The same fucking kid who came to the church earlier.
He hasn’t learned his lesson and I should've cut him out when I had the chance.
"There," I say to Rico. "Follow me."
It takes a second to clear the crowd, all pressing in to see the dead man, but we push through and head toward the alley.
The killer sees us coming and breaks into a run, vaulting over a low barrier and disappearing into the maze of streets behind the square.
I follow and Rico stays close behind me.
The alley's narrow and dark with buildings pressing in on both sides.
The cobblestones are slick from rain earlier in the evening, and I almost lose my footing a few times in these dress shoes.
It's dark, and I think we've lost him, but a flash of his white shirt catches my eye and I see where he's gone.
The killer takes a sharp turn to the left.
I follow and see him scrambling over a stack of wooden crates.
He reaches the top and jumps down on the other side.
His phone falls from his pocket and clatters onto the stones, but he doesn't stop to retrieve it.
He just keeps running.
I climb over the crates and grab the phone.
Then I look up and see the killer disappearing around another corner.
I can't even keep up anymore.
I'm winded, exhausted from the constant barrage of stress, and with his phone I may have everything I need to find out where Gerard is and shut him down.
"Let him go," I tell Rico. "He's a waste of energy…" I'm huffing, sucking in air like it's a precious gem, and Rico gives me a lookthat says he's displeased with my decision, but he stops and stays with me.
We turn and make our way back through the alley toward the square where sirens wail in the distance.
The police are on their way to investigate the body.
We need to leave before they arrive and start asking questions.
We reach the car and Rico drives us away from the Pantheon.
I unlock the phone with a simple swipe to find no password.
The killer was careless.
I scroll through the recent calls and messages.
Most of them are in Italian but a few are in Turkish.
Then I find three voice messages exchanged between two contacts.
I recognize Kemal's number clearly as if this were my own cell phone.
What the hell were they calling him for?
