City of Fear by David Hewson

Author:David Hewson [Hewson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780385341509
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2010-05-24T23:00:00+00:00

34

THEY'D NEEDED A DRINK AFTER THE STRANGE MEETING in the restaurant with Peroni's mobster pal. Falcone chose the location, which was why they were in the Via della Croce, drinking Falanghina in the Antica Enoteca, staring at some of the best cold food in Rome, trying to work up an appetite.

The inspector had decided he didn't want to walk all the way from San Giovanni. Instead he had tried to drive them home in his Lancia. Four armed carabinieri turned them back at the barricade by the Colosseum, glancing at their police IDs, then laughing. That did nothing to improve Falcone's temper. Now the inspector's sleek car was abandoned halfway up the sidewalk of a side street on the opposite side of the Corso, near the Mausoleum of Augustus, in the shadow of an ugly fascist-era marble office building. Rome's shaky traffic-management system had collapsed under the pressure of the street closures and the panic to get out into the suburbs. Much of the centro storico was deserted, isolated by a multitude of barricades. Beyond them, traffic was snarled in every direction.

The old wine bar should have been bursting with people fighting to get to the counter, yelling for their glasses of good Italian wine from Tuscany and Puglia, Sicily and the Veneto, picking at plates of food. Instead, there were just two couples in the place. The waiters looked bored and a little scared. Peroni had chosen the dishes automatically, his favorites whenever they came here. Three generous plates, one of roast pork with prunes, a second covered with cheese, and a third of antipasti, sat on the bar, untouched.

"Was that a good day?" Teresa Lupo asked. "As far as the work is concerned, I mean."

Falcone scowled and held the Falanghina up to the light. It was perfect: cold and fragrant. "I've known better. If it weren't for your assistant and the Englishwoman ..."

"Silvio and Elizabeth are quite a team," she agreed. "I hope they manage to get some sleep. There's a limit to how much a computer can tell you."

The two men stared at her.

"I know, I know!" she objected. "I'm learning, aren't I? I'd like to think our trip to the Villa Giulia provided a little useful intelligence."

"I suppose so...." Falcone looked thoroughly miserable. She found herself feeling sorry for this solitary, difficult man. The inspector hated being excluded from the center of events. More than anything, he detested the idea of losing. All the men she'd come to admire, and in some ways love, did. It was a peculiarly damaged form of heroism on their part.

"Leo?" Teresa asked, carefully. "There's something I need to get clear in my mind."

"Ask away," he responded.

"Our new friend Toni. Walking out like that just because I asked him about the Blue Demon."

"What about it?" There was a canny look in his eye.

"Well, why? It's not as if it's a secret that they're the people we're looking for. Why did he suddenly get so touchy?"

"I didn't understand that, either," Peroni began, leaning forward.

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