Jon Tracy - The Rome Prophecy

Caesario can’t help but look smug. ‘I see. And…’

‘Is this a disciplinary inquiry, sir?’ Valentina puts her hands on the edge of his desk and pointedly leans towards him. ‘Because if it is, then I believe I should have been properly notified, and I haven’t been.’

The major can barely believe her cheek.

Valentina’s not done. ‘Major, I must also formally object to the manner in which you have encouraged Lieutenant Assante to report directly to you on an operational matter that you personally called me in on and asked me to take charge of.’

Now it’s Caesario’s turn to try to control his anger. ‘Oh, must you?’

Valentina stands. Her chair scrapes noisily across the wooden floor. ‘Sir, to be clear, I wish to put on record the fact that I believe your instructions undermined my position, and I feel I should inform you that I will be writing contemporaneous notes of this meeting and seeking representation.’

‘Sit down, Captain!’

Valentina remains standing.

‘Sit down – that’s an order!’

Valentina sits. She pulls the chair up under her legs and feels herself shake.

‘Assante, get out. Leave us alone.’

The lieutenant rises, salutes and leaves without comment.

The door at the far end of the room clicks shut. Caesario stares across his desk and draws a long breath. ‘What are you doing?’

Valentina is fiddling nervously with her cell phone.

‘I’m sorry, sir. I forgot to mute my phone and there was a call coming in.’

He can’t believe the girl. Insolent. Distracted. Unfocused. ‘Put it down! For God’s sake, woman, how unprofessional can you be?’

Valentina all but drops the BlackBerry on the edge of his desk. ‘I’m not unprofessional, sir. Far from it.’

Alone now, with the door shut, his anger boils over. ‘Not unprofessional? I’ll tell you what you are. You’re a joke, Morassi, that’s what you are. If the top brass weren’t under political pressure to have some skirts wearing senior rank, you’d be out doing traffic duty. Correction, traffic duty is too important a job for women; you’d be filing reports.’

‘Sir!’

‘Don’t be so damned insolent, Captain. When a senior officer is talking, you sit and listen. Do you understand me?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Good.’ His voice becomes almost normal. ‘Look, I don’t know who you impressed or how you impressed them, but I didn’t want you here and I still don’t want you here. Your face is plastered across magazines, my press office is logjammed with requests to talk to you. You are a liability, Captain.’

‘Sir, it was the press office that insisted I did the Vanity Fair shoot. I assure you I have no desire to have cameras pointed at me.’

‘Enough!’ He drums his sausage fingers on the desk and grits his teeth. ‘Let’s be straight with each other – officer to officer. You and I both know that you have no future here. I need first-class officers, not political pin-up girls. You’re in the Carabinieri, not Berlusconi’s cabinet.’ He lets out another pained sigh. ‘Listen to me. I’m going to give you some advice. This is a good point for you to put in a transfer request. I’ll give you some time off until we get you posted elsewhere and you can spend it at home with your new lover.’ He smiles patronisingly at her. ‘How does that offer sound?’

Valentina stares down at the big wooden desk. Caesario’s fat little fingers start drumming again, just centimetres from the cell phone he berated her for trying to turn off. She picks it up and turns it in her hands. ‘I think your offer sounds fine.’ She presses the touch screen on the phone and holds it up towards his face. Caesario’s voice rolls out from the phone: ‘ If the top brass weren’t under political pressure to have some skirts wearing senior rank, you’d be out doing traffic duty.’

Valentina hits pause and looks him in the eye. ‘I don’t think that’s the most damning part of the recording, sir, but I’m sure that even that bit is sufficient to end the career of a misogynistic bully like you.’ She turns the BlackBerry off and slips it inside her jacket.

Caesario sits back in shock.

He can’t believe what she’s done.

A man would never have done that. A man would have taken his rollicking and done the decent thing. He can’t believe she’s been so sneaky, so cowardly, so duplicitous.

Valentina’s voice is calm and deliberate. ‘ Officer to officer, Major, let me be straight with you. I am not about to walk away from my position here, or this case. So – unless you want a copy of this recording to be the centre point not only of your own disciplinary inquiry but also of news reports from one end of Italy to the other, from this moment onwards you’ll afford me your total trust and support and allow me to do my job.’

Caesario is still speechless.

‘I need an answer, Major.’

He nods.

Valentina stands. ‘And for the record, the phrase total trust includes me exercising my discretion as to whomever I wish to involve in this case.’

He nods again.

‘Thank you, Major. Your support and confidence in me is greatly appreciated.’ She allows herself a small smile, and makes sure he sees it before she turns and heads for the door.

There are close to thirty busy desks in the open-plan office, which houses two serious crime squads. Federico Assante is sitting slap bang in the middle of all the action. He’s talking confidentially to colleagues around him, telling them of the impending demise of his captain.

Phones are suddenly hung up and the chatter of the office vaporises. Valentina has emerged from Caesario’s office at the end of the corridor.

Dead woman walking.

The only noise that can be heard is her feet on the floor.

From ten metres away her eyes lock in on Assante and she can see he’s struggling to even acknowledge that she’s there.

She reaches his desk, calmly folds her arms and looks down at him. ‘Make sure you put all your files, memory sticks, actions and contacts on my desk within the next hour.’

‘ Scusi? ’ He swivels in his chair, looking around the room to show his audience his disbelief.

‘Stand when you’re addressing a senior officer.’

He hesitates.

Valentina leans across him and picks the phone up off his desk. ‘You want me to call Caesario and have him make you stand?’

They both have the attention of the entire office. A distant phone rings, someone picks it up and immediately disconnects the caller. No one is going to miss this.

Assante slowly gets to his feet and stretches like it’s something he was going to do anyway.

She waits for him to finish.

‘You’re off the case.’

Across the room there are gasps.

‘Get all your stuff together – logs, records, contacts, electronic files; anything that has relevance to what I’m working.’

‘You’re joking, right?’

‘I only joke with friends, Lieutenant, and you’ve made it very clear that’s not what you are.’

‘I don’t understand.’

She laughs. ‘Oh, but you do. You thought that by undermining me you’d win favour with Caesario and further your career. You gambled and you lost.’ She shrugs like it’s of no concern. ‘I guess you played dirty because the stakes were high. So in your case, the price you pay is being dumped from this investigation by the female officer you sought to embarrass. Life is rough. Then again, if you were a woman in the Carabinieri, you’d already know that.’

Applause breaks out from behind her. Valentina turns to see several women standing and clapping,

She swivels back to Assante. ‘We’re done. I’m going out now and will contact you later with the name of the officer I want you to hand over to.’