Valerio was surprised.
“Jayston Lake was involved with Luca?” he asked.
Nikki nodded. “Lake laundered money for Errichiello and was also a beneficiary of Silvestri and Errichiello’s real business: blackmail. They generated a portfolio of corrupt politicians, cops, magistrates…every one of them with an incentive to do favors…to shut down investigations.”
Luca had meant to use Valerio in the same way, but Valerio hadn’t guessed that he was merely another cog in the enormous blackmail machine.
“That’s why Lake killed her,” Valerio said.
“She hadn’t realized Lake was involved,” Sonia said. “She’d found blackmail on Henry Antonov’s computer—the ship’s captain. She wanted Lake to take the files to the police. When he refused, she ran away.”
“Why didn’t she go to the police directly?” Valerio asked.
“Her brother had put her up to it,” Nikki explained. “Teddy Sexton and his friend, Kevin Walker, wanted Lake to invest in their business—they were using Claire to find information to pressure him. They didn’t understand the extent of what she’d uncovered about Lake andAntonov. Teddy convinced her to wait. That was why Kevin Walker came to Naples. He was supposed to meet Claire in Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo—to talk to Lake with her. But he was late, and Claire met Lake on her own.”
“Lake met her to retrieve the data,” Valerio said.
Nikki nodded. “But Jayston didn’t realize that Claire wasn’t carrying the information with her. She’d stashed it before their meeting.”
“Did you recover it?”
“Signora Dorotea had it,” Nikki said. “She’d taken Claire’s bag after Claire went into the cathedral. She stored Claire’s thumb drive and Fiona Lake’s jewelry in a votive shrine near Montesanto—where she kept her treasures. Lake didn’t find it when he tracked her down and killed her. It wasn’t with the bag.”
“The electronics had some water damage,” said Sonia. “But Claire made a backup—on her brother’s encrypted MindCapsule service. Teddy Sexton is cooperating with police, so we’ve been able to get the files. They expose twelve corrupt cops and regulators and magistrates in Italy and the UK who aided Lake in his business. Arrest warrants were issued this morning.”
Valerio rubbed a hand gently across his bruised face.
“Twelve? That’s all?” He hesitated. “I mean, it’s a lot—but it must be only a fraction of Errichiello’s business.”
“Antonov must have been given only the files he needed,” Sonia said. “There are more out there…hundreds, maybe even thousands.”
Valerio considered this. Luca had been operating for decades, building a formidable network of favors and blackmail. But if he wasn’t the man in charge, Luca’s death didn’t stop the blackmail. The corruption in the police and with the politicians and judges would continue as invisibly as before.
The shepherd was still out there, still pushing the buttons.
Valerio didn’t want to talk about it with any of his colleagues until he knew whom to trust.
“We have enough to keep us busy for years,” Sonia said. “It will be good to have you back to help, Valerio.”
He was getting tired, the pain worsening, but he didn’t want Nikki or Sonia to leave just yet. And he had one more question.
“Have you found Ravenna’s mother? Family?” he asked.
“She had a lot of friends,” said Sonia. “But we can’t find any family.”
He didn’t want to think about Ravenna. She seemed close—a breath away—her death prying open a desperation and violent ache that he didn’t understand. He hadn’t known her. Not really. Only for a few days. But there was a sense of knowing, of intimacy, that went deeper than he had any right to claim. She’d passed into his heart so effortlessly, building a home inside him. He hadn’t even understood she was there until that bright light flickered out, leaving him in darkness.
—
He’d drifted again, Valerio realized, coming painfully back into the moment, Nikki and Sonia looking at him.
“We should let you rest,” said Sonia.
They stood.
“Let’s go sailing,” said Nikki. “When you’re feeling up to it again.Calypso’s waiting—ready when you are.”
The thought seemed to comfort him.
