All He Saw Was the Girl by Peter Leonard Page A

school."
        "Nice
going," Rady said. "That wasn't very smart, was it?"
        "It
wouldn't have mattered," McCabe said. "They were going to demand the
ransom no matter who they had."
        "You
can identify the kidnappers?" Ferrara said.
        "They
wore bandanas over their faces," McCabe said, "like western bandits,
and I was blindfolded part of the time, but I saw two of them. They thought I
was sleeping and came down to the cellar to check on me."
        Frank
Rady, with his big white freckled arms on the table, said, "Were they
Eye-talian?"
        McCabe
frowned. "Yeah, they were Italian." What did he think they were?
        "Don't
get smart, McCabe," he said. "We're trying to help you here."
        Captain
Ferrara opened the laptop that was on the table in front of him. It was a Dell.
        "You
look at this," he said. "I believe you will see the ones who kidnap
you."
        He
turned the laptop screen toward McCabe and slid it over to him.
        Rady
said, "Who's he looking at?"
        "The
criminals, the known offenders," Ferrara said. "Many are in a gang.
They work for the Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, or the Sicilian Mafia."
        McCabe
studied the first screen, three rows of headshots.
        "If
you recognize one of them, " the captain said, "click on the image to
make it larger, fill the screen."
        McCabe
went through half a dozen screens, scanning rows of faces and saw the big guy,
no mistake about it, same heavy beard, thick neck and double chin. He clicked
on his face, Luigi Bagnasco, it said under the photo. McCabe remembered them
calling him Noto. He clicked through ten more faces and saw the stocky guy with
red hair, Sisto Bardi, remembering him from the newspaper article, one of the
men who had escaped. He kept going and hit the jackpot, saw Mazara. He put the
cursor on him and clicked, his face looking younger, thinner, filling the
screen. Roberto Mazara.
        It
was interesting to think about the name fitting him. Yeah, he could see it: Bob
Mazara, trying it out. Captain Ferrara studying his face as he studied the
computer screen.
        "You
recognize one of them?" the captain said.
        McCabe
shook his head. "I don't think so."
        "You
are sure?" the captain said.
        "Yeah,"
McCabe said.
        He
scanned through the rest of the faces, stopping on the last one. "That's
it," McCabe said. "I don't see any of them, but this guy reminds me
of De Niro in Goodfellas." He turned the screen toward Captain
Ferrara and slid the laptop over to him.
        "
Quel bravi ragazzi ," Ferrara said.
        McCabe
said, "That's the translation for Goodfellas , huh? You like
him?"
        "Raging
Bull, Taxi Driver, la sfida, I see them all."
        McCabe
said, "What's la sfida?."
         "Hot, I think it is called."
        "You
mean Heat," McCabe said.
        "Yes, Heat. I love the cinema."
        "If
he doesn't see them here," Rady said to the captain, "who do you think
they are?"
        "It
is difficult to say. They could be a new gang we do not know," Captain
Ferrara said. "Unfortunately, Signor Rady, there is nothing more we can do
until they spend the money. We record the serial numbers of the euro
notes."
     
     
        McCabe
watched a pigeon circle around the Fountain of the Four Rivers, land on the
obelisk and fly off. A waiter approached the table with a tray of drinks. He
said, " Due birre, uno cappuccino ," and put stemmed glasses of
Moretti in front of McCabe and Chip and the cappuccino in front of Senator
Tallenger. He said, " Va bene ," and walked away. They were at
a cafe in Piazza Navona.
        Senator
Tallenger said, "McCabe, I know you're angry, but do me a favor, will you?
Let it go. There's nothing you can do."
        "You're
lucky to be here," Chip said.
        "He's
right," the senator said. "I looked into it, found out more than half
of the kidnap victims never make it home. They find them shot to death