Spider - Michael Morley [67]
‘Got sound,’ announced the IT man. In fact, not only had the tech got sound, but it came through so loud, it almost tore the FBI agents’ heads off.
‘Down! Turn the friggin’ thing down!’ shouted Howie, jabbing fingers in his ears.
‘Greetings from beautiful Rome,’ announced Jack at the level of a jet plane taking off.
‘Ciao!’ said Massimo, who then turned to someone off-screen, covered his hand with his mouth and said something in Italian.
‘We can’t see you yet,’ explained Jack. ‘Massimo’s just giving one of their IT whiz-kids a tough time. Are you on your own, Howie?’
‘No,’ replied the FBI man. ‘I’m here with Special Agent Angelita Fernandez. She joined the task force yesterday.’
‘Hi there, Mr King. Pleased to be working with you,’ said Fernandez respectfully.
‘Now we see you,’ announced Massimo. ‘I am sorry, Italian telecommunications have not been the same since Marconi died.’
They all laughed politely and waited for the rooms in Rome and New York to clear of geeks before they got down to business.
Jack stayed silent and let Massimo run the show.
‘I want to discuss several major things during this video conference call,’ he said, looking down at a checklist. ‘Number one, Jack’s involvement at our request. Number two, the mutual need to share information. Number three, the delivery of a package to Italian police here in Rome, containing the head of Cristina Barbuggiani. And number four, the attempted delivery of a package to the FBI, containing the head of…’ Massimo’s voice trailed away, as he looked to his side to check his notes again, ‘… the head of Sarah Kearney, an old victim, maybe the first victim, of the Black River Killer. Is there anything else anyone would like to add to this list?’
Howie leant towards his microphone, ‘We need to discuss cross-operational issues, involvement of the authorities in South Carolina, mutual database access and such like, but we can take those discussions offline, if you prefer to.’
‘Let’s do that, please,’ agreed Massimo. ‘Maybe you can brief Jack and we’ll supply him with a liaison officer at this end?’
‘Sure,’ said Howie.
‘As you know,’ continued Mass, diving into the agenda, ‘my team here at the Ufficio Investigativo Centrale di Psicologia Criminale has contracted Jack to join us as a consultant in the case of Cristina Barbuggiani. We have done that because we believe there are disturbing similarities to your BRK cases in the United States. To be clear, Jack does not have any police powers and is solely here as an expert civilian. His role is to give us executive input: analysis and profiling work on present and emerging case details, plus, if we make an arrest, psychological input on interview strategy. The last factor will of course be very important if the killer turns out to be a non-Italian and purely American offender.’
‘You couldn’t have made a better choice,’ said Howie, warmly. ‘Nothing pleases me more than to see the old bull back in the ring.’
‘Indeed,’ said Massimo, not quite sure what the American compliment actually meant. ‘We are sending this evening, by secure line, copies of photographs, translated reports and photographic evidence related to the case of the young woman I mentioned to you, Cristina Barbuggiani.’
Fernandez cupped her hand and whispered in Howie’s ear, ‘I’ve already pulled some background from Italian news reports and there’s an Interpol bulletin too, though no mention of BRK.’
‘The press in Italy,’ continued Massimo, ‘especially in Cristina’s home town of Livorno, is treating this as an isolated local murder. They are unaware of any possible link to a serial killer. And we would very much like to keep it that way. Even talk of Italian serial killers is enough to drive Mr Berlusconi’s media mad, and then they make our job all the more difficult. Any mention of an American serial murderer, or a former FBI profiler working with us, would result in our investigation being overrun by the