Conor Fitzgerald - The Namesake

‘Arconti is in hospital. He was taken ill after the murder of his namesake.’

‘I am sorry to hear that,’ said Fossati.

‘This is confidential, Francesco, but we like a guy named Agazio Curmaci for the crime. He’s Ndrangheta.’

‘If it’s confidential, why are you telling me?’

‘Because we’ve been friends for twenty-five years, and I trust you and I thought you might like to know.’

‘Don’t exaggerate, it’s been only twenty-three years.’

‘Just after Mani Pulite ran completely out of steam and I jumped ship to the DDA, Curmaci was a young camorrista, freshly inducted into the “Honoured Society”, he killed five people.’

‘At one go?’

Bazza neatly peeled the skeleton from his fish and put it on the side of his plate. ‘All at one go. It was the detail of the killings that got my attention. He shot four, stabbed one to death. The one he stabbed was nineteen years old. Here’s the thing though, he had been told to kill one person only, a guy called Cava… Gra… I forget the name. Instead, he killed the guy’s parents, sister and brother. That was the one he stabbed. The only person he did not kill was the target. Transversal revenge, as they say.’

‘What happened to the target?’

‘He was so enraged and terrified, he tried to turn to the authorities for help, but his evidence was not seen as reliable, and he lost his right to protection. So that was the end of him. Vanished without trace. Shortly afterwards, Curmaci went to Germany. Within one year he was reporting directly to Domenico Megale, also known as Megale Senior, Megale u Vecchiu, or the Prefect of Westphalia.’

‘Prefect of Westphalia. The arrogance of these people.’

‘It didn’t stop him from ending up in jail. He got put away by the BKA, one of their first successful operations against an Italian boss, thanks to an investigation into a tax scam involving VAT, but I don’t think prison made much difference to him. He’s out now, by the way. Just got released two days ago. His son, a killer called Tony, held a homecoming party. I don’t know if Curmaci was there or not.’

‘You’ve been looking into the Megales and Curmaci for a while, then. This is not something you picked up just the other day,’ said Fossati.

‘You’re right. And one of the people who has been helping me is Magistrate Arconti. That’s why I was interested in your opinion of him.’

‘Favourable, I suppose. I have finished my salami, Ezio, so can you say why you want me to know all this?’

‘I told you, because you know Arconti.’

‘That’s all?’

‘Actually, there is something else. Arconti became involved in this case when he was called in to investigate the suspicious suicide of a doctor who was prescribing one of the admixtures they use to cut cocaine. He and a Roman commissioner, Alec Blume, quickly moved from that to an operation that led to the arrest of two low-ranking members of the Ndrangheta. Arconti should have passed the case on to the anti-Mafia before he got that far, but he didn’t.’

‘Understandable.’

‘I disagree, but never mind. He and this commissioner arrested two brothers who were cousins of Curmaci’s wife. Arconti then started looking into Curmaci, which even you will admit is beyond his scope of competence. But I know the reason he did this. Arconti is from Gerace in Calabria, the same town as Curmaci, though a generation separates them. It’s personal for him. In the meantime we have another case, or perhaps a development of this one.’

‘Those bodies discovered in the Falck steelworks in Sesto San Giovanni? I got the impression it was low-level stuff, Albanians murdering each other or something,’ said Fossati.

‘Romanians. Thanks to some decent and rapid work by the commissioner and an inspector, a woman, Mattiola, a direct link has been made between the bodies found there and the Arconti murder. For the time being, we have decided not to let the investigators in Rome know about this.’

‘That’s a shame for the police. They do their job well, and their reward is to be excluded.’

‘I will put them back in the picture when the time comes. The point is, we might be seeing the start of an upset in the balance of power.’

‘You know I am in the middle of this kidnapping of a girl, which you yourself just told me is unconnected with the Ndrangheta?’

‘I know. I’ll let you go now. But just one more thing.’

‘You said “just one more thing” five minutes ago, Ezio. I’m going now. You get the bill, I’ll get it next time.’ Fossati stood up.

‘Wait. Domenico Megale — the boss in Germany?’

‘What about him?’

‘He has two main points of reference. One is Agazio Curmaci, who is the Mastro di giornata of the German locale. The other is his son, Antonio, who’s always been known as Tony. Tony is the crimine. Tony was once married, but his wife died, leaving him a son, who’s in Calabria. His wife’s surname was Mancuso.’

Fossati sat down again. ‘For God’s sake, Ezio, you could have told me this at the beginning.’

‘No, first I needed to tell you the girl’s kidnapping is not Mafia related.’

‘And now you’re telling me the opposite. Giovanni Resca, her father, wrote article after article detailing the investments made by the Mancusos in Milan. His article specifically names that family, time and time again. They made threats against him.’

‘So are you going to investigate the Mancuso family?’

‘I already am, to the best of my ability with the resources I have.’

‘I told you, it’s not Mafia related. It’s not them.’

‘How can you know?’

‘Like I said, the modus operandi isn’t right, but mainly because we’ve been monitoring the Mancusos closely for some time now. We recently picked up a lot of chat between one of them and someone in Germany. We can’t identify who, but it could be Curmaci and it could be Tony Megale or even Old Megale. But my point is, there is no indication that they are really concerned by Giovanni Resca and his anti-Mafia blogs and articles. I’m telling you this because I think you’ll be wasting your time if you pursue that path while looking for the girl.’

‘Duly noted. It’s not the only line of inquiry I am following.’

‘My advice is don’t concentrate on the Mancusos, OK? It’s not them.’

‘I’ll take that into account,’ said Fossati.

‘But you’re still going to look into them?’

‘Of course I am. How can I not?’

‘I knew you wouldn’t drop that line of inquiry just on my say-so. That’s another reason I wanted to talk to you. Seeing as you, despite my advice to the contrary, will be looking into the Mancusos and their properties, will you let me know if you find anything interesting?’

‘Anything in particular?’

‘Anything at all. Specifically, anything that might be connected to Curmaci, East European criminals, or the murder of the insurance actuary Matteo Arconti.’

‘So while I hunt for a stolen child, I carry out a covert check for you guys in the anti-Mafia?’

‘Only if you are going to waste your time looking where you won’t find the poor child. Don’t get me wrong, Francesco, I would prefer you to find the missing girl, and I wish you would take my advice and follow any other leads.’

‘I will follow other leads, and I see why you think this was not organized crime. But I need to follow this one, too.’

‘Let’s hope you find her, even if…’ Bazza looked down at the discarded skin and bones of his fish.

‘I know,’ said Fossati. ‘Too much time has already passed.’

Sunday, 30 August

Locri

‘Pepe, Luca, Giovanni, Enrico, Ruggiero, Rocco. All of you, get over here.’