Viper - Michael Morley [121]
‘Here you can see the five distinct female recovery sites that we’ve already opened up, including those of the first victim we discovered, Francesca Di Lauro, and the second female, recently identified as Gloria Pirandello.’
Luella paused to let everyone scan the pictures and get their bearings. ‘As you can see, these female graves radiate in a semi-circle. I have teams working with your crews to complete the other half of the circle, and if you’re right,’ looking at Jack, ‘then we’re likely to find more burial sites.’ Her phraseology made Jack uncomfortable but he didn’t interrupt and hoped his instincts were wrong.
‘If you look down from the arc – that clock face, as I know some of you now call it – you can see two more graves. These are roughly twenty metres away from those of Francesca and Gloria. On the way over I got a call from the lab and I can now confirm that these are, in fact, male graves.’
It was like a bomb had gone off. First silence as the news stunned everyone. Then an eruption of murmurings.
‘Quiet!’ shouted Sylvia. ‘Male? You’re sure they’re male?’
The look on Luella’s face said she was sure. ‘The sex is confirmed. One hundred per cent certain.’
‘And not in the circle,’ said Jack, more as an observation than a question.
‘No. As I said, they’re about twenty metres further away.’
And the photographs on the board spelled it out. Two dark radar blobs, nowhere near the female graves, and not that near to each other either.
‘What made you dig there, out of pattern?’ asked Sylvia.
There was a blink of sadness in Luella’s eyes. ‘Sorrentino had made notes saying where he thought there could be other bodies – outside the circle. I guess he was looking at the lie of the land and working on his own instincts rather than yours. Anyway, when I swept the GPRS over it, these sites looked hot.’
‘How long have the males been buried?’ pressed Sylvia.
‘Can’t yet tell you that. Years, not months. At least as old as the females. The lab says most likely older.’
‘Any ages?’ asked Jack.
‘Again, they’re working on it. The bones were those of fully grown, fully nourished adults. We can say at least mid twenties. Probably older.’
Jack stared at the markings of where the two male graves were. They made no sense. Didn’t fit his clock-face pattern at all. They weren’t side by side, not aligned – just dumped, sort of randomly south of where the women had been found.
Luella continued with the lecture but Jack didn’t really hear any more of it. He kept studying the seven sites, trying to work out their chronology and their relationships. As soon as the briefing finished he strode over to where Sylvia and Luella were standing.
‘I know,’ said Sylvia, ‘you want to go straight back to the site. Me too.’
‘Somehow I thought you might,’ said Luella, realizing instantly that her date with that Pinot Grigio had been put back even further.
88
Capo di Posillipo, La Baia di Napoli
At home, waiting with Ricardo Mazerelli for Sal to arrive with the bag from Raimondi, Fredo Finelli nervously paced his office. ‘He should be here by now. He was, what? Only five to ten minutes behind you?’
‘The traffic was bad. Don’t worry. Whatever all of this is, we can deal with it.’
The sound of tyres crunching on gravel and the burble of guards through the intercom told them the wait was over.
‘Ringrazi il Dio – thank God,’ said the Don. ‘As I grow older I become less patient. I like everything planned, Ricardo. Unplanned is unprofessional. Unprofessional is lethal in our business.’
He poured brandies for himself and Mazerelli, and water for Sal. House guards opened up and ushered the Luogotenente through to the office.
There