Viper - Michael Morley [148]
There was another thing that couldn’t be ignored. A gap of five years between the most recent murders – Tortoricci and Petrov – and the last victim, Francesca Di Lauro. That morning Sylvia had told him what Bernadetta Di Lauro had said about her daughter dating a married man. Was Valsi that man? A married man. The father of the unborn child she carried? There was no evidence to support it, but it was certainly possible. Sylvia said she could never have imagined Creed and Francesca together, but it wasn’t so hard to picture the handsome Valsi with the beautiful Francesca. But why kill her? Jack was sure many Camorristi had bastard children all over the place. Hardly a killing matter.
And then it hit him.
The missing piece.
The mystery link that pulled it all together.
102
Capo di Posillipo, La Baia di Napoli
Gina Valsi arrived at her father’s home at the same time that a police search team with a warrant was arresting a security guard who’d tried to stop them getting in.
Claudio Mancini had been dispatched with Jack in tow. Other search teams were crawling all over Valsi’s home in Camaldoli and Sal’s apartment in Napoli Capodichino.
‘What’s this? What the fuck’s going on?’ Gina barked at them as she slammed the driver’s door of the X5.
‘We’ve got a warrant.’ Mancini pulled the paperwork from inside his jacket.
Gina waved him away. ‘That won’t be worth wiping your ass on when my father comes.’ The look on his face pulled her up.
It was true. The stuff that Sal had been saying was really true. Her knees went weak, then buckled.
‘Here, let me help you.’ Mancini took her arm and steadied her.
Somehow she made it to a metal seat beneath a window near the front door. She sat there in shock as the carabinieri officers filed into her father’s home.
Mancini lowered himself down beside her. ‘Signora Valsi, your father and his driver have been killed. Their car was destroyed in an explosion, a car bomb, about three kilometres from here. I’m very sorry.’
Gina heard him through some kind of cotton wool. She knew what he was saying and knew that it was true, but the shock was so great, she felt nothing.
He’d never be killed, her father had promised her that. Everything would be all right. Everything would be fine. He’d reassured her so many times that she’d actually believed it.
And now? Now he was gone. Bam! As quick as that.
What next? What were she and Enzo to do?
Enzo.
‘My child! Where’s my child?’
Gina was in the house in seconds. ‘Enzo! Enzo, where are you?’ She hit the stairs two at a time. ‘Elena! Elena, are you there?’ Where was that damned childminder?
Mancini and Jack waited patiently in the hallway.
Eventually, Gina came down, her face grey with fear. ‘Where’s my son?’
Jack watched her every move. Watched her eyes settle on him and work out that he was the key to everything that happened next. It had been his suggestion to take her child away, keep the boy separated from his mother. Not nice. Not compassionate. Jack knew all that. But he also knew he was going to need every ounce of leverage for what was going to come next.
The cops were still all over the Don’s home when Sal drove up the hillside. There was just too much heat to go all the way up to the place and see for himself what had happened. He hit the brakes and did a U-turn. Thumped the steering wheel as he straightened up. His whole world was upside down. Crazy shit was happening now. And it would get crazier. It always did after a Capo had been killed. At times like this you either watched, or you played. Sal was a player.
Next stop, Valsi’s place. The skunk would have his tail up and would be hiding there. Two miles from the Don’s home, Sal became aware that he was being followed. Navy-blue Fiat Strada,