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In the end she is driven in a beat-up tricycle truck froer compartment is absurdly cramped, so she is squeezed miserably between the beefy driver and the compactly muscular Tomaso

Despite the impossibility of her position, Rainy is aware that the drive is spectacularly beautiful The road winds north out of Salerno before turning west along the coast It is a narrow, even precarious road, which at places lances through sht that at one point Toe out of a shop display He peels it with a pocketknife, cuts a dripping section, and hands it to Rainy

In other places the road see inthe seaward side, but the ground drops away so steeply that she can’t see anything below but the sparkling Mediterranean A single careless turn and the little tricycle truck will likely plow straight through or over the wall and go tu down onto picturesque homes

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Tomaso asks

There’s no point lying “The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen”

This earns her a thoughtful look “Have you traveled much?”

Rainy hesitates—it is in her nature to reveal as little as possible—but she can’t see the har is even possible “I’m from New York City It’s a different sort of beauty, rittier, but still beautiful at times”

“Yes,” he says “I’ve seen it But New York is all about the works ofof htly colored homes And of course the food is better here”

“The coffee certainly is,” Rainy allows, straining for affability

They stop at last on the street outside a ashed, three-story building Its door is wide, open, and inviting beneath blue, aquatic-thelazed letters spells out Hotel Alto Positano

“A hotel?” Rainy asks She’s been expecting so murderer on the business of assassination

“Certainly a hotel, and a good one too, I believe It is run by a friend I must be honest and tell you that he will not allow you to make telephone calls or“Here the authorities will not trouble you You are not an Ah I have no such prejudices, reat sy Siegel, Meyer Lansky But for our purposes you are Irish, a neutral, on a retreat following some unfortunate event”

“What unfortunate event?”

“You have been living in Roement to an Italian man was broken off at the last minute, so you have come to romantic Positano to take your mind off your sadness And perhaps find soeable fellow”

“Like you?”