Viper - Michael Morley [104]
He shook hands with a surprisingly firm grip and, after brief introductions, showed Jack, Sylvia and two junior members of her team through to a small briefing room. It was dimly lit, a white projector screen was already rolled down, and a machine hummed somewhere at the back of the room.
‘Please, sit down.’ He motioned to black plastic chairs facing the screen. ‘What’s the latest on the Sorrentino murder? I only just heard about it.’
Sylvia filled him in. ‘Professional hit. Bullet through the head. Killer dumped him on his own waterbed and then disappeared.’ She glanced at her watch, ‘Ballistics are digging the slug out, right about now.’
Lorenzo picked up a remote clicker for the projector. ‘You think your serial killer might have done this as well?’
‘You mind if I smoke?’
Lorenzo shook his head.
Sylvia dug out her cigarettes while she answered him. ‘It’s possible. Sorrentino was the public face of the inquiry. He was all over the press – certainly much more visible than me. Any breakthroughs we had were credited to him.’
‘We talked a bit about this on the way over,’ added Jack. ‘While it’s very unusual for a serial killer to attack a member of an inquiry team, it’s not unheard of. Normally, they like to watch from a safe distance and be ready to flee. If it is the same guy, then he really has some balls.’
‘There are a lot of those kind of guys in the slide show I’m about to give you.’ Lorenzo hit the clicker. ‘This is Alberta Tortoricci – killed in Scampia. Sylvia and I have spoken about her.’ A colour shot of the corpse filled the wall. It looked like a half-blackened candle. Flesh was melted, blackened and dotted with tufts and strands of the old carpet that she’d been wrapped in. ‘Alberta was the main witness in the trial that sent local Camorra gang member Bruno Valsi down for a big five. Now he’s got balls. Coglioni bigger than cantaloupes.’ The slide changed to a close-up of her face. ‘Our brave lady turned up dead. I saw the body myself. She’d been electrocuted, had her tongue cut out. I guess you know the rest.’
‘Heading over here, I picked up a message from the labs,’ interrupted Sylvia. ‘Seems the accelerant used on your victim was gasoline not paraffin. We were hoping it matched the fuel used on our victim over at the Castellani site.’
Lorenzo shrugged; he wasn’t deep enough into their case to offer a valid comment.
‘The type of accelerant used isn’t nearly as import ant as the fact that he used one,’ explained Jack. ‘Given this crime wasn’t in the same location as the Castellani killing, it’s reasonable to think he used petrol from a can in his vehicle.’ He turned to Lorenzo, ‘In the Tortoricci case, you have no doubt about the order of events? You’re sure the burning came after the electrocution?’
‘No doubt. The ME said the brain had hardened and shrunk, almost like it had been baked. Apparently, that’s consistent with sustained electrocution.’
Jack pictured toasted walnuts – a treat his grandmother made. ‘How’d they do it?’
‘They fixed something around her neck. The doc said there was blistering of the skin on both sides – like electrodes had been placed there.’
‘Joule burns,’ explained Jack, ‘the entry and exit points of the electricity. I’ve come across them before. They usually leave some burning and bruising that gives away the shape of whatever was used to electrocute the victim.’
Lorenzo nodded. ‘Sounds right. Faggiani – that’s the Medical Examiner – said the marks looked like some metal collar had been clamped to her neck.’
Jack tried to imagine what had gone down. Payback time. A wise guy cashing his revenge cheque. And he sure as hell got his money’s worth. ‘The body was set on fire afterwards. Is that also part of Camorra rituals?’
Pisano screwed up