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J ulia, Anna Mattia, and Piero stood aside as Marshal Torti, two carabinieri , and three crime techs emerged from the tunnel, their expressions impassive.

Marshal Torti was dressed in his black-and-red uniform with blue paper booties, and the techs had on white paper jumpsuits that read POLIZIA SCIENTIFICA and booties, too.

They carried green metal toolboxes and flashlights, which they switched off.

Marshal Torti conferred with the carabinieri and crime techs in low tones.

Their demeanor was professional, if hardly urgent.

It had taken them so long to get here, Julia had the time to shower, change, and eat lunch.

She’d even checked her horoscope, dismayed to learn that today was a once-in-every-fourteen-years conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus, one of the most intense days of the year.

“So what do you think?” Julia asked Marshal Torti. “It has to be child abuse to cage a little girl down there. God knows how many times she was in there or for how long. She painted pictures, she slept there. That’s criminal .”

Marshal Torti stiffened. “At this juncture, we cannot be certain which crime or crimes were committed. We have very few facts.”

“I know, but doesn’t it shock you? Clearly the child was locked in the cell. What if it wasn’t Rossi’s child, but somebody else’s? What if she kidnapped a child? What if she even murdered that child? What if there was more than one?”

“I do not engage in speculation.”

“It’s completely possible, and that dungeon is not speculation.”

“Such tunnels are not uncommon in this region. This property must have been part of a feudal estate. Perhaps from centuries ago.”

“Okay, the question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“Some additional facts, please.” Marshal Torti cocked his head in his black cap. “How did you happen to discover it, again?”

“I noticed the crack in the wall.” Julia hadn’t told him about Caterina. He already thought she was crazy.

“You had no previous knowledge of the cell?”

“No.”

“No one informed you?”

“No.”

“You started digging in the proper spot, merely by chance?”

Um. Julia swallowed hard. “When I saw the crack, yes.”

Marshal Torti mulled it over. “Yesterday in my office, you suggested you would be leaving Tuscany and going back to America.”

“No, you suggested I do that, but I don’t want to. I’m trying to research the history of my family, and this is the best place to do it.” Julia didn’t think it was his business anyway. “Finding this tunnel proves my point. So no, I’m not leaving.”

“One would think that this discovery would support a decision to leave, rather than to stay.”

“Why?”

“You said yesterday that you were concerned about a kidnapping plot. Now you suggest that Signora Rossi may have herself been involved in kidnapping children.”

“I’m staying.”

“Fine.” Marshal Torti pursed his lips. “We will contact the prosecutor, and he will handle the matter legally. To state the obvious, Signora Rossi is now beyond the reach of the law. Her judgment comes from God.”

“But what about the child who was put down there? She could be among the missing children. It would be from decades ago. Maybe you can find her. I’d like to find her, too. I’m wondering if she’s my birth mother.”

“Ms. Pritzker, we will conduct our investigation as per procedure. We will search the databases for missing children in order to determine which, if any, are still missing. It will take time, considering we do not know when the child was imprisoned. You tell me Signora Rossi lived here for fifty years, so it could have been anytime during that time span.”

“Okay, well, thank you.” Julia felt satisfied, for now. “If you discover any names of children from the area who are still missing, may I have them?”

“No, as with yesterday, that is confidential information. If you wish to obtain such information, you would need to seek legal representation and bring the matter to court.”

Julia decided to change tacks. “Were you able to get fingerprints from the cell?”

“No, due to the mold.”

“What about the bed or the desk?” Julia glanced at the crime techs, who pointedly averted their eyes.

“Nothing.”

“What about hair and fibers, like DNA?”

“None except for the comb that you brought out.” Marshal Torti spoke to a crime tech in Italian, and the tech crossed to the table, set down her metal case, and extracted two brown bags with yellow labels that read PROVA . She started to take the watercolor self-portrait, but Julia hurried over.

“Wait. Can’t you leave that? Maybe make a copy?”

Marshal Torti interjected, “No, the original is evidence.”

“Did you take the other watercolors from the cell?”

“Yes. We must confiscate the comb, too.”

“Hold on, please.” Julia slid her phone from her back pocket and took photos of the self-portrait. “I’d like to take photos of the other watercolors, too.”

“For what reason?”

“They belong to me.” Julia realized they were in a power struggle and he wouldn’t lose face in front of his staff.

“Marshal Torti, I would really appreciate it if you would allow me to take the photos, as a personal matter. If the girl really is my biological mother, they’re the only mementos I have of her. ”

Marshal Torti nodded to the crime tech. “Fine.”

“Thank you.” Julia took photos of the watercolors, then spotted some hair in the comb’s teeth and quickly slid it off. She experienced the static tingling again, but she masked her reaction.

“Ms. Pritzker!” Marshal Torti snapped. “You may not take that evidence. It is police property.”

“Don’t worry, I left you some.” Julia was finished playing nice.

The hair tingled its assent.

After the carabinieri had gone, Julia stepped outside into the ruined garden to call Courtney. “Got a minute?” she asked, when Courtney picked up.

“Yes, what? I’ve been worried.”

Julia sat down on the old cane chair and told her the whole story, from Caterina to the tingly hair. When she finished, Courtney went so silent Julia thought the call had dropped. “Court, you there?”

“You think you saw a blue ghost ?”

“I saw Caterina.” Julia thought Courtney would believe her because she had proof positive. “You can’t doubt this because she showed me the tunnel. I wouldn’t have found it any other way. I saw her and I felt her presence.”

“Honey, no, you saw the crack, not the ghost. You were looking at the wall and the light from the fireplace.”

“I swear, Caterina showed it to me. She was pure blue light, tall and shaped like a woman.”

“The same blue light that threw your laptop at a wall? Now it’s a woman, showing you around? Jules, there’s no such thing as ghosts. Do I really need to say this?”

“I’m telling you she’s tried to contact me, to help me, tell me about my family, the villa, maybe my own past. Anna Mattia doesn’t doubt me, neither does Piero.”

“I don’t even know these people, and neither do you.” Courtney groaned. “You told me before the blue light was trying to kill you. Now she’s your bestie? Which is it?”

“I know, I was wrong.” Julia struggled to put it together.

“Now I think she was trying to tell me something. Maybe she was trying to tell me to get off the laptop and get out of her bedroom. The dining room, too.” Julia realized that could be the answer.

“That’s it! She wanted me in the living room .

She wanted me to find the tunnel ! She showed me where the door in the wall used to—”

“There’s no she ! She is you !”

Julia bore down. “Listen, Caterina’s husband was murdered, too, stabbed to death. She loved astrology and books, too. We have so much in common, and my life tracks—”

“So? That doesn’t mean anything.”

“That doesn’t strike you as strange? Weird?

Too coincidental? I feel like she’s here for me, I feel her, maybe I summoned her.

” Julia heard her voice speeding up, her excitement gathering in strength.

“Plus I got my DNA results and my ancestry is from Tuscany and Milan, do you believe that? I’m Italian American, by blood.

It makes it more likely I’m related to Rossi and her—”

“No, it doesn’t, not logically—”

“—and I found hair on a comb and I’m going to get it tested and see if it’s a match, like we talked about before.”

“Okay, good, at least that makes sense.”

“It all makes sense, not just the scientific part, I’m telling you, when I went to Caterina’s castle, I knew my way around.”

“You had déjà vu.”

“Something’s happening here, Court.” Julia was thinking aloud, her brain afire. “I know this is all connected. Me, Rossi, and Caterina.”

“You don’t know that, and these are three separate issues. You could be related to Rossi but certainly not Caterina. That villa is driving you crazy!”

“No, it’s not. The villa is giving up its secrets.” Julia realized she was right as soon as she said it. “They could be my family’s secrets and they could lead to my family .”

“Oh sweet Jesus—”

“I’ll tell you what scares me .” Julia’s heart lodged in her throat. “I’m afraid Rossi is my biological grandmother and the girl in the cell was my biological mother. I’m afraid Rossi was a monster, maybe even a murderer.”

“Murder?” Courtney scoffed. “Girl, you’re losing it. What’s next, skeletons? ‘We’re Marley and Marley, whoooo’?”

Skeletons. Julia’s bewildered gaze traveled to the vineyard, where Piero was digging, next to Anna Mattia and Bianco.

“What?”

“I have to go, bye.” Julia hung up and raced to the vineyard.