James Twining - The Geneva Deception

‘What sort of people?’ Allegra pressed.

‘People he helped to evade tax and launder money. People who had relied on him to help fund their political campaigns. People who had profited from the sale of tens of millions of dollars in looted antiquities. Important people. People who couldn’t risk Santos going down and taking them with him.’

‘So these…people-they’re why you helped him get away?’ Allegra’s voice was heavy with an air of resigned disgust. ‘They’re why you watched him try to kill us.’

‘He wanted it to look as though he’d had to shoot his way out,’ said Gallo. ‘I didn’t know he was going to throw…that was…wrong.’

‘ Wrong? ’ Tom repeated with a hollow laugh.

‘How long has he had you on a leash?’ Allegra asked. ‘Since Cavalli was killed? Before?’

‘I didn’t even know who Cavalli was until I was put on to the Ricci case,’ Gallo turned to face them again, pressing his back against the parapet. ‘I don’t think Santos did either. But when Argento was killed, Santos grew worried that I might somehow connect the murders back to him or the Delian League. So he made some calls.’

‘Who to?’ Tom asked.

‘I’ve already told you’-Gallo shrugged-‘People. All I know is that, when my orders came, they came from the top. The very top. Protect Santos. Keep a lid on things. Stop the case spiralling out of control.’

‘What about Gambetta?’ Allegra said sharply. ‘Did they tell you to kill him too?’

‘I did what I had to do,’ Gallo said defiantly. ‘Santos had offered us a deal. Cavalli’s watch in return for keeping a lid on everything he knew and a promise to leave the country by the end of the week. Gambetta was an old fool who was never going to keep quiet about evidence going missing or how clever he’d been in linking all the murders together. He was a necessary sacrifice.’ A pause. ‘He’s not the first person to have died for his country.’

‘A necessary sacrifice?’ Allegra shook her head in disgust, a fist of anger clenching her stomach. ‘This has nothing to do with patriotism. This is about rich, powerful people doing whatever it takes to protect themselves. This is about murder. You killed Gambetta for doing his job.’

‘You don’t understand,’ Gallo shot back. ‘I had my orders. The things Santos knows…this was a matter of national security. He was to be protected at all costs. I had no choice.’

‘You had a choice,’ Allegra insisted. ‘You just chose not to make it. You killed a man and framed me for it.’

‘I was trying to protect you.’

‘From what?’

‘Santos found out you were asking questions about the Delian League. He wanted you dealt with. Why else do you think De Luca picked you up? I thought that if I blamed you for the killing and got your face in the papers, I might find you before he did. I was never planning to… Look, maybe it was wrong of me. But you’ll get a full retraction, an apology, your choice of assignments-’

‘You disgust me. You and whoever it is that can decide that an old man should die to stop someone like Santos being caught.’

‘I love my country,’ Gallo insisted. ‘I did what I had to do to protect it, and I’d do the same again. Anyway, I tried to put things right.’

‘How? With that little show you and Santos put on tonight?’

‘By saving you.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Tom challenged him. ‘Saving us from what?’

‘Who do you think dug you out of that tomb?’

‘That was you?’ Allegra swapped a glance with Tom, almost not wanting to believe him. Anything to avoid feeling that she might in some way owe him something.

‘How did you find us?’

‘I had a back-up team watching Eco. They picked you up coming out of the gallery and followed you to where De Luca snatched you up and then out to Contarelli’s farmhouse. I sent my men in as soon as I could. Luckily, they weren’t too late.’

‘Luckily,’ Allegra repeated in a sarcastic tone, the thought of the plastic bag slick and tight against her lips still making her stomach turn.

‘So it was you that fed us the information about D’Arcy?’

‘I knew that he worked for De Luca,’ Gallo nodded. ‘So when I heard about the fire and that he’d gone missing, I realised it was probably connected. The problem was that I didn’t have the jurisdiction to investigate. Luckily for me, I’d seen enough of Allegra to know that, if I gave her the option, she’d follow up the lead herself rather than walk away.’

There was a long silence, Gallo glancing at each of them in turn with a look that threatened to veer into an apology, although Allegra knew that he’d never allow himself to actually say anything.

‘So what happens to Santos now?’ she asked eventually.

‘He sells the painting and leaves the country. As long as he never comes back, we forget about him and move on. Let him become someone else’s problem.’

‘And the Banco Rosalia?’

Gallo laughed.

‘The Banco Rosalia is bankrupt. That’s why he had to make a move for the painting. It was his last chance to get out with something before the news broke. Not that it ever will. The government and the Vatican have already agreed to jointly underwrite the losses and quietly wind the business down to avoid any bad press. No one will ever know a thing.’

Allegra shook her head angrily, her jaw clenching and throat tightening. The hypocrisy and injustice of a world where a murderer like Santos was allowed to go free to protect a cabal of corrupt politicians and God-knows who else, while Gambetta was…it made her feel dirty.

‘What about De Luca and Faulks? Aren’t you going to charge them?’ Tom asked hopefully.

‘What with?’ Gallo shrugged. ‘We know what Faulks does, but we’ve never had any proof that he’s broken an Italian law on Italian soil. And as for De Luca…’

‘Colonel!’ He was interrupted by an officer signalling urgently from the end of the bridge. ‘We’ve found them.’

Via Appia Antica, Rome

21 March-12.29 a.m.

Sirens blaring, they swept through the city, outriders clearing their path, people pointing and staring. Twenty minutes later they reached the Via Appia Antica where curious faces were replaced by the sombre countenance of the Roman funerary monuments that, like foxes pinned down by their headlights, momentarily reared out of the darkness, only to slink away as soon as they had raced past.

‘A local patrol unit ran their plates as they came past,’ Gallo explained over the noise of the engine as soon as he had finished his call. ‘They came up registered to a vehicle stolen last week in Milan. When they tried to stop them, the driver lost control and rolled it into a tree.’

Peering through the seats in front of her, Allegra could see a faint glow on the horizon, a red hue with a blue-edged tint. She looked across to Tom, who gave her an encouraging smile and then reached for her hand. She understood what he was trying to tell her. That this was nearly all over. That they’d almost won.

There were two fire crews on the scene but they were holding back, their flaccid hoses lying uncoiled at their feet.

‘The fuel tank could go at any moment and there’s no danger of it spreading,’ one of the crew explained to Gallo. ‘We’re just going to let it die down a bit.’

Allegra led Tom to the edge of the semi-circle of policemen and passers-by that had formed around the burning ambulance like kids at a bonfire, the heat from the flames searing her cheeks. Deep ruts in the verge showed where the vehicle had careered off the road and into a ditch, a partially uprooted tree explaining why it hadn’t continued on into the field that lay on the other side of the hedge. One of the wheels was on fire and still slowly turning.