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But it was more information than I’d had in three and a half years.
And he did it in only four days.
“Lars!” Dario grinned as he walked back into the cell. He’d just come back from a phone call with his brothers. “I have good news!”
“What?” I asked as I looked up from the book I was reading – an Italian translation of one of the Jack Reacher books.
“Niccolo found Rachel’s mother. And if you can get to her, you should be able to find her daughter.”
I stared in shock. “What?! How?!”
Dario laughed and collapsed in the chair opposite me. “Niccolo had a couple of our best men drive out to Pescara. When you told me what happened, I knew exactly who they should talk to: older women still working in the hotels.
“Pescara’s big, but not that big… 100,000 people, maybe. But you gave me enough information to go on. Roughly 30 years ago, a young waitress ‘got in trouble’ with a handsome British man on vacation. There had to be people who were around when it happened. Knowing Italian women, I figured they’ve probably been gossiping about it ever since.
“And I was right. It took Niccolo’s men three days of snooping, but they finally found a group of women in their 50s who had worked in the hotel where it happened. They remembered, alright. The mother’s name was Camilla Abbandando. She was very young at the time, about 20. No reflection on Rachel, but the women said Camilla was unpleasant. She was a very pretty girl, but vain and arrogant. After she got pregnant, she bragged incessantly about how she was going to marry her rich Englishman and how he was flying her to London. Then they never heard from her again.”
The part about her mother being unpleasant certainly fit what Rachel had told me.
“Camilla Abbandando,” I repeated.
“Yes. The women had no idea what Camilla’s married name was, but there should be some sort of marriage license from 28 years ago. Maybe even a birth certificate for Rachel. Either way, you should be able to find the mother.”
I stood up in a trance. “Dario – I – ”
He laughed as he grabbed me by the shoulders. “Go talk to your friend. Maybe he can use the information Niccolo found.”
“Thank you… for everything…”
“You’re welcome!” he said and slapped me on the back as I left the cell. “Just be sure to name your first-born son after me!” he joked. “That’s all I ask!”
105
I’d already called Gunnar three days ago and told him I was getting out of prison.
The news had surprised and overjoyed him –
But this new piece of information absolutely floored him.
“Dude – are you SURE?”
“That’s what Dario said.”
“Look, I know your Italian buddy is ‘connected…’” I could hear the air quotes in his voice. “But can you really – ”
“Just look for Camilla Abbandando. Please.”
“Okay… hold on…”
I kept the pay phone receiver next to my ear and my back to the wall. Getting shivved while talking on the phone was a disturbingly common occurrence, so I kept an eye out while I waited.
I could hear Gunnar typing in the background. Then I heard him swear in surprise.
“…holy shit…”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“…Camilla Abbandando… marriage license to a Laurence Grantham 30 years ago… changed her name to Camilla Grantham… and had a little girl at St. Bartholomew’s hospital… named Rachel Francesca Grantham.”
