Nikki sidestepped them and, showing her Phoenix Seven identification card, walked through, to the complaining protest of Signora Dorotea.
—
The cathedral was a brutal and imposing structure: a grey stone wall extending along a city block, faced in a bizarre, unrelenting matrix of stone spikes. This was interrupted by three doors, the center door flanked by marble Corinthian columns and draped in police tape.
A pale blue police cruiser was parked in front.
Nikki wasn’t sure exactly why she felt the need to visit now. She’d been in the cathedral enough times to know the place where Claire Sexton had been murdered: the chapel just beyond the western transept. There was probably nothing left to see. Forensics had been collected; the scene combed for evidence and cleaned. But she wanted to fix it in her mind somehow, as if being in the church would give her the chance to talk to the dead woman herself.
She moved towards the uniformed officer in the car and, showing her Phoenix Seven ID card, introduced herself and asked to be let inside.
“Nobody’s allowed,” he said. “You’ll need to ask the officer in charge.”
—
Nikki turned to the center of the piazza, towards the enormous Baroque obelisk, the Guglia dell’Immacolata. Built in the eighteenth century to invoke the Virgin Mary’s protection from the plague, the sides were decorated with saints and scenes from the life of Mary. Atop the column, facing the distant port and sea, stood the Immacolata herself—crowned, in flowing robes.
The place was usually filled with tourists, school groups, beggars, and vendors selling jewelry and flowers and umbrellas. It was empty now, and all the businesses—restaurants, a small bookstore and information booth—closed.
—
She was leaving the piazza when a loud, clear voice called, “You were betrayed!”
Nikki turned and saw the oversize coat and orange scarf of the woman who had been arguing with the police. She was at the base of the obelisk, and unstrapping her stool and table from the cart.
Nikki strode towards her.
“What did you say?”
Signora Dorotea’s bleached hair was styled into large soft curls, her lips bright red. She beckoned with a manicured hand.
“You’re a seeker. Come. I’ll help you find what you’re looking for.”
She began unpacking her cart, hefting two boxes and a sizablecanvas bag onto the cobblestones. Everything was bedecked in ribbons and trinkets: a dozen metal ex-voto cutouts used as offerings in the local churches; hundreds of the red chili-pepper-shaped cornicelli charms, the Neapolitan symbol of good luck and good sex; a plastic figure; and a bright silver talisman with a pair of twined snakes. Dorotea unzipped the canvas bag and rummaged inside, extracting a stack of shabby, damp-looking tarot cards. She snapped off an elastic band, and sat on the stool with a sigh.
“Were you here night before last?” Nikki asked.
“I see it,” said Dorotea. “I don’t ask for this gift. It comes to me. I see things.”
“Did you see the woman who was killed?”
For several seconds Signora Dorotea serenely shuffled and sorted her tarot. Then she spoke in a matter-of-fact singsong: “I know that you’re angry. He betrayed you. He let you think he was different than he was. Perhaps he wanted to be the man you believed. But it was impossible.”
To Nikki’s irritation, the woman’s words triggered an electric chill along her spine. She saw the darkness of the cave, and the face of her former friend Durant Cole in the harsh light of the sizzling red flare.
O my dear Guide, who more than seven times hast rendered me security…do not desert me…
It’s just a fucking trick, she reminded herself, hating the weak, hollow sensation in her chest.
Nikki scoffed, “Does that actually work? Say that to any woman, and she’ll think of a dozen men who betrayed her.”
Dorotea looked from beneath a fringe of false lashes. Her eyes were shiny and black, pale powder settled in the creases.
“But he was more than that. He was special to you, so his betrayal was a thief, robbing your trust.”
She seemed to hear Durant’s voice: …in this nether world I will not leave thee…
“I’m not playing this game,” said Nikki brusquely. “I just want to know if you were here two nights ago when the woman was murdered.”
