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“And several of them have made repeat trips to Florence, always on the last Saturday of every month,” Ronansaid.
“The last Saturday of every month,” Nick repeated. “The same members everymonth?”
Ronan shook his head. “It varies, but it’s definitely the same coregroup.”
“What are you thinking?” Declanasked.
“I’m thinking these guys are all members of Manifest and the villa in Florence is home base for monthly parties,” Ronan said. “I’m thinking they can’t all make it all the time, but they get away when theycan.”
Julia’s stomach turned over. “What kind ofparties?”
Sympathy shadowed his eyes when he looked at her. “Your guess is as good as mine, although I’m sure we’re guessing the same kinds ofthings.”
Julia grabbed onto the back of one of the conference chairs as if that would help to steady her. Like that would stop the wave of nausea that threatened to overtake her. Like that would stop her from imagining Elise at the mercy of a bunch of rich assholes who thought they’d earned the right to use her against herwill.
“I’d be surprised if the Whitmore members we’ve already tagged represent all of Manifest’s membership.” Julia was glad that Ronan continued, that he didn’t wait for her to say anything more. She didn’t trust herself to speak without screaming. “Clay’s working on getting into ENAV’s database so we can run numbers on repeat visitors to Florence on or around the last Saturday of the month. That might clue us in to other members of Manifest, but it might take awhile.”
“ENAV?” Juliarepeated.
“It’s like the TSA in Italy,” Declan explained. “They have customs records on anyone entering the country via itsairspace.”
“Helicopters too?” Juliaasked.
“Good point,” Ronan said. “The members who live closer to Florence might come in via chopper. We’ll pull flight records from private heliports in the areatoo.”
Julia nodded. “How long is awhile?”
“Weeks, maybe months,” headmitted.
It didn’t surprise her that he knew she was talking about Clay. Their communication had been like this from the beginning: easy, seamless,synchronized.
“We can’t wait that long,” Juliasaid.
He nodded slowly. And now his eyes were shaded with something deeper than regret. Something that looked a lot like fear. “Iknow.”
The vise that had been gripping her chest since Ronan mentioned the parties in Florence began to ease. Now at least they could do something. “When do weleave?”
7
Even before heand Julia hit the porch of the house, Ronan heard his father’s voice. The words were indistinct, but Ronan would know the deep timbre, low and commanding, of his father’s voiceanywhere.
Julia cast him a questioning look as they approached the house through thecourtyard.
“My father,” Ronansaid.
She lifted her eyebrows. In the three months she’d been living at the house, she’d never had occasion to meet Thomas Murphy. It hadn’t been intentional but Ronan wasn’t willing to swear it hadn’t been the work of hissubconscious.
Despite his truce with his father, there was undoubtedly baggage in their relationship, and Ronan wasn’t eager to explain it to Julia when they were already standing on the shifting sand of Elise’sdisappearance.
Nick was in almost daily contact with their father, but Ronan had somehow managed to be busy anytime Nick or Declan went over to the house in South Boston, an area that had been rough when Thomas Murphy bought the row house with Ronan’s mother back in 1982 but which had become gentrified in the lastdecade.
“Is it okay that I’m here?” Julia asked as they approached thedoor.
Ronan reached for her hand. “It’s more thanokay."
They’d stayed at the office after Nick and Declan left, Ronan immersing himself in a conversation with Clay about what it would take to gain him access to the next Manifest event in Florence, and Julia combing through the background on the members of the Whitmore Club that they could now be almost certain were part ofManifest.
Ronan had no desire to address the white elephant of the trip to Florence — whether Julia would go, if she did go what her role would be — and he’d been relieved that she was willing to leave it for anothertime.
