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“Ah, yes I reirl And do you and Giovanna have a brood, a passel of little Martinis?”

“Not yet,” says Si that Giotto had not broached this subject, a source of sadness between him and Giovanna

“A man as handsome as you should liest man in Florence, but I have six children Do you wish to know my secret?” Simone nods, miserable but polite “The darkness”

“The darkness? How do you mean?”

“In the darkness, Sihs at his joke “Now clean your brushes and co with your father-in-law I’ve just seen his frescoes in San Ginano, and I want to kno he did it”

“Did what, Master Giotto?”

“Got paid to paintto bed together! On the walls in the palace of governins Let us non; that’s where thethere Courtesans, concubines, and lusty country wenches Get me those commissions, my boy, and I will pay you ten times more than I paid you to mix plaster”

Sihs “At that rate, Master Giotto, I would still starve”

CHAPTER 11

Avignon

The Present

I’d been up since 5 AM, despite the fact that I’d been wandering the streets with Stefan until one, and I was obsessively checking ht send me a picture of his facial reconstruction by now It was 8 AM in Avignon, which ine he was still up and working

I’d just decided to head downstairs for a croissant when an to thuerly but there was no e file was attached I clicked on the attach, line-by-line slowness the e of a clay face materialized on the screen Joe had done it; he’d restored a face to the skull from the Palace of the Popes

As I studied the features, I had the eerie feeling that I knew the guy, or at least that I’d seen him before Was it just that I’d seen Joe’s work before? Facial reconstructions, especially when done by the same forensic artist, do share similarities: “white female 7”; “black male 4” Was that the reason this face looked familiar? I turned away, looked out theto clear ain

Again I felt the tingle of unexpected fauy, and why did I think I knew hieneric white male, similar to a hundred other reconstructions I’d seen This face was distinctive, the face of a unique individual: long and narroith prohtly crooked nose, perhaps broken once in a fight I’d noticed the general features when I’d examined the skull, but they were more pronounced now that Joe had fleshed out the bones

Suddenly a synapse in , I fired off a reat work — thanks are you still there?

yes, came his answer a few seconds later

can you do a couple of quick tweaks?

A pause what sort of tweaks?

can you give hi hair? and a mustache and beard? oh, and maybe smooth out some of the wrinkles, take 10 years off him?

As I waited for his response, I feared he ht balk

so, you want ht, doc?

right, joe

no problem

I breathed a sigh of relief, then sent anotherwill that take?