Elizabeth and Nikki had gone back to the apartment, drank coffee, and enjoyed the view over the city. They were in Florence, after all, and despite the work, Nikki was at least here to relax a little and forget about all the trouble in Boston.

Elizabeth sat at her laptop and answered her emails.

Nikki suddenly furrowed her eyebrows. "Did you actually know that Mike is rejoining the police force?" She smiled a little as her mother's eyes shot up. Of course, you knew; why do I even ask? You could have given me a heads-up, though, Ma."

Elizabeth exhaled slowly and loudly and closed her laptop. "I didn't even know until a few months ago that he seriously considered rejoining us. Melanie's case --" She paused and closed her eyes briefly. "The God of Blood case reminded him what it actually means to investigate."

"Melanie's case," Nikki mumbled into her cup with a deep frown.

"Nikki --"

"The case that basically ended my career from one day to the next."

"Hey," Elizabeth said louder, and the young woman looked up, looking into her mother's fiery eyes, "This isn't just about your damn career, Veronica. I made the announcements and made decisions that were definitely wrong. Jane was just reacting to public pressure. Someone had to take the fall for our failures. And it was my head, not yours! Even if it feels completely different!"

Nikki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew her mother was right. "I'm too lazy to solve Lillo's riddle."

"Me too," Elizabeth replied and opened her laptop again.

"Let's write to him then."

Loco Lillo helped Elizabeth and Nikki with a Threema post.

The address was Lungarno Anna Maria Luisa de Medici.

Loco Lillo was referring to the History of Science Museum in Florence. It was very close to the Ponte Vecchio; in fact, you just had to walk downstream from there to the Ponte alle Grazie.

Elizabeth stared at her cell phone and blinked a few times. "Is he taking the piss?"

"If so, it's just a nice museum visit," Nikki replied, momentarily pulling the corners of her mouth down. "Admit it, we wouldn't have visited this museum otherwise."

The two women bought tickets and went into the middle room. Apart from Loco Lillo, no one was there this time without chewing tobacco.

Loco Lillo stuck out his middle finger. "What does that mean?"

"That you insult someone," Nikki replied with a slight frown.

"And that's what Galileo Galilei did to the church."

"And that means here's his --?"

"That's right. Here's his middle finger on display."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Too hard?" Loco Lillo asked, grinning. "We used to paraphrase places like that. In case anyone is listening. Back when there was no EncroChat."

"There isn't anymore," said Nikki. "Nobody's stupid enough to use it anymore. Apart from that, the company closed down. You said so yourself."

"That's right. So it's useful to get into the habit of this treasure hunt." He reached for his chewing tobacco but realized he was in a closed room.

"Well," Elizabeth said, "we've probably gotten a little out of practice. At least I have."

Loco Lillo looked around. Galileo's middle finger was in a large glass setting decorated with gold. "The finger was removed by Anton Francesco Gori in 1737 and ended up here. It is kept here like a shrine in a church. Yet its bearer was one of the church's greatest enemies."

Elizabeth thought the name loco, the madman, was not entirely unjustified in Lillo's case.

"Good mystery," Nikki said, "could have been solved, but it wasn't easy."

"That's not all. Two more fingers and a tooth were sold at auction in 2009. They disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century and reappeared a hundred years later."

"To the point," growled Elizabeth. "What were you able to find out?"

"Quite a bit," Loco Lillo said, making an expert face. "Donatella really does some big things. But it's not just her; her son helps her."

Nikki licked her lips. "One is already dead."

Elizabeth glared at her daughter. "That wasn't her son, was it?"

The officer rolled her eyes. "Okay, godson. The one who was supposed to marry Aurelia. If we want to talk to him, we'll need a necromancer."

He nodded slowly. "That leaves the other one. What's his name?"

"Ottavio," Elizabeth replied.

"If someone's after the family, and it looks like they are, he's in danger too. Do you know where he is?"

"Not yet."

"Okay, then, other things first," Lillo replied. "I always thought that Carina, the only daughter entitled to the inheritance, was taken out of the way so that Donatella could get hold of old Visconti's money more quickly in the form of ransom money. It looks like Donatella is actually behind the kidnapping."

Nikki's ears perked up. "Did she have Carina killed?"

Lillo pulled the corners of his mouth down. "Nobody knows for sure. But I don't think so. I've heard other rumors. But I'm sure she made sure that she not only disappeared but, if she's still alive, that she's as far away as possible. In a place where you never come back, where you either die at some point or take your own life. That way, she could make money of her again."

"And how?"

"Through human trafficking." Lillo scratched his head. "I know a guy. His name is Santo, although he's anything but a saint. He works for another man. He's a big fish in human trafficking. Maybe he was also involved in the kidnapping. At least that's what the Florentine sparrows are whistling from the rooftops."

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "And what is this man's name?"

"The man is a monster and a sadist. But he's doing his job. His name is Francesco Ricardo, also known as Pacco Ricardo. But they call him something else because of his behavior."

Nikki shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "And how?"

"The monster - Il Mostro."

xxx

The square had been reopened to tourists, and the tall tower of Palazzo Vecchio stretched into the sky as if nothing had happened. It was here, hundreds of years ago, that the Pazzi conspirators who had plotted against Lorenzo de' Medici and planned to assassinate him had been executed. A noose had been tied around each of their necks, and then they had been thrown out of the palace window. Some of them hung dead from the wall of the palace; others lay on the ground with shattered bones because their heads had been torn off by the acceleration and lay bloodied and shattered on the ground next to their bodies. Other members of the Pazzi family were also sought out in their villas and executed. In the case of Jacopo de Pazzi, the anger of the people was so great that his body was even dragged out of the family crypt, a rope was tied around his neck, he was dragged to the Arno and then dumped in the river at the deepest point.

Elizabeth and Nikki met Adami in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. They were just about to tell Adami the story about Carina and Donatella's possible involvement in Carina's abduction when he beat them to it with another piece of terrible news.

"Visconti is dead."

"Excuse me?" Nikki's head jerked forward. "Since when?"

"Tonight. Heart failure."

"The heart doesn't ask for the time. And the youngest he wasn't," Elizabeth said with a sigh.

Nikki looked closely at her mother. "Funny, though. Just now ... How did the heart failure happen? Do they know?"

Adami looked at her for a long time and frowned a little. "Supposedly heart failure because of all the deaths in his family; the emergency doctor has already filled out the death certificate."

Elizabeth listened attentively. "There was no autopsy?"

He took a deep breath. "Yes, there was even a private dissection, which revealed that the old patriarch had a serious heart condition. The doctor has just left."

Nikki drew her eyebrows together. "Who did the autopsy? Not Russo, was it?"

"No, not an ME, a pathologist close to the family and who they trust."

"So just a external examination of the body, not an autopsy?"

He nodded slowly. "Looks like it. Anyway, it's all official now. The public prosecutor has already released the body. The funeral is scheduled for tomorrow at Florence Cathedral and the Baptistery."

Elizabeth shook her head and licked her lips. "Sure. The sooner he's in the ground, the less research there will be. Donatella was already against us autopsying Aurelia. We won't be able to pull off an exhumation like we did with Aurelia for a proper autopsy."

Adami pressed his lips together. "I'm afraid we won't either."

Nikki closed her eyes for a second. "Can we trust the doctor? Or was he acting in the family's interests or, better yet, Donatella's?"

"Like that joke about the accountant," the lieutenant said.

Adami looked at her in confusion, and Nikki rolled her eyes. "What joke about the accountant?"

"I want to be an accountant. - How much is two plus four? - How much is it supposed to be? - You've got the job," Elizabeth said with a hint of a smile.

"Very funny," Nikki grumbled, "there's just time for that now!"

"Fitting," replied Adami, "Accounting and double-entry bookkeeping were invented in Florence."

"But let's be honest," said Nikki with a furrowed brow, "this is all very strange! We need to talk to Donatella."

"She's being shielded by lawyers and, according to her doctor, she's unfit for questioning because of the shock. There's a certificate for that, too. After all, her husband died."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Unless someone helped her along. When her husband died, I mean. A weak heart can be exploited."

Adami looked at her closely. "We don't know; I'm afraid there's no evidence of that."

Nikki held his gaze and raised a brow. "I suspect it, though."

"So do I," Elizabeth agreed, nodding, "because we've heard some interesting rumors about the kidnapping. We'd also like to talk to Donatella about that."

Adami took a deep breath. "I'd love to, too. But I can't because she's in shock."

Nikki licked her lips. "Yes. And we can't talk to Visconti either, because unfortunately he's dead. Vincente, Visconti's godson, is also dead. That only leaves --"

"Ottavio!" said Adami, looking at the two women.

Elizabeth looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Do you know where he is?"

"No! But we have to find out as soon as possible!"