what he worked on while he was in Parliament?'
There was a long pause as Avisani followed the trail of Brunetti's
question. 'You're probably right,' he said at last, then, 'Can you
hold on a minute?'
'Of course. Why?'
T've got that stuff in a file somewhere.'
'In the computer?' Brunetti asked.
'Where else?' the reporter asked with a laugh. 'In a drawer?'
Brunetti laughed in return, as though he'd meant the question as a
joke.
'Just a minute Avisani said. Brunetti heard a click as the phone was
set down on a hard surface.
He looked out of the window as he waited, making no attempt to impose
order upon the information that tumbled around in his mind. He lost
track of time, though it was far more than a minute before Avisani was
back.
'Guido?' he asked, 'you still there?'
'Yes.'
'I haven't got much on him. lie was there for three years, well, a bit
less than that, before he resigned, but he was kept pretty well out of
sight.'
'Kept?'
The party he ran for chose him because he was famous at the time and
they knew they could win with him, but after he was elected and they
got an idea of what his real ideas were, they kept him as far out of
sight as they could.'
Brunetti had seen it happen before as honest people were elected into a
system they hoped to reform, only to find themselves gradually absorbed
by it, like insects in a Venus' fly-trap. Because Avisani had seen far
more of it than he, Brunetti drew a pad towards him and said only, 'I'd
like to know what committees he worked on.' ,v
'Are you looking for what I think you are someone he might have
crossed?'
'Yes.'
Avisani made a long noise that Brunetti thought was meant to be
speculative. 'Let me give you what I have. There was a pension
committee for farmers,' Avisani began, then dismissed it with a casual,
'Nothing there. They're all nonentities.' And then, The one that
oversaw sending all that stuff to Albania.'
'Was the Army involved in that?' Brunetti asked.
'No. I think it was done by private charities. Caritas, organizations
like that.'
'What else?'
The Post Office.'
Brunetti snorted.
'And military procurement,' Avisani said with undisguised interest.
'What does that mean?'
There was a pause before he answered, 'Probably examining the contracts
with the companies that supply the military.'
'Examining or deciding?' Brunetti asked.
'Examining, I'd say. It was really only a subcommittee, which means
they'd have no more power than to make recommendations to the real
committee. You think that's it?' he asked.
'I'm not sure there is an 'it',' Brunetti answered evasively, only now
forcing himself to recall that his friend was a member of the press.
With laboured patience, Avisani asked, 'I'm asking as a curious friend,
Guido, not as a reporter.'
Brunetti laughed in relief. 'It's a better guess than the postmen.
They're not particularly violent.'
'No, that's only in America,' Avisani said.
Agreement's awkwardness fell between them, both of them aware of the
conflict between their professions and their friendship. Finally
Avisani said, 'You want me to follow up on this?'
At a loss as to how to phrase it, Brunetti said, 'If you can do it
delicately.'
