Chapter 20

 

 

Stefano Valentini, a man of considerable height and girth which he is trying to use to intimidate Derrick and Julie but to no avail, is not happy to see them and refuses to answer any of Derrick’s questions.

 

“Sergeant Chandler, I don’t have to tell you why I changed my mind and I resent you trying to butt in on my business. Changing my mind is not illegal and therefore why I did so is none of your damn business.”

 

“Mr. Valentini, I’m not here to pry into your business affairs out of mere curiosity. I came here to see if I can persuade you to hold off on selling out to give me a chance to help you out of what I suspect is a surprise predicament that is forcing you into selling. I’m pretty sure I can help you if you’ll give me the chance. Look, let me see if I can make this a little easier for you. I’ll tell you what I think is the reason for you changing your mind and you can confirm or deny. If I’m wrong, I’ll get out of your hair pronto. If I’m right, the only chance you have of keeping what you’ve worked so hard to achieve is me. The way I see it, you have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain. Anything you share with me will stay with me. We can talk where there will be no witnesses, so I will have no way of proving what we discussed. What do you say?”

 

Other than staring at Derrick very intently, Mr. Valentini is showing no sign of how he is reacting to Derrick’s offer of help. After a minute of silent staring, the man lets out a long sigh and says, “Follow me, but the Deputy stays here.”

 

Nodding at Julie he says, “Okay, the Deputy stays here.”

 

Mr. Valentini leads him down a long hallway to a door that opens onto a small covered patio for his exclusive use only. “This is the most private place we can talk without being interrupted. No one comes out here unless they are invited, including my admin. If she sees me out here, she knows I do not want to be disturbed. So, tell me why you think I changed my mind.”

 

“There are only two possible answers to that question, sir. You have either been threatened with physical harm to yourself or to someone close to you or you are being blackmailed with something that happened in your past that you don’t want to be revealed. For the moment, a nod or a shake of the head will do.”

 

Expecting another long stare, Derrick is surprised by the quick but barely perceptible nod.

 

“Physical harm or blackmail?”

 

“Blackmail.”

 

“Does the blackmail involve an illegality or an indiscretion or both?”

 

“What I did was certainly both.”

“Okay, here’s where we get down to the nitty gritty. You have to decide to trust me to keep my word and help you deal with what you’ve done and therefore nullify the threat being made or stay the course you’re on, sell out and move on to who knows what. What’s it going to be?”

 

“You’re asking me to make a tough choice. Trust you and maybe wind up in jail or give up everything I’ve accomplished and leave a life I love.”

 

“At least you now have a choice.”

 

Valentini starts pacing as he begins to wrestle with the options open to him. It takes a good ten minutes for him to make up his mind, but when he does the flood gates open.

 

“Not many people know that before I started this winery I was a distributor for upscale wines in Manhattan. However, ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to establish my own winery. I studied everything I could get my hands on to learn how vintners developed hybrids and how to operate a successful winery. During my teen years and twenties I worked for numerous wineries in Italy to learn as much as I could about their operations. When I managed to save up what I thought was enough seed money to start a winery of my own, I decided to come to America to open a winery here. When I got here though I found out I was seriously short of the required capital, so with the money I had been socking away I started a wholesale wine and liquor operation of my own.

 

“On a visit back home in Italy, I was introduced to someone who had an idea about how I could raise the needed startup money for my own winery. This individual had access to top of the line Italian wines which he suggested that I could take on consignment and pay him when the wine was sold. My percentage was a lot more than the markup I was getting on my other wines and liquors. The wine would be shipped by sea and I would pick it up at the docks in Manhattan after paying the required import duties for which I would be reimbursed. On the surface, everything looked on the up and up, however, it wasn’t. The good stuff was concealed in false bottoms of crates containing cheap table wines, thereby avoiding the much higher import duties. I would deliver the cheap stuff to another distributor named by my supplier, and there were several, and I would sell the high class merchandise myself. In short, I was engaged in smuggling Italian wine into the States. I did that for six years until I had enough money saved to walk away. Although I have no proof, I’m pretty sure from rumors that were floating around at the time that some of the wine was stolen from warehouses of wineries in Italy.

 

“Somehow these people who want my winery found out about my involvement in the smuggling operation and have threatened to report me to the authorities and to let the media know as well which might generate serious repercussions on the winery.

 

“There you have it. I’m not proud of what I did and have tried to make up for it by contributing substantial amounts of money to a variety causes in an attempt to compensate for what wasn’t declared all those years ago. So, now what?”

 

“Mr. Valentini, except for the embarrassment you’re experiencing by admitting to me what you did when you were a young man, things are not as bad as they seem. There’s a five year statute of limitation on smuggling activities here in the U. S., so you can’t be prosecuted for those crimes and it seems to me that you have done your very best to atone for what you did.

 

“As for dealing with the negative publicity, if we can nail these people and reveal them for what they are there’s a good chance their actions will discredit anything they might tell the media. Since what you did happened a long time ago, any allegations they might make will be very hard to substantiate. Besides, they’ll be too busy dealing with their own problems to spend time on looking for revenge on you.

 

“I’m not asking you to immediately renege on your agreement to sell out. I’m asking you to stall the transaction with some made up legal hurdles you have to deal with long enough for me to get my hooks into these scumbags. If I can’t deliver before your stalling tactics are recognized for what they are, you’ll still have a choice between selling out and taking your chances on the degree of impact the stories in the media will have on your business. I’ve said my piece. The ball’s in your court. What are you going to do with it?”

 

Looking out at his vineyard, Mr. Valentini once again goes silent as he struggles with what probably is the most difficult decision he has ever had to make. If he sells out, he’ll keep his reputation intact and receive a great deal of money from the sale of the winery, more than it’s currently worth, but he’ll be walking away from everything that he has worked so hard to achieve, everything that means so much to him and gives him so much happiness. He doubts if he’ll ever be that content and happy again no matter what new pleasant experiences will face him in the future. If he accepts Chandler’s offer of help and the Sergeant can’t nail these guys during the time he manages to stall, he could still sell out and move on, however, if these blackmailers sense that he’s stalling to buy time for the cops to ID them and arrest them there’s a strong likelihood that these people will resort to physical violence against him and/or his family. Is it worth the risk?

 

A good fifteen minutes goes by without a word being said by either one of the men and Derrick’s beginning to think he’s struck out. Another couple of minutes go by and then Mr. Valentini breaks the silence with, “Sergeant Chandler, on the surface your offer seems to be a win-win situation, but there’s a glitch that concerns me. If these blackmailers sense that I’m stalling because I’m up to something that might put them in danger, these people could get real ugly and respond with physical violence to me and/or my family. What protection can you provide to keep us safe until this entire affair is put to rest?”

 

“I’ll arrange for 24/7 protection for you and your family, here at the winery and at your homes. In transit security can be handled on a case by case basis as long as we are notified in advance so we can arrange to have a patrol car follow you to your destination. We don’t have the manpower to provide personal bodyguards that can accompany you wherever you may go like in a mall for example.”

 

After another five minute period of silence Valentini says, “I won’t know how long I can convincingly stall until I talk with my attorney. I’ll be counting on him to come up with the ruses, the tactics. The actual sale process will be handled by lawyers and he’ll have to be willing to go along with your suggestion.”

 

“Does this mean you’re taking me up on my offer?”

 

“With a great deal of reluctance, yes it does.”

 

“I’m very glad to hear that, Mr. Valentini. The first thing you’ve got to do is call your attorney and get him to agree to what we want to do. Once you have that, notify all the members of your family what you have decided to do and what will be required of them with respect to their protection. Do your family members know how you got the startup capital for the winery?”

 

“Yes, I told them quite a while ago.”

 

“Good, that’s one hurdle you won’t have to clear as we move forward. After you’ve done these two things, I have some very important questions to ask you and depending on your answers we might have a better idea of where to look for your tormentors.”

 

“It may take me a good part of the day to make contact with everyone and get there agreement. Give me a call around four this afternoon and I’ll let you know if there are any hang ups regarding getting everyone’s onboard and you can ask your questions then.”

 

“Fair enough and, Mr. Valentini, don’t second guess yourself. You’ve made the right decision and you’re not going to be taking on these creeps on alone. We’ll be with you all the way. I’ll call you at four.”

 

Once back in their car Derrick briefs Julie on his conversation with Mr. Valentini and its outcome. “It took a while, but he finally agreed to work with us. He’s going to bring his attorney and family members into the loop and I’m to call him at four this afternoon to make sure that everyone is on board and, if so, get the ball rolling.”

 

“That’s a base hit for our side. Who are we seeing at the Mel Del Meglio winery?”

 

“Mr. Alberto Massarelli. I haven’t been able to learn much about him other than he’s not a member of the founding family, but functions as the winery’s CEO. The surviving members of the founding family apparently are great vintners but bad business managers and realized that if they didn’t bring in outside help they were going to wind up in a world of hurt. Mr. Massarelli has been with the winery for close to 20 years and under his leadership the winery has flourished and continues to do so.”

 

“Since we’re not meeting with the owners of the winery, what do you hope to accomplish by talking with Mr. Massarelli? He may have a lot of authority, but I don’t think that extends to selling the business.”

 

“The owners pretty much keep to themselves and stay out of the daily operations of the winery. They receive routine weekly briefings from Massarelli and give approval or disapproval to anything out of his scope of responsibility. He’s the starting point for me to get the owners’ attention. At the moment, I have no idea who is being blackmailed and who knows what about what is going on. I’ll have to play things by ear until I have a better idea of the situation. If I can get the owners to hold off on selling out, the delays at both wineries combined with the refusals to sell by the other wineries just might be enough to agitate the people we’re after to a point where they’ll do something more risky to get their way and in doing so reveal a pathway to their front door. That’s my game plan since nothing better has come to mind. We’ll have to wait and see how things play out.”

 

“Is being a good shit disturber a perquisite for becoming a detective?”

 

Chuckling he says, “I wouldn’t say it’s a prerequisite, but at times it comes in real handy.”