Dottore Dominic Previti hurried down the cobblestoned lane holding the morning’s copy of la Repubblica over his head. A sudden March shower interrupting an al fresco lunch at his favourite trattoria, just one of many lining the Piazza di Spagna. The sudden downpour sent him scurrying back along the Via del Babuino in search of shelter and his scallops bobbing in an ever-thinning Alfredo sauce.
He stopped under the awning of the entrance to his offices and surveyed the damage; his Bruno Magli shoes were soaked, his cashmere suit faring no better, and his silk Prada tie, a present from his wife for his birthday, most likely damaged beyond repair.
The ornate latch creaked and the heavy wooden door opened with a sigh onto the foyer of the non-descript office building. Dominic tossed aside the sodden newspaper and shook himself like a stray dog. Without further ado, he crossed the foyer inlaid with the finest Carrara marble and took the elevator to the fourth floor.
At 65 years of age, Dominic Previti still cut an imposing figure. Thanks to regular exercise four times a week at his health club, his body remained toned, his back straight. His dark complexion, thanks to his Sicilian heredity, contrasted brilliantly with the glossy sheen of his thick silver mane.
The elevator door crept open, as if not wanting to take anyone by surprise, into the foyer of Williams & Teacher’s Rome offices. Dominic Previti angled sideways to be gone from the elevator before the door fully opened and strode past the reception desk.
As he whisked by his assistant, he asked perfunctorily.
The Rome offices of Williams & Teacher had occupied the fourth floor of the building on Via del Babuino for the past 15 years. At the southern end of the narrow lane nestled the demure Piazza di Spagna and many of the finest designer stores in Rome. To the north, the Via played host to a small number of boutique hotels, museums and galleries, before spilling out into the grand Piazza del Popolo which, in turn, fed into the magnificent grounds of the Villa Borghese.
Dominic Previti, the firm’s senior partner, continued past his assistant without even acknowledging her answer and made directly for his computer. The answer he was looking for to his urgent question would not come via the telephone.
It took a moment for him to login to his secure email system. While waiting for the encryption system to fully engage, he stared out from the large bay window of his office. Although the Tiber River lay just a few hundred metres to the west and the Villa Medici a stone’s throw to the east, he could see nothing but the cluttered rooftops of his fellow Romans. Bedraggled vegetable plots surrounded makeshift clotheslines. Some lines stood empty. The majority, weighted down under their heavy loads, sagged low in the unexpected downpour. Patio furniture, in various stages of disrepair, waited for the sun to return.
Dominic dragged his attention away from the outside world and focused on the task at hand.
The request for action to his counterpart in the Dublin office of Williams & Teacher he’d sent late on Friday. Even allowing for the one-hour time difference, he’d expected an update this morning. Surely, he wondered, a full weekend of investigating one Irishman couldn’t be that complicated.
As the inbox of his email system populated the screen, he immediately noticed the new message from Joseph O’Donovan.
Dominic had known Joseph for close to 20 years. Both men made senior partner in the late 1990s, Dominic, the senior by two months. He trusted Joseph implicitly and knew whatever recommendation his friend made in this matter could be trusted 100%. However, it still only made him feel slightly less anxious. His largest client was not one with which to trifle, their account generated fees measured in the millions annually, and the exposure alone of a failure on his behalf would be devastating, if not deadly.
Before reading Joseph’s response, Dominic scrolled back through the entire message string.
March 18 –
Request immediate assistance. Surveillance required on a subject in your market. Name – Eamonn Mahoney. Additional details attached. Our client here has concerns of a leak in his supply network.
Please investigate and report back. ASAP.
-D.
______
March 18 –
Will do. Any further info available? Put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons, has he?
-J.
______
March 18 –
Client – V – hates to lose valuable source but can ill afford public exposure. May want to cross reference your client – SF – for more background. Does that help?
-D.
______
March 18 –
Oh dear, heavy hitters indeed. Your needs are crystal clear. Will have my best team on it. Expect an initial report back to you Monday a.m.
-J.
______
A tentative knock on the door caused Dominic to pause.
Yes, Angelina. What is it?
Your afternoon espresso, Dottore.
Angelina, the firm’s 20-year-old receptionist of 6 months timidly entered the office juggling a tray holding a small cup of espresso. She placed it gently on the edge of his desk as if it was a kilo of plastic explosives and smiled in triumph.
Dominic proffered a smile he assumed sufficiently hid his disdain for her incompetence. And then wondered, not for the first time, which had the higher I.Q, the desk or Angelina?
Before returning to the important business at hand, he followed the hypnotising sway of Angelina’s hips as she retreated from his office and instantly recalled exactly why she was still employed.
He shook the impure thoughts from his mind and returned his attention to Joseph’s email.
March 21 –
Initial report suggests a leak. It appears someone has already begun cleaning house at this end (see attachment). Unsure if Eamonn is the problem, but he controls the majority of the operation, per SF.
My opinion – Consider source compromised. Will await your instructions on next steps.
-J.
______
Dominic clicked on the attachment symbol, and a newspaper article appeared on the screen from the Irish Times.
It recounted the story of an elderly lady from the town of Bray. The victim of an apparent hit and run accident over the weekend. It went on to say the van involved in the accident was found abandoned and ablaze in an open field 20-kilometres to the south. All attempts at locating the driver so far proving fruitless.
The article then went on to recount the life of a Mrs Coogan. At this point, Dominic lost interest.
Dominic pondered the meaning. On the face of it, an innocuous enough story, but Joseph must have had a reason to include it in his response. He thought the manner in which the accident played out spoke to a professional hit. Although he couldn’t fathom why kill a seemingly innocent lady. But if Joseph felt it an important enough link to include in the report, it must be something their client needed to know.
Why he’d been pointed in that direction, to a hit and run in the small Irish village of Bray, may have been unclear to his 65-year-old eyes, but he knew it must tie in with this Eamonn Mahoney.
Dominic reached for the phone. It may not make sense to him, but he knew the person to whom it would.