The Armando Cutrì inquiry generated one lead. Armando has never represented a gangster in a criminal case because he is exclusively a civil lawyer. However, two years ago, he represented an ’Ndrangheta member in a civil matter. A Mario Foti was arrested for a variety of racketeering charges and in the course of the police inquiry, the investigating magistrate sought to examine the bank accounts of several of Foti’s relatives, looking for surrogate money flows. Armando sought to block access to the account of a distant cousin, arguing that the woman had only a peripheral relationship with Foti. The court ruled against Armando’s motions and sure enough, the cousin was Foti’s money-laundering conduit. Foti was convicted of racketeering and has been serving an eight-year prison term.
Lumaga interviewed Foti at the high-security Panzera prison in Reggio Calabria. Foti told him that Armando did good work for him and he bore no grudges. Lumaga was of the opinion that he was being truthful. Nevertheless, he’s checked the whereabouts of all the known members of Foti’s cell, primarily family members in a Calabrian mountain village. All potential suspects had good alibis in the days before and after the abduction. For the moment, this appears to be a dead end. Armando told me he was distressed that he was even remotely connected to the investigation and that he was going to reach out to you directly.
The Pennestrìs have also been investigated. I’ve gotten to know them since they come by every day to take care of the house. They seem like genuinely nice, concerned folks. For reasons unclear to me, Lumaga seemed to have a high level of suspicion and sweated them hard during interviews and searched their house for cash. They got upset and told me they’d considered quitting. Lumaga hasn’t found anything to connect them to the abductions. They have one son, Andrea, in his twenties. Lumaga got interested in him because he used to date the sister of an ’Ndrangheta member from his town. Lumaga also leaned hard on Andrea, but there was nothing there. For now, all of the Pennestrìs are in the clear.
Lumaga also investigated all the workmen involved with the Villa Shibui renovation project. So far, nothing to report.
As far as we can determine, Jesper was not always the most popular colleague or boss, but there was no one in his orbit who seems to have had enough animosity to commit this crime.
Your reward continues to generate an avalanche of publicity. All the Italian crime shows post the new call-in number every time they air. The private company we hired to take the calls had to put on extra operators to handle the volume. As you can imagine, there have been a tremendous number of kook calls, but every credible lead is being passed to the Carabinieri.
There continues to be no human intelligence or signal intelligence referable to potential state actors.
*
To: M. Andreason
From: M. Handler
Re: Investigation Summary—Week 3
This has been a quiet week.
The number of hotline calls has decreased to a trickle and nothing that’s come in has been credible.
The Carabinieri have run through all their lines of inquiry and have begun re-looking at data to see if they might have missed anything.
There has been zero chatter flowing into my network of intelligence agencies.
Major Lumaga tells me that at this point, he does not believe this was a kidnapping.
I’d like to discuss with you whether it makes sense for me to return to Chicago.
*
Some nights, Marcus got drunk enough that he’d forget to go outside to smoke. When Giuseppe and Noemi arrived in the morning, they would sniff at the odor and throw the windows open. Marcus was using Jesper’s car to buy cigarettes and booze and he had to dodge Noemi’s reproachful looks when she peered into the trash bags at his empties. There was less and less to do locally, and he was getting copied on fewer and fewer emails and memos from headquarters on day-to-day corporate security matters. He confronted Mayhew about this, but his underling denied he was being iced out and told him that things were quiet over the summer, didn’t he know?
Sometimes he’d drive to Reggio Calabria and drop by the Carabinieri war room, which of late had lost its intensity and was now more of a peace room. Major Lumaga was ever attentive and solicitous, but he was given to presenting a very Italian shrug each time they discussed a dead-end theory.
At night he roamed the white house that had been polluted with his black thoughts and bad habits. He rifled through Jesper and Elena’s papers and personal effects, looking for something, anything, he might have missed. And while he drank, he stared at the photos of the girls, that had been reinserted into their silver picture frames.
Victoria and Elizabeth.
Named after queens, treated like princesses.
Something happened late at night or early in the morning and their glittering lives of grace and plenty had changed in an instant.
Were they alive or dead? Comfortable or under duress?
He drank as if the answers were hidden at the bottom of a bottle.
*
He was in bed one morning when Mickey rang.
“Marcus, I’ve been thinking about what you wrote in your last memo.”
His head was pounding, his mouth full of sand. He took a quick swig of water.
“About coming back?”
“Yeah, that. Look, I think you might as well return to the States, but here’s the thing. Don’t bother coming to Chicago, or at least to the company.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
Mickey dialed up his Danish accent. “I’m bitterly disappointed. It’s thirty-two days since they disappeared and you and your investigation have accomplished nothing. Nothing! Not a single clue, not a single credible scenario of what happened. I have succeeded in business because I do not accept
