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She swallowed, for she had already guessed he didn’t generally slink around outside hotels in the early hours of the morning.
‘Can we sit?’ He gestured to a bench in the square.
‘No, I can’t be late.’
‘I’m sure you’re ridiculously early.’
True.
‘Come on,’ he said, and gestured with his head as he took her elbow lightly.
Something in the way he said it told her he was here to talk about Beatrice. She perched on the edge of the bench rather than sit. She’d been waiting for this moment for ever, but was terrified now it was here.
‘It’s not good news,’ Dante said, but then he immediately moved to put her mind at rest. ‘She’s not dead or anything,’ he added. ‘At least, there’s no evidence to suggest that.’
Her breathing was shallow, and she wanted to get up and run, but then Dante took her hand.
He’d used to do that.
Dante knew how to hold her hand like no one else.
His hands were the kindest she knew.
She looked down at their fingers, laced together, and discovered how right they looked clasped together here on the edge of dawn. Though his nails were now manicured and neat, his hands were so familiar, and she clung on for just a moment.
Gathering herself, she lifted her eyes to his. ‘I remember the day you stopped holding my hand.’ She looked down again. ‘We were walking through the rushes.’
He said nothing.
‘Well, I think it was the last time, apart from our wild afternoon.’
Still he didn’t respond.
She doubted he even remembered.
‘Do you want me to tell you what Gino has discovered?’
She took a breath. ‘Yes.’
‘Gino has good contacts, and he sourced a top private investigator. He’s seriously good, but he’s been on the case for two weeks and turned up nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘Nothing.’
‘There must besomething.’
‘The trail goes cold at the village. He chased up all the name hits, but none were her. And all the schools—not just in Milan, but all of Italy. It’s just a complete dead end.’
Alicia closed her eyes for a moment. Of course it was not his fault that the news was bad. If anything, it helped a little to know it wasn’t just her poor reading skills that had led her down blind alleys to nowhere.
‘Maybe she’s married now,’ Alicia said.
‘I think he would have found a record of that.’
‘She might be in witness protection.’
‘Perhaps... But have you considered that she might not want to be found?’
