Viper - Michael Morley [105]
‘And do the Camorra regularly tidy up with fires?’
Lorenzo gave him one of those looks that said the profiler had much to learn about his homeland. ‘Fire is a tool of the poor. The System is staffed by the poor and it burns everything people want to get rid of – waste, dead animals, stolen vehicles and sometimes human bodies. So much burning goes on in the Giugliano-Villaricca-Qualiano triangle that it’s known as the Land of Fires.’
Jack’s face registered a new level of interest.
‘Don’t see too many images in the flames, Jack, everyone around here has a match in their hands.’
‘Point taken.’
Lorenzo pointed the clicker at the screen. The slide changed. The head and shoulders of a strong-jawed, dark-haired young man, complete with prison number across his chest, stared down at them. ‘This is Valsi. The shot was taken some five years ago, at the time of his conviction for witness intimidation. He’s just come out and this is what he looks like now.’ A series of new slides showed him getting out of a car and walking towards a building. He looked crisp and cool, like a male model on a photo shoot. ‘As lean and mean as they come. Prison was good to him.’
‘You said witness intimidation. Was that of people due to testify against him for something?’ asked Jack.
‘No, against his father-in-law. Valsi’s dirty work meant we had to bin the fruits of several years of undercover surveillance on the Don.’ Lorenzo clicked again. ‘This elegant-looking pillar of the community is Fredo Finelli, or Don Fredo as he prefers to be known. Don isn’t a term the Camorra use much, but Fredo adopted it. He’s old school, very much into respect and values.’
Sylvia scoffed. ‘Sadly, those values don’t stop short of killing and torturing people.’
‘Indeed,’ said Lorenzo. ‘We had good stuff on Finelli, enough to maybe put him away for five to ten, and then the witnesses started recanting. A plague of Alzheimer’s broke out, courtesy of Valsi and his thugs.’
Jack got the picture. He’d seen similar trials collapse back home in Little Italy. ‘So, the Tortoricci woman testified that Valsi had threatened her?’
‘You got it. Unfortunately, all the evidence she would have given us in the Finelli trial was destroyed by her bosses, so the best we could do was charge Valsi.’
‘Then as soon as he comes out, he whacks her?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘You’re right, he’s got balls. He obviously feels that no one dares testify against him any more. Have you got his records?’
‘Not to hand, but we’ll pull them for you. Lots of previous.’
‘Arson among them?’
Lorenzo shook his head. ‘Not from memory. Could be wrong. Certainly he was in big trouble as a kid, ran drugs just as soon as he was able to walk or run himself. Stacks of violence, illegal possession of weapons, usual stuff.’
‘Would be good to know the type of weapons he had handled,’ said Sylvia. ‘As well as Sorrentino, we’re looking for a shooter in connection with a triple-victim kill.’
‘I know – the killings at the Castellani site.’
For a second Sylvia wondered how he knew. Then she realized, people like Lorenzo Pisano probably knew just about everything there was to know about anything worth knowing.
‘This next slide gives you an overview of the Finelli clan and best-known associates. Valsi you’re familiar with. Word on the street is that he was promoted and given his own zone when he was released from Poggioreale, but there are three other playmates as well. The Finelli territory is divided into north, south, east and west. Valsi runs the eastern sector; he took over from Pepe Capucci, an old-timer who died of a heart attack.’
‘How very convenient,’ quipped Jack.
‘Actually, it was. We had MEs all over the body and this goon really did die of natural causes.’
‘So there is a God after all,’ added Sylvia.
‘I hope so.’