Page 103 of The Furies

“I think your definition of ‘good’ may be open to dispute.”

Luca Z opened his mouth to take issue, but Pirato waved a hand at him, so he closed it again. I recognized that Pirato was operating as more than an advisor here. Both Vero and Luca Z were deferring to him, which meant that, as far as this meeting was concerned, Pirato was the eyes, ears, and mouth of the Office.

“We’re not here to discuss semantics,” he said. “Why did you need to speak with us so urgently about Sawyer?”

“Because he may be dead, but his widow remains alive.”

“Fucking bitch,” said Luca Z.

Pirato and Vero scowled at the intervention, but didn’t bother to contradict him.

“What about her?” asked Pirato.

“Certain items have been stolen from her. They’re being held for ransom.”

“What items?”

“Mementos of her dead child, possessions that are of no value to anyone but her.”

“And she’s employed you to retrieve them?”

“That’s right.”

Vero’s scowl deepened.

“So what’s that to us?”

“Nate Sawyer stole money from the Office, and it’s never been located. There are people in your organization who believe that his widow may know where it is. Pressure has been applied before, along with a degree of pain. We want to make sure that it isn’t being applied again.”

“Pain? I heard only that she was questioned about the money before being released unharmed.”

Dante Vero’s eyes flicked toward Luca Z, who shook his head fractionally. Pirato, who missed nothing, registered both tells.

“She was sexually assaulted and threatened with rape,” I said. “The men responsible also promised to dig up her daughter’s remains and feed them to hogs if she didn’t tell them where the money was.”

I didn’t bother adding that they’d then forced her to sign over her home. Pirato must have been aware of that much, but the expression on his face indicated that the rest was news to him. He wasn’t so much of a sentimentalist as to be shocked by allegations of sexual violence, but he was old-school enough to disapprove of disinterring a grieving woman’s child and throwing the corpse to animals.

“She told you this?” he said.

“That’s right.”

Pirato turned to Vero. “Did you know about it?”

Vero, to his credit, didn’t even flirt with evasion.

“I was there. It got out of hand. I put a stop to it before it could go any further.”

“And these were some of our people?” said Pirato.

“No.” It was Luca Z who answered this time. “We brought in outside contractors.”

Vero twitched, and Luca Z corrected himself.

“I brought them in,” he said. “I’d been told that one of them specialized in dealing with women. It may be that I didn’t fully grasp the implications.”

“Or you didn’t want to,” said Pirato.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of choice. We had guys behind bars, others in hiding, and most of the rest under surveillance—and the ones who weren’t being watched were afraid they might be. We needed to come up with cash for lawyers, for wives and children. We thought Sawyer’s widow might know what he’d done with the money he stole from us.”

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