Federico Assante’s wife Mia has gone out for the day with their young daughter.
He has no idea what they’re doing or when they’ll be back.
Right now he has no idea about anything.
Mia left straight after breakfast, and he’s sure she knows something is wrong.
She always knows.
Federico can’t bring himself to tell her that he’s been suspended and sent home.
He’s too ashamed.
To Mia and her family, his job is everything. She’s always talking about how proud she is that he’s a policeman. A photograph of him in full ceremonial uniform stands on a cabinet in every one of her relatives’ homes.
He’ll never be able to tell her.
For the moment he’s told her he’s off sick. An injured back. Backs are always a safe bet. Not even doctors can prove you don’t have some form of back pain.
But he knows he can’t bluff for ever.
The curtains of their apartment are closed. He sits in the white vest he’s worn for two days, chain-smoking over a low coffee table filled with magazines that he’s not reading.
From somewhere in the pocket of his badly creased black trousers his cell phone sends out a tinny imitation of the iconic 24 ring tone.
Not even Jack Bauer could save this day.
‘ Pronto.’
‘Hey, Federico!’
It’s Enrico Ferrari. Unbearably upbeat and almost the last person he wants to talk to.
Federico pictures him, doughnut in hand, sugar on lips, his diary spread open in front of him as he calls around to find drinking chums.
Well, Federico doesn’t want to go out.
Not now. Not ever again.
‘Enrico, I’m sorry, this is a bad time, I-’
‘No it’s not!’ he insists cheerily. ‘This is actually a good time – a very good time.’
‘Enrico, I’m not really in the mood for-’
‘But Skywalker, your waiting is over.’
‘Enrico!’
His friend isn’t deterred. ‘No, no, listen, this really is a good-news call. I just read the full mitochondrial DNA test results on both Anna Fratelli and the severed hand recovered from the Bocca in Cosmedin.’
‘You lost me, Enrico.’
‘They’re sisters.’
‘Sisters?’
‘See, the news is so good you have to repeat it. Your handless victim is Anna Fratelli’s sister.’
Federico can’t get his head around it.
Anna never mentioned she had a sister.
One of the alters was referred to as Little Suzie, but from what he can remember, she wasn’t a sister to any of the others.
Come to think of it, the medical records they’d pulled didn’t mention any sister either.
‘Hello, are you still there?’
‘I’m just trying to work things out. You’re saying that Anna’s sister had her hand cut off?’
‘Oh boy! How did you ever make detective? Yes, that’s pretty much what I said. Though if you want to quote me verbatim, I actually said that your handless victim is Anna’s sister.’
‘How are you so sure?’
‘You really want to know?’
‘I do, but keep it simple. Cop simple.’
‘Okay. Look, we have forty-six chromosomes; twenty-three we get from our mother and twenty-three from our father. We also get some mitochondrial DNA from our mother only. Using the mitochondrial DNA for sibling identification is quite accurate, because all children born of a certain female should share this DNA.’
‘And the father?’
‘Different. Totally different fathers. Sorry, I shouldn’t say “totally different” because of course they can’t be slightly different fathers. I mean, they’re either different or the same, aren’t they? You see what I mean? It’s like being a little bit pregnant; you can’t be – you’re either pregnant or you’re not.’
‘Enrico, you made that as clear as mud. Just swear to me that you’re sure of this.’
‘Of course I’m sure. It’s my job to be sure. I can categorically tell you that Anna has a different father to her sister.’
Federico thinks things over. Not only about what Enrico has told him, but also about what he’s not told Enrico. Time to come out with it. ‘I should have stopped you telling me this. Enrico, I got suspended yesterday.’
‘I know.’
‘What?’
‘I know about your suspension and about how I’m not supposed to call you and all that crap. News travels fast, bad news travels fastest.’
‘Do you know why they suspended me?’
‘No. And I don’t want to. Whatever you did or didn’t do, I know you had your reasons. And besides, even if you fucked up, so what? We all fuck up some time, and at times of the biggest fuck-ups you need your biggest friends, right?’
‘ Grazie.’
‘ Prego. So you want that we go out and get juiced tonight? Maybe help your biggest friend get his big fat leg over some drunken signora?’
Federico manages his first smile for twenty-four hours. ‘For sure. I’d like that very much.’