PART 11 – A Phone Call from the Clouds
I pulled out my phone and looked at the screen. The number was blocked. With a slight frown on my forehead, I pressed the answer button.
"Elena speaking," I said cautiously.
"Mrs. Rossi?" sounded a formal, businesslike voice on the other end. It was a woman's voice, firm and professional. "Am I speaking with the passenger who was on flight AZ206 on October 12th?"
I glanced at Luca, who caught my worried look and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.
"Yes, that's right," I replied. "Who is this?"
"This is Inspector Morelli of the national airline's safety commission. We are conducting a thorough evaluation of the incident surrounding flight AZ206 and the attempted blackmail on Captain Ferri. We have established that your testimony was crucial, but we have also discovered that during that specific flight, something else happened in the cargo hold that was not noticed by the crew at the time."
My heart skipped a beat. "In the cargo hold? What on earth do you mean?"
"During the inspection of the luggage from flight AZ206 after landing in Rome, an unidentified metal box was found linked to your ex-husband's luggage. The contents... many speak of sensitive documents and USB sticks with encrypted data regarding the airline's internal tenders. We suspect your ex-husband not only used you to blackmail Captain Ferri, but that he also used the plane to move illegal contraband."
The words reverberated in my head as if a bomb had exploded. Contraband? My ex-husband not only had a double life and a corrupt circle of friends, he had apparently also unwittingly used me and Vittoria as a human shield to smuggle illegal goods through customs on our flight to Rome!
"Are you still there, Mrs. Rossi?" the inspector asked on the other end.
"Yes... I'm here," I managed to say, feeling the ground beneath my feet seem to wobble. I looked at Luca. I could tell from his eyes that he immediately understood the gravity of the phone call. His jaw tightened again.
"What's going on?" Luca asked in a hoarse voice as I held the phone against my chest for a second.
"Stefano used our flight to move contraband," I whispered, terrified. "The authorities think we... that we were part of his network."
Luca's eyes narrowed. Without a word, he took the phone from my hand, put it on speaker, and took over the conversation with the authority of a captain who knew exactly what to do.
