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--Italian most likely. Not from Campania. Large. Dark-complexioned. Black hair. Wearing dark suit, dusty. Smoked foul cigarettes. Described as surly.
--English was spoken. But they tried not to speak in front of the waitress. --Reference to Trenitalia journey, six hours.
--Dark car (black, blue) drove past at some point. Slowed, possibly to examine Maziq and Companion.
--Shoe prints at vantage point: Converse Cons, Size 45, same as at other scenes.
--Michelin 205/55R16 91H tread marks found in vantage point.
--Trace recovered at vantage point. --Presently being analyzed.
--Branches recovered at vantage point. --Presently being examined for trace and fingerprints.
Rossi disconnected his call and looked over the chart. His face bore a wry smile. "No, Signor Maziq still remembers nothing of the day or so before the kidnapping. Or claims he doesn't. But I think perhaps it is less due to the Composer's drugs and the suffocation than to a typical criminal's amnesia."
"How's that?" Rhyme asked.
"As I mentioned, leaving a refugee camp briefly is not considered a serious offense. But leaving the country of first landfall is. And that's what Maziq was trying to do, it appears."
Spiro added, "Yes, now the phone calls on Maziq's mobile to and from Bolzano make sense. That is in the South Tyrol--very far north in Italy, close to the Austrian border. And about six hours on Trenitalia from here. It would be a good way station for an immigrant desiring to slip out of Italy and into northern European cities, where there are better opportunities for refugees than Italy. This man he dined with? Another human smuggler arranging to spirit Maziq out of the country, north. For a substantial fee, of course. This is a serious crime and, accordingly, he remembers nothing of it."
Rhyme noted Ercole's face brighten as he glanced toward the doorway. The blond Flying Squad officer Daniela Canton walked briskly into the room, her posture perfect.
"Officer," Spiro said.
She spoke to those assembled in Italian and Ercole translated for the Americans. "She and Giacomo have canvassed for witnesses and looked for CCTVs around the site of the kidnapping, Viale Margherita. They found nothing. One person thinks he saw a black car late at night but nothing else about it. And the tabaccaio where the Composer purchased the Nokia--the one to alert him that the aqueduct facility had been breached? No camera and the clerks have no memory of who it might have been."
Daniela left the room, Ercole's gaze following like a puppy, and then he turned back.
Sachs said, "So, the Composer is driving around the countryside, looking for a potential target. He sees Maziq and decides to kidnap him. But why, though? Why him?"
"I have a thought," Ercole said, speaking hesitantly.
Rossi asked, "And what might that be?"
A glance at Spiro. "It takes into account your interest in patterns, Procuratore."
"How?" the prosecutor muttered.
"We've found the drugs, the evidence of electroconvulsive treatment. We know the Composer's psychotic. Schizophrenia is one of the common forms of psychosis. These patients truly believe they are doing good--sometimes the work of God or alien beings or mythological figures. Now, on the surface, Maziq and Robert Ellis are very different. A refugee in Italy and a businessman in New York. But the Composer might have become convinced that they are reincarnations of some evil figures."
Spiro asked, "Mussolini? Billy the Kid? Hitler?"
"Yes, yes, just so. He is justified in killing them to rid the world of their evil. Or to get revenge on behalf of a deity or spirit."
"And the music? The video?"
"Perhaps so other demons or villains will see. And flee back to hell."
"If they have good Internet servers," Spiro muttered. "You must have much free time in Forestry, Ercole, to study such subjects."
He blushed and responded, "Procuratore, this particular fact about criminal psychosis I learned last night. Doing some, come si dice?" A frown. "Doing homework."
"Mythological figures enlisting the Composer to rid the world of evil." Spiro frowned, gazing at the newsprint sheet. "I think we have not yet stumbled upon a pattern that satisfies me." He regarded his elaborate watch. "I have a call to Rome I must make."
Without another word he turned and left the situation room, pulling a cheroot from his pocket.
Rhyme's phone hummed with a text. He assumed it was Thom, who had taken a few hours off and was seeing the sights in Naples. But he saw immediately that he was wrong. The text was lengthy and, after reading it, he nodded to Sachs. She took the phone and frowned.
