Page 274 of Lars

One of the cameras clearly showed Alessandra walking along a hallway inside the mansion. Then she disappeared offscreen.

“Where is that?” I asked.

“The west wing,” Niccolo said. “First floor, near the chapel.”

“Keep going,” I ordered Emilio. “Keep your eye on the exits.”

We watched all the doors –

No Alessandra.

“Fast forward,” I said.

Emilio fast-forwarded.

No Alessandra –

And then, after fast-forwarding six minutes of footage, there she was walking through the forest.

“How the fuck did she get out there?!” I exclaimed. “Are there any doors we missed that she walked through?”

“No, sir,” Emilio answered.

Niccolo stared at the screen with a sick look on his face. “Oh shit… I think I know…”

“What?” I demanded.

He winced. “There’s a secret passageway out of the west wing, through the old servant passageways in the walls.”

“HOW MANY SECRET FUCKING EXITS DO YOU PEOPLE HAVE?!” I roared.

“No one knows about it!” Niccolo snapped.

“Well, somebody does!” I said as I pointed at the screen.

“Shit,” he snarled. “Shit, shit, shit…”

“We need to get cameras on both those spots immediately.”

“Obviously.”

“Funny – it didn’t seem so obvious before Alessandra walked through both of them,” I snapped.

Niccolo gave me a vicious glare and was about to say something –

When Adriano’s voice crackled over the radio. “Uh… we have a problem…”

“What?” I asked.

“Dario almost beat a guy to death… and then the guy and a blind priest killed themselves.”

“WHAT?!”

134

We found out the details when Dario returned with Alessandra.

Apparently, she had fled to a church in a nearby village, where a blind priest had taken her in… but the priest had started asking disturbing questions about the Rosolinis. When she tried to leave, a different man stopped her outside the church and started to assault her.

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