What had been quiet, almost silent, was in fact a smorgasbord of noise.

Spiro disconnected first and spoke to the uniformed officers in Italian. When Rossi was off the phone, he and the prosecutor agreed that Stefan would be taken to a prisoner transport van outside and kept there while Charlotte McKenzie remained here for an interview. Stefan’s part as a serial kidnapper was not disputed, while the woman’s role was not completely known. And there was one very important question that had yet to be answered.

“This way, sir,” an officer said to Stefan, his English languid.

Stefan looked toward McKenzie, who nodded. She then said, firmly, to Spiro and Rossi, “Give him his phone, so he can listen to music. Take the SIM card out if you want, so he can’t make calls. But it’s better if he has music.”

The SCO officer looked quizzically at Spiro, who debated and lifted the young man’s phone from the table, slipped the card out and gave it to Stefan, along with a set of earbuds taken from him earlier.

As they walked away McKenzie said to him, “Don’t say anything to anyone, Stefan.”

He nodded.

Now Sachs returned. She held up four plastic bags. Two contained over-the-counter medicine bottles. Rhyme regarded them. “Yes,” he said. The other bags held shoes. Sachs displayed the tread.

So not all the evidence was elsewhere.

Rhyme could not help but notice, though, that Charlotte McKenzie remained untroubled.

He tipped his head to Spiro, who consulted notes and said, “You will be charged with some very serious crimes, Signorina McKenzie, and we are hoping for your cooperation. We know that you and Stefan Merck were not alone in the farmhouse where you held Ali Maziq and Khaled Jabril. At least two or three of your associates were there. And there is at least one associate inside the Capodichino Reception Center working for you. So, there are several other people whose identities we wish to know, and your cooperation in helping us find them will go a long way. I’m a prosecutor and it is I who make recommendations to the magistrates for charges and for punishments. Now, to let you know where you stand, I will turn to Capitano Rhyme, who has largely built the case against you and Signor Merck.”

Rossi nodded his agreement.

Rhyme wheeled slightly closer. She easily held his gaze. “I’ll lay it out very succinctly, Charlotte. We have evidence placing you at the scene of Stefan’s first kidnapping, in Brooklyn. The cold medicine. Pseudoephedrine.”

Her eyes narrowed but only slightly.

This was the main insight Rhyme had had, the one that prompted his exasperated comment in the situation room not long before.

It’s obvious, isn’t it?

“We thought it was pseudo from meth cooking at the abandoned factory but, no, it was from the medicine you’d been taking for your cold. And, I’m sure, the composition will be the same as that.” He nodded to the bottles in one of Sachs’s plastic bags. “We can get a warrant and take hair samples to verify the presence of the drug in your system.”