I put my cell on speakerphone and placed it on the coffee table.
After several rings, Reano’s raspy voice answered.“Ciao.”
“Ciao,Gilberto. This is Niccolo Rosolini with my brothers Don Rosolini and Adriano, our man in Florence. I would like to request Don Camerota’s presence on the call.”
“What is this regarding?”
“The matter I contacted you about yesterday. Whether you had any employees in our territory.”
“I told you we didn’t,”Reano said testily.
“And yet one of our men says that you did.”
“He’s mistaken.”
“Good! Although when your boy Maurizio shows up with five broken fingers and numerous broken ribs, you might want to ask him where he got them.”
Gilberto hesitated. My dropping one of his foot soldiers’ names had given him pause.
“…hold on,”Reano said, and put us on mute.
I put a finger to my lips to signal the others to be quiet.
Thirty seconds later, another voice came on the phone.
“Niccolo – so good to hear from you,”said Don Camerota in an unctuous voice.“And you as well, Don Rosolini.”
“Don Camerota,” Dario said coolly.
“What’s this I hear about one of my employees?”
“Apparently, a little lost lamb named Maurizio wandered all the way from Milan to Florence,” I said. “We just wanted to let you know we did the courtesy of sending him back – albeit with a spanking to remind him not to return uninvited.”
“Is that so.”
“It is.”
“You could have just called Gilberto, told him the name, and we would have taken care of it.”
“Gilberto assured me that all your little lambs were accounted for, so I didn’t see the point.”
“…I see,”Don Camerota said, obviously not happy with hisconsigliere.I was sure he was giving Gilberto the evil eye for making him look foolish.
“Plus, it all happened a little too quickly to hash it out over a phone call.”
“So your man took it upon himself to resolve the matter.”
“Well, like I said, Gilberto said you didn’t have anyone here in Tuscany, so – ”
“How do you know he was one of ours, then?”
“It seems Maurizio was stalking a girl in Milan who fled here to get away from him. She identified him to our fellow, and when he confronted him, Maurizio didn’t deny it. Nor did he apologize. Quite the opposite… hence the spanking.”
Don Camerota was quiet for a second.
I knew he was irritated – but he also knew that his man was completely in the wrong, and that he was lucky Giorgio hadn’t executed him.
“I can assure you, we did not send him,”Don Camerota finally said.
