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Chapters (63)
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  2. Books by Stuart Woods
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  63. AUTHOR’S NOTE

“How did he do that?” Stone asked. “Did he have a direct line?”

“I don’t know, but Prizzi knows everybody.”

“What did Casselli say?”

“He said that Hedy left his house last night and was hitchhiking to Rome.”

“We had awful weather last night,” Stone said, remembering the rain beating against his window.

“Prizzi postulates that she may have taken shelter along the way. Casselli told him he would send his men out to look for her.”

First, the good news, then, the bad. “I’ll alert the Italian police,” Stone said. “And I’ll get back to you when there is news.”

“I’ll look forward to hearing from you.” Both men hung up.

Stone went into the living room, which had become a command post for the DIA and the CIA, and reported the call to Jim and Dante.

Jim stared at him blankly. “Cardinal Prizzi from the Vatican Bank?”

“He’s apparently a personal friend of Arthur’s.”

“So Hedy wasn’t lying when she said that Arthur knew the Pope?”

“I doubt that. If Arthur knew the Pope, believe me, he would have called him instead of the cardinal. Dante, is there anything in your file on Casselli that connects him with the Vatican? In particular, with the Vatican Bank?”

Dante turned to his computer and began doing searches. “I have the two of them at the consecration of a private chapel that Casselli’s company built for a prominent Napoli Catholic layman. That’s it.”

Jim spoke up. “The question here is: Who’s hallucinating? Arthur? The cardinal? Everybody?”

“Arthur is not the sort to hallucinate,” Stone said, “and from what I’ve heard of Prizzi, neither is he. Casselli, on the other hand . . .”

“No, Jim,” Dante said. “The question is: Are we still going to run this infiltration thing, if Hedy isn’t in the house anymore?”

“Of course we are,” Jim said. “We’re not going to rely on Casselli’s word that she’s left his house.”

“And if she is gone, we’re going to run this elaborate operation, in order to arrest Casselli for dealing in stolen chocolate? I don’t think I could explain that to the minister.”

“There is the matter of the kidnapping of both Hedy and Baron Klaucke,” Stone pointed out. “And we would have . . . at least one of them to testify.”

“Hedy could be dead in a ditch somewhere,” Dante said, “and there’s little doubt that Casselli could get to Klaucke before he could talk.”

“I think we have to stick to best-case scenarios,” Jim said, “unless we get more information to the contrary. Dante, can you alert the police between Amalfi and here to be on the lookout for an American woman?”

“Of course,” Dante said, picking up his phone.

“And we’re still on for tomorrow night?” Stone asked.

“Yes,” Dante said, “we’re still on, God help us.”

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