‘Congratulations,’ she replied. ‘You’ve managed to assault a police officer and trespass on a crime scene before most people have got out of bed.’

‘Where did you learn English?’ Tom’s Italian was good, but her English, while slightly accented, was almost faultless.

She ignored him. ‘Put the gun down.’

‘You tell me what you’re doing here and I’ll think about it,’ he offered unsmilingly.

‘Who are you working for? Gallo?’ she shot back, ignoring his question.

‘Who’s Gallo?’

‘He didn’t send you?’ There was a hint of hope as well as disbelief in her voice.

‘Nobody sent me,’ he said. ‘I work for myself. I’m looking for Cavalli.’

A pause.

‘Cavalli’s dead.’

‘Shit,’ Tom swore, pinching the top of his nose and shutting his eyes as he gave a long, weary sigh. Cavalli had been his main hope of working his way back up the Delian League to whoever had ordered the hit. ‘How?’

She shook her head, eyeing him blankly, refusing to be drawn.

‘What does it matter, if he’s dead?’ Tom insisted.

Another pause as she considered this, before answering with a shrug.

‘He was murdered. Four days ago. Why?’

‘I wanted to talk to him.’

‘About what?’

‘This for a start-’ Tom held up the photocopied page showing the sketch of the symbol of the two snakes wrapped around a clenched fist. ‘I hoped he might…’

‘Where did you get that?’ she gasped.

‘You’ve seen it before?’

‘C-Cavalli,’ she stammered. ‘They found a lead disc in his pocket, that was engraved on it!’

‘Do you know what it means?’ Tom pressed, hoping that her obvious surprise might cause her to momentarily lower her guard to his advantage. But she quickly regained her composure, again glaring at him defiantly.

‘It means that you’ve got about five minutes to get out of here before someone comes looking for me.’

Tom studied her face for a few moments. She was bluffing.

‘Why wait?’ he said, offering her his phone. ‘Call it in.’

She gazed at the handset for a few moments, then lifted her eyes to his.

‘What are you doing?’

Tom smiled.

‘No one even knows you’re here, do they?’

She ignored his question, although the momentary flicker of indecision across her otherwise resolute face effectively answered it for him.

‘Just let me go,’ she repeated. ‘You’re in enough shit as it is.’

Tom went to reply and then paused, having suddenly realised what it was about her appearance that had been troubling him earlier. It was her hair, or rather the ragged way it had been cut, especially around the back, which seemed at odds with the rest of her. She’d clearly cut it herself. Recently. Probably dyed it too, given its unnaturally deep lustre.

‘Where did you put the bottles?’ he asked.

‘What?’ She shook her head, as if she wasn’t sure she’d heard him properly.

‘The empty dye bottles and the hair you cut off. Did you lose them somewhere safe? Because if you didn’t and whoever’s looking for you finds them, it won’t take them much to figure out what you look like now.’

Allegra gave him a long, curious look.

‘Who are you?’

‘Someone who can help,’ Tom said with a tight smile. ‘Because right now, I’m guessing you’re in a lot more shit than me.’

Leaning forward, he offered the gun to her, handle first.

Headquarters of the Guarda di Finanza, Viale XXI Aprile, Rome 19th March-7.22 a.m.

‘Colonel? We’ve got her.’

‘About time!’ Gallo grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, pausing in front of the mirror to do up the silver buttons and centre his tie. ‘Her phone?’

‘She switched it on about ten minutes ago,’ Salvatore nodded, still standing in the corridor and leaning into the office.

‘How long for?’

‘Long enough. The signal’s been triangulated to a street in Travestere.’

‘Cavalli’s house?’ Gallo snapped, looking up into the mirror to seek out Salvatore’s eyes over his left shoulder.

‘Could be.’

Salvatore flinched and then relaxed into an uneasy smile as Gallo turned and raised his hand and gave him a sharp clap on the back.

‘Well done.’

Fixing his peaked cap on his head, he strode towards the lift. Twenty seconds later they stepped outside and walked outside towards two waiting cars. They climbed in, but just as Gallo was about to turn the key in the ignition, Salvatore’s phone rang. Gallo paused, glancing across questioningly as he took the call.

‘We know where she stayed last night,’ Salvatore explained, still listening, but with his hand shielding the microphone.

‘A hotel?’ Gallo guessed.

‘Out near the airport. The manager saw her picture this morning and called it in.’

‘They ran the story?’

Salvatore reached across to the back seat and handed Gallo a copy of that morning’s La Repubblica. Allegra ’s face dominated the front page under a single shouted headline:

Killer cop on the run.

‘Apparently she checked in late last night and paid in cash. I guess we got lucky.’

‘Funny how much luckier you get when you load the dice,’ Gallo growled as he scanned through the article. He wouldn’t normally have leaked the details of a case, but he’d seen enough of Allegra to realise that, for all her inexperience, she was smart. And in a city of 2.7 million people, that was more than enough to hide and stay hidden. The more people who knew what she looked like, the better. As long as he found her first.

Salvatore ended his call. Gallo turned the key.

‘Who else is running it?’

‘Everyone.’

‘What about the old man?’

‘Professor Eco?’

‘Is that what he calls himself?’ Gallo shrugged as he checked his mirrors and swung out, tyres shrieking.

‘According to him, she took off before telling him anything.’

‘I want him watched anyway,’ Gallo insisted. ‘Just in case she tries to contact him again.’

‘She’s probably armed now, by the way. Eco had a gun. Illegal. Says he can’t find it any more.’

‘Even better.’ Gallo gave a satisfied nod. ‘Gives us an excuse to go in heavy.’

Smiling, he punched the siren on.

Vicolo de Panieri, Travestere, Rome 19th March-7.27 a.m.

Allegra wasn’t about to take any chances. Snatching the gun from Tom’s grasp, she immediately turned it back on him. Unflustered, he settled into his chair.

‘Who are you running from?’ he asked.

The easy thing, the smart thing, she knew, would be to walk away right there and then. She had enough of her own problems already, without getting swept up into his.

But it wasn’t that simple. For a start, it was hard to ignore that, whoever this man was and whatever dark secret had drawn him to this place, it seemed to involve Cavalli and the mysterious symbol that had been linked to three different corpses. What’s more, he’d just placed his fate in her hands by handing her the gun. It was, she knew, a rather unsubtle attempt to win her trust. But it was a powerful gesture all the same, and one that had, if nothing else, earned him the right to be heard.

‘How can you help me?’ she demanded, answering his question with one of her own.

There was a pause, and she guessed from the slight twitch of his left eye that he was debating how much he should tell her.

‘Thirty-six hours ago a friend of mine was murdered,’ he said eventually. ‘Shot by a sniper in a casino in Vegas. I think they were killed because they were closing in on someone.’

‘“Closing in”? What was he, a cop?’ Allegra guessed with a surprised frown. This guy didn’t look or feel like any policeman she’d ever met.

‘She was FBI,’ he corrected her. ‘Special Agent Jennifer Browne. Cavalli was fingered by a man she arrested in New York. A dealer for a tombaroli smuggling ring. She found a drawing of the symbol I showed you in his trash. I’ve got the case file, if you want to see it,’ he offered, leaning forward to reach into his bag.