The Allon family’s security detail increased in size in early March after the Carabinieri arrested Don Lorenzo Di Falco, leader of theCamorra’s most powerful clan. French police rounded upcamorristiin Lyon and Marseilles, and Spanish authorities arrested a senior member of the Di Falco clan in Barcelona. SBL PrivatBank, having been abandoned by legitimate investors and depositors, closed its doors, sending shock waves through the global financial markets. Martin Landesmann snapped up the bank’s elegant headquarters on the Piazza della Riforma at a bargain-basement price. A week later he took the New Bond Street building off the Holy See’s hands. The loss on the original investment to Vatican Incorporated was an astonishing three hundred million euros.
Of seemingly lesser note was the story in London’sTelegraphregarding a lawsuit filed by an ex-wife of Alexander Prokhorov, accusing the Russian oligarch of using fine art to conceal marital assets. As part of the suit, the plaintiff and her British lawyers had demanded a complete inventory of the billionaire’s art collection—a collection that now included a Leonardo that was not a Leonardo. Gabriel reached the unsettling conclusion that he had no choice but to make the painting go away.
“How?” asked Chiara warily one evening while preparing dinner.
“Another extrajudicial seizure.”
“You’re going to steal it, you mean?”
“I couldn’t possibly do it myself. I have to finish therealLeonardo.”
Ingrid, however, was holed up at her cottage on the North Sea and bored senseless. She readily accepted the assignment but made it clear she would need a partner.
“Have you anyone in mind?” asked Gabriel.
“What about your friend from Marseilles?”
The friend was a professional thief named René Monjean. It was a wise suggestion. Monjean knew the territory and could handle himself if things went sideways.
“He won’t do it pro bono,” Gabriel pointed out.
“No,” agreed Ingrid. “We’ll need some cash.”
“How much?”
“A half million, at least. A million to be on the safe side.”
Gabriel killed the call, then rang Martin Landesmann in Geneva.
“Absolutely not,” declared the Swiss financier.
“Thanks, Martin. I’ll make it up to you somehow.”
***
General Ferrari popped into Venice the following week. Over Bellinis at Harry’s Bar, he briefed Gabriel on the escalating war against the Camorra. More than three hundred members of the Di Falco clan had been arrested, and billions in cash and other assets had been seized or frozen. The supply of cocaine on the streets of Europe had fallen precipitously. Prices had risen sharply as a result.
“All because of you and your friend the Holy Father.”
“How long will I need protection?” asked Gabriel.
“Hard to say. For the moment, at least, they seem far more interested in killing one another. They’re also starting to talk. One of the men in custody admitted to helping Salvatore Alvaro kidnap and murder a young British woman in Venice last September. He claimed not to know anything about her or why his superiors in the Camorra wanted her dead.”
“But how did they know she was trying to make contact with Amelia March ofARTnews?”
“I’m not sure they did. But when Signorina Radcliff discovered that the painting was no longer in the storeroom at the Vatican Museums, she went to Florence and confronted Giorgio Montefiore.”
“Says who?”
“Montefiore’s secretary at the Uffizi. Apparently they had a blazing row. Montefiore told her that she had just ruined her career andthrew her out of his office. Then, in all likelihood, he called his friend Cardinal Bertoli.”
“And Bertoli told his investment adviser, Nico Ambrosi, that they had a problem.”
General Ferrari nodded gravely. “Ambrosi and his associates in the Camorra had a solution, though. An Italian solution.”
“But why was Montefiore killed?”
“It was Montefiore who oversaw the restoration of the Leonardo. When Salvatore Alvaro came to Florence to collect it, Montefiore refused to tell him where it was unless he was paid an additional five million euros. Not surprisingly, Alvaro agreed to the terms. And when he had the painting in hand...”
