Spider - Michael Morley [51]
He flicked off the buzzer and gently touched Cristina’s picture before addressing his team. ‘Orsetta, Jack will be staying at the Grand Plaza on Via del Corso. He’s booked in for two nights, please authorize Admin to reserve a third. Have an unmarked car waiting to pick him up from the train station and take him straight there. He should be arriving around ten p.m.’ Massimo thought once more about the transportation for Jack. ‘Don’t let them send an owl, make it a VIP sedan with a driver, I want him fully refreshed by the time he has got through our blessed traffic. The following morning have the same car and the same driver bring him to my office. I’ll probably drop him back at the Plaza myself at the end of the day.’
‘I head home that way, Direttore,’ said Orsetta.
‘I don’t mind dropping him off myself.’
Massimo studied her face and thought about teasing her. It was only natural that she’d be intrigued by someone as well thought of as Jack King; come to think of it, he’d probably planted the seeds himself by quoting Jack’s theories during many of his case conferences. ‘Very kind of you, Orsetta. I’ll keep it in mind and call you should I need you,’ he said playfully.
Orsetta, dressed simply in figure-hugging black trousers and a long-collared white cotton blouse, felt herself blush as Massimo’s brown eyes appeared to x-ray her mind. What the hell, she had decided that Jack King was special and she hoped something special was going to happen when they met again.
‘Roberto, have all the translations been finished? My old friend Jack is American; he can barely speak English let alone Italian.’
‘Si, Direttore,’ laughed the assistant. He was so young and fresh-faced that Massimo didn’t think the kid had even started shaving. A blessing he should enjoy while it lasted. ‘We have done overviews of the main witness statements, a summary report on the major actions carried out and their results, also a forensics overview, with a run-down on soil and substance analysis. We’re still running traces on the black plastic bags that the body parts were found in. It all takes time and right now we are short-handed.’
‘Chase it, Roberto. You need more men, ask now, not in two weeks, when it is too late.’ Massimo fixed his eyes on him, making sure the lesson was being learned.
‘I need two more people,’ replied Roberto quickly. ‘Maybe three shifts each?’
‘Then you’ll have them, my young colleague,’ said Massimo with a generous smile. ‘What else?’
Roberto cleared his throat. We have translations of the summaries on fingerprints and DNA, but we have no known matches to any offenders.’
‘Then, for the moment, keep looking,’ instructed Massimo, silently cursing the fact that, unlike the FBI, the Italian Forensic Science Service did not have a fully integrated DNA database on which to carry out searches. It had established CODIS, its own highly efficient Combined DNA Index System as far back as 1999 but the national police, the carabinieri and many other public and private bodies continued to have separate databases that were not connected to CODIS. Moreover, the databases were so zealously guarded that often Massimo’s unit had to apply to prosecutors or judges to instruct the owners to release information.
Massimo tried to put the DNA tangle out of his thoughts and pressed on. ‘We’re all presuming that this BRK is American, and that he is the FBI’s problem and will stay the FBI’s problem. But a murder here in Italy changes all that. It makes it our problem. My problem, your problem, our problem.’ His eyes roamed over them, picking them out one at a time. ‘You all understand me?