Viper - Michael Morley [147]
Jack mentally reran the profile he’d drawn up. White male, knows how to control violence, probably aged thirties to fifties, single or divorced, born locally, has good local knowledge, holds driving licence, comfortable with a gun, perhaps a career criminal, a Camorrista with a history of violence. But what the hell was Giacomo’s connection to Valsi? The two men seemed more enemies than friends. Sal the Snake was unlikely to kill on Valsi’s orders. And there was no way Jack could imagine the two sharing some joint sexual pleasure in sadistically murdering women.
The slide show moved on. They reran the start of the sequence where Sal first appeared on the scene. He walked coolly into frame, checked the cousins’ bodies for signs of life and then disappeared again. ‘Can you flick through all those shots of him again, please? Maybe magnify by two and jog them back and forth?’
Susanna did as Jack asked. The quality dipped as the picture doubled in size. Sal moved in a near comical, jerky slow motion around the bodies, checking for pulses, wiping his hands.
‘Okay, you can stop there.’ Jack turned sideways to Professoressa Marianna Della Fratte. ‘Ballistics say the same ammo was used in the murders of Rosa Novello, Filippo Valdrano, Kristen Petrov and Bernardo Sorrentino. Two different sites, the same ammo, correct?’
Marianna nodded. ‘Yes, correct. Jacketed Hollow Point. And before you ask,’ she glanced at Sylvia, ‘yes, I’m absolutely certain that there were two separate guns. Both Glocks, both the same calibre, but the barrel markings and firing-pin impressions were entirely different. We double-checked.’
Jack held up a hand. ‘Okay, can we run those last few slides again, please? I just want to see something, maybe it ties in with what the Professoressa just told us.’
Susanna repeated the shuffle and Jack moved close to the projector screen. Bright light caught his face and cast a giant shadow of his head on the screen before he backed off. ‘As you can see, Sal is right-handed. Look here, when he checks Franco’s neck for a pulse.’ The slide moved on. ‘Now, when he stoops to move Franco to check on Paolo – see the flash of leather strapping? That’s because he’s wearing a shoulder holster under his right arm. Not his left arm. This is so he can pull a gun left-handed. Probably means it’s a twin holster rig and this is his back-up gun. Only rednecks and real pros carry two weapons. And as you don’t have too many rednecks out here, we can assume this guy is a pro and knows how to use them both. Most likely – very likely – this guy’s carrying twin handguns.’
‘Ten minutes’ break everyone,’ shouted Sylvia. Jack didn’t have to say what he was thinking. Everyone was on the same wavelength. Find Sal the Snake. Find out if his guns are Glocks and whether the bullets match the murders.
The room emptied, but Jack hung back and asked for ten minutes. He wanted some time on his own. Time to figure out the link between Sal and Valsi.
He could hear the overhead neon strip lights buzzing as he forced himself to focus.
Nothing came.
He looked again at the victims’ names. Their lives reduced to black ink on white boards. He dismissed the male victims. Sex was usually the key. Usually the area where offenders left their clearest psychological clues. He switched to the board listing all the murdered and missing women.
Francesca Di Lauro (24) – dead (burned)
Gloria Pirandello (19) – dead (burned)
Patricia Calvi (19) – dead (burned)
Luisa Banotti (20) – dead (burned)
Kristen Petrov (24) – dead (burned)
Alberta Tortoricci (38) – dead (burned)
Donna Rizzi (19) – Missing, presumed dead
No matter how hard Jack tried he couldn’t see a connection to Salvatore Giacomo, or a reason for the burnings. And the only obvious connections to Valsi were Tortoricci, who’d testified against him, and Petrov, who worked