Killers of a Certain Age

The flashback opens in Rome in the spring of 1980. Mary Alice and Billie are alone in a Roman apartment, putting poison Billie smuggled through security into fruit cakes that also contain American whiskey. Their mission handler is Paar, whom the reader already knows the women have targeted for assassination as part of their attempt to save their lives. The poison is so deadly Billie and Mary Alice work in gas masks. After they conceal the ingredients and remove any evidence of their presence, the mission begins.

The women are dressed as nuns in full habits while Paar poses as a priest. The narrator indicates that this sensitive mission is a kind of reward for the success of their first job. Paar is along as a supervisor, which the women do not want, but he is cheerfully regaling them with his plans to visit a Swiss spa after the assassination. They arrive at St. Peter’s Basilica and find their target, an American bishop named Sullivan, emerging on his usual schedule.

They invent a religious order and tell him they insist on sharing the fruitcakes they have brought with them from Tennessee. Billie convinces him to sample the cake in their presence.