Spider - Michael Morley [26]
Jack finished chewing, then added, ‘BRK dismembered all his later victims and scattered pieces of them in the sea, like a kid throwing bread to gulls. By the time we’d discovered what the fish hadn’t eaten there was nothing for Forensics to go over, they couldn’t come up with anything other than rock salt and barnacles.’
‘I’m really glad I’ve already eaten,’ said Orsetta, grimacing. She glanced at her wristwatch. ‘I am afraid I am due back in Rome. In fact, I am overdue back in Rome. I hadn’t planned on staying last night so I really must go.’
Jack wasn’t buying her need to rush off. He suspected she was anxious to avoid any potential awkwardness between them.
‘Hey, if last night I opened up doors to places you didn’t want to go, then I’m sorry. Maybe we both should have known better than to play such games, eh?’
Orsetta managed a thin smile. ‘Indeed we should. You know, what you said – well, it was right. I am avoiding commitment. But right now, I need to.’
Jack put his hands up to let her know that she didn’t need to explain herself, but he could tell that she wanted to anyway.
‘I was in a relationship for four years. I thought I was in heaven. I thought he was the great love of my life. Well, it turns out that he was the love of another woman’s life as well, and had been for nearly ten years. Probably more than one other woman, if truth be told.’
‘I’m sorry. Please forgive me for bringing all that up; I’m sure it was painful.’
‘Of course,’ said Orsetta. ‘You’re completely forgiven, providing, that is, that you are going to agree to help us.’
‘I am,’ said Jack. He tapped his hand on the case notes she’d passed to him. ‘I’ll read these this morning and I’ll call Mass and tell him he’ll have my preliminary profile within a few days.’
Orsetta folded a ten-euro tip in with the money she’d left to settle the breakfast bill. ‘You have to promise me one thing, then,’ she said, standing up and gathering her things.
‘Sure,’ Jack said, dropping his napkin and rising to say goodbye. ‘What’s that?’
Orsetta smiled. ‘If you come to Rome to see us, then next time dinner is on me, and we stay away from the mind-games, yes?’
‘I’ll look forward to it,’ said Jack. He gently took hold of her shoulders as she leant towards him and they kissed each other on both cheeks.
‘Ciao,’ she said, and left him with a smile that could light up New York, and a waft of peach perfume that could jump-start a dying heart. After she’d gone, he couldn’t help but put his hand to his cheek where her lips had been.
19
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York
Lu Zagalsky glances over at the frightened punter in the driver’s seat and wonders if she’s wasting her time. First off, the loser can’t get money out of the ATM machine, now he wants her to buckle up to travel less than a mile on a damned nearly deserted road in the middle of the goddamn night. Chances are that the sucker won’t even be able to get it up and will then refuse to pay. ‘Whatever,’ she says, deciding to give it a go and clunking the belt into place. She slides some gum into her mouth and chews noisily as he cruises east down Beach Avenue.
‘Vy goyoreeteh po rusky?’ she asks, keen to check if he knows any Russian before she starts hurling any serious insults his way.
‘I’m sorry. Say that again?’ the driver says politely, his hands never leaving the wheel, his eyes fixed safely on the road.
‘Just wanted to know if you spoke Russian,’ says Lu. ‘Lots of guys round here do, it’s pretty much a Russian neighbourhood, you know?’
‘Okay, I see,’ says the guy, checking his speedo, making sure he doesn’t break the thirty miles an hour barrier. Jeez, it’s been a while since Lu has seen anyone as strung up and hung up as this punter.
‘No, no, I don’t speak any Russian,’ he adds. ‘I’m an accountant, just working down here at the moment, that’s why I’m a bit lost.’
Suddenly the punter gets a whole lot more interesting. I mean, Lu tells herself, whoever heard of a poor accountant? Let him pull a ton of paper out