“Not good. Lots of praying. Trying to reconcile this with God, I think. My sisters are with her.”
“I’m sorry,” said Nikki.
“Yeah,” said Valerio. “Me, too. Just when you think you’re used to violence, something like this comes along and fucks you up.”
For a moment, he considered telling Nikki about Luca Errichiello, but the thought felt heavy. Some superstitious instinct said that talking about it would grant it substance and reality. Besides, it was over. The whole fucking thing was over. For better or worse, he’d played his part.
“The weather’s supposed to be nice on Sunday,” he said brightly. “If you can get time off work, we could sail.”
It had been too long since he and Nikki had takenCalypsoout. Just the thought of getting away from here, of spending an afternoon on the waves, the creak of the hull and the flap of the sails, seemed to loosen some tension in his body.
Dario brought another beer, popped the cap, and handed it to him.
“We haven’t taken you sailing yet, have we?” Valerio asked him. “You two should come with us sometime.”
“He gets seasick!” Graziella said, playfully pinching Dario’s side.
“How about it?” Valerio asked Nikki. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Just for a few hours.”
She shrugged. “Sure. Alright.”
“How’s the investigation?” he asked.
She exhaled. “Don’t know. I’ve been cut out. Sonia’s decided not to work with Phoenix Seven.”
“Fuck,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
He meant it. Nikki’s expression was stoic, but he could imagine her disappointment. He was angry with Nikki’s supervisor. It wasn’t her fault she was forced to work with that idiot.
“It’s that boss of yours…Angelo,” Valerio said. “He’s a mess.”
“Yeah, well,” she said with a shrug. “I can’t help that. Oh, that reminds me…I need to give you this.”
She took something from her pocket, and set it on the barrel between them: a passport in an evidence bag.
“Jayston Lake wanted me to pass this to the police,” she said. “Would you give it to Sonia?”
“And Jayston Lake is who?”
“The employer of our victim…Claire Sexton. When Claire took off last week on Capri, she left this behind in the yacht’s safe.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Jayston thinks she was frightened. He thinks she might have been coerced.”
“Wait,” said Valerio. “I thought you were off the case. Why were you meeting with a suspect?”
Nikki seemed reluctant to tell him the story, needing encouragement from the gin and tonic before he could draw it out of her.
When she finished explaining, Valerio chuckled at the audacious little girl who’d convinced a taxi driver to take her to Nikki.
“Kids are ridiculous,” he said. “When she was seven, Gemma decided she would take a train by herself to visit a play park she liked. Thank god we found her before she actually boarded!”
He picked up the passport and turned it over in his hands.
“And you just happened to be carrying an evidence bag with you?” he asked.
Nikki flushed and gestured for Dario to bring her another drink.
