White Shotgun

chance to recover Cecilia has vanished.

Everything was set. Why is Sterling taking shots at a kidnap exchange?

It takes thirty agonizing minutes to drive just a few blocks and make it outside the walls, during which there is no communication through the earpiece from anyone. My growing fear is that Sterling went on a rampage caused by post-traumatic combat stress. His behavior over the last few days could add up to that; with a loaded weapon in his hand, he might have snapped.

“We killed their man,” Nicosa says. “They’ll murder her. They’ll murder all of us. My son, the whole family.” He looks into the rearview mirror, swerving crazily across the highway. “They could be following us now.”

“Nobody is following us.”

“What went wrong?”

“We’ll find out. Take a breath; you’re doing great. Just get us to the abbey without running into a tree.”

He is taking the hills at seventy kilometers per hour, churning up gravel like sparks. Still, by the time we roar through the gates, Chris’s Fiat is already parked, and Sterling is in the kitchen, downing glasses of water, the sniper bag slung over a chair.

Barely through the door, Nicosa gasps, “What happened?”

“Took the shot,” Sterling says. “Had to be done.”

“You murder a man in the middle of Il Campo? We had an agreement with Cosimo Umberto! They promised to return my wife. Now there will be a massacre.”

“They were lying. The plan was to draw Ana out. Get her out there in plain view. They had a sniper set up in a third-story window.”

“How do you know?” Nicosa demands.

Sterling reiterates what he said to me: “Nobody sees what I see in that gun sight.”

His face is tight; he’s full of adrenaline after the kill.

“And what was that?” asks Nicosa, barely restrained.

Sterling crooks two fingers and jabs at his own eyes, indicating that this is what he saw:

“The eyes.”

Nicosa doesn’t understand. “Whose eyes?”

“The bald man in the Oca scarf. He should have had more faith in his own guy,” Sterling says. “Instead, he looks up at the last minute, wanting to be sure everything’s going according to plan. Big mistake. Because when you’re looking through the magnifying scope of a Winchester 70, you can see something as small as the movement of an eye. I follow the eyes to where the subject’s looking — a third-floor window, where a shooter is set up with a sniper rifle, tracking Ana across the piazza. In half a second, I’m on target and the threat is eliminated. Half a second later, the contact is down, too. The contact looked up at his own sniper,” Sterling explains. “He was a trained assassin, aiming an incapacitation weapon at Ana. There was no other choice.”

Nicosa slams a palm against the wall.

“Why is all this necessary?” he cries in anguish, while I picture a swarm of complications when the police examine the bodies — not the least of which will be the failure to inform my superior that I was involved in a ransom negotiation that went south. I’m feeling lightheaded, not only because of recriminations at the Bureau, but because the hope of recovering the victim made me expose myself to the mafia’s double cross.

“How is Sofri?” I ask hoarsely.

“When I left his apartment he was still pretty shaken up. Told him to go out and get a cup of coffee and make sure he’s seen around the neighborhood.”

“Mother of God,” says Nicosa. “Were you inside Sofri’s apartment?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you shoot that gun out of his window?”

“It provided the clearest view of the piazza.”

Nicosa smacks his own head. “Are you crazy?”

“Nobody saw, Nicoli. It’s not like I was hangin’ out the window like Billy the Kid.”

“The only way to know where the shot came from would be sophisticated gunshot analysis,” I say.

“You realize the Puppet will immediately murder Cecilia in retaliation,” Nicosa says. “It’s over. Everything is lost.”

“I sincerely trust that is not the case. All I can tell you is they were prevented from killing Ana. That was my objective.”

Nicosa has no idea how breathtaking that is, and what clear-sighted concentration is required. Half a second and on target — twice — at four hundred yards. Through all of this, Sterling has been watching me intently. It’s like the light has come back to his eyes. He saved my life. Inside I’m crumbling, but— code of conduct—all I do is put my arm around his shoulders as he sits in the chair; he puts an arm around my waist. We pull each other close and tight. Nothing has ever felt so good. He’s here. He’s sane.

“Ah,” says Nicosa, scrutinizing. “What is this?” He smiles. “Lei due sono insieme.”

“What did he say?”

Sterling duly translates: “That the two of us are together.” Screw the code of conduct. I kiss the top of his sweaty, buzz-cut head.

But Nicosa has another question.

“Where is Giovanni?”

The last time Giovanni was in our hands was way back yesterday, when he said he had arrived at the priest’s. Since then, we haven’t heard a word. A call to Giovanni’s cell goes to voice mail. A call to the rectory catches Padre Filippo by surprise. He never saw the kid. Never knew he was supposed to have arrived. Not for the first time, Giovanni flat-out lied to his dad. Now it is dark, the suspects know that two of their guys have been taken out, and Giovanni’s absence seems a lot more worrisome than a rebellious sixteen-year-old out making trouble.

Nicosa’s eyes are wide as he considers these alternatives. It must be like the primal terror of realizing you have lost your child in the supermarket aisle. He could be anywhere in the wide world.

“When your son’s in trouble, where does he go?” Sterling asks calmly. “Who does he turn to? A girlfriend? A buddy?”

“The territory,” says Nicosa.

He means the Oca district, specifically the Fontebranda fountain, around which information pivots like the wheeling doves. Of course Giovanni would go back to his childhood neighborhood, where the contrada protects its members. Where there are plenty of the bank of cocaine customers to drop in on, or drug contacts if reality gets too tough. On the other hand, anyone looking for the boy would go there, too.

Sterling says, “I’ll find him.”

“You’ll never find him,” Nicosa says. “Nobody of Oca will talk to you. I’d better go.”

“Better if you and I stay here,” I say. “In case the kidnappers call.”

We agree Nicosa will alert the contrada members that Sterling will be pounding the streets. But none of us can go any farther without food. While juggling calls, Nicosa mixes up a quick omelet with potatoes, sausage, and basil while we put together bread, fresh hard goat cheese, prosciutto, and slices of melon. A double shot of the house espresso, and Sterling is fortified and out the door. I follow to the mailbox car, and we kiss in the balmy night. Up on my toes, I reach around his neck for more.

“Come back soon.”

“I will.”

And then he’s gone. Nicosa appears in the kitchen doorway, looking in the frank courtyard light like he’s aged twenty years since I first met him. He holds out his hand.

“Would you mind waiting with me?” he asks.

We choose the small room where the hospital bed used to be, since returned to normal, a landline phone in place, connected to the tape recorder in the tower. I’ve got a legal pad and the remote receiver from the kitchen. As soon as we settle onto the white couches, fatigue hits like an iron gong. Nicosa flicks on the TV, but within minutes we are both plummeting into deep unconsciousness.