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"I wish I could have saved her.But I suspect she was dead before someone threw her off the balcony.It was a bold move killing her in such a public way.On the other hand, the cover of the party provided an easy escape for the killer.He or she could get away quickly, blend into the background unnoticed, just another guest at the party."
"That's true."
"But it was a risk, and it may turn out to have been a costly one if the police can find evidence on the balcony."
"I hope they can."She paused."But what if it was someone no one would question, like a police officer?"
"Like Captain Lavezzo?"
"Yes.But I didn't see him anywhere when we were being questioned.Did you?"
"No.He could have left the party before she was killed," he replied.
"There was probably about twenty or thirty minutes between when I saw Lavezzo and Catherine together and then found you by the pool," she murmured."Long enough for him to have left before Catherine was killed."
"Or to kill her and get away."
She shivered again."It's hard to wrap my head around any of this."
"I know."
"I thought Stefano might show up when the other officers arrived.He must not have been working tonight."
"I'm sure he'll surface at some point."
"Maybe we should call him, see what he knows about what happened."
"Let's save that for tomorrow."He grabbed the pear she'd just discarded."I'm hungry," he said, at her questioning gaze."And this pear had nothing to do with Catherine's death."
As he ate, her mind raced with theories and suspects."I was thinking about the scene in the garden.When Dario Micheli and Matthew Pierre arrived, Catherine didn't seem interested in talking to them.But it felt like they all knew each other.There weren't any introductions, just greetings.Then Catherine quickly left."
"She probably didn't want anyone to see her with Lavezzo."
"I wondered why they were all in that part of the garden.It was very secluded.I wish I knew what the three men talked about after she left.I shouldn't have been so resistant to learning Italian from my grandmother.But I felt like an outsider when I was here in Rome, and I stubbornly clung to the idea that not learning their language was one way I could control my situation."
"That's insightful, Isabella."
"I have some self-awareness.But it often arrives too late to be helpful."
He set down the core of the pear."You had no way of knowing any of this would be happening now, so give yourself a break."
"What about Sam?"she asked, her mind jumping in a different direction."Could he have killed Catherine?He gave you information about her.He disappeared into the shadows.A short time after that, she hit the pool.He gave us a lead, but now the lead is dead."
Nick gave her a thoughtful look."That's interesting, but I don't believe there was enough time for him to get to the third floor and orchestrate her death.I was talking to him just before you came outside."
"Sam could be working with someone else.His partner, whoever that might be, could have killed Catherine.Clearly, there were multiple people involved in the museum robbery.If it was just Catherine, she wouldn't be dead."She took a breath."What are we going to do now?"
"Keep going.We have new clues.We know Catherine was Juliette's daughter, and Juliette was the sister of Roberto and Bruno.Juliette disappeared with Catherine years ago, and her personal information ended up in my grandfather's belongings.Both Juliette and my grandfather died a year ago.It seems like too big of a coincidence for those events not to be linked."
"And Juliette could be the mysteriousJfrom the letters," she reminded him."The address for Juliette was in Firenze, but if she changed her name, and that ID expired years ago, then we don't know where she's been recently.Only where she was a very long time ago."
"We can probably find out more about her now that we have the link to Catherine.I can get my team on that."
"I like that you have a team to get on things.I'm always working by myself.Maybe your team should also look into Dario Micheli.It was his gallery that lost the Leoni painting.I wonder where he got that painting from."
"Probably a relative.Wasn't Leoni living in Firenze at some point?"
"I think so," she said.
