Hunted

by Monty Marsden

  That’s all that mattered.

  “Greta – we’ll be on air in three minutes!”

  Greta walked out of the dressing room; she fixed the earpiece in her ear with a natural, quick movement, as though she still did it every day.

  Her eyes took everything in – it was all perfectly under control. The stage was hers.

  Montanari was waiting for her. “Come on, Greta, let’s smash it!”

  That was the lucky phrase he would repeat every time he was going on air with breaking news.

  Greta’s reply was always the same. She didn’t think twice. “We’ll nail it!”

  The theme tune opened the show.

  “Good evening, everyone.”

  Montanari smiled his best smile, showing off his perfect white teeth.

  “As we mentioned, we have some vitally important developments in the Giacomo Riondino story which we are about to bring you. Our team is all here, ready to discuss the recent events.”

  The camera angle switched and zoomed in on Montanari’s face.

  “As you know, we learned about an hour ago that Giacomo Riondino is in Milan at the moment. What has not been reported yet is that he committed another murder last night.”

  The photo of the young woman who worked at the optician’s appeared on a large screen behind Montanari.

  “We are also very keen to tell you that the police are extremely close to identifying an accomplice who might have helped Riondino to hide.”

  Another change of camera angle. Another zoom on Montanari, this time a little wider than before. He turned his torso slowly towards the camera.

  “Let’s talk about one thing at a time, now. The authorities haven’t denied the information that we are going to discuss, and it comes from a trustworthy and authoritative source. A brave journalist has uncovered this information for us – she was almost a victim of a serial killer in the past. She has been away from TV for a long time. Greta Alfieri.”

  Claps was watching the show from a small room in the TV studios. Greta appeared on the screen.

  “Tell us everything, Greta.”

  Claps leaned towards the screen. Greta’s face looked a little tense, her voice sounded a little nervous. A few moments later, however, everything was transformed; it was how it had been years earlier, when Greta dominated the stage with her confident, extrovert attitude.

  Greta told the whole story, from when Riondino had gained Matteo Contri’s trust on Facebook, how he used him and then killed him in cold blood; the people from Milan that Riondino had been in touch with online; and finally the rape and murder of the young assistant at the optician’s shop. She explained about Riondino’s personalities and how, even after years of therapy, the most perverted personalities had taken over. She told of the money Riondino had got his hands on when he was still free. She told of the fact that his hideout was in a specific area of Milan and how he had managed to evade the police only a few hours earlier by causing a fire that could have killed other people. And finally, she revealed the fact that he might have an accomplice in Milan.

  “The police are close to identifying his accomplice; they are concentrating on a small number of suspects. And this is the most important part – the accomplice could be unaware of who he is really helping. Perhaps the accomplice only knows the online version of Riondino and is unaware of the terrible murders that he committed.”

  The camera zoomed back on Montanari.

  “Let me add, Greta, that the accomplice would have certainly not helped Riondino if he knew the truth from the very beginning. I hope, in fact I like to think, that this is what is happening; the accomplice recognises himself in the description that we are giving tonight and calls the police. His collaboration would be extremely valuable and the court will certainly bear this in mind when they judge his own culpability.”

  The camera zoomed very close on Montanari’s face.

  “Giacomo Riondino is penned in. The streets in Milan are filled with police, who are involved in one of the most intense manhunts in history. But he is still on the loose. He has already killed seven innocent victims while on the run. He will kill many more if he remains free. If anyone knows anything or happens to have helped him somehow, please come forward.”

  The camera slowly zoomed out, giving a perspective from above. Montanari showed his perfect white teeth again.

  “Dear friends – this is an incredible story. Our special edition ends here, but keep your eyes peeled for any updates. We will keep you all informed of any changes in real time. Don’t miss our special edition tomorrow evening – all the information that you heard tonight will be analysed carefully. See you soon!”

  The TV turned off immediately when the man pressed the button on the remote control.

  “I shouldn’t have let you in. I shouldn’t have helped you.” The man sounded desperately distressed.

  “What – you suddenly don’t need all the money that I promised you? Won’t your life be finished without the money any more?” Riondino had an ominous smile on his face.

  “My life is finished now anyway. There’s no way out – they will come back here and they will find you.”

  “Keep cool – I don’t see anyone yet, do you?”

  “They will find you. Didn’t you hear what the journalist said? They reconstructed everything; they are looking for your accomplice in a small number of people.”

  “You’re so fucking naive. Did you think that the police were stupid? They are probably monitoring your landline and your Internet access. Thank goodness we never talked on the phone using your landline – why do you think I asked you to use a safe phone instead?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “And if they are investigating a bunch of people, this means that they don’t know exactly who they are looking for. They would be here otherwise and they wouldn’t have revealed any of the information that was on the TV tonight.”

  “They’re looking for you and they will search here.”

  “Stop it, damn it. They won’t – maybe somebody is monitoring your front door at the moment, maybe they’ll follow you when you walk out of the house, but they won’t come here. And you know why?

  The man remained silent, trying to stop his hands from shaking.

  “Think about it – why would they reveal everything after I escaped during the fireworks?”

  “To convince me to give you up… turn to the police and collaborate.”

  “To chicken out, yes. And that’s not all, they wanted something else – they wanted to let me know that my accomplice was about to be taken. They wanted me to worry about being back on the street, they wanted to stop me seeking your help.”

  “Yet you came over anyway.”

  “I decided to risk it. I had time to come over before they regrouped. They thought that I had no chance of getting away. What other alternatives were there for me anyway?”

  Riondino paused for a long time, then he spoke again. “Listen – I won’t stay here for long. You’ll go to pick up my documents tomorrow and as soon as I have them, we will turn on the laptop and I’ll send you the million and a half Euros as we agreed. Then I’ll disappear.”

  “How will you get out of here, if they’re watching the area?”

  “I’ll find a way, don’t worry.”

  Como was fifty kilometres away, Switzerland was a little further.

  He would be there before lunch time; he would cross the border on foot like a hiker. Then he would move to Liechtenstein, where he would retrieve his money and begin a new life. Where? He would have plenty of time to think about that…

  “You killed so many people… even those that helped you…”

  “Are you scared that I’ll kill you, too? Why would I do that – to save myself a million and a half Euros? In that case, we’ll move the money to your account before you give me the documents. That way, I will lose the money even if I kill you as soon as I have the documents.”

  The accomplice didn’t answer; his eyes were full
of fear and uncertainty.

  “Do you think that I will kill you to erase my traces? Come on, you’re too clever to think that – if anything, killing you would leave even more traces. The police would find your corpse and they would work out what happened. They would find a way to track me again and they would find the bank account that you opened in Liechtenstein. From there, they will also find my account. I just want to disappear without attracting any more attention.”

  “I want to be sure…”

  “Listen, you won’t know my identity, you won’t know where I will go to start a new life. It will be in your own best interest to keep all this a secret for the rest of your life. Why would I kill you?”

  After another pause, Riondino glared at his accomplice. “If anything, I’m the one who has to trust you – when you go out to get my documents, you could just go to the police.”

  “You’re not thinking that I…”

  “I know that you won’t,” Riondino interrupted him, raising his hand. “for two reasons – you might think that you won’t be sent to jail if you let the police find me, but your life would be ruined all the same. You’ll be saddled with debts, your name and all your work will be trashed, and most people will be happy to leave you to rot for good. You should also know that I wrote an email where I tell the whole truth, with some embellishments too, to make your situation worse. If a judge ever read the email, it would be difficult for you to avoid jail. This email is scheduled to be sent off automatically, and I’m the only one who can stop it. I’ll do so when I’m safe and not before then.”

  The man had grown pale. Riondino’s face became threatening, again.

  Was his accomplice thinking that he wanted to go to the police?

  “You can’t get out of it any more, my friend. It’s either the win, the money and the happy days, or the loss, jail, and the end of everything. Are you game?”

  The man lowered his eyes. “Yes.”

  25

  An old man, who had retired a good few years earlier, was the landlord of the flat where the explosion had occurred. His immediate concern was the financial consequences of the disaster. Regarding those that the flat had been rented out to – he had no idea. A letting agency took care of the job for him, just as it did for some other apartments that he owned in Milan.

  The owner of the letting agency, which was in fact a small office inside a shop, was woken up early in the morning by two officers. They took him to Sensi’s office.

  “The records say that the flat was empty. It’s a flat that we usually rent for short periods. Temporary lettings – that’s what my agency does mainly. Tourists… visiting business men… not students.”

  “And your agency didn’t let the flat out to anyone during that time?”

  “No. The flat is booked for next month and we have no one scheduled for renting at the moment. You can check our records.”

  “We will, don’t worry,” Sensi said, almost threateningly. “Do you have a website? Do you take online reservations?”

  “Why all these questions? Is it because of the fire? Did it start in the apartment?”

  “Are you serious? You didn’t watch TV at all yesterday?” Sensi asked incredulously.

  “I watched the news at 8 p.m., then I put on a DVD and had an early night.”

  Sensi waved his hand dismissively. “Anyway, tell me about your website?”

  “We do have a website, of course.” The letting agency owner’s voice had begun to tremble. “But we always sign the contract in our office – and we record details of the tenant’s ID, even if it’s for a short period of time.”

  “Is that when you give the keys to the tenant?”

  “That depends on when the tenancy begins; but I always hand over the keys in person. The keys to the flat in question are still at the office.”

  “Who else owns a copy of the keys?”

  “Nobody, I believe… apart from the lawyer, the landlord.”

  ‘And a previous tenant who might have got the keys cut during an earlier tenancy’, Sensi thought.

  “Tell me – do you remember if one of the previous tenants who rented the flat was called Antonio Greco?”

  “No…”

  “Alberto Reggi?”

  “No…”

  Sensi mentioned all the other names of Riondino’s online friends.

  “No, I don’t know any of these people.”

  “Try to remember, this is not a joke. Whoever gave out the keys of that flat risks being accused of being an accomplice to murder.”

  The man became pale. “Murder? Did somebody die in the fire? Did somebody get killed?”

  “You heard right – murder. Pre-meditated murder, no accident.”

  The man almost passed out in the chair.

  “Do you remember any more details now?” Sensi asked brutally.

  “No… I don’t know any of the names that you mentioned.”

  “That’s all, then. The officers will accompany you to your office. You’ll have to hand in your registers, your computers and your copy of the key to the flat. And of course, please remain available for further questioning.”

  *

  Claps had managed to sleep like a log for a few hours – he had fallen asleep almost immediately, as soon as he lay down on the bed and with his clothes still on. No dreams, no nightmares.

  He had woken up suddenly, and his mind was alert as soon as he opened his eyes. The day had only just begun.

  The first thing he did was to check whether anybody had called him on the phone. No calls – this meant that Riondino was still on the run.

  Claps looked at the sky over Milan – it was overcast. He was struck by the feeling that it was a bad omen.

  He had done all that he could – now Riondino was free and hiding somewhere, but he couldn’t move around any longer. Even if his accomplice didn’t turn to the police for help, it was difficult to imagine Riondino going to him now. Without a safe place to hide, with the police after him and monitoring every corner of the city, and the population alerted, Riondino’s freedom could not last long. Somebody would see him sooner or later and they would call the police.

  And yet, the sky was livid.

  The previous night, after the special edition of the news, he had tried to talk to Greta, but there were too many people around her; her eyes were too excited and distant. At the same time, he had wanted, almost craved solitude, waiting to be alone and for everything to end.

  He decided to sip on a coffee while sitting at his computer. The USB stick that Reti had given him, as well as the recordings of Rinaldi’s therapy sessions, which had arrived from Montelupo the day before, were all on his desk.

  Claps inserted the USB stick and began to listen to the file from the place he had left off at last time – the conversation with Julia.

  *

  “Is everything clear? Do I have to repeat it for you?”

  The accomplice was ready to go out – he looked a lot more determined than the night before.

  “I’m going to do my best not to look suspicious. I will walk normally without looking or turning around at all. I will go to the bar across the street, I’ll have a coffee, then I’ll buy the newspapers from the corner shop. I’ll walk back, head down to the garage to get my car and then I’ll go to the post office.”

  “What will you do to make sure that nobody follows you?”

  “As soon as I can, I will try to pull up where the parking areas are full and I’ll double park. I’ll pretend to go and buy something somewhere on the other side of the road.”

  “Go and buy some cigarettes, for example.”

  The accomplice nodded. “When I get out of the car, I’ll be able to see if somebody stops to wait for me. Then I’ll set off again and I’ll repeat the same trick a few minutes later.”

  “What will you do if you realise that somebody is following you?”

  “I’ll keep calm and I’ll act as if everything’s normal – I’ll go to the post office and I’l
l pretend to send a letter. Then I’ll check the mail box.”

  “Will you call me, soon after?”

  “Only if I’m certain that nobody is following me. Otherwise I’ll just go back home.”

  Riondino looked satisfied, but a moment later his eyes became cold again. “Don’t even try to do anything stupid.”

  “No, but you won’t get what you want until I see the money in my account.”

  Riondino didn’t say a word – he turned on his laptop and logged into his bank account. He sent out a direct payment under the eyes of his accomplice.

  Riondino spoke again, this time more hoarsely. “I have kept my word – now you do the same.”

  “The money isn’t in my account yet – that is only a transfer order.”

  “You won’t have to wait for long, motherfucker. It’s a transfer from one account to another within the same bank. It won’t take more than a couple of hours.”

  “I want to see the money in my account. I won’t give you the documents before then.”

  “You don’t want me to disappear as soon as possible? Do you want me to stay at your place until you get the fucking money? I won’t be able to hide anywhere else.”

  The accomplice hesitated.

  “Do you really want to risk receiving a visit from the police while I’m still here? You heard the news last night – they know that I have an accomplice. They have come to talk to you before…” Riondino glared at him. “You’ve seen me send the payment. I can’t do much more than that. I could be out of your life in a couple of hours. Do you really want to fuck everything up because you’re insecure?”

  The accomplice glared back at Riondino for a few seconds, then he surrendered and lowered his eyes. “No,” he muttered as he closed the door behind him.

  *

  Riondino walked to the window which overlooked the street. He saw the man walk down the pavement a few moments later and head to the nearest bar. Everything looked normal, nobody was following him.

  “That doesn’t mean anything – they could be waiting in a car to see where he is heading.”

  “That’s true, Fox.”

  “The garage is on the other side of the building – we won’t be able to see if somebody is following him from that side.”