Spider - Michael Morley [52]
‘Si, Direttore,’ they managed, apologetically and not in unison.
‘So why Italy?’ continued Massimo, rubbing his big bald head while looking at his team for answers. ‘Come on; give me some of your thoughts.’
Roberto went first, ‘He’s moved here, this is now his home. His job has brought him to Italy.’
‘Possibly,’ said Massimo. ‘Next.’
‘Holiday,’ suggested Benito, the case coordinator. ‘Even serial killers have holidays. Perhaps he just had the opportunity to kill while he was here.’
‘Next,’ said Massimo.
‘Perhaps Cristina Barbuggiani had been on holiday in America and he came over to visit her,’ offered Orsetta.
‘Check it,’ said Massimo. ‘Ask her family where she’d recently been on vacation, and whether there were any foreign friends that she spoke of.’
‘What if this serial killer turns out to be Italian?’ suggested Roberto. ‘Maybe he came from Rome originally, then moved to America like many Italians do, and now, after a long and illustrious career killing Americans, he has decided to come back home and settle here.’
‘Then why kill here?’ questioned Massimo. ‘I could understand a killer, perhaps of Italian blood, coming back to his native home to give it all up, to turn his back on the murders and live out the last of his days in the sunshine, a long and happy way from anyone investigating his crimes. But not to kill here. A dog does not shit in his own basket.’
‘I have a dog that shits everywhere, including his own basket,’ argued Benito, stroking a straggly black goatee that Massimo desperately wanted to cut off.
‘Good point,’ said Massimo. ‘We should not close our minds to the fact that this man is an exception to all the rules we know, and that he will never stop killing. He is not a burned-out businessman looking for a place in the sun to retire to and rest his old bones in. He is a predator, looking for new prey, thirsting for fresh blood, and perhaps he has decided that Italy is a new hunting ground for him.’
‘Perhaps it’s not BRK,’ suggested Orsetta. ‘Perhaps it’s a copycat.’
‘I don’t buy that,’ interjected Benito. ‘Two killers on two different continents with the same MO, targeting the same type of victims. It’s a big ask.’
‘No bigger than imagining he’s come all the way here just to kill,’ replied Orsetta, her voice rising in defence of her theory. ‘I mean, it’s not like he’s short of choice in America, is it? He’s got three hundred million people to choose from, so why on earth would he give up such a rich hunting ground to operate in a country that is alien to him?’
‘Okay, we’ll chalk that up as a maybe,’ said Massimo. ‘But, back to my point. Why here? What’s the link?’
They sat silently, dredging their minds for inspiration. ‘King,’ suggested Orsetta. ‘If it is BRK and not a copycat, then the only link I can think of is Jack King.’
Massimo frowned. ‘Jack King?’
Orsetta struggled to build on her suggestion. ‘I’m not saying King is the reason BRK may be killing in Italy, I’m just saying that he appears to be the only link.’
Benito curled his beard between his fingers. ‘I agree. It’s the only link that I can see as well.’
Massimo thought they were getting nowhere. ‘Then we are in trouble. If the only connection we can come up with is Jack King, the man I invited to help us, then indeed we have nothing to go on. I want a bottom-up evaluation of all our statements, and I mean all of them. I want every last second of Cristina Barbuggiani’s life accounted for. And let me make this very clear to you. I do not want this sociopath slaughtering dozens of young girls here in Italy. I do not want a second person to die. Do you understand me?’ The looks on their faces told him that they did. ‘Good. First killings in new areas are never perfect. This may be our best chance to catch him. No, let me correct myself. This may be our only chance to catch him. And that is the reason I have asked Jack King to put his own health at risk in order to help us try to catch this monster – this –’ Massimo was stuck for the English words to express the full venom of his hatred for Cristina Barbuggiani’s killer. As he