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Look into Sal’s death, do soan to fear that his reply ht be an arrest and a one-way ticket to an Italian institution for the insane?she swung around, grabbed Raphael’s arm, and left the station

"I’ll stay with you until we can find Cindy or Jared?" he told her, but she shook her head firmly "I’ll be okay, Raphael, honestly In fact, I need to be alone And you?I want you to take care of yourself

Manetti thinks I’ on here Please, Raphael stay close to other people And wear a cross You’ve been friendly with er"

"Jordan?"

"Sal D’Onofrio gave me a ride back to the hotel from the area of that church before he died," Jordan told him "Please, please, Raphael, just take care of yourself"

"And what are you going to do?"

"Please don’t worry I’ back to the hotel I’ll be locked in?"

"You said that you would go to Harry’s?"

"Later, that’s hours from now, and I’ll walk by the front, across the main path, and there will be many people around me all the time"

He walked with her back to the hotel, kissed her on both cheeks She promised to see him the next day; it was a lie, but she would call the shop when she could and assure him that she was fine

When he left her, she hurried up to her room and ht there

Ragnor had an uncanny habit of appearing when she did

First, she went on the Internet and found that she could still get out of Venice that night She could get a flight to Paris that would connect her directly to New Orleans If she hurried If she could get out of the hotel and get a water taxi to the airport quickly enough

She paused suddenly, feeling as though a breeze had picked up in the room, when there could be no breeze She looked around the roo deep into her bones She ju area, then burst into the bathroo The door was still locked

She returned to her laptop, desperate tothat her credit card, overextended in her travels, wouldn’t be rejected

She had grown overly anxious but took the tiht arrange backwards, in tiht out of Venice and connected with the overseas plane in Paris, her arrival tiht She packed up her laptop, underwear, and an overnight bag, leaving the rest of her clothing and belongings in the roo Terrified that so as she left the rooo back and lock the door

She didn’t check out, nor did she take a water taxi from the Danieli She hurried to the hotel across Saint Mark’s Square and took a taxi fro her passport, she was the last person to run aboard the plane She watched Venice disappear, feeling a strange sorrow as the plane rose in the night sky She loved the city like few other places in the world

But she would be back

Gino Meroni walked into the second-floor ballroom of the palazzo

He was alone in the room, dressed in the dottore costume He liked to be known as the dottore Oh, yes, he’d said He liked to cure people of all their ills

Gino was accustoeness of his employers, as well He had shamed himself, he knew But he had also done well in his efforts to make up for his errors, and he hadn’t expected to be afraid tonight

But he was

A fire crackled in the great hearth That was the only light in the roo chair by the fire, but he was a large man, and did not at all appear dwarfed by the chair; in fact, his power sees hich Gino had not been involved ?had not gone well He knew that the contessa was not even here, she had been wounded so badly And the dottore

He had escaped with little injury, but the contessa and others had taken a sad toll for his deliverance

That night, Gino had done well at all his tasks

Still, the light fro in the hearth seemed to dance upon the room in shades of blood red The dottore sat so still, his knuckles white on the arhtly The room was very quiet It was an ominous silence The dottoreti from foot to foot

"Well?" the dottore said at last

"I went as directed," he said "I was able to clear our place, but I could do nothing about the woman for she wasn’t alone" He didn’t say that he had been clearing away the last of the refuse when the man had entered the church with the woman He told the dottore instead that "The police caht I saw to it that nothing was left behind"

"But the girl walked aith the police?"

"It doesn’t matter The police think that she’s crazy" Gino then put a note of trial and exhaustion into his voice "There was quite a e for your safety" The dottore nodded gravely

"So much would not have been necessary?if you had not been careless with your duties There is still a wealth of trouble to be dealt with due to your inability to dispose of our refuse with efficiency" He’d lost the head That one head! He cleaned up so much for these people, and he’d lost one head

"I ell for you," Gino said "I ask no questions I risk irl"

"I couldn’t" Gino lifted his hands "What is so special about this one girl? I can bring you dozens of girls"