Wolf was taken aback by the question, “Well, we’re going to get the real story from this son of a bitch, Vlad. He’s obviously hiding something from us about Friday night.”
“What did you and Marino just talk about, Lia?”
“Uh, he was wondering about what was happening.” She glanced at Wolf, then the desk.
“And?” Rossi asked.
“He said…he said that David’s brother would be released tomorrow, and he wanted him out of the picture.” She was pointing at Wolf.
Wolf stood still, not reacting.
“David,” Rossi glanced to Marino’s closed door, “we have to be careful about your next moves. Your brother is released tomorrow, that means you can get the belt with the belongings, right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Wolf said. “When will the body be released?”
“Marino said first thing in the morning,” Lia said. “Then he wants to talk to you after that, to try and persuade you to go home…cooperatively.”
“I’ll go home cooperatively when I find out who killed my brother. And it’s looking like Vlad had a hand in this whole thing.”
“David, let me finish.” Rossi put his hand on Wolf’s shoulder and stepped closer. “Marino has pressure from higher ranking officials to make this situation go away. They don’t like that a police force from another country is coming in and helping with a closed investigation. I know that is not what is happening,” he said quickly, “I’m just telling you what Marino must be thinking about right now behind that closed door. It’s important that we do this right. Right now you have the testimony from a worker at an observatory that he didn’t see your brother the night of his death. That’s it. He could be telling the truth, he could have been locked in his office the entire night, never seeing a single soul outside of his office. However, if you had the belt, and we could show that it was Vlad’s somehow, then we actually have a piece of evidence. Or we need to find Matthew, which Paulo is working on right now, like you said. But right now, you are just risking some sort of ugly international incident if you go over there right now.”
Wolf took a deep inhale and pushed it out loudly. “So what do you propose I do instead?”
“Eat,” he said with zero hesitation.
“What?”
Rossi touched both of them on the arm, “You and Lia come to my house, this second, and have an excellent meal with my family. We will talk this out, on full stomachs!”
Wolf stared at Rossi’s motionless bug eyes and broke a smile. He looked to Lia, who seemed all on board with the idea, then nodded his head. “All right. That sounds good, I guess.”
“Oh-kay!” Rossi pulled his coat off his desk chair. “Now let’s get the hell out of here before Marino’s office opens.” He marched between them and down the hallway as fast as he could.
Chapter 25
Two miles into the tunnel, Wolf’s back pressed into the seat letting him know they were gaining altitude at a good rate. He leaned discretely, keeping a white-knuckle grip on the Jesus-bar, to grab a glimpse of Lia’s dashboard gauges.
No more than five car lengths behind Rossi, she was doing one hundred sixty kilometers per hour, a straight one hundred miles per hour. Wolf thanked Rossi for the nice round number, then held his breath and as they blew past another train of cars as if they were standing still.
They slowed to breathable speed as a series of flashing signs indicated a sharp turn, which turned out to be the end of the tunnel. The view was stunning, looking down on Lecco from what was at least a thousand feet up the steep Alpine mountain. They continued onward and upward for another few minutes.
Wolf craned his head to see the distant valley floor through the trees as they weaved through small traffic circles and switchback streets. “This seems to be far from town, and a really nice area.”
“Yes, they moved here a few years ago, when Valerio’s father died. He and his family were left an inheritance, and they didn’t hesitate to move to this nicer area. You’ll see his house. It’s quite beautiful.”
Wolf couldn’t help but think for a moment about his own father’s death, and how it had caused quite the opposite effect on his own family.
They pulled up to a bush lined property and waited. Gate lights flashed while it slowly swung inwards.
A dog pranced with wagging tail in front of Rossi’s Alfa Romeo, and Wolf sucked in a breath as Rossi pulled in, pushing it aside with the bumper of his car.
Stepping out of the car, Wolf noticed the air was crisp and clean, smelled of pinesap, and was a noticeable cooler temperature. As they rounded the side of the house to the entrance they looked straight down on the city below. Lecco sprawled like a model city on a gleaming Lake Como. It was so steep it looked like he could run and jump, and land smack in the middle of the lake below.
The yard of the house was perfectly manicured, surprisingly flat for how steep the surrounding area looked. The stucco concrete house was one story in front, with a walk out bottom level to a stone patio, where two boys were playing soccer below.
“Ciao ragazzi!” Rossi bent over the railing, then yanked the door to the side entrance.
“Ciao!”
“Ciao, Daddy!”
Inside, a male Italian singer was belting out high vibrato notes from a loud speaker system. Perfectly cooked Italian food smells saturated the moist air inside. A slightly disheveled looking woman wiped her hands and kissed Valerio quickly, then gave a loud welcome to Lia as they kissed each other’s cheeks.
“Ciao, sono Maria.” She extended a hand to Wolf.
“Ciao,” he said. “I’m David.”
“Nize-a to meet you,” she laughed. “I am terrible Eenglish.” She pointed to herself with a red faced smile.
“Not as bad as my Italian.”
Rossi’s home office had dark green ceramic tiles on the floor, and color photos of vineyards adorning the bright yellow stucco walls. Rossi turned on the tall floor lamp and ripped open the shades, revealing the view below. The sky outside was now a dark orange, high white-stoned peaks gleaned, and the city below speckled with lights. Rossi plopped down at the dark wood desk, fired up Skype, and showed Wolf how to use it.
Rossi opened the door, letting in the loud music from the rest of the house, “Take your time. We’ll be having apperitivo.”
Wolf picked up the headset and took a seat. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mom, it’s me.”
“Oh thank God. What’s going on over there?”
“Well, I’m just taking care of everything. Getting John on a plane home.”
She paused. “So?”
“Well, I really haven’t got any news yet, Mom. I just wanted to check on how you were doing. Is everything okay?”
“Have you seen him?”
“Yes, I’ve seen him.”
A rustling sound filled the headset. “How did he look?”
“He looked good. What…how’s it going? Has Nate checked on you?”
“Yes, he was here last night. He made me dinner.” She sniffed. “Then I will probably go to dinner over there tonight.”
“Oh, good.”
And so it went. Hey, I don’t think John killed himself, and I’m going to find the son of a bitch that murdered him. Wolf didn’t say those words. They were well implied. The Wolf family was always more interested in results and actions, not talk.
They squirmed their way through a few more minutes of long silences and said their goodbyes. He would check in later. He would let her know what was going on.
He called Jack and left a message, disappointed, but thankful he wasn’t answering his “emergency cellphone” in class.
He dialed another number. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Wolf.”
“Hey,” Nate said. “I was wondering what this random phone number was. I hoped it was you. How’s it going over there? You find anything out?”