She hung up. The helicopter’s blades were already in motion; she signalled at the pilot to wait for her. The aircraft took flight with Teresa on board, and from the air she could see the true face of the forest: an ocean of green and white, of towering waves and fathomless depths. Andreas and the child were down there somewhere, both equally terrified, and both in need of help.

-68-

-68-

The whole village seemed to have gathered at the cathedral, as if Travenì itself were kneeling at the altar. Gloria Sanfilk and Mathias were in the front row, praying for Markus’s safe return home. The church was ablaze with votive candles, the air heavy with hundreds of breaths, incense smoke, and the musty odor of age-old friezes.

“Why do you want to talk to him?” whispered Marini.

Teresa hadn’t yet shared her thoughts with Marini. She had spent the past half hour on the phone with Parisi, who was updating her on the search party’s progress.

“You stay put,” she said. “He’ll be more at ease if I go alone.”

She let her eyes roam over the downturned heads until she spotted the man she was looking for and walked up to him. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his forehead resting against his clasped hands; his eyes were closed and his feathered felt hat lay on the bench next to him.

“Doctor Ian?” she called out softly.

He looked up at her in surprise.

“Can we talk?”

“Of course.”

Ian crossed himself, quickly kneeled, and followed her out to the churchyard.

“Any news? Have you found him?” he asked.

Teresa went straight to the point.

“No, no sightings yet,” she replied.

Ian closed his eyes for a moment and let out a worried sigh. He seemed tired and suddenly older.

“We found this in an abandoned mountain shelter,” said Teresa.

She showed him Wallner’s diary, preserved in a transparent sleeve.

Ian looked at it.

“What is this?” he asked, putting on his reading glasses.

“It’s a log,” Teresa explained. “It relates to an experiment conducted on two children who were kidnapped and held captive on these mountains.”

Teresa watched the blood drain from his face.

“Here? In Travenì? That’s not possible.”

“We know the identity of one of the two children: he is the killer and the kidnapper we’re looking for. But we have no information on the other child. I hoped you might be able to help us with that.”

“Me?”

“Has any local woman ever asked you to perform an abortion on her? It would have been around thirty years ago, but I know this is not the kind of thing one tends to forget.”

“I’ve never done anything of the sort. I would have never agreed to it!”