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Grace Higham then turned away, softly sobbing, and excused herself. “Forgive me, but I must get back to my work.”

* * *

Charity put down the page, and with her finger wiped absently at the tears rolling down her cheeks.

Thanks, Ann.

That I really didn’t need.

She blew her nose.

Time to take a break from this.

Eat, then go down and see if I can help with Major Martin.

Before Ann really gets me blubbering….

[TWO]

Palermo, Sicily 0750 5 April 1943

“Something is not right here,” Francisco Nola said to Dick Canidy. “I would not be so concerned except that the house does not look right.”

How the hell can you tell? Canidy thought, glancing around the filthy kitchen.

They were seated at the flimsy table, Nola having taken Jim Fuller’s chair. Fuller stood near the window, keeping an eye on the street. The Sten 9mm submachine gun hung from its strap over his right shoulder.

“Nothing is put up,” Nola went on, “as one would do if expecting to be gone long. And it is not just the kitchen.” He pointed to the ceiling. “In the bedroom upstairs, on the table beside the bed, is a cup of mint tea. It has turned moldy.”

No surprise there, Canidy thought. They just didn’t get it down here to add to the other dirty ones by the sink.

Doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than that.

“And,” Nola said, “beside that cup is a book, left opened facedown on its pages. And in the closet, suitcases. They did not take a suitcase.”

Canidy shrugged.

“I don’t know what to say,” Canidy said.

“Something is not right,” Nola said again.

“There’s a lot that’s not right,” Canidy said. “It’s what we have to find out.” He paused, then asked, “Those fishermen who were hung, did you know them?”

Nola shook his head. “Uh-uh.”

Canidy considered that response, then said, “Probably a good thing.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because, then, they did not know you and could not link you to me. If they linked you to me, they would be looking for you.”

“Others could, but they would not have talked,” Nola said with conviction.

?

??Even as they watched their friends getting their eyes gouged out?” Canidy said slowly. “Their mouths smashed?”

Nola sighed.