Near Dark (Scot Harvath #19)(84)

He doubted the Contessa had poisoned darts and a huge rolling boulder that would come chasing after him, but he also didn’t want to find out what her version of those things might be.

Had they more time, he would have set up extensive surveillance, developed a list of possible characters, and then would have tried to turn someone like a housekeeper or a cook.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the luxury of time. It just wasn’t in the cards for them. They needed to get to Montecalvo ASAP.

“What if there was a way to get her outside the villa and away from the Old Town?” he asked.

The Norwegian thought about it for a few seconds. “And then what?”

“Then we grab her, put a bag over her head, and interrogate her.”

“Where would we do that? A public park? An alley somewhere? Maybe a parking garage?”

Harvath looked out over the vast expanse of water and replied, “No. On a boat.”

S?lvi followed his gaze. It was a bit half-baked, but not terrible. Once they had her out on the lake, they could keep moving. And with the roar of a motor, no one was ever going to hear her—even if she screamed her head off.

“Okay,” the Norwegian said. “Tell me more.”

“We work backward from heading out into the center of the lake. Where, onshore, do we load her onto a boat? Once we have that nailed down, we go backward even further and figure out where we intercept her.”

“So we need someplace quiet, without a lot of witnesses.”

“Exactly,” replied Harvath, opening up a map of the area on his phone and turning it around so they both could study it. “Our best plan would be to do it in the evening.”

“As in tonight?”

He checked his watch. “If we can get everything pulled together in time, yes.”

“How do we know we’ll even be able to get her out of the villa?”

“We’re going to have someone she trusts make her an offer she can’t refuse.”





CHAPTER 39


After breakfast, Harvath showered and changed clothes. Then he went to scout locations with the drone while S?lvi handled renting the boat.

In the middle of the peninsula, there was a public park with access to a dock. If they waited until late enough in the evening, it would be empty. There was also a road that went almost to the water’s edge. Once they were ready to move the Contessa from the boat back onto dry land, that was how they’d do it.

Harvath surveilled the entire property, looking for places someone might launch an ambush from. There were a few groves of olive trees, but not much else.

He next familiarized himself with the rest of the neighborhood, especially the various routes to the Contessa’s villa. As a final checklist item, he did an overflight near her home, making sure not to appear that his drone was interested in anything at all to do with her.

With his surveillance complete, he texted S?lvi on the encrypted app they were using and asked her about the status of the boat.

His timing was perfect. She had just completed the paperwork. He told her where he was and that he’d wait for her on the end of the dock. It would be good for her to get in a practice run—especially as she was going to be the captain tonight.

It took her about twenty minutes to get there, but Harvath had filled the time with different texts and emails, as well as a call to Nicholas, who had been feeding most of the updates to Lawlor.

Harvath’s visit to VSD Director Simulik’s house hadn’t been shared yet. He was saving that for when he got back to the States. He didn’t need any grief from Lawlor right now. He needed to be left alone so that he could do his job. Nicholas understood and had promised to not say anything.

When he saw S?lvi approach, he couldn’t believe the boat she had rented. The impressive Rivamare had to have cost a fortune.

The sleek, twin-engine craft was a work of art in gleaming black paint with teak decks the color of honey and railings that shone like polished silver. He put her length overall at about eleven meters.

“Let me guess,” he said, as she brought it flawlessly up to the dock, threw the throttles into reverse, and spun the wheel like a pro. “You got an upgrade.”

She smiled. “Everyone loves Norwegian girls, but the Italians really love us.”

He put his foot out to help fend the boat off from the dock. “Do you want to tie up here and we can make a loop of the park? Just so you get the lay of the land?”

“Sure,” she replied, killing the engines and getting out lines and bumpers.

There was a breeze, so in order to take advantage of it, they swung the craft around to the side of the dock. This way, the light wind would blow the boat away from the pier and prevent it from bumping against it.

Harvath gave her the quick, down-and-dirty tour. There wasn’t much to see. He laid out what he thought their best course of action was and offered to show her the rest of the drone footage back at the hotel.

“How about lunch?” he had then asked. There was a nice trattoria with outdoor seating he had seen a couple of blocks up.

“What’s wrong with you?” S?lvi replied, gesturing toward the water. “I could sit in a café anywhere in the world. How often do you get a chance to go out on a lake like Garda?”

He couldn’t argue with her thinking. “You’re right. We can eat later.”