“He might be dead to his brother,” said Nikki. “But he’s alive, and he still knows people. That’s how I knew where to find you. He says he has information for you.”
“Where is he now?”
“Outside the gate.”
—
They didn’t require Federico to undress, as they had Nikki. The old man took unsteady, loping strides as he followed the gate guard down the path.
Federico glanced briefly at Nikki, seeming unsurprised to see her stripped.
He turned to De Rosa.
“Are Calandra and my brother still trying to kill each other?”
The hint of a smile played on De Rosa’s crooked lips. “What have you heard, old man?”
“Luca broke the truce when he tried to have Calandra killed. You must have known he would. He’s a malignant fuck. Ambitious. And Calandra’s standing in his way. If you let him think he’s won, he’ll only get more vicious.”
“You’re well informed,” said De Rosa.
“Be informed, or be dead,” said Federico.
“Anything else I should know?” asked De Rosa.
“Just suspicions.”
“Such as?”
“I suspect Luca’s made friends with some big dogs,” said Federico. “He doesn’t have the teeth to attack Calandra on his own.”
De Rosa leaned back and tapped on the glass window behind him. His beautiful young companion came to the door, and stuck his head out.
“Bring me my phone,” said De Rosa.
—
When the young man returned with the phone, De Rosa scrolled through, and handed it to Federico.
“You know this man?”
Federico examined the screen, then shook his head. “I don’t know anyone anymore. I just talk to old friends sometimes.”
Federico looked at Nikki. “Ask her.”
“I’ve already asked Signorina Serafino to look,” said De Rosa. “She doesn’t wish to be contaminated with our business.”
Nikki remembered De Rosa in the dark and rain, outside the studio, holding out his phone, and her desperate compulsion to look away. She didn’t want to see, to know. But closing her eyes to the reality hadn’t helped her.
Federico clucked his tongue. “Try to stay out of it…try to stay out and it pulls you back in.”
The city’s entrenched criminal systems were terrifying: a reef beneath black waters, impossible to navigate without knowing where to look. It could break you into pieces. Maybe somewhere, right now, Valerio had wrecked against this hidden hazard. If she could feel along the edges, map its shape, maybe she stood a chance of finding a way through—like Federico had.
Nikki put out her hand. “Show me.”
—
The picture was a still from a CCTV camera, in black and white: a man wearing a Kevlar vest and carrying an assault rifle. Immediately, she recognized the white hair and cold eyes of il Fantasma.
