The Abduction: A Novel Read Free Page A

Hapadi’s voice when he answered was cautious. “Well, I doubt it’s pre-medieval. But neither is it fresh – the discoloration’s too evenly spread for that. There are some fragments of fibre that might help, probably from a khaki jacket, and he has an interesting distortion of the left wrist that could indicate pre-vaccination poliomyelitis – he’d have had a distinctive withered left hand, by the way. To be honest, dating skeletons is specialist work. I’ll have to find someone who’s more familiar with the tests than I am.”
    “Any thoughts on how it got here?”
    “It looks as if it was tossed in by someone on the ground – the bones are clearly positioned on top of the spoil, not amongst it. The force of the impact is what caused the femur and pelvis to separate, I imagine.”
    “So it could have been thrown in only a couple of hours ago?”
    “Possibly. I’m aware that’s what’s being hypothesised.” Piola caught the wariness in the doctor’s voice. “But you should be able to prove or disprove it easily enough.”
    “How, Dottore?”
    Hapadi crouched down again. “See here, how earth has filled the pelvic cavity? If it was carried here, some would have fallen out along the way. Your skeleton will have left a trail of crumbs, Colonel. Like Hansel and Gretel.”
    “Thank you, Dottore. That’s very useful.”
    As Piola started back down the ladder, Hapadi added, “You didn’t ask about cause of death.”
    Piola stopped. “That’s because I didn’t think you’d be able to tell me.”
    “Normally, perhaps. But when it’s like this it’s not difficult.” The doctor lifted the skull in white-gloved hands, rotating it so that Piola could see the neat circle just behind where the left ear would have been. “That’s how I know it isn’t medieval, Colonel. They didn’t make holes like this before they had bullets.”

TWO
    MIA WOKE UP in a warm, comfortable haze that receded abruptly as the memory of what had happened came flooding back. It had been this way for a while now – sleeping from the drugs they’d given her; waking, her panic momentarily surfacing through the fog in her brain, then drifting back into oblivion again. How long exactly, she had no idea.
    She vaguely remembered the motion of the van, and sensing when it pulled off a smooth, fast road on to bumpier, more rural ones. From the way her body had rolled from side to side, she’d guessed they must be climbing up into the hills. Eventually they’d turned onto what felt like a farm track, crawling over potholes.
    She’d drifted off again, waking only when the van finally stopped. Doors banged, and cold air rushed in around her feet. A male voice spoke, the Italian dialect too thick and fast for her to make out the words.
    A second man, close to her head, answered – he must have been in the back with her the whole time. Hands lifted her, the two men sliding her out and carrying her between them. There was some quiet conversation – “ Lentamente ”, “ Attenzione alla porta ” – as if they were simply moving furniture or a piece of rolled carpet. Then she was somewhere that felt both small and echoey. The men’s boots scuffed on a rough floor as she was lowered onto a mattress.
    A sharp sting in her wrist had brought back the panic, only for sleep to claim her once more.
    When she woke, it was to discover that the hood had been replaced with goggles – large ones, like skiing goggles, but with the lenses blacked out. She tested her hands. Handcuffed. Bile rose into her mouth.
    “Looks like you’re awake, princess,” a voice said in heavily accented English.
    A hand clamped around her wrist – not roughly, but resting there. She flinched at the touch, as light as a caress, but he was simply taking her pulse.
    “OK,” the same voice said at last. “ Cominciamo. ”
    She didn’t speak much Italian, but she understood that, and her body stiffened in terror.
    Let’s begin.

THREE
    AS HE CLIMBED back down