The Absolution by Jonathan Holt Read Free Book Online Page B

the same place, never travelling by the same route to the courts or his office. It had cost him his marriage, his wife adopting a new identity and fleeing abroad just like the pentiti . It was said that he saw his children no more than half a dozen times each year. He couldn’t have been more than forty, but his face was deeply lined and his brown eyes had a permanent sadness in them.
    â€œOf course, it might be different if you were arguing that the killer could have contacted him via his office computer,” he said thoughtfully.
    â€œThat’s exactly what I’m saying,” Kat said quickly, grateful for the steer. “As a banker, he would have worked long hours, and his personal and professional lives would certainly have overlapped. There could well be information on his computer that could help identify his killer.”
    â€œTell me, Captain,” Melissa Romano said. “You appear to have discounted the most logical explanation for a man being killed in such a manner – that he had revealed Masonic secrets connected with their rites, and that his fellow Masons exacted the literal penalty. Why is that?”
    Kat thought. “I suppose I have trouble in taking all that mumbo-jumbo about ancient rites seriously myself, so I’m inclined to doubt that anyone else would care about them enough to murder for them. Besides, there have been Masonic scandals in Italy before, haven’t there? Banco Ambrosiano, P2, Roccella Ionica, Catanzaro . . . the list goes on and on. And in almost every case it’s turned out to have been about power, corruption and the bribery of public officials. I don’t doubt that Cassandre was killed as a warning to his fellow Masons. But whatever he betrayed, I suspect it was to do with influence and money, not some threadbare ancient ritual.”
    Li Fonti came to a decision. “Very well. You can have a warrant to seize his computer and phone records. But nothing else. Come back in twenty minutes for the paperwork.”
    As the two carabinieri stood up, Li Fonti addressed Bagnasco directly. “You’re the new sottotenente , I take it?”
    â€œYes,” she said. “It’s my first posting in Venice.” She smiled at him, clearly grateful to have been noticed. The handsome prosecutor with the tragic life story was something of a heart-throb amongst the younger female officers.
    â€œWell, stick close to your captain,” he said, nodding at Kat.“You can learn a lot from her.”
    â€œI will,” Bagnasco said, although she sounded a little doubtful.
    When they were outside, Kat turned to her. “You recall our nudist saying he’d seen a cruise ship heading north? That means it was coming into Venice, not sailing away. So the chances are it’ll still be moored at the cruise terminal.” Like most Venetians, Kat disliked the way these massive floating skyscrapers were allowed to sail right through the heart of Venice, across the Bacino di San Marco and along the Canale della Giudecca, on their way to the terminal at Tronchetto. Many claimed that their thunderous moto ondoso, the wake from their mighty propellers, was damaging the city’s ancient buildings. Even at her own desk at Campo San Zaccaria, Kat could sometimes feel the vibrations as the behemoths passed by. A campaign to limit their size and number had been rumbling on for years, but the tourist dollars they brought in were simply too important for them to be banned.
    â€œEvery ship over twelve feet that sails in or out of Venice is given an identifier, a LOCODE, by the port’s navigation system,” she continued. “If the other boat our witness saw really was a water taxi, it might have been picked up by the cruise ship’s radar. It’s a long shot, but I want you to ask the captains of all the cruise ships currently moored at the terminal for a copy of their radar logs.”
    Bagnasco nodded. “Of