The Rome Prophecy

61

The room is so filthy, Tom and Valentina have spent the last few hours scratching or sneezing.

Their arms are still wrapped around each other as morning creeps icily through the gaps in the ragged curtains and beneath the ill-fitting bedroom door.

They’re huddled together, still dressed, on a stained mattress smelling of strangers long since gone.

They were both so tired when they got back from the hospital they just curled up tight and fell asleep.

Through the haze of waking, Valentina peers for her Mickey clock on the bedside cabinet, and realises it’s not there. A grim reminder – not that she needs one – of the blaze that destroyed her apartment, robbed her of parts of her own past and almost cost her a precious part of her future too.

She kisses Tom until he wakes. ‘Come on,’ she says softly, ‘let’s make love in the shower, then get out of here and find some breakfast.’

He’s still not ready to open his eyes. ‘God, woman, you’re insatiable. Is there not just time for me to wake first?’

She slides her body on top of his. ‘Nope. I’ll wake you in the shower.’

And she does.

She wakes him so well that neither of them complains about the barely warm drizzle that oozes painfully from a filthy shower caked in limescale.

A five-minute drive, just after eight a.m., finds them a bar that’s already filled with locals bolting espresso like shots of vodka before rushing off to work.

Valentina plates up croissants, jam, cheese, fruit, water and coffee. She pays, and joins Tom at a table in the corner beneath an overhead heater that sounds like it’s on its last legs. ‘I’m starving,’ she says, grabbing a croissant before she’s even sat down.

Tom takes everything off the old brown tray and slides it on to a spare table so they have more room. ‘I hope today isn’t quite as eventful as yesterday.’

‘I’ll drink to that.’ She takes a slug of coffee and then looks straight into his eyes. ‘Before we talk work – all the nasty shit – I need to tell you something.’

‘What?’

She leans forward so that she can whisper. ‘I want to say that not only are you the best lover I’ve ever had, but I’ve never been happier in my life than I am right here, right now, with you.’

The sweetness catches Tom off guard.

He puts a hand to her beautiful face and kisses her a little longer than suitable for a public place.

What she said was a code for ‘I love you’ and he knows it. He just wishes he was more confident, more practised in expressing his own feelings, but he isn’t. It’s the price he has to pay for too many years as a priest.

A few ironic claps splatter across the tabletops around them.

‘I’m very happy as well,’ manages Tom.

Valentina blushes. ‘I can tell from that kiss.’

They both laugh and reach for their coffees.

Tom drains the last of his espresso and changes the subject.

‘What are your plans for today?’

‘Well, providing you don’t get us arrested, when we’re finished here I’ll call Federico and see what he got from the guy we arrested at the apartment last night. After that, I want to re-interview Suzanna.’ She corrects herself. ‘Sorry, Anna. And I’d like you to be there for that.’

‘Me? Why?’

‘Professional reasons.’ She smiles. ‘Or maybe I just don’t want to leave you today. I want you on hand for my personal satisfaction.’

‘And what if I don’t want to satisfy you?’ He picks up a croissant and a small pot of strawberry jam.

‘Then you’re dumped. History. Gone. I’ll even throw you out of that palace we slept in last night.’

He scoops jam on to his plate and scrubs the end of the croissant in it. ‘And that’s supposed to be a threat?’

She laughs. ‘No, seriously, this case obviously has some confusing religious dimensions. It would be good to have you around to make sense of them.’

‘Glad to help in any way I can.’

Valentina hesitates for a moment. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to pay you – you know, like we did in Venice.’ She struggles to explain. ‘Given our relationship, I’m worried it might seem a little – corrupt.’

He sees her point. ‘It’s really not necessary. I’ll settle for sleeping with the boss.’

‘Deal.’ She drinks some water. ‘While we’re seeing Anna, I’ll have Federico run background checks on her – medical, criminal, social records, et cetera. We need to find out where she works, where she gets her money from, who she knows and who knows her.’

‘And who’s scaring her so much she has to rest in a bed of bibles.’

‘Exactly.’ Valentina forks a slice of cheese on to her plate. ‘I really want to go through the diaries we found at her apartment. I told Louisa about them last night when you were sleeping. She says they’re probably life logs – a sort of diary kept by each of the alters. I’ll try to get her opinion on those too.’

‘Have you thought about the fire – who might have done it?’

Valentina has. Long and hard. She plays down what she really thinks. ‘Someone who had a grudge against whoever lived there before I did? Maybe they owed money or had crossed some mafioso. Or it could be lunatic teenagers; vandals these days are pazzo.’

‘That’s not who did it.’

‘Or maybe the owner of the building, wanting to cash in on insurance.’

‘That’s not it either.’

She knows he’s right.

Tom stretches his hand across the table and takes hers. ‘Whoever started it wanted to kill you. They wanted you dead so you wouldn’t uncover some nasty secret to do with this case.’

‘That might not be true.’ She squeezes his fingers.

‘I think you know it is.’

She has no option but to put him right.

‘What if it’s not? What if it’s you they were trying to kill, and not me?’