Driving his rented car, Lenny Sebring turned from the Via Romana into the shallow cul-de-sac called Via del Ronco. He pulled up across the street from number nine and regarded it narrowly for a moment before turning off his headlights and cutting the engine. It was just past full dark, nine-thirty by his dashboard clock. When the engine died, Lenny could hear the muted roar of Florence traffic in the city behind him and the intermittent growling of thunder.
Number nine was an ancient, gray-faced house. It stared down upon the narrow Via del Ronco with blank eyes—no lights showed in its streetside windows. From the outside, it looked like a slum dwelling, yet it was a Medici House of Grace and Favor, once the abode of a duke’s mistress, now more humbly housing Signor Mario Zolfanelli and h
