Viper

10

I Quartieri Spagnoli, Napoli One-week-old Alicia Madonna Galotti screamed at the top of her tiny lungs as new aunt, Alberta, took her from her mother and gently rocked her.

The 38-year-old shushed her sister's baby, then raised the tiny head in the palm of her left hand and lovingly kissed it. Babies smelled so good. Well, at least they did when they'd just been washed and powdered. The child's skin was wonderfully wrinkled. As soft and warm as velvet. She had pale hazelnut eyes, the colour of the teddy bear that Alberta Tortoricci had brought her, along with three irresistible dresses and a gel teething ring. Alberta stroked a fuzz of jet-black hair that would one day cascade through the hands of besotted boys who would pledge their lives to her. Or, at least, that's what Alberta hoped as she sat in her sister's lounge. During the five years she'd been in the witness protection programme, set up for her since Bruno Valsi's conviction, she'd only visited once. Such isolation made her feel like she'd been punished for her bravery. Alberta had been a junior partner in one of the city's oldest accounting and auditing firms. She'd made the near fatal mistake of turning to the police when her bosses had refused to explain, or let her correct, a series of worrying entries in the books of several Finelli businesses. Her diligence had put her at risk and, on one occasion, brought her face-to-face with Valsi. Playing with a cut-throat razor in his hand, he'd told her that there was no point her having a good head for figures if he had to hack it off and feed it to a pen of pigs.

'I think Mamma should have you back, my darling.' Alberta surrendered the still crying child to Pia.

'She'll get used to you,' replied her younger sister, glancing at her watch and then immediately putting the child to her left breast.

Alberta flinched as she watched the greedy baby latch itself into position. 'Doesn't that hurt?'

'A little. Sometimes she gets too eager and chews with her gums.'

'Oh, my God! It's too painful to even think about.' Alberta rubbed her own breast as though she could physically feel the pain. 'I think I'll go for a cigarette.'

Pia thought of saying something but checked herself. She'd only managed to kick the habit after she'd found out she was pregnant, so she knew she didn't really have the right to preach. She smiled dotingly at her baby as her sister grabbed her coat and headed outside.

The street was short and filled with cheap apartments that wouldn't argue at being called slums. The Spanish Quarter had beautiful historic homes but they were not in the area where Pia lived. The engine of an unmarked police Fiat idled not far from the front door, two cops in the front, as always, drinking coffee, eating junk and chain-smoking. For once they were early. It made a change. She lit up and smiled at them; the driver raised a hand in acknowledgement, blue-grey smoke clouding his face.

Alicia Madonna was beautiful. If Alberta had a child, she wanted it to be exactly like her niece. Though, given the state of her life, she knew there was little chance of her meeting someone and settling down.

The driver's door of the Fiat opened and a detective waved her over. Dangling from his right hand was a police radio, pulled tight on a coil of black curly wire attached to the dashboard. Alberta saw a dozen cops a week, and they all had that same edgy, scruffy look to them. She'd liked the one who had driven her over from Assisi, where she'd been relocated after the Valsi trial. His name was Dario and he'd been as big as a house and smelled of pine and fruit. This new one looked similar but had an even nicer smile and wore old-fashioned Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses. It made him look like a tall Tom Cruise from his Top Gun days.

'Buon giorno, mi chiamo Satriano, Detective Paolo Satriano. My Capitano needs to talk to you.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'We have a little problem with your transport.'

'What do I do?' asked Alberta, staring at the police radio he put in her hand.

'You press here. Keep it pressed while you talk.' He created a burst of static as he showed her how to click a button on the side. 'Please sit in the vehicle, so you can hear through the speaker.'

Alberta slid into the driver's seat, noticing the cop's eyes roam over her legs as she adjusted her skirt and squeezed in.

He smiled politely and closed the door. Not as handsome as the last cop she'd seen, but that smile already had her hooked.

'Pronto? ' she said, holding down the button in the way he'd shown her.

It didn't work.

The radio was a fake.

So too was the policeman.

The driver leaned against the car door and drew on his cigarette. His big frame blocked any view from outside. In the same movement, a hand snaked from the rear seat and clamped across Alberta's mouth. Simultaneously, the other man in the passenger seat slid out a gun, clicked off the safety and pushed it into her stomach.