Page 117 of The Grave Artist

“Tell her we did, in fact, contact them right away. But never heard back either.”

Mouse did.

More stern words, which Carmen thought sounded elegant nonetheless.

Mouse translated. A moment later, she said, “Inspector Fresca is not happy. She will talk to her subordinates, who should have followed up on the absence of a reply to her queries.”

Carmen said, “Do they have any leads to their murder?”

The answer was no. They considered it a tragic accident. And when she heard there were related cases, the Verona police weren’t interested in starting an investigation and, even though Fresca was, she never heard back from HSI. So they never opened a full-scale investigation.

Heron asked, “Did they look for any video surveillance where the death happened?”

“Yes, but there was none,” Mouse said after posing the question. “It was on a deserted walkway between ponds at the inn. One of those was where the victim drowned. But once they learned of the other murders, they began to compile a list of motels and hotels in the area where the killer might have stayed. They’ve been too short staffed to investigate them all yet.”

Carmen asked whether Fresca could send the list to them, and she said she would.

A minute later the file appeared in Carmen’s secure transfer inbox.

Carmen and Inspector Fresca agreed to share any other information they had gathered.

Heron said, “Tell her about the art restoration chemicals. Is that helpful in narrowing down the search?”

Laughter erupted from the other end of the call when Mouse translated the question.

Mouse said, “It’s Florence, Italy. The presence of Renaissance art evidence is as useless as if we’d found traces of Sangiovese wine.”

The inspector then asked a question. Mouse listened and translated, “Do we have any thoughts on what his motive is?”

Carmen and Heron looked at each other briefly.

She said, “No. Never seen any serial killer like him before.”

No one had anything else to add and Mouse ended the call with, “Grazie mille, e ciao.”

Tandy said, “We could try Verona, but let’s stick with ‘arty’ Florence for now. Follow up on the leads we’ve got from the inspector.”

“Agreed,” Carmen said. “How wouldwefind HK’s name if we were Italian police?”

Tandy grimaced. “Canvass the hotels. But we’re here, not there.”

Carmen tipped her head toward Mouse. “We have a remote canvasser.”

The woman beamed.

Carmen told her, “Call all the hotels on the list the inspector gave us and ask about a White male American.” A nod at the murder board. “Fitting his description. Around the dates in question.”

Heron asked, “How many hotels are there?”

Carmen opened the file from Fresca. “Oh lovely.” She looked at the others and then at Tandy. “Ninety-two.”

“Shit,” Tandy muttered. “Not the Italians’ fault there’re so many. Blame American tourism.”

Heron said,“Signora Mouse,per favore ...”

A smile. “Jake,youspeak Italian too. Sounds so romantic coming from you, don’t you think, Carmen?”

“Mouse. Call.”