Free The Dante Conspiracy by Tom Kasey Page A

exactly
the same. And if they did that, I’m quite sure that they would also come to the
same conclusion, that the box containing the relic is simply too small to have anything
else concealed in it.’
    Lombardi looked crestfallen.
    ‘So you think I’m wrong? That I’ve read more into those verses
that there is to be found there?’
    Perini slapped him on the shoulder.
    ‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘I think you’re quite right. I just don’t
believe that that relic is going to be the target of whatever these men do next.
There must be something else here, something directly connected with Dante that
we’ve missed.’

 

 

 
    Chapter 14

 
    It had taken a lot longer than he had expected, because some
parts of the city archives had suffered during the flooding of the River Arno, floods
which had been both a common and a highly destructive feature of the city of Florence
through the ages. There were gaps in the records, and several times he had been
forced to make what amounted to educated guesses as he attempted to trace the thread
that ran through the documents from the end of the thirteenth century to the present
day.
    When he reached the end of the research, he’d started again,
going back and double-checking everything once again, just to make sure. Only then
did he make the telephone call to arrange a meeting with his client.
    ‘How certain are you that this is correct?’ Stefan asked, looking
down at the pages of notes, principally comprising names, dates and addresses, which
the dark-haired young man sitting opposite him had just handed over.
    Dino Spagnoli was a professional researcher,
employed on a freelance basis by everybody from authors trying to get the facts
right in their latest novel and historians farming out part of their research, to
people looking for a heirs who had unaccountably gone missing, and others trying
to trace past property ownership – shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘If you asked me to quote a figure,’ he said, ‘I’d say about
ninety per cent, and that is about as good a result as you’re going to get from
anybody. The problem isn’t tracing information back through the records. That’s
the easy bit. The trick is trying to fill in the gaps where the records literally
no longer exist. You’ve obviously heard about the floods we’ve had here in the past.
A lot of information was simply lost due to water damage, and some of the other
records which were saved are still awaiting restoration and can’t be accessed by
me or by anybody else. But I’m confident that the end result is right.’
    He leaned forward over the small circular table in the cafe on
the outskirts of Florence which Stefan had suggested for their meeting, and pointed
at the last line of the sheet of paper the other man was studying.
    ‘What I’m saying is that I have almost no doubts that that piece
of information is correct.’
    Stefan nodded, reached into his pocket and took out a sealed
envelope which he tossed onto the table.
    ‘Your fee,’ he said, ‘as we agreed.’
    Spagnoli used the handle of his coffee
spoon to break the seal and glanced inside the envelope. It looked about the right
amount. Then he got to his feet with a smile and extended a hand across the table.
    ‘A pleasure doing business with you, my friend.’
    The other man glanced at his outstretched hand but ignored it.
Then he looked up briefly at the young man’s face, before returning to his study
of the papers.
    Spagnoli dropped his hand to his side,
his smile dimming somewhat at the other man’s rudeness. But as he walked away his
smile returned, and he glanced at his watch. The timing was just about perfect.
    His services were much in demand in Florence, but the two telephone
calls he had received the previous day less than thirty minutes apart had been a
first, even for him. Both callers had been looking for precisely the same piece
of information and both had agreed to the fee he had suggested without the