Viper - Michael Morley [153]
He lost his concentration round a corner off the Via della Stadera. The rear end drifted and slammed into a mountain of rubbish. Sacks and bottles crashed on to the trunk. He held it in third and threw a tight right on to the Autostrada del Sole, forcing a young couple on a scooter to bang into a barrier. In short, he was barely in control.
He’d outrun the carabinieri patrol car but he knew they’d be tracking the Fiat by now, relaying information to central control, young women peering into computer monitors in the dark, passing route info to other squad cars.
Sal hammered the horn as the Fiat redlined and screamed its guts out. Traffic moved over. He was doing close to 200kph as he flew past the signs for Ponticelli.
The fog that had haunted Naples for most of the day soon thickened again in the darkening evening sky. Off in the distance he thought he could hear horns and sirens, perhaps even the thud and thwack of helicopter blades. If the police had a chopper up it wouldn’t last long. For once the bad weather would be a blessing. Minutes later the if was over. Nightsun searchlights blazed from a carabinieri helicopter. A pool of wobbling white light flooded black hillsides and roadsides.
They’d have thermal cameras too.
The bird in the sky was either the Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale, or maybe even the heavyweight Gruppo Intervento Speciale. It didn’t matter which. Both were probably eight-man teams. Trained and eager to shoot to kill. Well, so was he.
And he was willing to bet he’d killed a lot more than any of them had.
105
Stazione dei carabinieri, Castello di Cisterna
Six-year-old Enzo Valsi ran down the grey carabinieri corridor and clung like a rugby player to his mother’s legs. Clara Sofri, the social worker who’d been caring for him, looked disinterested at the emotional mother-and-child reunion. She’d seen it all before. Dozens of times. Young woman comes off the rails, commits a serious crime and her family life is suddenly shattered. The kid will be better off in care.
Gina cried as she held her son. Hugged and squeezed him tighter than she’d ever done.
‘Ti voglio bene, tesoro – Mamma really loves you.’ She kissed his face and his head. His skin soft against hers. It smelled warm. Tender. She’d miss it. Miss it so much, it would almost kill her.
Gina had been as careful as she could with her statement about Francesca and Kristen, but she knew there was enough there for them to hold her and charge her. Then they’d come back and pick her story to pieces. After that they’d make her talk about the other bitches that Bruno had fucked and taunted her with.
One question haunted her. Spooked her as much as it did most of the cops on the case. Why hadn’t she killed Valsi? He was at the root of the problem. He was the guy causing all the humiliation and pain. So, why hadn’t she killed him, or had him killed?
The answer was a complex one.
She’d loved him. She hated him, but she loved him too. Really, really loved him. And all she’d ever wanted was to be his wife and raise his children.
A cell-block guard pulled at her shoulder. ‘Signora, we must go now.’
Her world fell apart. She had to be dragged away. Enzo tried to struggle out of the grip of the social worker. Gina felt her heart break. Until her dying day she knew she’d never forget the look in her child’s eyes as she left him in that corridor.
ROS Quartiere Generale
(Anti-Camorra Unit), Napoli
Jack stood in the shaded background of the carabinieri central control room as Lorenzo Pisano’s eyes flicked from monitor to monitor as he directed the helicopter unit and regular ground patrols.
‘The GIS unit will get him,’ said Sylvia. ‘They’re the best in the country. There’s no escape.’
Jack’s attention was glued to the live pictures of the blue Fiat, picked out by a white spotlight from the helicopter. ‘They’re a front-line anti-terrorist command unit as well, aren’t they?’
‘Sì,’ said Sylvia, watching the same feed. ‘They’re based in Tuscany but Lorenzo pulled them into a local barracks as soon as he heard of the hit on Finelli.