“What about you?”
“I’m very adaptable, if the coffee is good.” He heaved a sigh. “Leo wasn’t my brother.”
“We knew that.”
“No … but he believed it. He really believed that he’d been in a cell with me. Instead, it had been with Tommy. The real Dante.”
“Are you sure?”
“Bart didn’t find so much as a trace of me in the Factory. We’re going through the archives of Villa Blu, to see whether by any chance I had ever been admitted there, and then … made to disappear like many other kids. For now, though … I’m just glad he wasn’t my brother, not even my adopted brother, but I’m sorry about his death.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. He was a victim, too, just like Giltine, just like Tommy. Like so many victims, they turned into killers and torturers, but Leo …” He shook his head. “Right up to the very end he obeyed his own butchers. The photograph he gave me wasn’t just for me.”
“He knew that you’d show it to the German.”
“He was the only one who could confirm its authenticity. When you know the way a person thinks, you also know what he’s going to do.” He looked at his pocket watch and stood up. “All right, it’s time for me to go. There’s someone who wants to buy Annibale’s house, and I can’t wait to get rid of everything that remains of him. Aside from his watch, which goes perfectly with my cane.”
“Are you still thinking about going to Sweden?”
“Or else Antarctica seems rather appealing. There are icebreakers that offer some very nice tour cruises. I don’t know how to swim, and I’m afraid of being in water where I can’t touch bottom, but I think I could get used to it. I’d like to see something beautiful, for a change.”
Colomba shut her eyes, then reopened them. “Go ahead, ask me.”
“To marry me?”
“Stop clowning around.”
Dante gathered his courage. “Would you come with me?”
Colomba smiled.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Many of the things that I describe in this novel are true, even if they’ve been adapted. Villa Blu doesn’t exist, but there did exist a Villa Azzurra—a different, lighter shade of blue in Italian, an azure instead of a navy blue—concerning which I would urge you to do a little research for yourself. You will discover that certain forms of medieval treatments inflicted on the neurodiverse have survived right up until the present day.
The Manifattura Armaguerra in Cremona exists, too, and that story is more or less as I told it, with the exception of the bomb shelter, which I made up. It’s a piece of Italy’s memory as a country, as well as Cremona’s, but it’s a monument to the darker times of history, too.
The history of the autistic in Silicon Valley is true, as is the story of private wards. I changed the names of the private security companies, but the things they do and their revenues really are just as I described.
If you’re interested in doing any further reading, I’m providing a few useful links, in part as a way of saying thank you to my sources of information. But first and foremost, I want to thank you readers, for taking this long, strange trip with me.
Autism and new technologies: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3762402/Autism-Silicon-Valley-asset-social-quirks.html
Manifattura Armaguerra: https://www.cremonaoggi.it/2018/02/21/larmaguerra-cremona-storia-affonda-le-sue-radici-nel-primo-dopoguerra
Villa Azzurra: https://www.vanityfair.it/news/storie/17/01/20/manicomio-bambini-libro-alberto-gaino-edizioni-abele-storia-angelo-torino
Inspiration for the Father: https://www.infermieristicamente.it/articolo/7777/dalla-violenza-dell-eletttromassaggio-alla-violenza-dell-abbandono
Castration and longevity: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2w9FEdFiMwnGLbAZf/effects-of-castration-on-the-life-expectancy-of-contemporary
Contractors: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2015/10/08/pentagon-needs-to-cut-shadow-contractor-work-force and https://www.securitydegreehub.com/top-security-companies-operating-primarily-outside-the-united-states
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are three people without whom you would never have been able to hold this book in your hand: my agent, Laura Grandi; my editor Giordano Aterini, who stayed up into the wee hours with me; and my wife, who supported me, encouraged me, and gave me numerous perceptive in-depth critiques. I should also thank Chiara Caccivia, who gave the first draft of my book a thorough technical edit; Alessandra Maffiolini, who is the historic memory of this trilogy; Carlo Carabba; and, of course, the entire Mondadori staff.
Pergola 2017–Milan 2018
More from this Series
Kill the Father
Book 1
Kill the Angel
Book 2
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© MORIS PUCCIO
Sandrone Dazieri is the bestselling author of numerous novels and screenplays. Kill the Father, the first novel in his series featuring Colomba Caselli and Dante Torre, was an international bestseller and received spectacular praise for its highly unconventional detective duo. Kill the Angel was also a bestseller, and Kill the King is the third and final novel in the series. You can follow Sandrone on Twitter @SandroneDazieri.
SimonandSchuster.com
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Sandrone-Dazieri
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Also by Sandrone Dazieri
Kill the Father
Kill the Angel
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Milano
English translation copyright © 2020 by Antony Shugaar
Originally published in Italy in 2018 as Il Re di Denari
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First Scribner hardcover edition May 2020
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019033157
ISBN 978-1-5011-7472-8
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