by Jonas Saul
What Sarah wasn’t counting on was her personal guide, in the lovely male specimen of Frank De Luca, who just happened to be waiting for her.
He wanted to warn her of a certain cowboy he had seen following her in Rome. He wanted to warn her of unsavory men who will only want one thing from her. He would befriend her so she would join him for dinner in the back of a restaurant in the main piazza where Sam ‘The Dealer’ Marconi would also be dining.
Murder would be the main course, with conspiracy for dessert.
Frank rubbed his hands together and waited for the train to show.
Seven minutes left.
Chapter 23
“Listen, Sarah, how would you like to join us for dinner?”
Sarah hesitated. Could she trust them? They only met half an hour ago. If she could, should she go with them and put them at risk? They had their baby to consider.
Vivian’s message was clear, though.
She nodded. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Then this is our stop.”
She looked out the window. “Pierantonio?” She looked back at them as they got up out of their seats. “I thought you said you live in Umbertide?”
“We do. But, as a precaution, we always buy a ticket to Umbertide and then get off one stop early. You never know who is waiting for you at your final destination.”
She could really get to like this couple. “Good thinking.” Her hand went numb, then tingled. Vivian’s voice shouted in her head to go. “Your invite sounds terrific. I’d love to join you for dinner.”
She followed them off the train and out to their car. The small four-door silver Fiat Panda looked no bigger than an enlarged golf cart.
As Darwin pulled out of the Pierantonio train station, Sarah realized that this was the best idea in history. Whoever was searching for her would never know where to look. Vivian had given her blessing. Sarah was safe for now. Maybe she could stay the night, use their computer to do a little research and get grounded.
Tomorrow would be another day. Tonight she would dine with Darwin, Rosina, and Bradley, and forget about the world as it spun under her heels.
Although she knew that couldn’t be true.
Aaron and what he must be going through was never far from her thoughts.
Chapter 24
The train arrived on time. Frank walked closer to watch each person as they disembarked.
His cell phone rang. He almost didn’t answer it, but it gave him an excuse to appear busy. He didn’t want Sarah to think she was the only reason he was here. That could make her suspicious.
“Pronto?”
“I need results. I’m panicking here. What’s going on?”
His employer. Frank committed to himself on the spot that he would never work with such a weak man again.
“I’m going to throw this cell phone away,” Frank said.
The train came to a stop and the doors opened.
“I need a plan. What are you going to do? I understood the female would be terminated this morning in Rome.”
“Sometimes things change. I’m prepared. You have nothing to worry about.”
The last passenger got off the train. The engineer looked the length of the two train cars and got ready to leave.
Where’s Sarah?
His employer was becoming a costly distraction.
“I’ll decide what I have to worry about. I cannot have this female wandering around Umbria with so much riding on this conference—”
“And you won’t.” Frank turned away from the train as it started out of the station heading toward Sansepolcro.
Where the hell is Sarah?
“Are you listening to me? You were hired for results. I was supposed to get those results this morning. They didn’t come. What I want to know is—”
“You will get your fucking results.” Frank moved away from the common areas so no one could hear him. The mission was slipping from his fingers. He had Sarah, now she was gone.
“I don’t need you in my ear,” Frank continued, “constantly telling me what I was hired to do. I will finish what I started. I have never failed in a job. That is why I come so highly recommended.”
“And highly priced.”
“If you’re worried about the fee, deduct twenty percent for the delay.”
“No, no, it’s not that. I just need this finished so I can move on.”
“Consider it finished, then. Move on now. You have my word.”
“I don’t want words. I want results—”
Frank slammed the phone down onto the cement and crushed it under his boot. He kicked the broken plastic pieces across the ground where they fell over the edge of the platform and onto the train tracks below.
It was time to clear his head and he couldn’t do that while listening to that whiny politician, nor could he allow his employer to continually call him for nothing.
He needed time to think about Sarah. Research her, learn what he could. He would examine her from afar and begin to make educated decisions on what she would do and where she would go.
He had been so certain she would be on that train moments before, he would have bet money on it. But she didn’t turn up.
Losing his prey was not something Frank was used to. Could it be his prey was outthinking him? Was Sarah the first challenge he would encounter in the twelve years since he had gone professional?
He was beginning to even hate the sound of her name in his head. There was nothing about her he liked, which made it easier to waste her when the time came.
But outwitting him would garner her a little respect. He couldn’t allow it again. He would figure her out and then he would destroy her.
The problem was time—there wasn’t much of it.
If he didn’t find her within forty-eight hours and get her to that dinner with Marconi, not only would she not be killed, but she would be killing him in the process.
His reputation as a professional would end with one stupid woman who bested him.
There was no way he could let that happen.
Chapter 25
Darwin pulled onto a long driveway lined with cypress trees.
“Italy has stunning landscapes,” Sarah said.
Rosina turned in her seat. “Yes, it’s peaceful here. Too peaceful, sometimes.”
“Better than the alternative,” Darwin said.
The alternative? Sarah wondered what he meant, specifically.
“What’s your story?” Sarah asked as Darwin brought the car up to a double garage. “What brought you two all the way out here from Toronto?”
Darwin turned the car off and looked sideways at Rosina who met his gaze. The tension in the air during that moment was laid on thicker than a blanket draping the three of them.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “Maybe it’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s just a long story. A long, sad story.”
“But one of triumph,” Rosina said with a smile.
Sarah didn’t see the smile in her eyes. Only pain.
“Come on in,” Rosina said as she opened the car door. “The nanny should have the vegetables chopped by now and the pasta ready to be boiled.”
Sarah followed them along a walkway with a row of shrubs on either side to an iron gate.
Darwin punched in a code on a keypad and the gate snapped open. A large German shepherd ran around the far wall of the house and lunged at Darwin. Sarah took a step back, the dog’s animal power and fast actions making it look like it was attacking. Darwin handled the large dog well, grabbed his front paws and let him lick his face.
“You’re not much of an attack dog, Hercules, are you?”
Rosina laughed and walked around them. “Boys will be boys. Come on inside, Sarah. I’ll pour some wine.”
Dinner was served after the nanny left for the night. Bradley was put in his crib, and by eight in the evening as the stars twinkled in the Italian sky, the three of them were sitting on the deck, sipping the digestivo gr
appa.
“Thank you so much,” Sarah said. “That was an incredible meal.”
Darwin set his glass down and looked up at the sky. “It’s no trouble at all. Happy to do it.” He looked like he had something else to say.
Earlier, before dinner, he had changed into a light-colored T-shirt. Below the lip of the sleeves, massive scars decorated his skin. It looked like skin grafts had covered up bullet holes. Either that, or someone had torn a chunk out of each arm.
“We invited you here because, through what I’ve read in the papers over the years, we knew you weren’t a threat.”
Sarah nodded, waiting for him to continue speaking. Rosina sat quietly, petting Hercules.
“You’ve recently been tangled up with those gang raids the police were doing across Toronto, right?”
“Yes, the Angels of Violence are done.”
“And the Leap Year Killer was taken care of.”
“You read a lot of papers.”
“I need to.” He paused to sip his grappa. “Gives me peace of mind.”
“And me,” Rosina chimed in.
“What’s your story?” Sarah asked again. “I’m sorry if that’s an intrusive question, but you’ve really intrigued me. I saw the scars on your arms. I’m curious, what have you two been through.”
Darwin coughed into his hand and cleared his throat. He took another drink and then got up to refill his glass.
“When I lived in Toronto many years ago, I wrote thrillers for a living. Then my wife and I found ourselves in a real-life thriller. I’ve written all about it in a three-pack of novels called The Mafia Trilogy.”
“What a coincidence. I’ve been writing my memoirs. I’ve completed two manuscripts already and when I return to Toronto I’m going to start on my third.”
“Wow, that’s fantastic. Tell us a bit about it.”
Sarah spent the next half an hour regaling them with tales of crimes, kidnappings and sadistic killers, and how her sister helped her stop them.
When she was done, Darwin started in on his tale of getting caught up with the Mafia and how it turned their lives upside down for quite a while. He seemed guarded and she suspected only gave part of the real story. He talked about how he got the nickname, The Blade, even though he couldn’t stand the sight of knives and how eventually he had to go after the people terrorizing him and his wife to end the nightmare.
But since they’d been in Italy, everything had stopped. If anyone was still looking for them, they would have no idea where to start. Italy, the home of the Mafia, would be the last place they would look.
The three of them sat stunned at how their lives had brought them together. The bottle of grappa was empty and Sarah felt comfortably numb.
“You took a risk telling me all that,” Sarah said. “Why?”
They looked at each other and then back to Sarah. “We’ve followed what you’ve done in the past, and just recently with those gangs. After meeting you … well, let’s just say we know you’re safe. Were we wrong to assume this?”
“No, absolutely not.” Sarah shook her head, hair brushing her cheeks.
For the first time in a long time, she felt safe.
The baby monitor registered a sniffle. Then a cry.
“I got it.” Rosina got up.
After she was gone, Darwin turned to Sarah. “You’re here after Sam Marconi, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?”
“I read Italian newspapers, too. He’s spent the last year or more terrorizing the Mafia, the very people he used to work for.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“Come on into my office.”
Sarah followed him through the living room, the kitchen, and then down a hallway.
“Wait, can I get a water?” she asked.
“Sure. Make yourself at home.” Darwin turned around in the hall and pointed. “My office is the last door.”
Sarah entered the kitchen, found the glasses, poured water and drank it all down. The grappa had gone to her head, even on a full stomach. Outside the kitchen window, the dark night pushed against the pane. Her face reflected in the window, casting a hollow look back, bags under her sad eyes.
Aaron …
She drank once more, set the glass on the counter, and walked the hall to Darwin’s office.
Inside, the walls were plastered with faces. Pictures of men and some women lined the walls in pyramid formations with tiny white cards under their photos, names written in red ink. Each pyramid was inside what looked like the drawing of a country in the background.
“What’s all this?”
“I monitor the major Mafia families throughout the world. I try to keep track of where they are and what they’re doing in each country. Mostly I’m doing something akin to CIA.”
“Akin to CIA?”
“I listen to chatter over the Internet.”
“Chatter? What are you listening for?”
“My name or Rosina’s.”
“Wow, you’re serious about security.”
“After what happened to us and the people I had to deal with, I have to be.”
Hercules entered the office.
“Hercules, nein.” He moved toward the door and pointed down the hallway. “Gehen. Jetzt.”
Hercules lowered his head, turned and left the office.
“What was that? It sounded like German.”
“It was. I told him, no. Then I told him to go, now. He’s not allowed in the office.”
“He knows German?”
“I have enemies in Canada, the States and in Italy. I don’t have any enemies in Germany that I’m aware of. If any of them find us and Hercules is the first to discover them, I want no confusion as to what commands he will respond to. If I yell the word ‘no’ and I’m referring to Rosina or Bradley, but Hercules hesitates, it could all end right there. Besides, he is a German shepherd.”
Rosina entered the office through the open door. “Herc trying to get in here again?”
Darwin nodded as he searched a file folder in a cabinet by his large desk.
“Ahh, here it is.” He pulled out a file and browsed the pages. “Marconi got his name from dealing card games over fifteen years ago. Underground casinos in the backs of barber shops, you know the kind. He would deal games for the big boys, have them served alcohol and eventually, because he was so good with the cards, would deal whoever he was working for that night the right hands.”
“So he started as a crook.”
“Which one of these guys didn’t?”
She nodded.
Darwin scanned a page with his finger. “Eventually, someone caught on. A fight broke out. The Dealer executed the guy and protected his employer who later became a powerful man. The Dealer went on to bigger and better things.” Darwin looked up. “That’s about all I have on his history. More recently, I’ve followed his exploits, but I can tell you that without documents.”
Sarah sat in a chair in the corner of the office, Rosina took the other one. “What’s he been up to? Why did the Italian authorities call the FBI for help?”
Darwin sat down at his desk. “Funny you should ask, because I don’t think they did.”
She thought about the fraud Kierian had become.
Darwin said, “I think the Italian authorities called the FDA for help.”
“The Food and Drug Administration?” Sarah asked, taken aback. “Why would they do that?”
“They also called Interpol.”
“I’m confused.”
“Smoke and mirrors.”
She turned to Rosina. “Does he always talk like this?” She looked back at Darwin. “I’m full, I’m probably drunk, and I’m tired. Can you spell it out easier for me?”
“Of course. Marconi has killed a couple of his rivals in La Cosa Nostra as smoke and mirrors and to enable his drug trade and prostitution rings, but it was only to cover up the one important murder he claims responsibility for.”
“Which is?”<
br />
“The murder of the Agricultural Minister here in Italy. I gained access to his personal emails. Since then I’ve been trying to hack into the Finance Minister’s emails and the Minister of the Environment.”