The silence of the jade-green apartment was no longer the silence of a sanctuary. It was the silence of a tomb that had been robbed.

Alessandro arrived back at 4:00 AM. He was flushed with the adrenaline of the docks, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his mind already calculating how to present the "recovered" Vitiello shipment as a personal victory to his father-in-law. He felt like a king. He felt like a man who had successfully woven two worlds together without losing a single thread.

He ...