Spider

Jack let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. 'Sheeesh, Nancy, am I that easy to read?'

She nodded.

'They've got something they really want me to look at.'

Nancy frowned. 'That girl, Olivetta, or whatever her name is?'

'Orsetta,' he said, noting her sensitivity. 'No, not her, Massimo.'

Nancy's eyes lit up a little. 'You spoke to Mass? He say how Benny and the kids are?'

'No, we didn't have time to talk about that,' said Jack, remembering how well Nancy and Mass's wife Benedetta had got on when they'd met in Rome. Benny had shown her all the tourist sites, while he and Mass worked long hours together. 'I'm going to call him back in a minute, when I've freshened up and maybe grabbed a coffee.'

'I'll get the kitchen to send one up for you. You want anything to eat?'

'Yeah, could they do a panini of some kind?' he said, gathering the bags and getting ready to walk away.

'They're chefs, honey; they could do you a six-course lunch if you want.'

'Mozzarella and some salad would be just fine.' Jack pushed his chair back under the table and was about to leave when he caught the expression on his wife's face. 'You look like you're fit to burst, Nancy. You want to tell me what's eating you?'

Nancy took a deep breath. She'd have preferred to have this conversation later, in the cool of the evening when she could control their moods and there was nothing else to distract them. 'I don't want you to do this. I know it's probably connected to the murder of that young woman that's been in the news, and you feel that you should get involved, but you shouldn't, it's not going to be good for you.'

'Say all that again,' said Jack, a little crisper than he intended.

'It's all starting up again, isn't it?' said Nancy, knowing the day was about to be ruined.

Jack twisted his shoulders away from her, as he always did when he tried to show her he was exasperated and she'd got everything out of proportion. 'Honey, I'm going to look at some papers and photographs, see some maps and reports, and give some advice, that's all.'

She looked at him distrustfully and rolled her tongue over the front of her teeth, one of the traits Jack always recognized as a sign that she was holding out on him. 'What else?' he said in the tone he usually reserved for suspects in an interview room.

'Howie called from New York.' She studied his face for a reaction, before adding with a sigh of resignation, 'Something's happened over there. He wouldn't tell me much but he mentioned BRK, said they were reopening the case.'

'He say why?' asked Jack, his pulse quickening.

'Like I said, he wouldn't tell me much. Just that the press were going to be all over it again, probably all over you too.' She took hold of his hand. 'Honey, we don't need this.' Her voice hardened. 'Actually, this is the very stuff that we came all the way here to get away from.' She looked to her left and then to her right, taking in the peace of the garden and the beauty of the view across the hills. 'Please don't put it all at risk, Jack, don't get drawn in again.'

Jack leant across the table, trying to make a connection. His face was uncompromising, but to the trained eye of his wife it betrayed vulnerability as well. 'Nancy, this man might be killing again. He may already have taken at least one young woman's life, right here in Italy, maybe the girl you referred to, and from the sound of what you've just said, he could well be active again back home.' Jack reached across and took hold of her other hand as well. 'I can't keep running away. The impotency of doing nothing is driving me crazy. I have to try to stop him.'

'Even if it hurts you?' said Nancy, feeling that this was a conversation she'd had over and over again. 'Even if it hurts us?'

Jack said nothing but Nancy could read the answer on his face. She pulled her hands free of his. 'I've got to see Paolo in the kitchen. I'll have him send some food over to you.'

Jack stood motionless as she pushed her chair away from the table so hard that it clattered on to the patio. He bent over and picked it up, then watched her walk quickly towards the restaurant. He knew from the shape of her back that her arms were up at her face and she was crying. And he knew that there was nothing in the world he could do to stop it.

28

Marine Park, Brooklyn, New York Lu Zagalsky is in a shallow, fitful sleep when Spider slips off the gag and slams the needle of undiluted bleach directly into her voice box. The chemical will burn out her vocal cords and render her incapable of a squeak, let alone ascream. Keeping the gagon would be to run the risk of her choking on her own vomit, and he doesn't want her to die. At least, not just yet.

'Shh, shh, don't struggle,' says Spider, dropping the needle and holding down her shoulders.

The wrist-chain has worked a notch loose on her right-hand side and Lu instinctively tries to punch him. The metal links snap tight and nearly dislocate her arm.

'Stop it! Stop it now!' he shouts, quickly putting his right hand around her neck. His fingers are steely strong and they stab like knives into her throat. Spider feels enraged and aroused. His vice-like grip tightens around the tender tissue where the bleach is already eating through her larynx.

Lu thinks she's going to die. It's now! He's going to kill you right now! There'll be no Ramzan, no life outside the Beach, nothing more than this.

Despite the agonizing pain she manages to bend her neck and snake her mouth round his hand just enough to bite him.

Spider feels her teeth snap shut and sink deep into his left hand.

Her mouth locks closed on his flesh like the savage bite of a wild street dog. He tries to stay calm but this woman's jaw-power is extraordinary. Her bony canines are cutting their way into him, grinding through skin, slicing into the bones around his thumb. He frees his right hand from around her neck and punches her.

Lu barely feels the blow. Her mother brought her up on a daily diet of beatings a hundred times more brutal than the one this ebanat's trying to dish out. She ignores the dull throb on her left cheekbone and chews down hard on the flesh in her mouth. She can feel his skin bursting around her teeth, his stinking vonuchaya blood seeping into her mouth.

'Fuuuuck!' Spider screams.

He punches her again, but he can't get any uplift to deliver a proper blow. The little bitch's teeth have bitten into nerves and tendons and the pain's so intense it sparks a bolt of agonizing electricity up his elbow. Spider falls on top of her and uses the momentum and his body weight to try to suffocate her, to try to jam his hand deep into her evil little mouth. Little bitch will either let go or choke to death, he thinks, as he pushes through the pain and bears down on her.

Lu doesn't lose her grip. Even as his weight collapses on her, she grinds her back teeth.

She can't see now and is struggling to breathe. His body heat and weight are overwhelming, there's no air to suck in.

Everything begins to go black and fuzzy for Lu, as once more he rams the palm of his right hand across her face and again leans all his weight upon it.

She starts to retch as he forces his left thumb deeper into her mouth, deeper into her bite.

She knows what he's doing; knows that he can't pull his hand free without severe damage, so he's trying to choke her. Well, you give it your best shot, mister, it's gonna take a lot to choke Lu Zagalsky; therehavebeen biggerthingsinthis mouthandheavier people on top of this body than a creep like you.

Lu drills deep into her childhood memory; the nightmares of abuse flood into her brain, the anger boils up and over. She bites so hard she feels one of her teeth crack and splinter away. The latest wave of pain is so severe that Spider falls off her and crashes to the floor.

Lu spits out his blood and her broken tooth. It feels good, it feels wonderful! She feels like Rocky when he beat Apollo Creed. Bloody, battered but victorious. Only she knows that this victory is going to be horribly costly. Her mind flashes back again to her bedroom in Moscow and the last time she bit a man like this.