Suspiciously, she cocked her head. “What exactly does Trevini have to do with it?”
For a moment he looked as if he were going to say something, but then he touched her hand through the open window of the car again and started the engine. Moments later the Ferrari was roaring out of the courtyard. Rosa watched it go until it disappeared at the other end of the gate. For a while she listened to it retreating into the distance, on the long way downhill between the olive groves and lemon trees; then she turned around and hurried up the steps to the porch.
Iole came out of the shadow of the open door. “Sarcasmo’s scared.”
Rosa couldn’t see the dog anywhere.
“I think,” said Iole, “he’s afraid of that howling in the woods.”
Even before Rosa could answer, a black Mercedes rolled into the inner courtyard. Three men in dark suits with mirrored shades climbed out. Rosa rolled her eyes.
Gianni, the tallest and broadest of the three, came up the steps. Mozart and Proust—who would have thought? “Signorina Alcantara,” he greeted her, nodding. “Signorina Dallamano.”
Iole was visibly flattered that he knew her name. “You’re a killer, aren’t you?”
“No, signorina,” he said untruthfully.
Iole thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. “That’s all right, then.”
Rosa discussed what was necessary with Gianni and the two others and let them take up positions inside the palazzo. She had no choice but to trust the three of them. She didn’t think they were Arcadians, just highly paid professionals who were well trained in the use of weapons and other ways of inflicting pain. Not the kind of men one liked to have in the house—but better than leaving Iole, Signora Falchi, and even Valerie alone here while Rosa was elsewhere, doing what she had promised herself she would do.
“One more thing,” she said to Gianni before the three disappeared into the palazzo. “There should be a doctor arriving from Piazza Armerina. He’s to examine a guest up in one of the bedrooms. I asked him to come, so don’t shoot him in the kneecaps on sight, okay?”
Gianni nodded, and then he and the two others entered the house. As they did, they put headsets on.
Iole’s cheeks were flushed. “Hey, they’re nice!”
“Men from Mars.”
“They’re here to protect us. And they look like they’d be good at it.”
“Yes,” said Rosa. “I’m sure they are.”
Iole glanced at her. “You’re going somewhere, aren’t you? And you didn’t tell Alessandro.”
“How do you know that?”
But Iole simply walked away. “I’ll look after Sarcasmo. Take care.”
Rosa watched her go. “You, too. And Iole?”
The girl turned back.
“If there’s any kind of danger, I don’t care what, just hide. There’s a secret room in the study behind the—”
“Behind the paneling. The room with the white telephone. I know.” Iole waved to her, began humming a tune, and disappeared.
With the soft melody in her ears, Rosa shook her head and set off for the greenhouse.
In the humid, hot, tropical thicket she talked to the snakes.
THE CONTESSA
SHE FELT UNEASY as she went down the driveway, a mile through plantations and light woodland. She had chosen a black BMW cross-country vehicle, not her father’s Maserati, so she stepped on the gas harder than usual on the uneven gravel drive. Dust clouds rose behind her, obscuring her view in the mirror. She kept looking out for wild dogs among the trees, but she couldn’t see any, and there were certainly no humans in sight. The howling had come from higher up. They might be on the mountain or the nearby hills behind the palazzo.
She’d had the guards down on the road reinforced. Four men were keeping an eye on the surroundings there. A dozen more were patrolling the slopes. Her aunt used to have just as many stationed there; Rosa was relying on the fact that Florinda must have known what was necessary to keep the property secure.
Soon she was racing northward, passing Piazza Armerina and Valguarnera, and at Enna turning onto the A19 toward the east coast. Several times she thought she saw pursuers behind her, but as soon as she had convinced herself that she was being shadowed, the suspicious vehicles disappeared along a side road or turned off into a picnic area.
Two hours later, around noon, she finally drove up the winding road to Taormina. The sky on the cliff tops above the town was overcast. Uniformed police officers at barriers were turning tourists in rental cars away from the historic city center, but Rosa had a special