Viper

80

Campeggio Castellani, Pompeii Antonio Castellani had become desperately worried about Franco. So much so, that he was actually pleased to get a knock on the door from two new carabinieri officers who wanted to go over everything again with him.

Once more the old man faithfully retold it all – leaving out only the private arrangement he'd made with the big lieutenant. Antonio was old enough and smart enough to know that you only told such import ant secrets to one person. Apart from that, he did as they asked. He went right back to the very beginning. Started from the moment the people on Lot 45 had reported their daughter and her boyfriend missing. Went right up to his recent brushes with the Camorra and the order from the Finelli clan that he leave his home and surrender his business.

The woman seemed genuinely moved, sympathetic and kind. The male officer apparently didn't care that much. They were quite a pair. Chalk and cheese, he thought. The man, Mario or Marco something, he couldn't remember the name, was intense and wiry, maybe even a little rude and disrespectful, while she – Cassie – was beautiful, polite and intelligent. He even liked her name. She was everything that he'd hoped his own daughter would have turned out to be. Cassie was one of those bright girls who would go far, he could tell. For a start she'd written everything down, had been careful not to miss anything. Her male partner had seemed happy just to fire off the questions. In fact, he'd only really become interested when Antonio had mentioned that Franco was missing. He still believed the police were the best hope of finding him. His grandson wasn't well. Sometimes he got really sick, they had to find him, look after him, bring him back home. She said they would. She promised they would. Good girl, that Cassie, you could tell. She even took away some pictures of Franco. Promised again she'd find him.

Antonio settled down in his chair and knew he'd fall asleep. He was tired of it all. These days just living exhausted him. If he'd known that the two carabinieri officers he'd spent so much time with were actually Luciano Creed and a female journalist called Cassandra Morrietti, then it may well have been the death of him.