Michael Dibdin: Ratking

‘Well, despite the changes I’ve just referred to, we do have various contacts, of course. There’s one in particular I’m thinking of who may well be able…’

‘ I’m not interested in the details, Giorgio. I just want to know if you can help me. Or should I ring someone else? Perhaps you could recommend someone? ’

‘You must be joking, Senator. Anything that can be done, I’ll do for you. By this time tomorrow you’ll…’

‘ By this time tomorrow I’ll be in Turin. Make it this afternoon. I’ll be here till seven.’

‘Very well.’

‘ Excellent. I knew I did right to call you. I’ve got a nose for these things. Giorgio’s a man who can make things happen, I thought A million thanks. I’ll be expecting your call.’

‘ Yes? ’

‘Enrico?’

‘ Who’s that? ’

‘Giorgio Lapucci.’

‘ Christ, I thought it was his royal highness. Excuse me while I change my trousers.’

‘Why the panic?’

‘ He’s at a conference in Strasbourg, and every so often he phones me and demands a complete update on the situation here. All part of this new managerial style you’ve been reading about. Keeps us on our toes, he says. Anyway, what can I do for you? ’

‘I suppose this line is safe?’

‘ Giorgio, this is the Ministry of the Interior you’re talking to. Any phone tapping that goes on around here, we do it.’

‘Of course.’

‘ So what’s up? ’

‘Well, it’s the old story, I’m afraid. Someone’s leaning on someone who’s leaning on me.’

‘ And you want to lean on me.’

‘Isn’t that what friends are for? But it shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s a question of getting a senior police official transferred temporarily to Perugia to take over a kidnapping case.’

‘ That’s all? ’

That’s all.’

‘ No problem. I can lose it in the routine postings and bang it through at departmental level. No one ever looks at that stuff. The only headache could be finding someone. When are we talking? ’

‘Now.’

‘ Shit. Look, I’ll have to think a bit. Let me get back to you.’

‘Today, though.’

‘ I’ll do my best.’

‘I appreciate it, Enrico. Give my best to Nicola.’

‘ And mine to Emanuela. Listen, why don’t we all get together some time? ’

‘Yes, we should. We really should.’

‘ Personnel.’

‘Mancini. I need someone we can send up to Perugia on a kidnapping. Who do you suggest?’

‘ No one.’

‘What do you mean, no one?’

‘ I mean there isn’t anyone available.’

‘What about Fabri?’

‘ In Genoa on that bank job.’

‘De Angelis?’

‘ Sardinia. Where there were three kidnappings last week alone, in case you haven’t seen the papers. This weekend we’ve got the visit of the President of France plus an English football team, God help us. Are you getting the picture? If not, I can go on.’

‘Calm down, Ciliani. I know things are difficult. But there’s always somebody. Look harder.’

‘ There’s no one except Romizi, and he’s going on leave.’

‘Well, tell him he’ll have to put it off.’

‘ Excuse me, dottore, but you tell him! He’s booked a flight to America.’

‘What’s he doing going to America?’

‘ How should I know? Got relatives there or something.’

‘Well, what about people outside Criminalpol?’

‘ You said this was operational.’

‘We could always stretch a point. Isn’t there anyone who’s had some experience? Couldn’t stand the sight of blood and requested a desk job, that sort of thing. Use your head, Ciliani! I mean we’re talking about a gesture here, not a new chief for the fucking Squadra Mobile.’

‘ Doesn’t help.’

‘What about what’s-his-name, the one we’ve got doing Housekeeping?’

‘ Zuccaroni? ’

‘No, the other one.’

‘ Zen? ’

‘That’s it.’

‘ But surely he’s… ’

‘What?’

‘ Well, I thought there was, you know, some problem about using him.’

‘Really? I haven’t heard anything.’

‘ I don’t mean anything official.’

‘Well, as long as it’s not official I can’t see that there’s any problem. A kidnapping, too! Wasn’t he something of a specialist? Couldn’t be better.’

‘ If you say so, dottore.’

‘It’s perfect. Ideal from every point of view. The only thing that would ruin it is delay. And that’s why I’m going to leave it in your lap, Ciliani. I want Zen and the relevant paperwork in my office within the hour. Got that?’

‘ Uh.’

‘Caccamo?’

‘ Uh.’

‘Ciliani. You seen Zen?’

‘ You tried his office? ’

‘No, I’m too stupid to think of that. Of course I’ve tried his fucking office.’

‘ Hang on, isn’t he away somewhere? Treviso? ’

‘Trieste. He was due back this morning.’

‘ Did I ever tell you about this girl from Trieste I met the time I was doing beach duty down at Ostia? She was sunbathing totally nude behind a dune, and when I… ’

‘Fuck off, Caccamo. Christ, this is all I need. Where has that son of a bitch Zen got to?’

‘No! I don’t believe it! It isn’t possible!’

‘It isn’t possible, but it happens. In short, it’s a miracle!’

‘Just a few hundred metres away from the station and they stop! This is going too far!’

‘Not quite far enough, I’d say!’

‘For the love of God, let us out of this damned train!’

‘“And yet it does not move”, as Galileo might have said. Ah well, let’s be patient.’

‘Patient! Patient! Excuse me, but in my humble opinion what this country needs is a few people who will no longer be patient! People who refuse to suffer patiently the bungling and incompetence with which we are surrounded! There! That’s what I think!’

‘It’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive, they say. It should be the motto of the State Railways.’

‘You choose to joke about it, signore, but in my humble opinion this is no joking matter. On the contrary, it is an issue of the very highest importance, symptomatic of all the gravest ills of our poor country. What does one expect of a train? That it goes reasonably fast and arrives within five or ten minutes of the time stated in the timetable. Is that too much? Does that require divine intervention to bring about? Not in any other country in the world! Nor used it to here,’

‘You can always move to Switzerland, if that’s how you feel.’

‘But now what happens? The railway service, like everything else, is a disaster. And what is the government’s response? To give their friends in the construction business billions and billions of lire to build a new railway line between Rome and Florence! And the result? The trains are slower than they were before the war! It’s incredible! A national disgrace!’

The young man sitting near the door, Roman to his elegant fingertips, smiled sarcastically.

‘Ah yes, of course, everything was better before the war,’ he murmured. ‘We know all about that.’

‘Excuse me, but you know nothing about it,’ replied the vigorous, thick-set man with the shock of silver hair and the Veronese accent. ‘Unless I am very much mistaken you weren’t even born then!’

He turned to the third occupant of the compartment, sitting by the window, a distinguished-looking man of about fifty with a pale face whose most striking feature was a nose as sharply triangular as the jib of a sailing boat. There was a faintly exotic air about him, as though he were Greek or even Levantine. His expression was cynical, suave and aloof, and a distant smile flickered on his lips. But it was his eyes that compelled attention. They were grey with glints of blue, and a slightly sinister stillness which made the Veronese shiver. A cold fish, this one, he thought.