Lawson returned to his own apartment, grabbed the intel he bought from Svafa, and brought it back to Mrs. Gaines's place.
He pulled Francis Ricci's file from the stack, which included a photo of the man.
"Ms. Kelly, Mr. Clinton, is this the guy you saw committing the murder tonight?"
Megan and Franklin leaned in, closely examining the photo in Lawson's hand. Both of them frowned.
"Feels like it could be him, but I can't be 100% sure. The lighting was pretty bad, and we were quite a distance away."
Although Megan said she wasn't certain, Lawson was already convinced the killer was Francis Ricci.
"It has to be him!"
Franklin looked at Lawson curiously.
"Mr. Lawson, how can you be so sure he's the killer?"
"Because of his identity! His name is Francis Ricci. He's the Consigliere of the Bonanno family, but more importantly, he's Old Man Martin Bonanno's godson."
Megan and Franklin's jaws dropped, their faces filled with utter shock.
The information Lawson just dropped was enough for them to connect the dots. After all, stories crazier than this played out in movies and TV shows all the time.
"Holy shit. So we just got dragged into a Mafia family succession war?"
Franklin's complexion instantly turned several shades darker.
This kind of power struggle was like a massive vortex. Anyone sucked in could be ripped to shreds if they weren't careful.
At that moment, Franklin deeply regretted ever entering that underground street race. He suddenly sounded like a broken record complaining about his misfortune.
"I'm so stupid. Why did I borrow money to enter that bullshit race? Didn't win a dime and now I'm in this massive mess..."
Ignoring Franklin's self-pity, Megan looked at Lawson with a glimmer of hope.
"Mr. Lawson, since you know who the killer is, can we find Old Man Martin and explain everything?"
Lawson shook his head. The blonde news anchor was still way too naive.
"It's not that simple! As the Bonanno family's Consigliere and Old Martin's godson, there's no way Francis Ricci hasn't planned for that. I'd probably get lit up by submachine guns before I even figure out which way Old Martin's front door opens."
Megan opened her mouth to argue, but realized Lawson's scenario was highly likely.
"So what do we do? Just hide here forever? What if the Mafia figures out who we are and comes to our homes..."
"They will absolutely figure out who you are. Unless Mr. Clinton's Dodge Challenger happens to be stolen."
Franklin instantly realized the danger.
"Holy shit! That means our families are in massive danger!"
The thought made both Megan and Franklin panic. The Mafia absolutely wouldn't hesitate to target civilians. Their families could be in danger at any second.
Right then, a strange noise came from outside the door. Lawson immediately signaled them to stay quiet and looked through the peephole.
Two men in black suits were knocking on Lawson's apartment door across the hall. Their outfits looked exactly like the Mafia goons Lawson had dealt with before.
When it comes to matching uniforms, the Mafia definitely outclassed their counterparts.
After knocking for a few minutes with no response, the men simply kicked the door in.
They searched Lawson's apartment for a good while before leaving empty-handed. It seemed they hadn't found anything useful.
That was because Lawson had already hidden the gold and just brought the intel files over to Mrs. Gaines's apartment. Otherwise, those two would have definitely found something suspicious.
Only after their footsteps completely faded away did Megan, who had been covering her mouth, finally speak.
"Mr. Lawson, what was that noise?"
"The Mafia just broke into my apartment!"
"Huh? Isn't this your apartment?"
"No, this belongs to someone else. She moved out before her lease ended and left the keys with me. My actual apartment is the one right across the hall."
Megan looked incredibly relieved.
"Thank God we aren't in your apartment, or the Mafia would have found us! But I'm confused. Is the Mafia really this efficient? I feel like the CIA isn't even this fast!"
That was exactly what puzzled Lawson too. It had only been about five hours since Martin's death.
If the Mafia was actually this capable, they wouldn't have been crippled by the IRS.
So the question was: if the Bonanno family wasn't here because of Martin's murder, what did they want with him?
While he was pondering this, Lawson's phone suddenly rang.
"Hello, this is Lawson."
"Lawson, it's Donnie! We've got a problem. I suddenly can't reach Phil or Dennis!"
"Phil and Dennis are MIA?"
"Yes! I'm taking Maggie to Texas until the baby comes, and I agreed to check in with Phil and Dennis every day. But since the day before yesterday, their phones have been completely dead!"
A thoughtful look crossed Lawson's face. He stepped away from Megan and Franklin, walking into the bedroom before continuing.
"Donnie, I think that job might have been exposed."
"What? You mean the LAPD..."
"No! Not the LAPD! Just now, the Mafia broke into my apartment to search it, but they left empty-handed since I wasn't there. Donnie, do you know what's going on?"
Donnie went silent on the other end. It took him a long time to answer.
"Yes. When we were splitting the cut, Phil realized the gold bars had Bonanno family markings on them."
Lawson actually hadn't inspected the gold closely after getting his share, so he completely missed the markings.
"So you're telling me, after all that meticulous planning, we ended up robbing Phil and Dennis's own boss's gold?"
"Yeah! Phil and Dennis were terrified. They decided to fence some jewelry quickly and skip town, telling me to leave first. But I never expected..."
Phil and Dennis had dumped almost all their cash into prepping the heist. And when they split the take, they gave most of the cash to Lawson and the rest to Donnie.
If they didn't fence some jewelry, those two probably couldn't even afford bus tickets out of town.
But Lawson was still confused. How did the Mafia track down Phil and Dennis so quickly?
If the LAPD had found them, Lawson wouldn't be this surprised.
Could someone have sold out the crew?
Lawson's eyes instantly turned dangerous.
"Donnie, stay safe. Things might get messy soon, but I'll handle this problem shortly."