Page 332 of Niccolo

The room exploded with panicked exclamations.

I’d been expecting this. I was ready.

“Signorina Toscani is lying,” I said contemptuously. “Rachel Bauer isnotan agent of MI6.”

“Was sheeveran agent of MI6?” Sofia asked in a steely voice.

“You should know, you were there when Fausto hired her,” I shot back.

“Quiet!” Don Severino shouted, silencing the room. “Niccolo – wasRachel Bauer an agent of MI6 in the past?”

“…she was a former agent,” I admitted. As the murmurs began again, I raised my voice. “But now she’s a free agent and does contract killings, which my uncle took full advantage of.”

Sofia scoffed. “Setting aside these stupid and baseless accusations, letting an MI6 agent into this chamber – ”

“Former agent!” I yelled.

“ – would compromise the safety of everyone here. There is NOTHING to guarantee she wouldn’t tell her colleagues – ”

“FORMER colleagues!” I shouted.

“Former, current,whatever,”Sofia said angrily. “She could still identify every person in this room to MI6.”

The other dons began shouting at Don Severino not to allow her to testify.

“Signorina Toscani is correct,” Don Severino said to me. “This is not a risk we are willing to take. The witness is disallowed.”

“As I understand it, the primary objection is that Rachel would bein the room?”I asked. “And thus able to identify anyone here?”

“Yes.”

Sofia saw where I was going and tried to speak –

But I beat her to it. “What if I justcallher on a cell phone to get her testimony? That way, she won’t see anyone here.”

Sofia had made her entire case about Rachel being a threat if shesawpeople in the room. Once I removed that threat, she had nothing to stand on.

Over Sofia’s objections, Don Severino allowed me to call Rachel. I dialed her on my cell phone.

“Hello?”she answered.

“Rachel, it’s Niccolo,” I said. “Time to answer some questions.”

I asked her who had hired her to kill Dario. She confirmed it was Fausto.

She described in detail how she had been hired, including the date and the location where it had happened. She also described Fausto, Aurelio, and a ‘mystery woman, young and pretty, with long brown hair and glasses.’

No one in the room could miss that it was a perfect description of Sofia.

I even asked Don Severino if I could take a picture of Sofia so Rachel could identify her, but Sofia protested, saying Rachel could then betray her to MI6. In the end, the answer was no.

When I finished interrogating Rachel, Don Severino said, “Now, please give the phone to Signorina Toscani.”

I walked across the room and handed the phone to her.

When the tips of our fingers touched, there was an electric current that seemed to run between us.

We looked into each other’s eyes…

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