Marie had no idea who this man was nor did she know why Isabella was quite literally beating him to death.  For all she knew the man deserved it.  This was not her town and this was not her headquarters.  Her position afforded her respect, but that went only so far.  She had no deserve to make Isabella look weak in front of her men so she danced the danced that had been bred into her.  She would provide a way out for Isabella in such a way that respected her position.

"Don Luciano.  I do not wish to interrupt your work, but I have need to speak with you private about an urgent matter."

She glanced back at Enzo a moment and then looked back to Marie and nodded.  "Of course."  This time she wiped tears away, trying to make herself 'presentable.'  Leaving Enzo on the floor she stepped to the door and held it open for the woman who out-ranked her.

Enzo had won a reprieve.  He would most likely die with a bullet which was better than he deserved.  Far better.  Isabella pulled the cell door closed and looked at Nails, "No one goes in.  I don't care if he's dying in there.  No one.  Do you understand."

Nails nodded.

"If Godfather Salvatore himself comes down here, you put yourself in front of his gun and shake your head no emphatically and die blocking this door with your body - am I clear?"

Nails nodded again.

She turned and walked down the hall to the room on the lower level which only Made Men in the crew were able to access.  With a key she unlocked the door and revealed a war room.  Marie could see a large table with high back leather seats surrounding it.  On the walls were maps of every single major city in the United States and one of Sicily.  Pins denoted territories and small slips of papers contained names of the Dons and Godfathers who held those areas.

Locking the door behind them she leaned her head against the steel door.  "Thank you..." She breathed.  "I didn't know who else to call."

In a caring and somewhat motherly tone, Marie softly asked, "What has happened?"  She did not approach Isabella, but instead allowed the woman to control the overtures of the conversation.  Marie would feed off the cues that Isabella would provide her.

Isabella walked away from the door and found her way to a seat at the table, not at the head, but one of the seats near the middle.  She reached into her pocket and pulled out the note.

"The man in the room is Enzo Landucci... Elias' father."  She said quietly.  "And he claims that this note was slid under his door..."  She offered it to Marie.  "That looks like Elias' handwriting, but I don't know how that can be.  He was dead.  I saw him... I mean... I think it was him.  Who the fuck did I bury if it wasn't... I mean...  how could I have made a mistake?  I wouldn't!"  She ran a hand into her hair.

"I'd know him.  I would.  I love him.  He's dead - this is trick.  A lie to ... break me?  Maybe some play to undermine the Luciano Empire and... and... I don't know!  Maybe we can get one of those handwriting experts to tell us it's not him for sure?" She steadies herself emotionally as Marie reads the letter.  When she's finished Isabella shakes her head.

"He would never leave me thinking he was dead this long.  If he was alive he would have found a way to call... if not me then father.  Even if I dared to dream this could be true... he'd have called me.  Why ... why would he write a note and put a note under his dad's door OF ALL PEOPLE?!?  And more than that... how the hell did his dad end up in my fucking crew!  I can't be made to believe this is real... or a coincidence.  That fucker knows something!  He HATES Elias and Elias hated him, he's doing this... I don't know why, but he has to know SOMETHING.  It doesn't..."

She buries her face into her hands.  "I'm the daughter of the most powerful man & woman in the world... who the FUCK would DARE to do this to us?!?"  She looks to Marie, tears in her eyes, "Who would want to do this to me?  It... it's irrational.  The Feds?  I mean... I... maybe... but... I..." 

She shakes her head and looks in desperation to Marie who continues to review the letter,  "I finally can sleep through the night without watching him die over and over and now... NOW!?!  It can't be.  It just CAN'T."  She stands up and paces.  "Oh God Gavin... and... and Will."  She looks fit to puke.  "This ... this isn't happening.  It can't be.  It's not real.  It's a lie."

She looks to Marie who is reviewing the letter again for the third or fourth time.  "Please, please say something Marie."

Marie tried to make sense of it all, but she felt like she was missing key pieces to the puzzle.  Still she tried her best to form a coherent picture in her mind by talking it out aloud.

"I can understand you not wanting to open yourself up to any more hurt and that is why you are choosing to believe that it is not real.  However, I think you understand that you will always have a lingering of doubt until you can definitively find out if it was one way or another.  You won't be able to move forward if you don't turn over every stone.

Let's start with what we know.  You say the letter looks like his hand writing.  Well until it can be proven that it is not I think you should consider it as being real.  Have an expert look at it to be sure, but until then let's assume that it is real.  As for mistaken identify.  It happens all the time.  Two people can witness a crime and their description of the criminal be vastly different.  Emotions play tricks on us, we can not always rely on what our eyes tell us.  Especially if someone is actively trying to make your eyes deceive you.  Major hospitals all over the country are beginning to establish reconstructive and plastic surgeries.  Perhaps that is what has been done here.  

As for not calling you, perhaps he simply did not have access to a phone.  For months I believed that your father was dead.  He was unable to contact me at all because of what it took to keep him hidden and safe.  Maybe, because he had no way to be certain what the situation was like here in Detroit after so many months, he sent someone with a list of possible options of how to get the letter to you and that person was the one to choose the less encumbrance means.

You asked who would dare to do this, unfortunately there are many that would dare including the Feds.  After all they have done far worse things when you think about it, like poisoning their own citizenry just because they choose to partake in some spirits that someone else had deemed harmful to society."

Marie thought for a moment as she looked at the letter again.  "He says he believes he will be here now so if he is, he will try to connect with you at this cafe.  Now I am sure the feds are tracking your movements so you will need a distraction."  Marie looked at Isabella and continued, "Your baby sister is getting baptized in a couple of days.  It will be a rather large event with many high level mafiosi in attendance.  It will be assumed that you will be there as well.  The Fed's eyes would be fixed on our event in hopes of gaining intel on some of the more major players that they would not have time to follow your ever move.

You could go there and see if he or someone else reaches out to you.  If you don't want to open yourself up to potential false hope you can tell yourself that you are going there to put the doubt to rest."

This was why she was the Godmother.  Marie's calmly spoken words made sense.  It wasn't real, but if she didn't go, if she didn't see for herself she'd be tormenting herself until the end of time.  She nodded as the thoughts went through her head.  

"Dad won't be happy that I missed something so important..."  She muttered, deep in her own mind.  "But... I can't put this in someone else's hands.  This is personal.  I have to know who would do this to me, I have to look them in the eyes as they die."  She says standing up.  She just could NOT accept that Elias was alive - what happened with her dad and Marie, it was different.  It was nothing like this, not really.  

"I'll go during the Baptism as you suggest."  She nods and stand up and walks over to give Marie a long hug and kisses both of her cheeks.  "I'll come to you and Father as soon as I know something.  Give that sweet baby a kiss for me... okay?"

Marie nodded.

"I need to go deal with something in the way it should have been handed it to begin with."  With that she left the room and walked down the hallway back to Nails.  She kissed his cheek and gave him a smile as she lifted his piece from it's holster.  Stepping back she let him open the door.  Lifting the iron she could hear him draw breath to speak, but he never got the chance to utter a word.  

It was a nasty way to kill a man.  No face left for anyone to mourn for in the coffin... but in Enzo's situation that wouldn't be a problem.  He didn't have a single person in all the world who was left alive to weep for him... and the one person who might have (if he'd shown an ounce of kindness) was now and forever after going to be known as the woman who ended him.

She turned and offered the butt of the gun to Nails who took it.  "Tell Bill I told him to clean up that shit.  You're getting a field promotion Neil, no more clean up work for you."

The corn-fed Midwestern boy smiled.  She patted his cheek.  With that she went upstairs to begin making her plans for her visit to Lakeview Garden & Cafe.