Jeffery Deaver: The Burial Hour

‘My computer?’ Stefan asked.

The officer said, in fair English, ‘It was with the items stolen from the file room. It is gone.’

Rhyme was watching McKenzie’s eyes. No reaction whatsoever at this reference to the theft of the evidence against them.

Stefan grimaced. ‘My files, the sounds I’ve collected here. All gone?’

McKenzie touched his arm. ‘Everything’s backed up, Stefan. Remember.’

‘Not Lilly. In the cemetery. Tap, tap, tap...’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

The officer said, ‘Arrivederci.’ His tone was not unfriendly. He returned to his car and sped off.

Stefan focused on those around him now and walked up to Rhyme. ‘I was thinking about you, sir. Last night.’

‘Yes?’

He smiled, genuine curiosity on his face. ‘With your disability, your condition, do you think you hear things better? Sort of like compensation, I mean.’

Rhyme said, ‘I’ve thought about that. I’m not aware of any experiments but, anecdotally, yes, I think I do. When someone walks into my town house I know them instantly from the sound, if I’ve heard them before. And, if not, I can tell height from the length of time between steps.’

‘The interval, yes. Very important. And sole of shoe and weight too.’

‘That might be beyond me,’ Rhyme said.

‘You could learn.’ Stefan offered a shy smile, stepped into the SUV and moved over to the far seat.

McKenzie began to climb in too, then turned to Rhyme. ‘We’re doing good things. We’re saving lives. And we’re doing that in a humane way.’

To Rhyme, this was as pointless a comment as could be.

He said nothing in reply. The SUV door closed and the vehicle eased away: Charlotte McKenzie to return to her world of theatrical espionage, Stefan to his new hospital, where — Rhyme hoped — he would find harmony in the music of the spheres.

Rhyme turned to Thom and Sachs. ‘Ah, look, across the street. It’s our coffee shop. And what does that mean? It’s time for a grappa.’

At six that evening Lincoln Rhyme was in their suite at the Grand Hotel di Napoli.

His phone hummed. He debated and took the call.

Dante Spiro. He suggested they meet in an hour to discuss their gladiatorial contest, the extradition motion.

Rhyme agreed and the prosecutor gave them an address.

Thom fetched the van, plugged in the GPS and soon they were cruising through the countryside outside Naples — a route that took them, coincidentally, past the airport and the sprawling Capodichino refugee camp. At this time of night, twilight, the place exuded the ambience of a vast, medieval village, as it might have existed when Naples was its own kingdom in the fourteenth century (Ercole Benelli, Forestry officer and tour guide, had explained this). Perhaps the only differences were that now the flickers of light came not from smoky, sputtering fires but the many handheld screens, small and smaller, as the refugees texted or talked to friends, to family, to their overburdened lawyers, to the world. Or perhaps they were simply watching Tunisian or Libyan... or Italian soccer.

The place Spiro had chosen for the meeting was not a hotel conference room or even the prosecutor’s own villa. Their destination was a rustic restaurant, ancient but easily accessible for Rhyme’s chair. The owner and his wife, both stocky forty-somethings, both immensely cheerful, were honored to have esteemed American guests of this sort. That the fame was B list — not movie stars, not sports figures — did little to dim their excitement.

The husband shyly brought out an Italian-language edition of a book about Rhyme — detailing his hunt for a killer known as the Bone Collector.

That overblown thing?

‘Rhyme,’ Sachs admonished in his ear, noting his expression.

‘I’d be delighted,’ he said enthusiastically and did the autograph thing; his surgically enabled hand actually produced a better signature than his natural fingers had, before his accident.

Spiro, Sachs and Rhyme sat at a table before a massive stone fireplace — unlit at the moment — while the owners took Thom, the only cook among them, on a tour of the kitchen, which was not accessible.

A server, a lively young woman with flowing jet-black hair, greeted them. Spiro ordered wine: a full-bodied red, Taurasi, which he and Rhyme had. Sachs asked for a white and was given a Greco di Tufo.

When the glasses came, Spiro offered a toast, saying in a rather ominous tone, ‘To truth. And rooting it out.’

They sipped the wine. Rhyme was impressed and would tell Thom to remember the name of the red.

Spiro lit his cheroot — a violation of the law but then again he was Dante Spiro. ‘Now, let me explain what I have planned for our meeting this evening. We will conduct our business regarding the extradition and, if we are still speaking to one another, then dine. My wife will be joining us soon. And another guest too. The menu I think you will enjoy. This restaurant is unique. They raise or grow everything here, except for the fish — though the owner’s sons do catch it themselves. The place is completely self-sufficient. Even these wines come from their own vineyards. We will start with some salami and prosciutto. Our next course will be paccheri pasta. Made from durum flour. Hard flour. It is the best.’

‘Like the Campania mozzarella is the best,’ Sachs said, with a smile that was both wry and sincere.

‘ Exactly like the cheese, Detective. The best in Italy. Now, accenting the pasta, the sauce will be ragù , of course. And then branzino fish, grilled with oil and rosemary and lemon only, and to accompany: zucchini, fried, and served with vinegar and mint. Finally, una insalata of incappucciata, a local lettuce that you will find heavenly. Dolce will be, as it must, sfogliatelle, the shell-shaped pastry that Naples gave to the world.’

‘Not for me,’ Rhyme said. ‘But perhaps grappa.’

‘Not perhaps. Definitely. And they have a fine selection here. We can try distillato too. Distilled wine. They have here my favorite, Capovilla. It is from Veneto, in the north. It is superb. But that will be for after the meal.’

The server refilled the wineglasses, as Spiro directed.

Sachs eyed the prosecutor warily.

He laughed. ‘No, I’m not trying to “liquor you down.”’

‘“Up,”’ she corrected.

Spiro said, ‘I must change that in my Western novel.’ He actually made a note, using his phone. He set it down and placed his hands flat on the table. ‘Now, obviously, we are opponents once again.’

Rhyme said, ‘When it comes to negotiation about legal issues, I have no say in the matter. I’m a civilian. A consultant. My Sachs here is an officer of the law. She’s the one who pitches the case to the powers that be in New York. And of course, there will be FBI agents involved, from the field office in Rome. US attorneys too, in the United States.’

‘Ah, a truly formidable army of legal minds I am up against, it seems. But let me state to you my position.’ His narrow, dark eyes aimed their way.

Rhyme glanced at Sachs, who nodded, and he said, ‘You win.’

Spiro blinked. One of the few times since they’d met that he seemed surprised.

‘ Our position is we’re going to recommend against extraditing Mike Hill back to the United States.’

Sachs shrugged. ‘He’s all yours.’

Spiro drew on his cheroot, blew smoke ceilingward. He said nothing, his face revealed nothing.

Rhyme said, ‘Hill is technically in violation of US laws, sure. But the kidnap victims weren’t US citizens. And, yes, he scammed a US intelligence agency but the AIS doesn’t exist, remember? Everything Charlotte McKenzie said was hypothetical. We wouldn’t get very far with that case.’