“Who is he?” Sachs asked.
“He is an asylum-seeker from Libya. One of so many. He came here on a ship that crashed.” He frowned and spoke to Ercole, who said, “Beached.”
“Sì. Beached in Baia a week ago, a resort area northwest of Naples. He and forty others arrived there and were arrested. They had good fortune. The weather was good. They survived, all of them. That very day a ship sank off Lampedusa and a dozen died.”
Sachs said, “If he’d been arrested why was he out in the countryside?”
“A very good question,” Rossi said. “Perhaps it is helpful to explain our situation in Italy with regard to refugees. You are aware of the immigrants coming out of Syria, inundating Turkey and Greece and Macedonia?”
Current events held little interest for Rhyme, but the plight of refugees in the Middle East was everywhere in the news. He’d actually just read an article about the subject on the long flight from the United States.
“We have a similar problem here. It’s a long, dangerous journey to Italy from Syria but a less long trip from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Libya is an utterly failed state; after the Arab Spring it became a land of civil war, with extremists on the rise. ISIS and other groups. There is terrible poverty too, in addition to the political turmoil. Adding to the problem, the drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa are driving refugees from the south into Libya, which can hardly accommodate them. So human smugglers—who are also rapists and thieves—charge huge sums to ferry people to Lampedusa, which I mentioned. It is Italy’s closest island to Africa.” He sighed. “I used to vacation with my family in there, when I was a boy. Now I would never take my own children. So, the smugglers bring the poorer asylum-seekers there. Others, if they pay a premium, will be taken to the mainland—like Maziq—in hopes they can avoid arrest.
“But, like him, most are caught, though it is an overwhelming challenge for the army, navy and the police.” He looked toward Rhyme. “It has not touched your country as much. But here it is a crisis of great proportions.”
The article Rhyme had read on the plane was about a conference presently under way in Rome, on the refugee situation. The attendees, from all over the world, were looking for ways to balance the humanitarian need to help the unfortunates, on the one hand, and the concerns about economic hardship and security in the destination countries, on the other. Among the emergency measures under consideration, the story said, the U.S. Congress was considering a bill to allow 150,000 immigrants into the country, and Italy itself was soon to vote on a measure to relax deportation laws, though both proposals were controversial and were being met with strong opposition.
“Ali Maziq is typical of these people. Under the Dublin Regulation on asylum seeking, he was required to apply for asylum in the country of entry—Italy. He was run through Eurodac, and—”
“Dactylosopy?” Rhyme asked. The technical term for fingerprinting.
It was Ercole who answered, “Yes, that is correct. Refugees are fingerprinted and undergo a background check.”
Rossi continued, “So, this is Maziq’s situation. He passed the initial review—no criminal or terrorist connections. If so, he would have been deported immediately. But he was cleared so he was removed from the intake camp and placed in a secondary site. These are hotels or old military barracks. They can slip out, as many do, but if they don’t return they will be deported to their home country when caught.
“Maziq was staying in a residence hotel in Naples. Not a very pleasant place but serviceable. As for the events leading up to the kidnapping, he himself has no memory of what happened. The interviewer was inclined to believe him, because of the trauma of the kidnapping—the drugs and the lack of oxygen. But Daniela canvassed the hotel and a fellow refugee said Maziq told him he was planning on taking a bus to meet someone for dinner near D’Abruzzo. It’s a small town in the countryside.”
Sachs said, “We should find that guy he ate with and talk to him. He might have seen the Composer. Maybe tailing Maziq.”
Rossi said, “There is a possibility about that. The Postal Police have analyzed the data from the phone card found where he was kidnapped. It is surely his, rather than the Composer’s. He used a prepaid mobile, as all refugees do. Just before he was kidnapped he made calls to other prepaids—in Naples, in Libya and to an Italian town in the north, Bolzano, not far from the border. The Postal Police believe they can correlate the pings. You understand?”
“Yes,” Rhyme said. “To find out where he was when he was at dinner.”
“Precisely. They will let me know soon.”
Sachs asked, “What does he have to say?”
“He remembers very little. He believes he was blindfolded much of the time. He awoke in the reservoir and his kidnapper was gone.”
Unsmiling Beatrice—as womanly round as a Botticelli model—walked from the laboratory to the situation room.
“Ecco.” She held up a few printouts.
Ercole picked up a Sharpie and stepped to the board. She shook her head, adamantly, and took the marker from his hand. She glanced at Rossi and spoke.
Ercole frowned, while Rossi laughed. He explained, “She has said the Forestry officer’s handwriting is not the best. He will read the results of the Scientific Police’s analysis in English and she will write it on our chart. He will assist her in translation.”
As the man read from the sheets, the woman’s stubby fingers skittered over the pad on the easel in, yes, it was true, quite elegant handwriting.
“The Composer” Kidnapping, Viale Margherita, 22, Naples
—Site: Roman aqueduct reservoir.
—Victim: Ali Maziq. —Refugee, temporarily housed at Paradise Hotel, Naples.
—Minor injuries to neck and throat from strangulation.
—Minor dehydration.
—Disorientation and memory loss from drugs and lack of oxygen.
—Trace from clothing of Victim: —Variant of drug, amobarbital.
—Residue of liquid chloroform.
—Clay-based dirt, source unknown.
—Footprints: —Victim’s.
—Converse Cons, Size 45, same as at other scenes.
—Bottle, containing water. No source determined.
—Nokia phone, prepaid mobile (sent to Postal Police for analysis), EID number indicates bought for cash two days ago at tobacco store on Viale Emanuele. Phone short-circuited in water spill upon entry to site. SIM card revealed five calls earlier in day from one number, prepaid, no longer active. —DNA on phone (sweat, most likely). —Matches that of Composer.
—Trace of olanzapine, antipsychotic drug.
—Small amount of sodium chloride, propylene glycol, mineral oil, glyceryl monostearate, polyoxyethelene stearate, stearyl alcohol, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, methylparaben, butylparaben.
—Duct tape. No source determined.