permit obtained by Trevini years ago for the Alcantara family.
She parked the BMW right outside the entrance to the Grand Hotel Jonio. As she got out, she took her bag off the passenger seat. It contained only one item.
She was wearing a black fabric coat, slim pants, and leather boots. Her blond hair fell loose over her shoulders, fluttering in the brisk wind blowing up to the cliffs on the steep coast. In spite of the mild weather, there was a chill to the gusts off the wide expanses of the Ionian Sea.
Two of Trevini’s bodyguards, in bespoke suits, were sitting in comfortable armchairs in the hotel lobby. Seeing Rosa, one of them spoke into a microphone in the bracelet on his wrist. Same as during her last visit, there were no other guests around. Maybe Trevini had rented the entire hotel for himself.
She turned to the man at the reception desk. From a distance he looked like any ordinary reception clerk. His expensive jacket bulged under his left armpit, just enough to be noticeable to anyone keeping an eye out for a shoulder holster. Rosa was sure that he had other weapons hidden under the counter in front of him.
The two men in armchairs never took their eyes off her. One of them rose to his feet and strolled between Rosa and the exit.
In a calm voice, she asked to see the attorney, and she watched the reception clerk pick up a receiver and speak quietly into it. She guessed who was at the other end of the line, and was not surprised to be told that at the moment Trevini was in an important meeting. Contessa di Santis would enjoy keeping her waiting.
She leaned as far over the counter as she could, hoping the man on the other side wouldn’t notice that she had to stand on tiptoe to do so.
“This place,” she said, “is financed by my money. I’ll give you one minute to make sure that the avvocato sees me at once.”
“I know who you are, signorina, and I’m very sorry that—”
She wasn’t listening to him anymore. Turning around, she went over to an opaque glass double door. Beyond it lay the lounge leading out to the terrace.
“Signorina Alcantara,” the man called after her, “I really must ask you to wait until the avvocato sends for you.”
The bodyguards began to move.
She pushed the lounge doors open with both hands. On the other side, she was expected.
“Contessa di Santis,” she said, with an icy smile, as she paused in the entrance.
“Signorina Alcantara.” The avvocato’s assistant glanced past Rosa at the bodyguards and gestured to them. The two men immediately withdrew. The contessa stopped directly in front of Rosa, and lowered her voice. “We should talk.”
“I’m not talking to anyone but Trevini himself—”
“Please,” replied di Santis, unmoved, “follow me.”
With a glance out of the corner of her eye, Rosa made sure that the clasp of her purse was open. She didn’t usually have much time for handbags, and until recently hadn’t even owned one. But now she was glad to have it with her.
Cristina di Santis went ahead, not out onto the terrace but through a side door and into the former ballroom of the grand hotel. She walked quickly across the room, too, her high heels clicking on the parquet flooring. She was wearing a short, snug dress, dark red like her lipstick, and her hair was just as perfect as it had been the day Rosa had met her for the first time. A signet ring, presumably that of her clan, was her only jewelry. A discreet touch of perfume wafted behind her.
“Are you bringing me to Trevini?” asked Rosa suspiciously, as the contessa led her into a narrow stairway.
Di Santis nodded without looking at her. Rosa thought of Valerie’s dungeon in the hotel basement, and stopped. She took the contessa’s upper arm and made her turn to face her. “What’s this all about?”
“Just a moment more. Please be patient.”
“What’s going on?”
“You’ll understand in a minute.”
“I didn’t come here to—”
“I know why you came here, Signorina Alcantara, and I am doing all I can to help you. I am on your side.” With that, she shook Rosa’s hand off her arm and led her through another door into a corridor paved with white tiles.
A little later they were entering the hotel swimming pool area, an impressive, domed chamber with a huge wall of windows looking out over the sea. Tiles the color of turquoise and terra-cotta