Viper

'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.' Lorenzo blessed himself and then clicked on. 'This is Angelico d'Arezzo, he runs the north. He's in his late fifties, past his prime, growing fat on his restaurant businesses. We expect him to be replaced in the near future.'

The slide changed to show another man in his late fifties with a long horse-like face, no hair but thick black eyebrows. 'This good-looking specimen is Giotto Fiorentino. He runs the south, specializes in smuggling tobacco and, well, pretty much anything else that can be smuggled.'

'Is violence business or pleasure to those guys?' asked Jack.

'Strictly business. Angelico's done his share of rough stuff, but not recently. Giotto's probably never thrown a punch in his life. He's a wily old fox, but not one for getting blood on his own hands.'

The slide clicked to another middle-aged man. He had slicked-back hair that was white at the temples, making him look like a hooked-nose badger. 'Ambrogio Rotoletti. The west is his area, and he's a gambling man. He did a ten stretch about fifteen years ago. Came out early, as many of them do, and the Don gave him back his full rights as Capo Zona.' Jack was about to ask what for, when Lorenzo answered for him. 'He was implicated in the murder of a politician. Since his release he's not been connected with anything heavy.'

'All old-timers, except for Valsi,' observed Sylvia. 'These three wise guys are, what – twice his age?'

'And some,' confirmed Lorenzo. 'We're expecting a bloodbath any day soon. Way we read it, Valsi has to take out Finelli, or vice versa.'

'The young buck will make first play,' said Jack. 'That's the way it always goes down.'

Lorenzo shrugged. 'I'm no profiler, but I'll tell you this. Most Camorra bosses are dead within five years of sitting at the top of the tree. Fredo Finelli has been squatting up there for close on twenty. My money is on the old man.'

Silence hit the room like a slap in the stomach, as Pisano clicked to a giant blow-up of the Finelli gang tattoo.

'This is really unusual. While crime Families like the Sicilian Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza favour identity tattoos, it's uncommon in Camorra circles.'

'Honour, loyalty and vengeance,' said Jack, translating from the screen. 'What's the meaning of the serpent and the knife?'

Lorenzo sat on the edge of a desk as he answered. 'It's a viper. I'm no expert, but I'm told they have hidden fangs and giant hinge-like jaws that allow them to lock on to something and then grind it to death or swallow it whole.'

'Highly appropriate then,' said Jack.

'Some vipers also keep the eggs of their babies in their mouth,' added Sylvia. 'And there are many different types of viper. I dated a herpetologist once and he bored me to death with stories of snakes and reptiles.'

'Talking of reptiles, take a look at this.' Lorenzo flashed up an organization chart of the most important members of the Finelli clan.

'It's far from complete, but it deals with the main players, especially those connected to Valsi.' A shot of a pretty-faced, dark-haired young woman appeared. 'This is Gina Valsi, Bruno's wife, Fredo Finelli's daughter. Don't be taken in by that butter-wouldn't-melt look. Gina's quite a lady, a power in her own right. She runs several garment factories and counterfeit fashion houses. Probably makes as much money as any of the Capi.'

He clicked on. 'And this is their consigliere, Ricardo Mazerelli. He's understood to have an increasing say in the Family business, and not just on the legal front. He manages a lot of the old man's business portfolio as well. These days, most Families have two consiglieri, but Finelli has only ever used this guy.'

Jack sat in silence in the semi-darkness, studying the dynasty. 'Who are these other two – Pennestri and Farina? You see them in the bottom left on the chart.'

'I don't have their mug shots here. They're new recruits, members of Valsi's crew. He's starting to put together his own Family-in-waiting.'

'And the guy in the box beneath Mazerelli – the bodyguard?'

'Salvatore Giacomo.' Lorenzo pulled up a grainy head-and-shoulders surveillance shot of a grey-faced man wearing big, old-fashioned sunglasses. 'He's Finelli's personal luogotenente, his minder, nothing to do with Valsi. Old muscle, old school, he stays glued to the Don and makes sure Finelli doesn't fall down the stairs or catch a cold.'