Boni, is the same person. If the man can make the police alter Uncle D's case wouldn't it be a piece of cake for them to change Mia Boni's case? So, Thomas wants to get every information fresh here." 

Thomas's calculation could be right, by the time Mia Boni's murder investigation reaches the department, the police or whoever is asked to the job of changing the reports might to do it smoothly without anyone noticing. Hence, getting the first hand information is always better whether it will be useful for them or not. 

"Diego? Ella?" a man in police uniform walked towards them from the murder spot as he studied the both.

"Yes?" Diego answered while trying to recognise the familiar figure.

"Alfonso?!" Ella said rather surprised as she managed to recognise the man before her.

The pretty man with grey eyes smiled widely to the two who looked very much amazed. Amazed at how different this man looked since the last they saw in high school, from a nerdy boy to a well-built police office.  

"Ella! I always knew you would remember me" he said extending his hand to her for a hand shake.

"Amico! It's been so long since the last I saw you" Alfonso turned his direction to Diego.

"Good to see you too, amico" Diego hugged his high school friend.

"What are you two doing here?" Alfonso jumped straight to the matter as he turned to check if his other colleague might need him or not.

"We came to know about Mia Boni"

"You know her?"

"No, not really"

"What happened to her, Alfonso?" Ella spoke after a long silence.

"We inquired the neighbourhood for any eye witness. Surprisingly, no one saw a thing that too when all happened in daylight" Alfonso said.

"What time did the murder happened?" Diego asked.

"Around eleven in the morning. Someone called the department that they found a dead body in the bush— the call came around twelve. Ms. Boni was strangled to death and she was badly –"

"Alfonso!" someone called.

Ella couldn't help but to stay mournful, if they had gone the moment Thomas called they could have saved her from being murder.

"Ella? What? Are you okay?" Diego tilted his head to get a glimpse of her face that was covered with her hair, the dark sky did not help either. She started crying again, Diego realised. 

"We could have saved her, right? We should have gone when Thomas called us to meet her. She is dead, dead because of us" Ella sobbed. 

Why is she blaming herself for Mia Boni's dead? It wasn't her fault at all. Hell, she doesn't even know who Mia Boni is until this morning. Diego pulled her in an embrace.

"It's not your fault, Ella. Stop crying. What if this happened after we met her? Will you keep blaming yourself too, then? Stop now" 

Ella remained quiet silently crying.

"Oh, stop it now, idiot!" Diego smacked her head lightly just to bring her back to her sense.

Ella, herself didn't know why she started feeling bad for Mia Boni's death. She suddenly felt to emotional with matters that involved her, directly or indirectly. Somehow, Ella was glad Diego was there to bring her back on track. 

The longer they were at the spot the more anxious Ella felt, "Can we go out of here?" she requested Diego to accompany her to a place a little further from the spot while they wait for Thomas. 

They were now in a small coffee shop just opposite the location. A cozy and warm feel adorned the home like cafe along with the aromatic coffee scent made Ella feel much better than she was earlier. 

"I thought you are a strong woman. You turn out to be worst then me" Diego said out of the blue. 

"We all have our own weaknesses, don't we, Mr. Moretti?"

"Absolutely! And differences too" he raised his eyebrows while sipping in the hot coffee. 

"What are those? If they are they the same as you told me a couple of days ago, please don't bother to tell"

"Oh, not that. Those are crap. These are factual differences, I worry for people close to me while you for someone you don't even know. How cool is that?" he laughed.

"Diego? What if Mia Boni was the actual Ara? We will never come to know about her, right?" Ella asked with a quite serious expression a while later. 

"I hope she is not" 

"Looks like we have to find the other four girls too. Who knows Ara might be among the four girls in different name? We can't take any risk, Diego"

Thomas had texted Diego that he will be leaving home without them as he was needed back at home. He also informed that the information he got from the crime spot might not be helpful for their case. Hence, they were told to go back and not to get to worked up on Mia Boni's death. 

Ella's question kept ringing in his mind, What if Mia Boni was Ara? He couldn't imagine what he would do if Mia Boni was Ara. The fact that he will never see her shrieked him from within. Diego's eyes were set on Ella but his thoughts were elsewhere. Ella could be right, what if Mia Boni isn't Ara but among the other four girls in different names? 

If finding Ara could be hard, finding these unknown four girls can be much harder. Diego decided to get Thomas to check back on the police officer from whom he got the information about Mia Boni. 

"Diego?" Ella waved her hand before him. 

"Yeah?"

"What do we do now?" she asked him again.

"We should go back now. You look exhausted, Ara" he said.

"What?!" Ella almost spit the coffee she just sipped. 

"What?"

"You just called me Ara. Are you okay?" 

"Did I? I'm sorry, I was thinking about her and the name slipped out of my tongue" 

------- 

"Good job, Mario" Gasparo patted the man who came back with the news of his successful task. 

The job of finishing off one of the possible suspects of who could be Ara Agosti. "How dumb can Demetrio be, did he thought that by diverting our attention to many, will distract me?" Gasparo spoke to himself after Mario took his leave. 

"tch...tch...tch... The moment I knew about your daughter, I very much figured out that she won't be exactly be as your daughter for the outer world. Demetrio. Demetrio. Demetrio... if you think ten steps ahead, I'll think a hundred steps. Keeping a man always behind you finally did pay off after so many years. 

No matter how many lives I should put down, I'll go all the way to find your daughter and I'll finish her off! No Agosti should be left alive!" Gasparo roared vengefully. 

Gasparo vowed before the huge picture that hung on the wall, a portrait of his late father, Gino D'Luca. He promised to take revenge for what his father had to go through all these years because of Demetrio. 

Gasparo took the white envelope yet again, he had been looking at the same envelope every now and then. A file that contained information of Ella Falco. 

"Let's take it slow, shall we, little Ella. Ready for another surprise?" 

**********

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