I connected Mo-bot to our call. “Mo, you’re on with me and Justine.”
“I don’t want to intrude, but you need to hear this, Jack. Sci and I have identified the tattoos on the shooter who took his own life. He’s a member of Destini Oscuri, the Dark Fates. It’s a brutal criminal gang that’s engaged in just about everything you can imagine. They operate throughout Rome, but the real power base is in Esquilino, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, near the Colosseum. Sci’s here with me.”
“Hey, Jack,” he said. “Three of his tattoos appeared to have religious significance. We’ve identified two as articles of faith, but we can’t find anything on the third, a Jerusalem Cross which is the traditional symbol of a knight crusader. This one has three inset fleur-de-lys in each point of the cross.”
“I’ll check it out,” I said. “I’m in the right place to find answers on questions about religion.”
“We’ve got more,” Mo-bot revealed. “Your friend Luna Colombo has gone to great lengths to conceal her true identity. Outwardly, she’s an honest cop who lives alone in a tiny apartment not far from the Colosseum and devotes her life to her job. But there have been name changes, sealed records, the kinds of things you can only do with connections to power. Fortunately for you, even the darkest shadows can’t resist my light.”
“Don’t boast,” Sci cut in.
“Why not? It’s part of the fun,” Mo-bot countered. “And it’s no surprise she’s been able to do things other people can’t,” she toldme. “Luna Colombo’s father is Elia Antonelli, one of Rome’s most powerful and notorious mobsters.”
I reeled at the revelation, but as surprising as it was to learn a respected police inspector had an organized crime boss for a father, things suddenly started to make sense. The Pleasure Hall was likely one of her father’s joints, and her secrecy and unwillingness to trust me or her police colleagues was probably rooted in fear of the truth emerging—or, worse, that it had already emerged and marked her out as a target. Had the assassin Mo-bot and Sci identified as a member of the Dark Fates been trying to kill Luna?
“Wow,” I responded.
“Yeah,” Sci said. “A cop with Rome’s kingpin for a dad.”
“Either this wasn’t picked up during vetting, or they’re not strict about family connections here,” I suggested.
“Or dad used his influence to get her on the force,” Justine suggested. “Be very helpful to have a cop you can always count on.”
“I wonder if Matteo knows,” I pondered.
“Hard to say,” Mo-bot responded. “It wasn’t easy to find out. I had to pull copies of old birth records. My guess is he’d only know if she had confided in him.”
“So, she’s connected,” I remarked. “But the question is whether that has any bearing on Brambilla’s murder.”
“You’re going to have to dig,” Sci said.
“First I’ve got to find her,” I replied. “Was she taken because of our investigation? Or because her father is in a beef with someone?”
I was puzzling the angles, trying to figure out how to answer all these questions. Mo-bot’s and Sci’s revelation had added a whole new layer of complexity.
“Let me know if you find anything else,” I said.
“Likewise,” Mo-bot responded. “You have a good night, Jack.”
“Great work. Both of you,” I replied.
“Night,” Sci said, and they hung up.
“I really don’t like how this is going,” Justine observed when we were alone.
“I know. I’ll be careful, and if the going gets too heavy, I’ll ask for the right help.”
She hesitated. I knew she wasn’t happy, but there wasn’t much either of us could do except play the cards we had been dealt.
“I’ll call you as soon as I have news,” I said.
“I love you,” she responded.
“Love you too,” I said, before hanging up.
CHAPTER26
THE THUMPING TECHNO music was turned up just after midnight and its rapid rhythm seemed to rise through the wooden frame of my double bed and set every spring in the mattress dancing. I didn’t mind. I was just grateful to have a safe place to stay. Somewhere I could crash without fear of attack. I checked local TV and Internet news for stories of Luna’s abduction. I’d reported the incident to the police and couldn’t imagine the loss of an inspector would go unremarked, but there was nothing. As far as the world was concerned, Luna Colombo wasn’t worth worrying about. Either that or someone had spiked the report. Given the myriad connections of the key players in this investigation, the possibility wasn’t far-fetched. Brambilla was linked to the highest levels of Vatican authority, and Matteo and Luna had ties to organized crime—Matteo through the Filippo Lombardi investigation and Luna thanks to her father. Any of theseinterest groups could apply pressure to the police to get them to sit on a missing persons report.
