"He has a gallery, I think," I said. "His wife's family's collection, or something."
"Yes, indeed. Together they own a lot of Etruscan objects. He seems to have gotten around all the restrictions on ownership of such things by opening his wife's family home to the public, as a museum and gallery, getting special dispensation, as it were. It's called the Rosati Gallery, as you probably already know. The gallery admission is rather steep, so maybe that's what keeps him in style. Maybe he just married well, although I have always thought his wife's family was more style than substance, if you see what I'm saying.
"He's made a real name for himself in a very short period of time. One of the reasons he is so well-known is that he has an exceptional track record in finding and repatriating Italian antiquities. He recently, perhaps a year ago, found a beautiful Etruscan stone sphinx, carved of nenfro, which had purportedly been stolen from a tomb in Tarquinia. It is now on display at his gallery. A couple of years ago, he announced with something of a flourish that he'd found an Etruscan kylix, a water cup, decorated by the Bearded Sphinx painter, who, as I am sure you know is, like Micali, an identifiable and rather spectacular Etruscan painter. It, too, had been stolen many years ago, this time from a museum.
"Now you should know there are those among us who are skeptical, who think that Rosati was already in possession of these antiquities; which is to say, that he dealt in stolen goods and was now trying to legitimize the objects by pretending to have found them elsewhere. But Rosati says he and a group of donors bought the sphinx from a collector in Switzerland, the kylix in England, and brought both back to Italy, to cheers all round. One of the donors, by the way, was Gianpiero Ponte, Eugenia's late husband. I found a photograph in the newspaper archives here showing Ponte, Rosati, and Vittorio Palladini at the unveiling of the kylix."
"Eugenia Ponte is having an affair with Palladini," I said.
"Is that so?" Salvatore said. "This is most interesting. I checked out Ponte and could find no relationship to Lake. Ponte did, of course, commit suicide. Some said his business was falling apart, so thinking of Lake's rather predatory practices, I looked into that. I could find nothing in it. The rumors, according to some colleagues of mine, are that the problem was a marital one, and that the marriage has been something of a matter of convenience for some time now. You know Italy and divorces. Just not done. It would appear the stories are true. She's wrapping up her husband's company, and it looks to me as if she'll do reasonably well out of it. And she's always been quite successful. She was a model first, then a television star, although I never saw her show, and her agency always seems to have done well enough. I can't find any indication of legal or financial problems of any sort. The only negative is what you and I know, but no one else really does, and that is that both Antonio and Mario were on that agency's roster.
"Now, before I get on to Palladini and the others, let me finish with Rosati."
"That kylix you mentioned," I said. "I think he told me it was stolen."
"Correct. About two years ago, there was a break-in at Rosati's museum. The alarm system went off, but the police were not as fast as they might have been getting there, and when they did, they found the security guard bound and gagged in a closet, and the Etruscan kylix missing. At the time this happened, the museum from which the kylix had been stolen many years ago was demanding its return. I mention the break-in for a number of reasons: one, the obvious resemblance between the story of the kylix and your hydria, both stolen and found outside Italy in the hands of collectors, but also because the insurance company that had to pay up when the kylix was stolen was the one at which Vittorio Palladini is employed as head of their legal and claims department. The kylix was insured for a great deal of money, even more perhaps than one would think it was worth, if one can put a price on such objects. He must have been more than a little disappointed when it went missing."
"Could you find a link between Palladini and Lake?"
"None."
"But the Pontes and Palladini and Rosati are all linked, and Rosati knew Lake, or at least knew what doing business in competition with Lake was like."
"Yes," he said.
"And Palladini told Yves Boucher to put me in touch with Godard."
"Apparently," Salvatore replied.
"Is there more?"
"Gino Mauro. He's an American, actually, although when he's over here, he's more Italian than the Italians. He maintains he's descended from royalty or some such thing, but in fact, his parents emigrated to America from a dirt-poor village in Sicily."
"And made their fortune?"
"They didn't, but he did. He is, or was, a pugilist."
"A what?"
"A pugilist. Actually, a wrestler, or a former one. WWF, I think you call it. He fought under the name of Gino the Supremo." Salvatore paused. "Does that name work in English?"
"Sort of," I said. "And I'd be willing to bet I've seen him, in the Piazza Navona with Dottie Beach. The person I'm thinking of threw her young friend out of the place faster than you can almost imagine."
"I see," he said. "That sounds about right. As a pugilist, Mauro was moderately successful, knew when to retire, and got into fiber optics."
"Here comes Lake," I said.
"You are quite right. Lake tried to buy the business. Mauro refused to sell. Lake stole most of Mauro's customers."
"And now the farmhouse is for sale. Does he have links to anyone else in this group?"
"None that I was able find."
"Anything more on Palladini?"
"Just what I've told you. He is a corporate lawyer and works for the insurance company."
"He owns a rather lavish apartment in Rome. Do you make enough money as head of the legal and claims department of an insurance company to own that kind of place?"
"I don't know. I can tell you he bought it a couple of years ago and is already selling it. Maybe he got in over his head."
"I don't think so. He's looking for a bigger place. I suppose he could be lying about that. Anything else?"
"Not so far. I can find nothing on Yves Boucher nor Pierre Leclerc. Anna, I have nothing to go on. Maire, either. And you, what have you found? Other than that Eugenia and Palladini are close?"
"I discovered that Dottie Beach is broke but is still shopping the Via Condotti," I said. "I've also discovered that she has not been exactly forthcoming about her store. I'm wondering if she was lying about having a store in New Orleans? Or has she found another partner to replace her husband as the money supply?"
"Did you say New Orleans?" Salvatore said.
"Yes."
"Just a minute, please." I heard paper rustling, and then he came back on the line. "Gino Mauro has a winter home in New Orleans," he said. "His headquarters is New York, but yes, he has a place in New Orleans. Perhaps you are quite right about the fellow with Dottie Beach in the Piazza. And he is usually in Italy this time of year."
"Yes, Silvia said he was coming here. But he wasn't in Italy when Antonio died. At least that's what the papers say. Maybe I'll see if I can track down the reporter who wrote the piece on Antonio's death. I can't recall who it was, but it can't be too difficult to find out."
"I have the clipping here," Salvatore said. "After our discussion last night, I went through all the last few days' papers. Please stay on the line, and I'll get you the name of at least one of the reporters. Gianni Veri," he said after a minute.