Spider

54

Rome By the time Orsetta and Massimo arrived at their office, Jack was already en route to New York. The concierge at the hotel had managed to get him one of the few remaining seats on the 9.55 a.m. Lufthansa flight from Rome's Fiumicino airport. It wasn't going to be the best of journeys; Jack topped six foot and squeezing into Economy was one of his pet hates. To make matters worse, he had to change planes at Dusseldorf and make the last leg of the long haul also in 'cattle class'. Orsetta and Massimo learned all this from the various messages he left on their answerphones. Just before boarding, he'd called Nancy and told her where he was heading and not to worry if she didn't get calls at the times he'd promised. He'd been encouraged by how understanding she'd been. He also managed a brief chat with Massimo, during which he'd told him more about the breaking news on BRK and the reason why he had to leave so suddenly.

Orsetta sat in her boss's office leaning her elbows on his giant desk. They both cradled espressos and discussed their disappointment at Jack's departure.

Massimo resisted lighting a cigarette to go with his coffee, his new pledge to himself being not to smoke before lunchtime. He tapped the desk with his finger, as though he were banging ash from it. 'Orsetta, I am hoping that Jack is right and that the murder of Cristina Barbuggiani is just a cruel decoy, but it is not a risk we can afford to take. When Benito comes in, we must impress upon him that our own investigations must remain fully focused. I do not want everyone sitting back and thinking the ball is now in the Americans' side of the court. That might be a tragic mistake to make.'

Orsetta was ahead of him. 'I spoke yesterday to the murder squad in Livorno and they are a determined team. I know the officer in charge, Marco Rem Picci, and he is not the kind to allow anyone to relax and do nothing.'

'Good,' said Massimo, the tension of the case showing in his red-rimmed eyes. 'Almost every day now I have phone calls or e-mails from the Prime Minister's office, the Minister of the Interior, the head of the Polizia Scientifica, the Direzione Centrale Anticrimine della Polizia di Stato and even the damn Chief of Police wanting to know what progress we are making.' He threw his hands up to show his exasperation. 'Hopefully this development in America will take a little heat off us for a while.'

Orsetta finished her espresso and drank water to take the bitterness away. She wanted to press on with the case more than anyone else, this was the biggest investigation she'd ever been involved in, and as far as she was concerned, it was just starting, not winding down. 'I'd like to go ahead with the 3D reconstruction of the crime scene. Can you authorize payment and access?'

For some years, the Italian police had been nurturing the use of a sophisticated computer system that reproduced crime scenes with startling realism, recreating everything from the path of a bullet to the movement of a corpse.

'Call RiTriDEC and tell them to go ahead. I will have the paperwork with them by early afternoon,' said Massimo, referring to the special laboratory in Rome known as the Ricostruzione Tridimensionale della Dinamica dell'Evento Criminale.

Orsetta was a big fan of the system. It worked by devouring all the crime scene data available, everything from traffic-camera video footage to the measurements a pathologist might make during an autopsy. Once everything was fed in, it would recreate crime scenes in 3D pictures on giant video screens in a special theatre. Experts like Orsetta were then able to examine the pictures, almost like art critics, studying every screen pixel for a clue that might lead them to their killer.

Massimo called her to the other side of his desk. 'Benito has patched through an FBI feed of the video footage that Jack spoke about. I have it now on the computer.'

Neither of them spoke as they watched Tariq el Daher's report. Orsetta made notes and was the first to break the silence. 'Just because there's a copy of USA Today in that video it doesn't mean the location is in America. You can pick that paper up in a hundred places in Rome.'

'Or indeed on a plane landing in Rome,' added Massimo. 'Jack might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wish we could have discussed this with him.'

Orsetta nodded. She felt exactly the same way. As far as she was concerned, Jack King and the FBI were still ignoring the elephant in the room.