The last thing Isabella the fruit seller saw as she walked home one autumnal evening was the flash of a knife, and the violent hand of a man yank her head back before the glinting knife slit her throat. Her assailant then held up her hands and pierced each one through the palms. Not satisfied, he plunged the knife deep into the right side of her ribcage and pushed the knife all the way in to the hilt. He dragged the knife towards the stomach and gutted Isabella, watching as her intestine spilt out. He wiped the knife clean on her grubby red dress, stripped her naked and left the bloodied clothes beside her ruined body. He spread her arms out in the shape of the cross, ground the heel of his boot in Isabella’s face and departed.
Carlo had been the first to suffer the same fate that befell
