Kidnapped and a Daring Escape (49 page)

    
"I want you," she whispers.

    
"I want you too. It has been too long."

    
He lifts her up and carries her to the bed. They continue kissing, as
they undress each other. They lie skin on skin, sometimes she, sometimes
he on top, tasting each other’s bodies.

    
"I want you inside," she whispers, reaching for the condom lying on
the nightstand.

    
Their lovemaking becomes frantic. Bianca cries out, while André
arches his torso above hers, and she senses his penis pulsate inside her.
She is always surprised how light he is when he lies on top of her. His
nose nuzzles her face. He locks eyes with her.

    
"I love you," he whispers again and then kisses her eyes.

    
She fears that her heart is going to burst with the bliss of contentment
and happiness, a happiness she has never experienced so intense and
overwhelming. "I love you too, André."

    
"Will you marry me?"

    
"Yes, I will."

    
"Will you love me forever as I will love you forever?"

    
"Yes, I will."

    
"Will you be true to me for ever as I will be true to you forever?"

    
"Yes, I will. Oh, André, I missed you so. Sometimes, I feared that I
might never see you again, especially after Ernesto told me that you were
assaulted in prison."

    
"Yes, it’s a real jungle in there."

    
"Tell me."

    
"Not now, not while we are making love."

* * *

Early afternoon, firm knocking at the door of their room wakes him.
Bianca lies naked next to him, her head nestled in the crook of his
shoulder, one arm draped over his chest. Her face is relaxed. He covers
them with the crinkled up sheets, and calls out: "Come in."

    
Gabriela enters and exclaims: "Oh, do I interrupt something?" as she
sits on the edge of the bed.

    
"Hello Gabriela," he replies chuckling, "no, you came too late."

    
Bianca opens her eyes, a happy, sleepy smile in them, as she snuggles
up closer to him.

    
"Gallizio told me that you were released. He is very pleased with
himself. He says that this outcome will enhance his reputation enormously."

    
"Yes, smuggling the article out of prison was a great help, but the real
credit must go to this love bird of mine." He kisses Bianca on the nose.

    
"Oh, sister, I was shocked when I saw today’s paper. You are really
something else, and you cannot imagine the chaos at home. Mamma has
locked herself into her bedroom and screams abuse at whoever dares to
knock at the door. Papà shouts at anybody who comes too close to him.
He fired Simone and ten minutes later ordered him around again, as if he
had forgotten that he just fired him. Food is put on the table and nobody
eats it. And he is suddenly worried about the loan of 200,000 euros he
signed off to Franco the day before."

    
"Serves him right," mutters Bianca.

    
"So I thought it best to save myself and come here. Are you two
getting up or aren’t you finished yet? Do I have to wait downstairs?" she
asks with a telling smile.

    
"No, we are done and happy," answers André, "but I want to take a
shower. So, you have to let me get out of bed."

    
She moves over to the only soft chair, while he goes into the shower.

    
"Wow, Bianca, you lucky girl. What a body!" he hears Gabriela
exclaim.

    
Bianca soon joins him in the shower, giggling. "I think you shocked
my sister, showing off stark naked."

    
After they are dressed, he asks Gabriela: "Have you already eaten?"

    
"No, I was hoping you would take us to one of your favorite eating
places."

    
"All right. Let’s go."

    
Signor
Crivelli welcomes them with exuberant pleasure. "
Signor
Andrea, I knew they had to set you free after the two articles on the front
page of
Il Messaggero
. They couldn’t do otherwise. It is a scandal how
they treated you. But now, we must celebrate with one of my finest
bottles of champagne, right?"

    
He rushes off and soon comes back with four flutes and a bottle of
Veuve Cliquot, beaming from ear to ear.

    
"
Salute
," he exclaims, as they clink glasses.

    
"To my brave future wife," says André, winking to Bianca.

    
"Down with Franco," cries Gabriela.

    
"To our love," says Bianca.

    
Crivelli offers them another of his specialties, veal
osso buco
.

    
"This is my first decent meal in three days."

    
"Yes, it melts in my mouth. With places like this, who needs to go to
Bocelli’s," exclaims Gabriela, grinning from ear to ear.

    
"Now tell me what happened since Gallizio visited you in prison,"
begs Bianca. "Did you have more trouble?"

    
He gives them an account of what happened and the timely intervention of the superintendent. Bianca stops eating and reaches for his hand.
Hers trembles.

    
"Don’t fret, love. The real danger was not from these two crooks, but
from the guards, but fortunately, the superintendent came in time. I
guess, several of the guards may soon find out how it feels to wear prison
garb."

    
"I hope so," mutters Gabriela. "Will you write this up too? As a sequel
to the first 48 hours?"

    
"Maybe. I’ll think about it."

    
While they are eating a crème brulée as dessert, André’s iPhone
buzzes. He answers the call. It is
Commissario
Gerola, who first
expresses his apologies for the unjustified arrest and then fixes nine
o’clock Friday morning for the debriefing. Later, André calls up his
mother to give her the news of his release.

    
That evening, they again watch the television news bulletin. His
release, their embrace on the steps of the prison, the dropping of all
charges, and the two press articles feature first up, followed by the
announcement that
Commissario
Farnese has been suspended. The
newsreader states that Professor Visconti has refused to be interviewed
and has gone into hiding. All they show is a two-second view of his hand
covering the camera lense.

    
They go to bed early, both having a real need to be close to each other.

* * *

Commissario
Gerola apologizes once more for the arrest. He confirms
that all charges against André have been dropped and that the only
purpose of this meeting was to debrief him on the kidnapping. It takes
almost two hours. Gerola repeatedly probes the aspects that seem to
incriminate Visconti. "These are indeed grave accusations," he says at
one point.

    
"
Dottore
, they are not accusations. They are only possible conclusions
that can be logically deducted from what I saw, overheard, and from
other facts. They are all circumstantial and I doubt they would lead to a
conviction."

    
"I’m afraid you’re right."

    
"If the transfer of the 200,000 euros can be traced to Visconti, then
maybe together with the testimony of other members of the tour group
about his late arrival at the dinner, and the timing of various phone calls,
a case can be made." Suddenly he remembers that they never checked the
Swiss phone number on the list of phone calls Franco left unpaid. "There
may be a clue in something I forgot to mention.
Professore
Visconti
made a phone call to a Swiss number two days prior to the kidnapping.
I never checked out to whom it was. All I know is that it was Zurich
number."

    
"You know it?"

    
"No, but as I said, I have the list at our
pensione
. Bianca removed it
from my case, including my computer, before your people came to search
our room."

    
Gerola laughs. "Smart woman, but according to the report it was her
computer."

    
"No, she removed mine and hid it and then left hers conspicuously on
the table. Look, I will call you when I get back to our room."

    
"In fact, I would like that you give me the whole list as possible
evidence, just in case."

    
"Certainly. There are also the calls made on my iPhone by one of the
kidnappers who got shot by his colleague —"

    
"— with a bit of help from you."

    
"That is one way of looking at it, yes. One of these calls was most
likely to Visconti the morning after our kidnapping."

    
He opens up the list of past calls on the gadget and hands it to Gerola,
who quickly jots them down.
 

    
"Your observation on the handbag exchange is another matter. It could
well point to a drug deal, but you say that Miss Pacelli’s bag was not
among the luggage you picked up at the hotel."

    
"Yes, that is correct." He had no qualms to answer that way. It was not
Bianca’s bag he picked up.

    
"Mind you, if the bag really contained drugs, then you would have
been in serious trouble trying to take it across borders."

    
"Yes, I must say that I shudder at the thought, although I might well
have remembered what I observed in the bar and gotten rid of it.
However, it leads to another conclusion if my conjectures about Visconti
are correct, namely that he did not expect Miss Pacelli to return alive and
that he planned to arrange for her things to be returned to Italy by freight
where he could intercept the bag."

    
Gerola nods gravely. "Yes, that seems a plausible scenario … I
wonder what happened to the drugs."

    
"Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe, once he discovered that Miss
Pacelli had escaped, he arranged for the bag to be sent somewhere." Plant
a seed of suspicions in his mind, then maybe they will be more vigilant
about any mail he gets. "I know from what Miss Pacelli told me once that
he admitted to sniffing cocaine at a party of university people."

    
"Hmm … As it may be, I am pleased at how consistent both yours and
Miss Pacelli’s debriefings are. If
Commissario
Farnese had taken the
trouble to listen to the tapes of Miss Pacelli’s debriefing, it should have
been obvious to her that the young woman was not suffering from
delusions. Her statements were clear, precise. She never contradicted
herself explicitly or implicitly. In my view, it was the report of person
with a healthy mind. Furthermore, for those experiences that you shared,
there is not the slightest contradiction, except that Miss Pacelli’s account
reflects her fright and her amazement at how you got them out of all tight
spots, while you consistently downplay what you did. I recently watched
the antics of a group of cliff jumpers and I must say it must take great
courage to sail in free fall."

    
"But that is the fun part of it … Look, there is one other thing.
Commissario
Farnese took away my passport, and it was not in the bag
of my belongings returned at the prison. Do you have it?"

    
"No. She must still have it. I can get it for you."

    
"Don’t bother. I would love to pay her a friendly visit myself."

    
Gerola presses out a forced laugh. "You may be in luck. I saw her
come in this morning."