I doubted that somehow. My colleague had ended up in hospital after being taken into police custody, and there was no way I was giving whoever was behind this the chance to reach me in the same manner.
I ran into the street and tried to flag down a car, but it didn’t stop. I sprinted south to the corner of Via Palermo where I saw a motorcyclist getting on his dirt bike. I raced toward him.
The surprised man caught sight of me too late. I yanked him off his vehicle, jumped on, started the ignition, and when the engine roared to life, kicked into first gear and shot away, narrowly avoiding the grasping hands of Esposito and her colleagues.
Her cries for me to stop rang in my ears until they were lost against the sound of the speeding bike and the clamor of the city.
Chapter 60
I destroyed my sim card and dropped my cell phone in a drain on Via Napoli, a few blocks away from police headquarters. Five minutes later, I ditched the motorbike in an alleyway behind Via Urbana. I couldn’t run the risk of keeping my phone with me. Even switched off and with the counter surveillance Mo-bot had installed, she’d always said there was still a chance a savvy hacker or law-enforcement agency would be able to use it to find me. And that was a risk I couldn’t afford to take. It could put my life in danger, and not just mine, but those of the people I cared for.
This situation was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted Justine, Sci and Mo-bot to come to Rome. They were on the frontline now and were very much at risk.
I moved through the city on foot and bought a pair of mirrored sunglasses and a ‘Roma’ baseball cap from a souvenir shop. Looking every inch the tourist, I walked the streets, taking a winding route to the Colosseum. The surrounding streets were full of restaurants and bars heaving with people. The groups spilling out of these places onto the street, and the tourists taking in the sights, gave me plenty of cover and I wasn’t worried about any of these good-time folk turning me in to the law. Even if my details had been publicized, these people were the least likely in the city to pay attention to the news.
After wandering around for a while, considering my next move, I found a computer store on Via dei Capocci where there were a couple of Internet terminals for rent by the hour. The sales assistant, a twenty-something woman with long curly dark hair and an uneven smile that suggested she saw tragedy in every joke and comedy in every disaster, showed me to one of the old terminals in the back of the store. They were dusty and didn’t look as though they’d been used in a while, which wasn’t surprising in the age of cell phones and ubiquitous Wi-Fi.
The assistant returned to the counter at the front of the store and left me to sit through fifteen minutes of software installations and upgrades when I switched on the machine. Finally, with the air in the street outside cooling to the early evening’s gentle warmth, I was able to log into Private’s secure virtual network and safely access our comms server.
I sent an instant message to Justine, Mo-bot and Sci, and it was Mo-bot who answered first.
Mo-bot: Where are you?
Me: I don’t want to say. It could compromise you. Why are the police trying to arrest me?
Mo-bot: They say there’s new video evidence that implicates you in the death of Father Diaz.
Me: That explains it. Is Justine okay? I left her at the station.
Here Justine joined the chat.
Justine: I’m fine. The cops held me for an hour, but I cooperated and pointed out I wasn’t even in Rome when Father Carlos was killed, so Gianna Bianchi forced them to release me.
Me: Good. I’m going to have to stay hidden until this blows over. I’m a risk to you all. Aiding and abetting won’t help anyone.
Justine: Do you have money?
Me: A little under two thousand bucks. Enough for a hotel for a few nights.
Justine: Gianna Bianchi is putting pressure on Esposito to reveal the evidence the police claim to have on you. I was thinking of involving the embassy.
Me: Good idea. Let me know if you learn anything.
Justine: Will do.
Mo-bot: Stay safe.
Justine: Love you.
Me: Love you too.
Sci entered the chat.
Sci: Love you too.
Me: I’m taken. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.
Sci sent a smiley face emoji before I logged off. I wiped the computer’s history and shut down the machine before leaving to find somewhere safe to spend the night.
Chapter 61
Justine slipped her phone into her purse and tucked it into the gap between the table and the bed. Mo-bot and Sci were in the living room of the grungy little apartment above the cell-phone store, watching surveillance footage of the Inferno Bar, but Justine hadn’t been able to concentrate since Jack’s disappearance.
She had been taken into police custody for a while, not arrested but assisting with their inquiries, and once she’d been released, had spent her time checking the secure message server, praying Jack would get in touch.
Contact had been brief, but it gave her the most important thing of alclass="underline" reassurance that he was safe. She’d known why he’d run. Matteo Ricci was in hospital after spending time in police custody, and given what they already knew about this investigation, they couldn’t trust anyone — including the cops.
Justine checked herself in the mirror. Her red floral-patterned dress was lightweight, perfect for the warm Rome evening. She hadn’t been crying, but the color had drained from her face under the strain of the situation. She looked distressed but not distraught, and in any case, had no reason to be embarrassed. Her colleagues in the other room know her better than anyone other than Jack. She couldn’t hide anything from them even if she wanted to.
She stepped into the living room and found Mo-bot on the couch with her laptop on her knees. Sci was at the small dining table in front of his machine.
“Good news about Jack,” Mo-bot observed, and Justine nodded.
“I don’t know,” Sci said. “I’m kind of sad he doesn’t love me back.”
Justine smiled. “You never were any good at reading the room. Do you think now is the appropriate time for humor?”
“He’s in forensics. You should hear his dead-body jokes,” Mo-bot said.
Sci’s smile fell and he lowered his head in contrition. “I’m sorry, Justine. Just trying to lighten the mood.”
She scowled at him and then broke into a smile. “Like I’m going to bust your chops over that. You’re a sucker, Seymour Kloppenberg.”
“Damn!” Sci grinned. “You got me.”
“You going to reach out to the embassy?” Mo-bot asked.
Justine nodded. “I’m going to call in a favor from a friend. You got a burner I can use?”
She was referring to a disposable phone that hadn’t been used before and was untraceable.
Mo-bot nodded and got to her feet. She walked to one of the flight cases near the kitchen and rooted around.
“How’s the surveillance going?” Justine asked.