by Seb Kirby
Then, a voice. “Yes?”
It was Julia. I could not speak. The joy of hearing her voice, of knowing she had survived, was almost too much to bear.
“Is it you, Jim?”
“Yes, my love.”
Epilogue
My family was safe but there was much about the events we’d lived through that weren’t revealed.
The Italian authorities presented Inspector Manieri as a brave and loyal police officer missing in action, presumed dead. The public media carried extensive details of the after-effects of the earthquake on the lives of the citizens of Florence but nothing emerged about the discovery of an underground complex beneath the San Berado hillside. I was not surprised. I was lucky to count myself amongst the few who’d survived and knew about the secrets entombed there. Knowledge of I discendenti di Leda was in the hands of a few. The hope was the earthquake had ended its long history and I felt satisfied with that. Yet what I couldn’t shake from my mind was the claim made by Cleary that there were others, elsewhere, ready to continue their madness.
Matteo Lando was reported as having escaped Sollicciano prison only to have been killed in the tragic events of the earthquake, despite the fact that his body had not yet been recovered from the ruins of San Berado churchyard, where he’d last been seen. His luck had run out, the Italian press said, though there were many who supposed he was still alive and living outside Italy. I was not going to second-guess that.
Wolfgang Heller’s death was presented to the media in a controlled fashion. The FBI wanted to draw a line under the events surrounding Craven and everything associated with him. The authorities were keen to oblige. The killings in Rook Lane were said to be the work of a loner who’d been traumatized by life as a mercenary in the Far East. He’d been drawn to the UK by the mistaken belief that the woman he’d been with for ten years had escaped there. When he couldn’t trace her, he’d chosen victims at random in a psychotic killing spree.
Miles published a series of in-depth features on the drugs war in Tijuana but, in keeping with his agreement with Maynard, revealed nothing about Craven or Town Lake. It was left to Miles to let Luiz Reyas know that while the Lando family had been much weakened by the death of Matteo, Alessa Lando had not been found and his mission was therefore not complete.
Meanwhile I was left with the difficult decision of when to tell Julia about the masterpieces now entombed under San Berado. There was no doubt she would be thrilled to know that such a large number of paintings, presumed to have been destroyed, had been seen there. It was a joy I thought I’d never experience again to be beside her with baby Simon in her arms.
I was not planning to do or say anything to change that. Not for a long time.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks to Kath Middleton and Jan Warburton for help in getting this book ready for presentation and to many other friends for their kind observations and encouragement.
James Blake Thrillers
Take No More
Regret No More
Forgive No More
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Seb Kirby
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Seb Kirby, 2014
The moral right of Seb Kirby to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788636551
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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