Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Piero Schiavo Campo

I glanced outside the aircraft window. We’d passed the Alps, and stretching ahead of us was the endless, milky, murky plane of the Po valley: the megalopolis was nearby. I had just enough time to study the reports of the PRL (Regional Police of Lombardy). For reasons of territorial jurisdiction, the local police had immediately launched an investigation. The media had broadcast the severe visage of Luciani, Commander of Milan’s PRL, who had pledged that his patrols would identify the culprit without delay. However, as the victim was a senior European executive, official protocol required the intervention of the European Police Department (EPD). The Big Boss in person had summoned me at eleven o’clock and ordered me to reach Stauder in Milan. He’d called while I was still watching, nonplussed, the live holographic news service on Europe Press. I began to study the holographic reports of the first interrogations, received during my flight. Goldbach maintained that his plane had landed at five p.m. on June 14; he’d picked up a rented car and had gone straight to his hotel, the Excelsior, in Piazza della Repubblica. At nine in the evening he’d asked for a snack to be brought up to his room, and at eleven he was asleep. His statements were easy to verify, and no doubt PRL’s bloodhounds had already done so. Throughout the interrogation, Goldbach had seemed tense and concerned – but this was only to

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