Silence reigned for a long moment before the woman on the other end spoke.
“You’re shitting me.”
“What?” Lucy raised an eyebrow at me.
“Kid, you have a very special talent, like an eerie ability, to walk right into the shit, every single time. Trouble finds you, Lucy. It’s a gift, or in my case, since I’m forced to care if you live or die, a curse.” The sounds of rustling covers filtered through, and the phone speaker being jostled about.
“What are you talking about?” Lucy called.
A man, his voice tinged with an Irish accent, spoke instead of the woman. “She’s off to get her laptop fired up. How are you keeping, kid?”
Lucy smiled toward the phone. She obviously liked this guy. “I’m good. I just want to help Katarina, and I don’t know how.”
“Well, if my wife can do anything brilliantly, it’s tell other people what to do. She’ll sort it out, don’t you worry your wee heads about it. Katarina, was it? I’m Bran.”
“Hi.” I waved my fingers toward the phone before realizing how dumb that was.
“Hi. And my better half, the one who’s scurrying around bare-arsed right now getting her computer all fired up is Giada.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. There was something incredibly comforting about these people’s dynamics, their confidence. They were clearly family in some way or another. The jealousy hit me hard for a moment.
“Right, I’m here,” Giada said. “Nice to meet you, Kat. I can call you Kat, right?”
“Sure,” I said, having the feeling that any disagreement would be ignored.
“Where’s Massimo?” Giada asked, brisk. “Sorry, Father Lucciano.”
I stared at the phone. “What?” I slowly asked.
Lucy’s face reflected my shock. We hadn’t mentioned Massimo on the phone yet.
Giada sighed, sounding impatient. “I know, wow, surprise, I already know some of what’s going on! Worlds colliding and all that. Let’s marvel at the wonders of fate later... Where is Massimo?”
“I don’t know,” I managed. “There was a fire at the institute?—”
The sound of tapping came over the phone. “So I see. A big one. That place is trashed. Good.”
“Massimo went back inside to look for a little girl who lived there,” I told Giada. “That was the last time I saw him.”
“Mass went on a rescue mission?” Giada chuckled. “You can take the boy out of the Col Moschin, but he’s still a damn bleeding-heart hero under all that psychosis.”
She tapped away a little longer.
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked.
“Checking hospital records for anyone who died last night.” Giada’s voice was dispassionate, while I felt like the bottom just fell out of my world.
“Nothing for his name, and they should be able to ID his body from his dog tags.”
“He doesn’t have them.” I pulled them from my borrowed dress. “I have them.”
There was a low whistle in the background from Bran. “Oh, helikesher, likes her.”
Giada ignored her husband. “Okay, well, there doesn’t seem to have been any admissions for severe burns, so... he’s probably okay and out there looking for you right now.”
Thank God.
I dropped my head into my hands and stared at the carpet. My heart raced. I couldn’t take it. The dog tags swung against my dress, gleaming dully.