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steaks. “Nobody understands the way a slice of red meat should be treated better than the Florentines. Tell me about Giovanni.”
    It was a fist to the heart and the shock of it had her staring at him. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
    “First tell me what you knew about him and how you came to know it.” It would ease her in, he thought, to the details he wanted most.
    “He’s— He was brilliant. A chemist. He was born here in Florence, and joined Standjo about ten years ago. He worked here primarily, but did some time in the lab at the Institute. That’s where I worked with him initially, about six years ago the first time.”
    She lifted a hand and rubbed at her temple. “He was a lovely man, sweet and funny. He was single. He enjoyed women, and was very charming and attentive. He noticed details about you. If you wore a new blouse or did your hair a different way.”
    “Were you lovers?”
    She winced, but shook her head. “No. We were friends. I respected his abilities, very much. I trusted his judgment, and I depended on his loyalty. I used his loyalty,” she said quietly, then pushed away from the table to walk to the parapet.
    She needed a moment to adjust, yet again. He was dead. She couldn’t change it. How many times, she thought, for how many years, would she find herself adjusting to those two single facts?
    “It was Giovanni who called me to tell me the bronze had been discredited,” she continued. “He didn’t want me unprepared when my mother contacted me.”
    “So, he was in her confidence?”
    “He was part of my team here, on the project. And he’d been called on the carpet when my findings were questioned.” Steadier, she walked back to the table, sat again. “I used his loyalty, and our friendship. I knew I could.”
    “Today was the first time you talked to him about the bronze being a copy?”
    “Yes. I called him when you went downstairs. I asked him to meet me inside Santa Maria Novella. I told him it was urgent.”
    “Where did you call him?”
    “At the lab. I knew I could catch him before the end of the workday. I took the bronzes, and I went down the stairs, out the back courtyard while you were at the desk. He came right away. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes.”
    Enough time, Ryan mused, for him to have told someone of the call. The wrong someone. “What did you tell him?”
    “Almost everything. I explained that I had the bronze that Ponti had tested, that it wasn’t the same one we’d worked on. I told him as much as I could about the David . I don’t think he believed me. But he listened.”
    She stopped pushing her steak around on her plate. Pretending to eat was too much effort. “I asked him to take the bronzes into the lab, to run tests, to do a comparison. I said I’d contact him tomorrow. I didn’t give him the hotel because I didn’t want him to call or come over. I didn’t want you to know what I’d done with the bronzes.”
    Ryan sat back, deciding neither of them was going to do the meal justice. Instead he took out a cigar. “That may very well be why we’re sitting here, enjoying the moonlight.”
    “What do you mean?”

    “Put your brain to work, Dr. Jones. Your friend had the bronzes, and now he’s dead. The murder weapon and the David were left on the scene. What connects the two? You do.”
    He lighted the cigar to give her time to absorb the thought. “If the cops had found those statues on the crime scene, they’d have gone hunting for you. Whoever did it knows you’ve put enough together to look for answers, and that you’re skirting the law enough to prevent you from bringing in the police.”
    “Killing Giovanni to implicate me.” It was too cold, too hideous to be contemplated. And too logical to ignore.
    “An added benefit. If he was straight, he’d have begun to wonder himself after the tests. He’d take another look at your notes, your results.”
    “That’s why the lab was trashed,” she murmured. “We’ll never find my documentation now.”
    “Taken or destroyed,” Ryan agreed. “Your friend was in the way. And Miranda, so are you.”
    “Yes, I see.” Somehow it was better that way, easier. “It’s more important than ever to find the original. Whoever replaced it killed Giovanni.”
    “You know what they say about killing? The first one’s tough. After that, it’s just business.”
    She ignored the chill that danced over her skin. “If that means you want to