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C ourtney? ” Julia gasped. Her finger froze on the trigger. She was looking down the barrel at her own best friend.

“Jules!” Courtney’s eyes rounded with shock. “You could’ve shot me!”

“What are you doing here?” Julia lowered the gun, her heart pounding. She trembled from residual adrenaline.

“Are you crazy?” Courtney’s hand flew to her chest. “Are you really crazy?”

“No, I’m defending myself!”

“You could’ve killed me!”

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to bring you home!”

“Why didn’t you call first?”

“I knew you’d tell me not to come!” Courtney brushed down her T-shirt, which she had on with jeans and red cowboy boots, and Julia sighed, calming.

“Since when do you have cowboy boots?”

“You said you were in the country. I got them in Jackson Hole.”

“It’s Tuscany, not Wyoming.”

“But they’re cute, right?”

“Totally,” Julia had to admit.

“Anyway, you could’ve killed me. I know you’re mad at me, but this is ridiculous.”

“I’m not mad at you.”

“You are mad at me. And I’m mad at you.” Courtney puckered her lower lip. “We’re in a fight. Our first one ever.”

“It’s not a fight, it’s a disagreement.”

“Whatever, it sucks.”

“It does. It really, really does.” Julia hadn’t realized how much it hurt. “It was so nice of you to come.”

“I was worried about you.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.” Courtney walked toward Julia, and Julia walked toward Courtney.

They put their arms around each other, and Julia buried her face in her friend’s shoulder, warm, familiar and smelling of Chanel’s Chance, a perfume she’d worn forever.

Courtney hugged her back. “I was too judgy, Jules. You know how I get.”

“No, it’s me, I know it is, It’s just that there’s so much going on… and it’s crazy and… I know I sound crazy.” Julia felt her tears begin to flow, without knowing why. Maybe there were so many reasons they all came together, like streams into a river.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” Courtney rubbed her back. “We’re going home.”

“No, I can’t, Gianluca might die!” Julia blurted out, crying harder, and Courtney gathered her up, moved her to a kitchen chair, and got her a glass of water and napkins to blow her nose.

In time they started talking, and Julia told her about Gianluca, including how she heard him in her mind, then she watched her best friend for a reaction.

“Go ahead, laugh,” Julia said, starting to smile. “You know you want to.”

Courtney burst into laughter. “ Mental telepathy now?”

“I’m telling you, I heard him!” Julia pushed her playfully, then started laughing, and they both laughed until tears came to their eyes.

Finally Bianco lumbered in, his tongue out.

Courtney looked over at him. “He’s not a good watchdog.”

“He’s on drugs,” Julia told her. “So am I.”

“ What? ” Courtney asked, her smile fading.

The positivo test results were on the kitchen table, and neither of them were laughing anymore. Julia told Courtney everything that happened, and her best friend understood the gravity of the situation.

Courtney clucked, shaking her head. “This is bad.”

“I know, I tried to tell you that.”

Courtney puckered her lower lip. “I was judgy.”

“I get why. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I’m coming around.”

Courtney eyed her, brushing back a strand of hair. “So let’s review. What’s going on? Bottom line it for me.”

“Somebody killed Mike, and I think somebody tried to kill Gianluca, too, and the crimes are connected. Detective Malloy says it’s a jurisdictional mess, so nothing will happen soon, and Marshal Torti is Italian, so nothing will happen soon.

So the cops are useless, and two different men are following me for reasons I don’t know. ”

Courtney mulled it over. “If they wanted to kill you, they would have already.”

“True, and they could have. The night they went after Gianluca, they could have come after me. I was home alone.”

“And the night they went after Mike, they could have come after you.” Courtney shuddered. “And they’re drugging you and you suspect that they drugged Rossi, too. So they might have manipulated her, but they didn’t kill her. They might be manipulating you, but they’re not killing you.”

“The question is, why?”

Courtney snorted. “No, the question is, what the fuck?”

“Right.” Julia shook her head. “I think it’s about the underground cell and whatever kidnapping scheme was going on here, if one was.

There could be conspirators still alive that don’t want it to come out.

I hate being here now, knowing what was going on.

Rossi wasn’t even drugged during that time.

Anna Mattia didn’t come until thirteen years ago. ”

“Anna Mattia could’ve been in on it.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it, because it looked like the wall had been closed up for a long time.”

“No matter how you slice it, Rossi looks bad.”

“She was a monster.”

Courtney hesitated. “What if she’s your bio grandmother? I thought she was, in the beginning. People don’t leave money to strangers, and she’s about the right age.”

“I know.” Julia’s thoughts were confused.

“Everything I’ve learned about her—that she let this villa fall down around her, that she was paranoid and delusional, that she smacked the grocer’s daughter, that she was a hermit, had no friends, and now , an underground cell that she puts a kid in—” Julia couldn’t finish the sentence.

“That’s insanity, that’s criminality , and I pray I’m not her biological granddaughter.

I pray my anxiety isn’t inherited from her, or that I end up like her. ”

“Of course you won’t.” Courtney frowned, sympathetic.

“Plus I don’t know where she got all that money from, and I don’t know if I even want it anymore. How could she have family money from the Sforzas? What the hell was she up to? Is she collecting ransoms for kidnapped children?”

“I have a question, Jules.” Courtney met her eye with characteristic frankness. “Do you believe you saw Caterina or do you think it was the drug?”

God knows. “I’ve been asking myself that since I found out why Bianco got sick.

All I can say is, I don’t know, but I haven’t seen Caterina since Anna Mattia left.

The drug should be out of my system in a week or so.

So we’ll know then if I see Caterina, have any nightmares, or believe I can talk to Gianluca in my mind.

” Julia felt a pang. “I wonder how he’s doing. ”

“The receptionist’s friend was going to text you.”

“Yes, and she hasn’t.” Julia felt a new determination. “I’m going back to the hospital tonight.”

“What about his family?”

“I’ll figure it out when I get there. It’s for his benefit, not only mine. I feel like I could help him if I was there.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Communicate with him? Just be there?” Julia realized for the first time that she felt like she belonged there, with Gianluca.

Courtney cocked her head. “Why didn’t you just tell the sister you’re a widow?”

“I know, I should have.” Julia had been kicking herself. “I felt weird being there and I knew it would make her look bad.”

“And you didn’t want to make her look bad even though she was making you look bad?” Courtney rolled her eyes. “That’s gotta change.”

“Tell me about it.”

Courtney’s gaze fell on Julia’s phone, which was on the table because they’d been going through her photos of the watercolors from the underground cell. “That’s cool about the hair and the DNA.”

“It was your idea.”

“I know, I’m a genius. Too bad the results take so long.”

“Agree.” Julia thought of the second batch of hair, in a baggie in the living room. When the drug was finally gone, she’d test to see if her hands still tingled. “By the way, when are you going back?”

“Unsure.”

“What? You have work. How did you even get away?”

“I’m the boss, remember? I’m going to stay a bit and help you.”

Julia felt a rush of gratitude, plus guilt. “Courtney, you don’t have to do that. You have meetings and all.”

“I can work from anywhere. Ask Microsoft Teams. I could be in Parsippany or Tuscany.” Courtney smiled. “I know you’ve been through it, but I gotta say, I give you credit. You’re going out, calling cops, driving a Ferrari . You’re more like you used to be. Like yourself.”

Julia’s chest went tight. “I still miss Mike.”

“I know, but I see a difference in you.”

Julia thought back to the crowded testing center and how she wasn’t as nervous. “I’m doing better, I guess, but I don’t know why. Maybe I have to do things here and I can’t let my anxiety hold me back.”

“That makes sense. Bottom line, if you do things you’re afraid of, you train yourself out of being afraid.”

“Oh no, hold on, I’m afraid.” Julia almost laughed. “I’m more afraid than ever. I’m afraid of white Fiats, black ballcaps, ghosts, and maybe losing my mind.”

“But you’re not anxious.”

“Right.” Julia smiled. “I’m not anxious, I’m insane.”

“So progress!” They both laughed, and Courtney’s gaze fell on the phone, which was face up on the counter, showing the watercolor of the stone well. “Is there a well here, too?”

“I don’t know.” Julia hadn’t focused on the well watercolor, preoccupied with the self-portrait. “I didn’t see one.”

Courtney eyed the picture. “My granny’s neighbor had a well. You remember, Granny Kay with the farm?”

“Yes.”

“Turns out the neighbor moved away, and the new people found a dead body in the well.”

“Wait, what?” Julia asked, aghast. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I forgot, it happened last year. It was the body of a random guy, a drifter.” Courtney pursed her lips. “My mother said they never caught the neighbor. He’s still wanted for murder.”

“Yikes. Did Granny Kay know him?”

“Not well. The farms are far apart, and he didn’t go to church. If you don’t go to church, Granny Kay doesn’t know you.”

Suddenly Julia found herself wondering.

“What?” Courtney asked, then her bright eyes rounded. “Oh shit .”

Julia rose, grim. “Wanna see if I have a well?”