21
Riondino opened his eyes. He had woken up all of a sudden – he had been nudged by a sudden sense of alarm. It was four in the morning. Jack took a few minutes to remember what had happened the night before.
The memories came back to him slowly.
They were sweet and thick like blood.
He indulged in his memories without being able or willing to resist them.
He let the emotions take him over. He smelled the scent of the young woman’s skin, her sweet flesh had been touched by Hannibal. He could still smell the scent of her blood, the scent of her pussy.
The scent of her terror.
He could feel his erection vibrate arrogantly under the bed sheets.
He let one of his hands slide down, feeling for it.
Hannibal had reached out to the woman’s neck to choke her. He had torn her tights apart.
Sure, it had been a risk letting Hannibal show up. But it had been so beautiful to let himself enjoy that obscene pleasure. The scent… oh, the scent…
A thought suddenly struck him from out of the blue and froze his pleasure. He didn’t remember how he had returned to the hideout.
He sprang out of bed. He focused. Nothing. His last memory was the front door at the optician’s shop, which he had closed behind him. And then he had walked away on the pavement, following the flow of the passers-by.
He rummaged around in the memory of the others, as he had learned to do over time. The Earl, the Fox, the Actor, the Professor… still nothing.
“Fuck, Julia!” He shouted.
Everything was clear – after the action, he had lost himself in a river of pleasure, as though he were under the influence of drugs. He had lost self-control… someone had taken advantage of this to show up, but he didn’t remember who it had been. Julia. Or perhaps the Rebel. No, Julia. It was her. He was sure about it.
Riondino lay back down on the bed, he was nervous. He tried to control his breathing. He searched his mind furiously. “Julia! Where the fuck are you, bitch?”
What had she done? Where had she gone? Had she given away where he was hiding?”
“Show up! I need to talk to you! For fuck’s sake, Julia!”
*
Maiezza didn’t bother knocking on the door – he walked straight into Sensi’s office, startling him. “We got him! We got him!” He exclaimed. As he said this, he almost pounced on the map of the city which had a red circle, drawn by Sensi two days ago, showing where he thought Riondino was hiding. “He’s here! Right here! Right in the middle of the area where we thought he was!”
“Hell… are you sure?”
“I followed the trail backwards, like you said. From 7.30 p.m. backwards, from his closest point to the shop, but then I lost him almost immediately. Then I realised I should look at the recordings from the area that we have been monitoring these last two days… and bingo! Here!” Maiezza said over-excitedly, as he pointed to a specific spot on the map. “The first recording in chronological order shows him in this spot. We placed a lot of cameras in this area and Riondino only appears on this camera. He started from here. His hideout must be here.”
The dot that Maiezza was pointing to comprised ten buildings at most. That’s it. Sensi was overwhelmed by a rush of adrenaline.
“That’s not it.” Maiezza was still speaking over-excitedly. “Right now, I have only told you where he left from. But we dug deeper, further back in the night.”
“And?”
“Riondino appears in another camera at 11.56 p.m.” Maiezza pointed to another spot, on the edge of the red circle. “We followed him all the way from here. Frame after frame up to the last camera where we saw him appear two hours before for the first time.” Maiezza pressed on the map so hard that it looked like he wanted to penetrate both the map and the wall behind. “He goes back into his hideout at 11.07 p.m., here. At this spot.”
*
“She’s hiding, Fox. I can’t find her.”
“We don’t know what she did and what time she came back home.”
“We don’t know anything.”
“Do you think that we’re in trouble, now?”
“That’s possible, Fox… we only have to hope that Julia didn’t do anything stupid while she was away.”
“Anything stupid? What do you think that she did?”
“You’re joking, right? Look at our face and then think about her voice and the way that she speaks and she moves. If there is anyone among us who can attract anyone’s attention when they show up, it’s definitely her!”
“So what? We don’t look like anyone that the police are looking for… those who saw her must have thought that she was an old faggot, that’s all.”
“Fox… there’s some blood on the shirt that we were wearing yesterday. It’s dead obvious.”
“Holy shit. Fuck. It was a stupid idea to let Hannibal out – he was the last one that we wanted to be free.”
“What’s done is done now.”
“If you hadn’t let Hannibal out, maybe Julia wouldn’t have showed up without you realising.”
“What’s the point talking about this now? That’s the way it happened and we can’t change anything now. The media have talked so much about the woman. If anybody noticed Julia near the shop, they might remember that she had blood on her shirt. They could sketch a drawing of us and then more people would realise that they saw us elsewhere… maybe even in this building. As I said, let’s hope that Julia didn’t do anything stupid… like talking to somebody or attracting people’s attention somehow.”
“Hoping is not a solution – we need somewhere else to hide, Jack. Right here, right now. We can’t risk it.”
“Yeah, easy to say. Where can we go? We don’t have our documents yet and we only have a couple of thousand Euros.”
“Let’s change plans – let’s go to our friend’s place today rather than later. We’ll stay with him.”
“What if the police pay us a visit? They have visited him already… do you remember?”
“So it’s unlikely that they will be back again. Didn’t you say that your cloned documents will be shipped to your friend’s address anyway? They will be there tomorrow or the day after at the latest. We will get our money back and then we will run away.”
“That doesn’t sound quite right, Fox.”
“Think about it, Jack. We don’t know what Julia did. We don’t know what time she came home and whether she left any traces around. In other words, we don’t know if the police know where we hide. We have very little time left, maybe just a few minutes.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, it’s only been a few hours.”
“That’s why we have to run away from here now, while it’s early enough. Maybe the police have a face to look for already. Even if they can’t spot the exact hideout, this specific street and building, they could still find the area. And when that happens, we can’t get away from here again. We’ll be penned in. We have to run away now, Jack.”
“We’ll have to wear a different disguise.”
“We’ll sneak off somewhere else and then we’ll visit our friend tonight.”
“Okay – I’ll ask the Actor to show up for us. We won’t get out of here before eight in the morning anyway. We’ll wait for more people to be in the streets so that we can blend in nicely.”
*
At six in the morning, a line of police had formed around the area. They were not obvious at all; in fact they were almost invisible, but nobody could have left any of those buildings without being monitored by them. They would have stopped anyone who looked suspicious, if they thought there was even a slight chance that it could be Riondino. Other officers were lined up in a wider circle around the area, in case help was needed.
Sensi had finished walking slowly around the area. He sat back in the car with Maiezza. He had walked thoughtfully in the light drizzle, his breathing was fast. Too much adrenalin.
“We just have to wait for him to come out,” Sensi said wit
h a hint of anxiety in his voice.
“It’s seven, more people should begin to leave their homes now. It could become a problem for us.”
“They won’t all walk out together from the same building – we’ll see him.”
“We don’t know what he will choose to look…”
“We know his height and his body type. Forensics have found traces of hairs with talc on them – it’s likely that he had white hair and he looks older than his true age. We’ll find him.”
“Sorry to ask… but wouldn’t it have been better for our men to stand outside each building and interrogate each and every person that comes out?”
“That way we would alarm him and he wouldn’t leave the flat.” Sensi interrupted Maiezza impatiently. “There are more than five hundred flats in this area. Do you know how long it would take us to find him? He would have plenty of time to come up with a new plan.”
“Even if he suspected anything, it would be almost impossible for him to get out if we stood at every door.”
“You said it – almost impossible. Let’s stick with our plan now and see how it works. Two of the buildings have a caretaker’s office; go and see if they have any information for us. I’m going back to the office.”
*
Claps was waiting for Sensi in his office.
“We are monitoring the area – let’s just wait for now.” Sensi said, wearily. “Don’t you think he’ll be out any time soon?”
“No, not until it’s light. He might want to take his time. He’s on the run, he’s being hunted down and he thinks that he’s in a safe place. What he did… tonight… is a good reason for him to go to ground. He knows that we know it was him. The way that he killed her… and the forensic traces that he left… are all proof that he is the murderer. He knows that we will hunt him down in Milan… not in Rome.”
“I agree, yes. He won’t leave his hideout readily,” Sensi sighed. “I was thinking about how he might have found his hideout?”
Claps lowered his eyes, for a moment it seemed as though he was pondering on whether or not to speak. “I have noticed something in… in the tape recordings.”
“What?”
“In the first few recordings, from the area where he’s hiding to the shop… he limps slightly… it’s a slight, but obvious limp. He isn’t doing that any more when he leaves the shop and returns to his hideout.”
“Go on,” Sensi leaned forward towards Claps. “I’m listening.”
“That means that one personality arrived at the shop… most likely Jack… and then another personality walked out of it… Hannibal. He was out for two hours with complete freedom…”
“What are you suggesting? That Jack cannot control Hannibal?”
“No, the opposite.” Claps shook his head. “It means that Jack lets him take over… he took Ha-Hannibal to the shop… it’s the proof that they are both almost merged with each other… they are one person and he will strike again… he won’t be able to stop himself.”
“Jack… Hannibal… the Actor… I don’t give a fuck any more!” Sensi exclaimed. “I want to find him. I want to find Riondino and we’re so close to him now,” he hissed.
“Yes, sure.” For a moment, only a split second, the thought of Julia crossed Claps’ mind. “You’re right.”
Sensi noticed that Claps looked incredibly tired; after all, he hadn’t slept that night. “You should take some rest.”
“Yeah, and so should you.”
“Not yet for me – there’s still a lot of work to do. For example, I want to know how many flats are empty or rented out in the buildings in that area. If there are any warehouses or cellars. We have to get closer, I want to know how he found his hideout. We can’t just wait for him to decide to walk out.”
Claps nodded gravely. “Regarding what happened last night… the news reports say that the murder was the aftermath of a robbery,” he said, after a few moments of silence.
“That’s what we wanted the media to say. I don’t want to alarm the public for now. If people know the truth and begin to look around suspiciously, Riondino will become even more cautious and maybe he will never leave his hideout.” Sensi loosened his tie and then unbuttoned the collar of his shirt so he could breathe more easily. “Go get some rest, Claps.”
“I have some work to do… do you remember? I’m going to have to speak to Riondino’s Facebook friends… it could be important…”
Claps’ mobile phone vibrated as he walked out of Sensi’s office – the screen displayed Greta’s name.
*
Riondino pulled the curtains apart slightly – he had been looking down the street for a few minutes, now.
“I don’t like this, Fox.”
“You mean the car parked down here, right?”
“There are people in it and they have been there for forty minutes – no one has got out.”
“Maybe they’re waiting for someone, Jack.”
“And they have been waiting all this time? I don’t like it… maybe they are waiting for us… Fuck.”
“Maybe she shouldn’t go out now. Let’s wait and see what happens. We don’t want to take any risks. We’ll keep an eye on the vehicle for the time being.”
“Yes, that’s a wise choice…” Jack froze all of a sudden. “Look! There!”
Two men got out of the car decisively.
“Look!” Jack repeated.
The two began to follow a man who had left the building opposite the one where Riondino was hiding. After a few metres, two other people walked towards him and stopped him. The group were now too far away for Riondino to see them clearly, but it seemed that one of them had shown him something. In turn, he had reached for his wallet.
“That’s a police check! They fucking asked him to show them an ID! It’s a fucking police check!”
A few moments later, the man who had been stopped was released. The two men strode quickly back towards the car where they had been sitting.
“Do you know what this means, Fox?”
“We’re penned in, thanks to you and Julia for letting Hannibal show up!”
“Stop it, Fox. They stopped somebody who was walking out of the building across the street – they don’t know exactly where we are.”
“They will find out soon, Jack, they will inspect each and every single flat.”
“We have to find a way to get out of here and do it now.
“I’ll find a way… fuck… but…”
“What?”
“Jack – if Julia showed up now, it would be the end.”
“That fucking bitch won’t show up. I’ll keep focused and I won’t let it happen.”
22
When Greta got out of the taxi, Claps was already waiting for her. He was outside the house where Alberto Reggi, the first on the list of Riondino’s Facebook friends, lived.
Greta smiled at Claps quickly, then she asked the question. “Was it him? The woman that was murdered in the shop last night… was it Hannibal?”
Claps looked around before giving an answer. He saw again in his mind’s eye the face of the young woman who had been murdered. The tear that had rolled down her cheek. Once again, he wished he had nothing to do with this case.
“What makes you think… that?” Claps forced himself to ask.
“It’s just a rumour that I heard. Your tired face kind of confirms it… it looks like you haven’t slept all night.”
Claps hesitated a little longer.
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to anyone,” Greta assured him. “Not everyone in the police should be trusted anyway – where do you think that the rumour comes from? Somebody will broadcast the breaking news later tonight, I’m sure.”
“It was him…” Claps confirmed; he lowered his eyes.
“You knew that it would happen, right? You said it a while ago…”
“I didn’t think it would happen so soon.”
“Did he leave anything behind to lead us to him?”
�
��Nothing obvious… but the police are working on it.” Claps wondered again why Riondino had entered the shop in the first place. Was it really to buy some glasses to look different, as Sensi thought?
This time, Greta lowered her eyes and asked in a whisper. “Was she sexually abused?”
“In this aspect it was no different to the other murders…”
“Oh god…”
Yes, Sensi was right – Jack, Hannibal, the Fox… Julia… whoever it was, whatever it was, Riondino had to be stopped immediately. Claps forced himself to speak again. “Let’s go and meet Alberto Reggi. He looks the most similar to Matteo Contri among Riondino’s online friends. His job doesn’t seem to relate him to Riondino at all, he’s the head waiter at a restaurant in town. I want to ask him what they talked about online.”
*
Alberto Reggi was a tall, thin man in his forties, who sported a goatee beard full of grey hairs. His facial features were gentle and his hair was combed carefully. It took him a few minutes to understand why Claps and Greta were visiting him – after which, he was rather aloof.
“As I said, we’re just here about an investigation into your online friend.”
“Did he do something bad?”
“We… wouldn’t be here… otherwise.”
“Robbery? Some financial scam?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, I never chatted to him that often, but when we did, he would talk about financial affairs… some strange financial talk anyway… he had even offered to give me some good advice.”
“And did he give you any?”
“No, I always dodged the issue – I don’t like taking financial risks and I don’t have enough money to do so anyway.”
Greta noticed that the furniture was expensive, just like the clothes Reggi was wearing. That was where all his money went for sure.
“I would like to know more about your… online chats.”
“We would talk about anything – we didn’t have a specific topic all the time.”
“Can you make an effort to be a little more precise?”
“As I said, we would often talk about big financial investments and financial projects; but it wasn’t a dialogue – he was the one who talked about it all. He liked talking about it… I never understood it much.”
Hunted Page 17
