The Puppeteer Read online

  ALSO BY TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

  The Anne Marie Laveaud Novels

  Another Sun

  The Honest Folk of Guadeloupe

  The Piero Trotti Novels

  Converging Parallels

  The Puppeteer

  Persona Non Grata

  Black August

  Big Italy

  Copyright © 2014 by Timothy Williams

  Published by

  Soho Press, Inc.

  853 Broadway

  New York, NY 10003

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Williams, Timothy.

  The puppeteer / Timothy Williams.

  ISBN 978-1-61695-462-8

  eISBN 978-1-61695-463-5

  1. Police—Italy—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—Fiction.

  3. Corruption—Italy—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6073.I43295P87 2014

  823’.914—dc23 2014019055

  v3.1

  a tutti gli amici del Centomiglia

  a

  Gege

  Emilio

  Chicco

  Francesco

  Tito

  Bruno

  e le tre tettone.

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Glassary

  1: Guerino

  2: Mercedes

  3: Mareschini

  4: Villa Ondina

  5: Pavesi

  6: Sardi

  7: Lab coat

  8: Spirals

  9: Belluno

  10: Padana

  11: Douglas Ramoverde

  12: Two-tone

  13: Dell’Orto

  14: Monster

  15: Questura

  16: Banco Milanese

  17: Pergola

  18: Baldassare

  19: Senigallia

  20: Lodi

  21: Maturità

  22: Lambrate

  23: Minerva

  24: Phone

  25: Farmyard

  26: Scythe

  27: Baccoli

  28: Vino

  29: Women

  30: Pia

  31: Trial

  32: Cats

  33: Arrondissement

  34: Anorexia

  35: Bottone

  36: Nonna

  37: Ink

  38: Carmine

  39: Siemens

  40: Canary

  41: Theory

  42: Empty

  43: Orchidea

  44: Flowers

  45: Ribcage

  46: Old times

  47: Allegra

  48: Maserati

  49: Squadra

  50: Matron

  51: Campigli

  52: Confession

  53: P-Beta

  54: Phone

  55: Parrot

  56: Matriarchy

  57: Ambulance

  58: Malpensa

  59: Booth

  60: Hold

  61: Gabbi

  62: Wig

  63: Telecamera

  64: SIFAR

  65: Apron

  66: Jacket

  67: Sampierdarena

  68: Garda

  69: Giuseppe Verdi

  Glassary

  AI LAGHI: to the lakes

  “AMOR, DAMMI QUEL FAZZOLETTINO”: “Love, Give Me That Handkerchief,” a Italian song popularized by actor-singer Yves Montand in 1963

  AUTOSTRADA: highway

  BORGO GENOVESE: Genovese village

  BUONGIORNO: hello, good morning

  CAPITANO: captain

  COMMISSARIO: commissioner

  CONTADINA: woman from the countryside

  DIRETTO: direct, nonstop

  DOTTOR: doctor

  FERRAGOSTO: the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary

  GIRO D’ITALIA: an annual Italian bicycle race

  GIUDICE ISTRUTTORE: investigating judge/magistrate

  GRANO DURO: durum wheat

  GRAPPA: a dry, clear grape brandy

  IL TEMPO: the weather, the time

  ISTITUTO ZOOTECNICO: Agricultural Institute

  JUVENTUS: a professional Italian soccer club based in Turin

  LA TEDESCA: the German (fem.)

  LASCIA O RADDOPPIA: Leave It or Double It, an Italian game show that aired from 1955-1959

  LICEO: high school

  LO SCIOCCO: the fool

  LUNGOLAGO: road around a lake

  MARINAIO: sailor, seaman

  MATURITÀ: maturity

  METROPOLITANA: subway

  MONTE BALDO: a mountain in the Italian Alps that runs through the provinces of Trentino and Verona

  NUCLEO POLITICO: political segment of the Carabinieri

  OMERTÀ: code of silence

  PALAZZO: building, palace

  PALAZZO DI GIUSTIZIA: courthouse

  PIAZZA: plaza

  PER FAVORE: please

  POLICLINICO: hospital

  POPOLO D’ITALIA: The People of Italy, an Italian newspaper founded by Mussolini in 1914

  PRONTO SOCCORSO: first aid

  PROVINCIA PADANA: an Italian newspaper, also known as La Padana

  QUATTRO STAGIONI: literally “four seasons,” a pizza divided into four sections with different ingredients, traditionally artichokes, mozzarella, ham and olives

  SCUOLA SUPERIORE: high school

  SERVIZIO ESTERO: foreign service

  SESTO: sixth

  SEZIONE ARCHIVI: departmental archives

  SIGNORA: madam, lady

  SIGNORINA: miss, young lady

  SINDACO FERMI: the previous mayor

  SOCIETÀ SICULA PER L’ELETTRICITÀ: Sicilian electric company

  STADIA: sports stadium, coliseum

  TAVOLA CALDA: cafeteria

  TENENTE: lieutenant

  URBANISTICA: city planning

  VENERABILE MAESTRO: Venerable Master

  VENTIQUATTRO MAGGIO: May 24th

  VIA XX SETTEMBRE: street name meaning “Road of September 20th” after the date of the Capture of Rome in 1870, the final step to Italian unification

  VIALE RIMEMBRANZA: street name meaning “Avenue of Remembrance”

  VITA E SORRISI: life and smiles

  ZIO: uncle

  1: Guerino

  “AMERICA?” THE BARMAN raised his eyebrows.

  “She’s been there now for four months.”

  There was a butter dish and a couple of fresh bread rolls on the tray. Guerino placed them on the table. “On holiday?”

  “She works for a pharmaceutical company.” Trotti added, “In New York.”

  “Lucky girl.”

  “After thirty years of marriage, I no longer think of my wife as a girl.”

  The other man put his head back and laughed. “Wait till you’re my age, Commissario—then everybody under fifty is an adolescent.” He took the jug from the tray and poured out some coffee. He then added milk. “You’re staying up at the Villa Ondina?”

  “I’ve just arrived.”

  “We rarely see any of you now. The villa’s been empty since Agnese’s parents died. You should come and see us more often, Commissario. When you need a rest, you know that there’s nowhere better than the lake.” The older man looked out over the flat surface of the water. “And there’s nowhere more beautiful on Garda than Gardesana.”

  There was no wind and the early morning mist still hovered a few meters above Lake Garda. The sun was showing over the shoulder of Monte Baldo.

  Bar Centomiglia was a simple, unpretentious place. Not sophisticated—a far cry from the groomed elegance of Milan or Rome. Here there was just the smell of fresh coffee, a couple of rows o
f chairs that Guerino set out in the summer months, and a reassuring sameness to the décor—advertisements for vermouth and perhaps an out-of-date notice of films in the parish hall.

  The orange trees were already coming into blossom.

  “I’ve been very busy,” Trotti said.

  “The robbery at the Banco San Matteo?”

  Trotti turned. “You know about that?”

  “We get the papers here, too.” He whistled under his breath. “I saw that you were in charge of enquiries. Banca San Matteo—and a man murdered.”

  “Nobody was murdered,” Trotti said. “The manager was shot in the leg.”

  Guerino was leaning against the side of the table and he held the empty tray under his arm. He put his head to one side as if he expected Trotti to say more.

  Trotti looked at the lake in silence.

  Guerino asked, “How’s Pioppi?”

  “At university.”

  “Not married, then?”

  Trotti’s smile was tired. “I don’t think she’s interested in men.”

  “Except for her father.” Guerino touched Trotti’s shoulder. “Even when she was a little girl, she adored you.”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “A long time ago,” Guerino repeated in his mocking Roman accent and went back into the bar.

  As Trotti ate his breakfast, he watched the sun climb into the sky.

  From out on the lake came a mechanical beating sound. Later the mist began to lift and he saw the Giuseppe Verdi, the black smoke at her funnel almost vertical, working towards the shore.

  There were a few cars parked here and there along the lakeside, a double row of orange trees and the well-kept flower beds. At the jetty, the old captain—exactly as Trotti remembered him—was waiting for the steamboat to pull alongside.

  A man came and sat on the same long bench as Trotti; he muttered “Buongiorno” and opened the paper, which he started to read. When Guerino appeared, the new arrival scarcely looked up as he ordered a cup of coffee.

  He held the paper in front of his face and his forehead was wrinkled in concentration. He needed a shave; he did not look like a villager. He was wearing a suit that was slightly crumpled. No tie.

  Guerino was whistling under his breath—an old fascist tune that he had probably learned in Abyssinia—when he brought the coffee. He placed the cup on the table; the man grunted a perfunctory thanks.

  On the front page of the newspaper there was the picture of a battleship.

  “War,” Guerino said. “They had Kenya, the English—they had most of Africa.” He tapped his chest. “I was in Kenya for four years, a prisoner of the British—and they had to throw it all away. And now they’re going to war over a few wretched islands in the middle of the ocean that nobody in his right mind would even want to visit.”

  The man behind the newspaper glanced at Trotti. Their eyes met.

  Trotti asked, “How’s Donatella, Guerino?”

  (Sometimes, in the first years of marriage, to escape from the oppressive atmosphere of the Villa Ondina, Trotti used to take the bicycle and cycle into the village. It was in this bar that he had first met Donatella. In those days she was blonde, with short bobbed hair and an easy friendly smile. Later—and not yet twenty years old—she married a boy from the village.)

  Again the smile on Guerino’s face and the Roman gesture. “Donatella? She’s a very beautiful grandmother.”

  “Grandmother?” Trotti frowned before smiling. “Then you are a great-grandfather, Guerino?”

  “Here.” He took his wallet from a trouser pocket and pulled out the photograph. “Over three kilos—and Valeria had him baptized Guerino, after me.” He placed the Polaroid photograph on the table and his work-worn finger touched the pink image of a newborn baby. “She says he looks just like me.”

  The Giuseppe Verdi let out a mournful hoot as it moved towards the quay. An officer standing on the deck threw the rope to the Capitano, who caught it and looped it round a bollard. Both men spoke in dialect and the Capitano laughed. A gangplank was heaved into place and a couple of passengers stepped gingerly down towards dry land.

  The woman had grey hair. The man wore a grey suit and a leather case hung from his neck—probably a camera. He held the woman’s hand.

  Guerino shrugged. “I’ll be needing more than a couple of German tourists this year if I’m to redecorate this bar.”

  “The Centomiglia is all right as it is.”

  “A new coat of paint, some new chairs—and a new coffee machine.”

  “It will lose all its character.”

  “Tourists aren’t interested in character.”

  A metal-green Mercedes came down the quayside towards the couple. At first, Trotti thought it was a taxi; the windows were tinted a dark grey. The exhaust pipe rattled.

  Still holding the woman by the hand, the elderly German stepped backwards to avoid being run over.

  The village was coming awake. The mist had vanished and a breeze had come up. In the small port the bare masts had started a rhythmic rocking movement.

  “More coffee, Commissario?”

  “Still, after all this time—you still call me Commissario?” Trotti shook his head as he held the photograph out for Guerino.

  A young man climbed out of the passenger seat of the Mercedes.

  The rear propeller of the Giuseppe Verdi began churning the water, the hull swung away from the land. Trotti stood up but it was too late. The German woman screamed and Trotti saw the husband turn to look at her in surprise.

  The face hidden behind a red scarf. Bent knees, the clasped hands coming up slowly.

  A gun, a P38.

  Instinctively, Trotti threw himself to the ground. In his hand, he was still holding the photograph. The baby Guerino.

  2: Mercedes

  WURLITZER JUKEBOX.

  Trotti had forgotten about it—an old, chrome-plated machine standing in the corner. He could remember Pioppi as a little girl, pestering him for coins to play her favorite songs: Bobby Solo and Fausto Leali.

  His cheek was now pushed hard against the cold metal. Old cigarette stubs lay on the stone floor.

  A first explosion—and plaster falling to the ground.

  Another shot, then silence. The man had dropped his newspaper and was beside Trotti, behind the tipped-up table. He was crouching. One hand had gone to the waist of his trousers, to the butt of a pistol.

  Third explosion.

  The woman was still screaming. There was a sound of running feet.

  The man did not draw the pistol. His hand was strangely bent, the palm upward. A rasping noise in his throat.

  Trotti’s right hand was covered with a widening circle of blood. He moved forwards and peered over the upset table. Coffee had splashed across the floor.

  The Giuseppe Verdi had cast off and was moving south. Trotti saw the Mercedes going along the lakeside and gathering speed.

  Trotti took the man’s gun and he could feel no precise pain as he climbed to his feet. He fell, got up again and placing his weight on the table, moved unsteadily forward.

  Froth at her mouth, the German woman still screamed, her head thrown back. Her husband was trying to quiet her.

  Trotti broke into a run.

  The Mercedes had reached the end of the Lungolago. Trotti shouted. Red lights flashed as the car braked, took the corner and moved out of Trotti’s line of vision.

  Only one road out of Gardesana and the Mercedes would have to take it to get away.

  He cut through the cobbled alley. Out of training and getting old. The alley was chill and smelled of cork and old wine. Trotti ran up the incline, leaning forwards, his breath coming with difficulty. He nearly fell when he came out into the main street.

  The Mercedes was heading straight for him. Just the brief glimpse of the baker’s boy coming down the hill on his bicycle. No pedestrians, a few cars parked along the via XX Settembre.

  The square metallic radiator grill was bearing down on him.<
br />
  Trotti jumped back into the alley and fell headlong. The side of his head hit the cobbles.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Look at the number plate.” Trotti clambered to his feet.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “Of course I’m bleeding.” Blood ran down the front of his sweater. Trotti looked down and a long, thin string of rheum and blood poured from his mouth.

  “You’ve been shot.” The baker’s boy was rooted to the spot. He stood gaping foolishly.

  “Get the number.”

  “You’ve been shot,” the boy repeated.

  Trotti shouted, “Never seen a bleeding nose before?” He began to tremble.

  “Get the Carabinieri. Hurry, damn you.”

  PC—Piazza. A Piacenza registration.

  “Take your bike, will you, and get the Carabinieri.” He took out his wallet. “Look, look—Pubblica Sicurezza. Hurry up.”

  A Piacenza number: Trotti had seen the two letters. But not the numbers.

  The baker’s boy did not move.

  “Hurry!”

  Without taking his eyes from Trotti, the boy scrambled on to a heavy bicycle. A few rolls of fresh bread lay scattered on the ground.

  “Hurry, damn you.”

  The boy stood on the pedal and the bicycle moved away. Looking over his shoulder, he continued to stare at Trotti with gaping mouth.

  Trotti walked back to the bar. Blood had started to drip onto his shoes.

  3: Mareschini

  “YOU KNEW HIM?”

  The office was strangely bare; freshly painted walls, with a discreet crucifix on the far wall, a framed photograph of Pertini, filing cabinets and an immobile electric fan. On the desk, the cup of coffee was growing cold.

  “Grappa, Commissario?”

  Without waiting for a reply, the Captain produced a label-less bottle from a cupboard. He poured a few drops into the cup. Smiling, he said, “A northern habit.” In the same voice, he repeated his question. “Did you know the victim?” He screwed the cap back on the bottle.

  “No.”

  “You’d never seen him before?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  In different circumstances, Trotti would have been amused by the man’s slowness.

  “But he spoke to you, Commissario.”

  “He came into the bar and he said good morning. I merely replied.”

  “Ah.” The eyes were very dark and Trotti wondered whether the Carabiniere was as slow as he wished to appear. His name was Mareschini and he spoke with a sluggish, southern accent. A good looking man, still trim and impressive in his dark uniform. Only a few years from retirement. The white hair was short and brushed back, the firm jaw well-shaven.