Buda himself didn’t appreciate being lied to, especially by a subordinate, and he wouldn’t want to be in Drilon’s shoes if Buda was right about his supposition. It also put Buda in a tricky position. His visit was probably now the cause of a problem within the Ristani crew. He hoped Berti didn’t blame him for that.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Buda said, meaning that he wasn’t comfortable having even this guarded a conversation over a cell phone line. “I’m coming up there to the summer house. Just make sure our guest is treated as a guest until this is cleared up,” Buda said.

“Will do,” Prek said, ending the call. He’d left Genti in charge in the house, and he trusted him, for the most part. But he thought he’d better check.

Immediately after talking with Prek, Buda got another call on his headset.

“Aleksander, it’s Berti. Sorry to bother you.”

“No bother, Berti,” Buda said.

“I talked with Burim,” Berti said. “I asked him about Pia Grazdani, wondering if he’d ever heard the name. And you know what? He said he did. Can you believe that?”

“No,” said Buda, but he could.

“Then Burim called back and said one of your guys tried to call him.” Berti said nothing more and left the statement hanging in the air. Buda thought he’d better play it straight.

“I did have one of my guys call Burim,” Buda admitted. “You know as well as I do, Berti, Drilon acted strangely to my question. My sense was that he was lying. I figure that’s your business, him lying to you, but he lied to me too. If I could ask the brother, maybe I wouldn’t have to bother you directly. But I have to find out so I can deal with the woman I’m holding without starting a blood feud.”

“I appreciate that, Aleksander. Of course, none of us want another blood feud: Albanian brother against Albanian brother. Of course I noticed Drilon was lying, and I called him back after you left and asked him again. I said, ‘No fucking around,’ and he said yeah, well, maybe he did know a Pia Grazdani. He tried to say he’d forgotten because he hasn’t heard the name or seen the girl for twenty-some-odd years.”

Buda was relieved that Berti was seeing it his way.

“So what do we do, Berti?”

“You hold on, I can conference you through to Burim.”

“I need to make another quick call first,” Buda said.

“Okay. Do what you need to do, then call me right back.”