“Now we have two provable charges against Casselli,” Dante said. “The kidnapping of the baron and the larceny of the chocolate and its trailer. That’s progress.”

—

Casselli was having a light lunch when his phone rang. “Pronto.”

“Don Leonardo,” a voice said, “the police have raided your lot in Naples and have discovered the load of chocolate.”

Casselli laughed. “They are welcome to it,” he said.

“It is worse,” the voice said. “They have arrested your two employees on the lot and they have confiscated every vehicle there.”

“Confiscated?” Casselli asked, disbelieving. “Call our captain of police in Naples and have this order canceled at once.”

“I have already called him,” the man said, “and he hung up on me.”

“Hung up on you? I don’t believe it!”

“He must believe his telephone is tapped.”

“What phone are you calling from?”

“My cell phone, Don Leonardo.”

“Bail those people out of jail before they start talking!” He hung up.

“Something wrong, darling?” the lovely Sophia asked.

“You might say that,” Casselli said, and he was sweating.

—

Casselli isn’t going to like this,” Lugano said, smiling.

“Wait until he tries to get his people out of jail,” Dante said. “We have moved them south, to Salerno. He is not going to like that a lot!”

“It’s about time he started to get nervous,” Jim said. “He’s not accustomed to being nervous, and when people are nervous, they make mistakes.”

42

Leo Casselli got back into his truck and was driven to Naples, to a prearranged meeting site. His two top capos, newly appointed to fill the places of their departed predecessors, stood before him, looking anguished.

“What is going on here?” Casselli demanded.

“We don’t know, Don Leonardo,” the braver of the two replied. “Our vehicles are being stopped and ticketed for speeding and broken taillights, even when they were not speeding and their taillights were not broken. Three restaurants have been inspected and closed by the health authorities. Four building sites have been shut down for safety violations. We have security camera footage of four men who entered another site with guns drawn, and all the vehicles at the trucking yard have been confiscated and taken away and two employees arrested. We cannot bail them out, because we can’t find them.”

“Wait a minute. You said security camera footage?”

“Yes, Don Leonardo. Would you like to see it?”

“Immediately.”

The man took a cassette from his briefcase and inserted it into a player, then pressed a button.

Casselli watched intently as the four men entered the top floor of the building and moved around two stacks of building materials. Then they moved toward the radio and came into the light. “Stop it right there!” Casselli said. “Rewind a few seconds. Stop!” He peered at the images. “Do you know these men?”

“Two of them are agents of the DIA, the ones on either end. We don’t know the other two.”