“Can I help you?”
“Mr. Gambino?”
He exposed his false teeth. “Yes.”
“You called about an emerald bracelet.”
SIFAR. He had been expecting them. But this time he was on the side of the angels. “That’s right. As a patriotic citizen, I felt it was my duty—”
“Cut the bullshit. Who brought it in?”
“A young boy named Carlo.”
“Did he leave the bracelet?”
“No, he took it with him.”
“What’s Carlo’s last name?”
Gambino lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know his last name. He’s one of the boys in the Diavoli Rossi. That’s one of our local gangs. It’s run by a kid named Lucca.”
“Do you know where we can find this Lucca?”
Gambino hesitated. If Lucca found out that he had talked, he would have his tongue cut out. If he did not tell these men what they wanted to know, he would have his brains bashed in. “He lives on Via Sorcella, behind the Piazza Garibaldi.”
“Thank you, Mr. Gambino. You’ve been very helpful.”
“I’m always happy to cooperate with—”
The men were gone.
Lucca was in bed with his girlfriend when the two men shoved open the door to his apartment.
Lucca leapt out of bed. “What the hell is this? Who are you?”
One of the men pulled out his identification.
SIFAR! Lucca swallowed. “Hey, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m a law abiding citizen who—”
“We know that, Lucca. We’re not interested in you. We’re interested in a boy named Carlo.”
Carlo. So that’s what this is about. That fucking bracelet! What the hell had Carlo gotten himself into? SIFAR did not send men around looking for stolen jewelry.
“Well—do you know him or don’t you?”
“I might.”
“If you aren’t sure, we’ll refresh your memory down at headquarters.”
“Wait! I do remember, now,” Lucca said. “You must mean Carlo Valli. What about him?”
“We’d like to have a talk with him. Where does he live?”
Every member of the Diavoli Rossi had to swear a blood oath of loyalty, an oath that they would die before they would betray a fellow member. That was what made the Diavoli Rossi such a great club. They stuck together. One for all and all for one.
“Do you want to take that trip downtown?”
“What for?” Lucca shrugged. He gave them Carlo’s address.
Thirty minutes later, Pier opened the door to find two strangers standing there.
“Signorina Valli?”
Trouble. “Yes.”
“May we come in?”
She wanted to say no, but she did not dare. “Who are you?”
One of the men pulled out a wallet and flashed an identification card. SIFAR. These were not the people she had made her deal with. Pier felt a sense of panic that they were going to try to cheat her out of her reward. “What do you want with me?”
“We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Go ahead. I have nothing to hide.” Thank God, Pier thought, Robert is out. I can still negotiate.
“You drove down from Rome yesterday, didn’t you.” It was a statement.
“Yes. Is that against the law? Was I speeding?”
The man smiled. It did nothing to change the expression on his face. “You had a companion with you?”
Pier answered carefully. “Yes.”
“Who was he, signorina?”
She shrugged. “Some man I picked up on the road. He wanted a ride to Naples.”
The second man asked, “Is he here with you now?”
“I don’t know where he is. I dropped him off when we got into town, and he disappeared.”
“Was your passenger’s name Robert Bellamy?”
She knitted her brow in concentration. “Bellamy? I don’t know. I don’t think he told me his name.”
“Oh, we think he did. He picked you up on the Tor di Ounto, you spent the night with him at the L’Incrocio Hotel, and the next morning he bought you an emerald bracelet. He sent you to some hotels with airline and train tickets, and you rented a car and came down to Naples, right?”
They know everything. Pier nodded, her eyes filled with fear.
“Is your friend coming back, or has he left Naples?”
She hesitated, deciding which was the best answer. If she told them that Robert had left town, they would not believe her anyway. They would wait here at the house, and when he turned up, they could accuse her of lying for him and hold her as an accomplice. She decided that the truth would serve her better. “He’s coming back,” Pier said.