Death in Tuscany (42 page)

'No way!' he cried, flying into an uncontrollable rage, and passing the document to his deputy. 'There's no way I'm going now! I don't give a damn about the Head of the Police, the Carabinieri, the Commissioner, the Public Prosecutor . . . Even if they send the Carabinieri to arrest me, I'm not moving from here!'

'Calm down, sir,' Rizzo begged. 'You'll only make things worse.'

'Worse than this? My best friend may be dead for all I know, and this jumped-up young captain who can't see any further than his own nose is looking for a couple on the run while the Mafia are playing fast and loose in his territory! No, Francesco, it's really not on! You don't defeat organised crime by being polite! The idiot thinks this is some kind of crime of passion, but while he's been wasting time reporting me instead of looking for Massimo, we've opened up something bigger than Pandora's box! And you think I should just step aside?'

Ferrara's private mobile started ringing.

'Of course not, but maybe if you talk to the Commissioner—'

'Oh, sure, he's bound to be a lot of use!'

It was odds on that Riccardo Lepri had been one of those pressing for this action to be taken - he'd virtually threatened as much.

'But it's the only way'

The phone was still ringing and Ferrara took it out of his pocket, irritably.

'Who's that?' he yelled.

'This is Anna, Michele. I'm on my way to Siena, but I heard all about Rizzo's operation yesterday and I just wanted to congratulate you. You were right. This could be the breakthrough you were looking for, don't you think? Now we'll really have to look into this Palladiani and coordinate our investigation with the one in Lucca. I think the best thing you can do is go back to Florence and take over the investigation again—'

'I'm already in Florence, but I can't do anything.' 'What do you mean?'

'That right now I'm not the head of the
Squadra Mobile,
and maybe I never will be again. In fact I'm nothing!' And he told her the whole story, from the exchange of threats with Captain Fulvi to the order he had just received, which must also have been sent to the Commissioner and the Public Prosecutor. 'Didn't you know anything about it?'

'I haven't been into the office, I've got things to do in Siena first. . . How do you plan to handle it?'

'I don't know. I think I should talk to Lepri.'

'I don't know if that's such a good idea . . . Let me think about it.' It was obvious her brain was already working overtime. 'No, Michele, don't do it. Who's seen you at Headquarters?'

Apart from the sentry, only Rizzo and Fanti.'

'Do you trust them?'

Are you kidding? I trust them more than I trust myself.'

'Cover yourself. Go home and make sure no one can reach you. You haven't seen that order, okay? You mustn't receive it. I'll call you later.'

'Okay, bye.'

'Bye.'

'Fanti!' he called after he'd hung up.

The sergeant came back in. 'Yes, chief?'

'Listen to me carefully' Ferrara said, addressing both of them. 'You haven't seen me. I haven't been here, okay? And you can't get in touch with me. You have no idea where I am.'

Fanti and Rizzo nodded.

'But what are you planning to do?' Rizzo asked. 'Stay head of the Squad as long as I can. Right now I'm going home. You know where to find me, if you need me.'

'I've finished my report on the Sicilian companies,' Fanti said. 'Do you want it now?'

'Yes, I'll take it with me, at least I'll have something to pass the time. Did you find out anything from Bellomonte?'

'I talked to a colleague in Trapani who was at police academy with me. He'll try to give us a hand, but he says we shouldn't be under any illusions. The town is practically a Mafia stronghold. It's just like the Wild West, he says.'

'Bring Superintendent Rizzo up to date on this,' Ferrara said, seeing that Rizzo wasn't following them. 'Try the Chamber of Commerce if you have to, or the Ministry, or God Almighty. Whatever happens, we need to know who's in charge of Mining Extractions. I mean who's really in charge, I don't want the directors, they're sure to just be figureheads.'

All right, chief.'

He went out and walked across the courtyard. As he did so, a prison van came to a halt, and two guards brought out a young man in handcuffs. He was in his mid-twenties, of medium height, with a hollow face and a piercing in his left cheek.

Ferrara recognised Inspector Guzzi, one of Ciuffi's undercover men. It was only in this disguise that he could set foot in Headquarters. Ferrara remembered that he'd been planning to ask Ciuffi what he thought of his theory that the quarries were being used for drug trafficking. But now he couldn't, because his own office and his own men were off limits to him.

Out of handcuffs now, Guzzi made his report to Superintendent Ciuffi.

'The Albanians' boss is called Viktor. The drugs were meant for him. The suppliers are definitely Mafia. Apparently the drugs are brought in from Asia, especially Afghanistan. The Mafia use Zancarotti to launder the money in Albania, but he either doesn't know or won't say who the important Mafiosi are. He says he's always contacted by different people. He's a kind of middle man between the two gangs. He knows the Albanians and works on commission for the Sicilians. Usually he isn't directly involved in the traffic, not even in small quantities, but in this case they were forced to use him because he had to get the fee directly from Viktor's hideout. That's because Viktor didn't trust the Sicilians, but he knew Zancarotti wouldn't fuck around with him, given the way he's got things set up in Albania.'

'But why directly from Viktor's hideout? Couldn't they have met on neutral ground?'

'Even he doesn't know that. Those were his orders and he had to follow them.'

At least you managed to get something out of him. Congratulations.'

'Pure luck. He needs me. He's really scared the other two are going to kill him. Now they're inside, they hate each other. The brothers think it's Zancarotti's fault they were arrested, because the car was his and he was driving, and Zancarotti's convinced the traffic cops stopped them because Nard wasn't wearing a seat belt.' He smiled ironically. 'The Albanians are another matter. They don't really talk to me. It's not surprising, they think I'm on Zancarotti's side. But they don't know I can understand their language and sometimes I catch a few words, like their boss's name. Every now and again they mention this guy Zitturi, the one Zancarotti also mentioned, and when they do they look at him. It could be the name of the man in charge of the Sicilians. I tried to ask Zancarotti, as casually as I could, but he said he had no idea what I was talking about.'

'Which would seem to confirm it. He was the one who said they'd fucked it up for Zitturi.'

'Precisely. Have you found out who this guy is?'

'No. We've tried the name Zitturi and several variations, but so far we haven't come up with anything. Let's hope we get something from the mobile phones we confiscated, but I doubt the boss used his own phone!'

'Well, good luck. I think my interview with the examining magistrate must have ended by now, and it's time for me to be taken back to my cell.'

'I'll call the guards.'

Being a prisoner in his own home, Ferrara decided to get down to studying Fanti's report. But first he had one phone call to make. To Carrara, to find out what was happening with the investigation into Claudia's murder.

But there was no news. When Superintendent Lojelo asked him how things had gone the previous day in the quarries, he was almost tempted to mention the Bellomonte connection but something held him back. He told himself it must have been because the lead was quite a weak one, but in his heart of hearts he was afraid that it needed a lot more experience than Lojelo had to avoid compromising everything and alerting the criminals.

By the time he had finished examining Fanti's report, he was sure he was on the right track.

He had just put the report down when Anna Giulietti called him.

Tm on my way back from Lucca,' she began. 'I thought you went to Siena.'

'That was this morning. Then I went to Lucca, because I can't set foot in my office, if I did I'd find out you'd been suspended. And besides, I wanted to meet this Armando Lupo, who's a Sicilian like you. He has a lot of respect for you. You didn't tell me that.'

'He may respect me, but he wasn't very cooperative the last time we met.'

'Strange, I got the opposite impression. He had nothing but good to say about you, and anyway the most important thing is that he agrees we should link the two investigations. We've arranged a meeting tomorrow morning, in Lucca, with you and Captain Fulvi.'

'Tomorrow? August bank holiday?'

'Why? Have you ever taken it off?'

Ferrara thought about it. 'Yes, twenty-seven times . . . then I joined the police.'

'Lucky you, I didn't even get that many!'

Anyway, I don't know if I should . . . given the way things are . . .'

'Why? How are things? I know you're on holiday, but in the light of recent developments in a case involving murder, paedophilia and possible criminal conspiracy, I need you, and I'm forced to call you back on duty urgently'

26

Captain Fulvi was nervous.

After his first, relatively cursory but accurate assessment of the results obtained from both the crime scene investigation and the autopsy on the victim, he had not found it difficult to formulate a plausible hypothesis about the events leading up to Ugo Palladiani's murder. The housekeeper's testimony and the fact that the two lovers had absconded had reinforced it, and there was more than enough evidence to lead him to expect a result very shortly.

But that result was taking rather longer than he had thought.