However, for Giorgio it was harder than climbing the highest mountain, since by carrying it out he would be admitting to himself that his lover was dead, that everything in his life he cherished had gone forever.
Cosimo’s rationale for the instructions was more dispassionate. He was the best at his trade, probably the best there had ever been, which meant that failure was unacceptable. To his warped way of thinking, should he ever fail, it would be owing to circumstances beyond his control, circumstances for which the client must therefore accept responsibility and, like Cosimo himself, pay the ultimate price.
* * *
Giorgio dragged his feet to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. “No,” he said, shaking his head at his reflection, “I can’t go out looking like this.” Then he thought about it some more and realised he no longer cared. He splashed some water onto his face, pulled on a hoodie and headed for the street.
* * *
The security boxes were in a grubby shop fifty metres down a dingy side street from the river Tiber. There were no keys to the boxes, only six-digit combination locks.
Giorgio went to the smaller boxes at the rear of the premises and dialled six numbers into one of the locks. 7-0-3-3-9-1. Five of the numbers corresponded to the positions of letters in the alphabet, the sixth, which was the second of the series, zero, kept the identical form to the letter it represented, the letter ‘o’. It was easy to remember. Goccia. 703391.
Inside the box was a push-button Nokia phone left uncharged for months. Giorgio removed it and attached a portable charging block he pulled from his pocket. Once the phone had enough charge to fire up, he punched in the telephone number he had so reluctantly committed to memory.
The answer came after several rings.
“Si.” The voice was gruff, coarse.
“Di Bari,” said Giorgio.
“Si.”
Giorgio paused for the briefest of moments before repeating the second piece of information, since he knew that in saying the words, he would be sealing a man’s fate.
“Ettore Cambroni.”
“Consider it done,” growled the voice.
The phone disconnected immediately.
Clutching the phone like a grenade with its pin removed, Giorgio hurried back along the dingy street to the brightness beyond and without a pause, hurled it into the Tiber.
Afterword
I hope very much that you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I should be extremely grateful if you could spend a few moments posting a rating and perhaps even a review on one or more sites of your choice. It needn’t be long; one word will do — preferably a favourable one! Genuine reviews, however short, are worth a lot.
And equally as important, please recommend The Cambroni Vendetta to your relatives, friends and colleagues. While word of mouth is very helpful to the cause of any author, it is particularly so for self-published authors for whom marketing is that much harder. If you tell a few people about this book or any of my other books, and they in turn others, the word will spread.
* * *
You can find more information about all my books and other book-related stuff on my website at davidgeorgeclarke.com. If you are on FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter and/or Goodreads, I’m there too:
Acknowledgments
This novel was originally self-published under the title of ’The Assassin’s Dog’ with a different cover. However, following a general review of my books that has resulted in new covers for all seven of them and new titles for four, this tale now bears what I think is a more relevant title: The Cambroni Vendetta. New title and new cover, but there is one constant in all of this: it could not have been completed without the help and encouragement of many people.
First and foremost, my wife Gail is a source of constant support and encouragement. She is always there as a sounding board for ideas, a critical, constructive and patient reviewer of drafts, and an enthusiastic supporter as each book develops from isolated ideas into some sort of coherency. More than anyone, this book is dedicated to her, with love.
In addition, I should like to thank my editor Susanna Moles for her incredible dedication in ensuring that as many rough edges as possible are polished out from the first draft onwards. Never afraid to criticise, she doggedly weeds out the waffle, the clunk and the irrelevant, invariably improving on the original. And the bits she likes, she raves about, which is wonderfully encouraging!
I should also like to thank a number of people who read through drafts at various stages of development, everyone of them helping in the quest for sneaky typos, contextual slip-ups and readability. Thank you, Anne and Sanford Foster, Luci de Nordwall Cornish, Zoe O’Reilly, Jill Pemberton and Simon O’Reilly (still the fastest copy editor in the East) for your invaluable help, advice and criticism, together with your expert editing and proofreading.
Finally, I should like to thank various readers for their positive feedback, encouragement and reviews for my earlier books. I hope that you enjoyed this third instalment in the lives of Jennifer Cotton and Henry Silk. There will be more!
About the Author
After more than thirty years as a forensic scientist, most of which were spent in Hong Kong, David Clarke retired to the more bucolic pastures of Tuscany where, after dabbling in art restoration, he took up full-time novel writing. Drawing on his experiences in the scientific investigation of numerous serious crimes, he has written the Dust of Centuries series, the Cotton & Silk thriller series and An Imperfect Revenge.
He now spends his time mainly in Tuscany, Italy and Phuket, Thailand.
* * *
The Cambroni Vendetta is David’s seventh novel.
* * *
Find out more from David’s website at clarkefiction.com or from the links below.
Also by David George Clarke
Quincentenarian
The Delusion Gambit
Fatal Consquences
The Cotton and Silk Thrillers
Irrefutable Evidence
Remorseless
The Cambroni Vendetta
An Imperfect Revenge
Non-Fiction
Hong Kong Under The Microscope
A History of the Hong Kong Government Laboratory 1879–2004
A Final Word
Do you have kids or grandchildren, a favourite godson or goddaughter, a class of kids you teach or support in some way? My wife Gail is an author and illustrator who has published ten beautifully illustrated children’s books. They are written in rhyme that children from 3–9 years just love reading or having read to them.
Patrick’s Birthday Message
Searching for Skye — An Arctic Tern Adventure
Cosmos the Curious Whale
The Chameleon Who Couldn’t Change Colour
Ndotto — An Elephant Rescue Story
Mischief at the Waterhole
Dormouse Snoremouse
Meerkat’s Excitinmg Adventure
Sharks - Our Ocean Guardians
[The Shark Guardian Series Book One]
Jed’s Big Adventure
[The Shark Guardian Series Book Two]
You can find more details on Gail’s website and YouTube channel:
www.gailclarkeauthor.com
www.youtube.com/c/gailclarkeauthor
Contents
THE CAMBRONI VENDETTA
Prologue
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Part II
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Part III
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part I
V
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Part V
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Part VI
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Part VII
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by David George Clarke
A Final Word
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