It takes Alana a few moments to recognize the patient as Paolo, the contractor from the San Giovanni construction site. “Paolo has the plague?” she asks.

Sergio shakes his head. “He showed up at the emergency room an hour ago thinking he did.”

“He was terrified,” Nico cuts in. “But the blood tests and X-rays confirm that he only has a chest cold.”

“In his panic, though, Paolo has solved a mystery for us,” Sergio says.

“Which is?” Alana asks.

“Yasin Ahmed.”

Aside from the occasional cough, Paolo is breathing easily, but he seems to grow more anxious by the second as Sergio questions him, with Nico translating for the others.

“Paolo swears that on the morning they found Yasin collapsed at the site, the boy was already dead,” Nico says.

“Who is ‘they’?” Byron asks.

“Paolo and Vittoria.” Nico listens to the interrogation. “Vittoria was first to arrive . . . She found Yasin at the bottom of the pit. The boy had fallen in it during the night . . . He was sick the day before, yes, but they didn’t know he had remained on-site overnight.” He waits again. “Paolo says they panicked . . . They were behind schedule . . . under such tight time and money constraints . . . Vittoria reminded him of the time INAIL had shut down a site for a week after a worker died in a crane accident.”

“INAIL?” Alana asks.

“The Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work,” Nico explains. “Paolo says Vittoria convinced him they couldn’t take the chance . . . It would draw unnecessary attention to the site.”

Sergio’s tone grows pointed, and Paolo shakes his head frantically.

Nico grimaces behind his clear mask. “Paolo says they lowered Yasin’s body into one of the forms and poured him in concrete.”

“That would make him a bit tougher to find,” Byron grumbles.

Nico intervenes to ask Paolo a question. The contractor frantically waves his hands in front of his chest as he spouts his reply.

“Paolo swears Marcello didn’t know about Yasin,” Nico says. “That he and Vittoria decided to hide the body on their own.”

“Do you believe him?” Alana asks.

Nico shrugs. “Who knows with this bunch?”

They don’t learn much more. According to Paolo, no one had asked Yasin about his illness. Apparently Vittoria had assumed that the youth was just hungover and had refused to let him go home early. The next time they saw Yasin, he was dead in the pit, and they impulsively hatched the plan to hide the body before the authorities started sniffing around. Paolo even offers to lead Sergio to the precise slab where they encased Yasin but concedes it would be of little help, as they had already built on top of it.

They leave the unit together. Nico and Alana emerge out of the decontamination station at nearly the same time, but they have to wait a few minutes in the lobby for Byron to appear. When he finally joins them, his expression is grim.