Jon Tracy - The Rome Prophecy

Lorenzo has to stop himself from adding that it’s the same in his job. He looks towards his colleague. ‘Get the analysts to identify all possible sites in Rome with private drive-in areas that have applied for major building permits. Have the list cross-checked with recent tool-hire sales, deliveries of plasterboard and rental of other building equipment. Check particularly to see if any of them are linked to excavation sites, old ruins, converted churches, any structures that may be attached to public buildings.’

Pasquale finishes jotting down his exhaustive list and leaves.

Lorenzo turns back to Louisa. ‘We’re going to need to ask you some more questions, but not for a while. I’ll arrange for a protection team to take you home and watch your apartment while you get changed and get some rest.’

Louisa looks drained. ‘ Grazie. I’d also like to call some people, if that’s okay?’

‘Of course it is, but you mustn’t talk about what’s happened to you. This is an active operation, and our best chance of catching your kidnappers is in the next twenty-four hours. They’ll be panicking right now, covering their tracks and making mistakes, but they’ll get over that within a day or so and go back to being professional, so we have to take our chance. Do you understand?’

Louisa nods.

As she gets up to go, she catches herself looking at his hand for a wedding ring.

There’s a thick gold band around his finger.

Why is it the best ones are always taken?

Valentina twists her ankle for the second time and curses the never-ending stairs.

If there wasn’t a gun at her head, she’d have a tantrum that no one would ever forget.

She tries to ignore the pain and calculate how far below ground she is.

It’s harder than it sounds.

After every twenty steps, the stairs level out for a couple of paces.

Then they begin again.

The first two descents were extraordinarily steep and straight, the next five more spiral, but the steps were still stone and not metal, the kind of tight circular steps, thin in the middle and wide on the outside, that you find in an ancient bell tower.

Valentina does some maths.

So far, she’s come down more than a hundred steps.

That’s useful information.

As a cop, she’s walked the floors of many hotels during surveillance operations, and a hundred and fifty regular steps equals about five floors of the average hotel.

That’s deep.

And they’re still descending.

She just hopes there’s a big bed, flat-screen TV and heavily stocked minibar at the end of it all.

Fat chance.

Twenty steps later, the journey ends.

She can hear people around her sighing in relief.

‘Can I take that thing off her head now?’ asks the kind one. ‘She must be dying from the heat.’

Someone must okay it, because Valentina feels hands working on the coat belt pulled around her neck.

It’s off.

Valentina feels good. She inhales the cool air and does her best not to look frightened or flustered. If she appears relaxed, then it will make them relax, and relaxed criminals often make mistakes.

By the look of it, they’re in some kind of wine cellar.

A large open space with little gated alcoves.

Valentina realises her first impression is wrong.

Very wrong.

The place is lit by old-fashioned torches, burning in special metal holders on the walls, and the gated alcoves aren’t gated alcoves at all.

They’re cells.

Off to her left, she spots a child in what looks like a white nightdress, curled up on the floor near the bars of one of the cells.

For the first time, she starts to panic.

There’s no way that they’re going to let her see this and then allow her to go free.

No way on earth.

Once Louisa is out of his office, Lorenzo Silvestri speaks more openly to Federico. ‘We’ve issued alerts for your captain, but so far there’s no trace of her. Are you sure she went into the church after she left you at the car?’

‘Pretty certain. I waited as she asked me to, and I watched her go through the courtyard and head to the fountain. I couldn’t see beyond there.’

‘Then you drove off?’

‘Yes. That’s what she wanted me to do. I guess she thought the rain would be a good excuse for me to be in the car and not at the fountain. She probably figured that would buy her and Tom time to get to Louisa.’

‘From all accounts it seems this Tom put on a good show,’ observes Lorenzo. ‘You said he is her partner?’

Federico feels awkward. ‘Yes, sir, they go back to when Captain Morassi was based in Venice. I think they’ve been friends for a long time.’

The major is more interested in the logistics of what happened than in their social lives. ‘Just a shame they didn’t stay together outside Santa Cecilia instead of Morassi compromising herself by going into the church alone.’

Federico feels guilty that he was stranded in the car as the decoy while all hell was breaking loose. ‘Sir, if they’re still holding her, do you think it’s likely to be in the same place they kept Louisa?’

‘That’s logical. Let’s hope they only have one underground playpen, or else we’re in trouble. Rome is a big city.’

Federico can’t help but ask the question: ‘Do you think she’s still alive?’

‘There’s a good chance. She was no doubt taken because they think she can help them get to Anna, but we have to be realistic. Once they realise they’ve been tricked, your captain becomes a real problem. A problem they will have to get rid of.’

Federico’s phone rings.

‘Take it,’ says Lorenzo.

He fishes his cell out of his pocket. ‘ Pronto.’

‘Federico, this is Tom, Tom Shaman.’

‘Tom, hang on, let me put you on speakerphone.’ He fiddles with the function and holds the phone between himself and Lorenzo. ‘This is Valentina’s partner.’ He places the phone in the middle of the major’s desk. ‘Tom, I’m in a room with Major Silvestri from the Carabinieri’s special operations unit. They were called in to take control of the operation at Santa Cecilia.’

Tom’s a little thrown that Federico is not on his own. ‘Okay.’

‘Have you heard from Valentina?’ asks Federico.

His spirits fall. ‘That’s what I was calling you about. Is she not with you?’

‘No.’

‘Tom, this is Lorenzo Silvestri. We’re searching for her. Where are you at the moment? Can you come and talk to us?’

Tom is reluctant to do that. The Carabinieri suspended Valentina, so he’s not entirely sure he can trust them. There’s also the fact that the man next to him left his knife sticking in the heart of one of Louisa’s kidnappers. ‘I’m across town; I’m not quite sure where, to be honest.’

‘That’s not a problem. We’re on Via di Ponte Salario, a little north of Villa Borghese. We’d like you to come over here as quickly as possible to help us find Valentina.’

Tom covers the mouthpiece so his answer is muffled. ‘I’m sorry, Major, I’m having trouble hearing you. I’ll call back.’

The line goes dead.

Lorenzo leans across the table and flicks the phone towards Federico. ‘Call him back straight away.’

Federico picks it up, searches the call log for the last received number and dials it.

‘Straight to voicemail,’ he says.

Lorenzo looks annoyed. ‘We have to talk to this guy, urgently.’ He shoots Federico a stern look. ‘We’ve got a dead body on the ground near the church. Could he have done that?’

‘I’m not sure. He’s a big guy and he’s handy enough, but he doesn’t strike me as the violent type.’

Lorenzo’s not so sure. ‘Paramedics pulled a knife out of the dead guy’s heart. Did you ever see Tom carry a weapon?’