Free The House of Serenades by Lina Simoni

status quo.
    “Even if Alessandro were to call off his engagement,” he told his family, “the Berillis would never give me my job back. We have no way of fighting them. We’d better let go.”
    It wasn’t easy for Roberto’s parents to accept that proposition, but in the end they resigned to it, and within weeks the matter of Roberto’s unjust treatment became a bad memory they all tried to forget as fast as their hurt pride allowed. Soon, Roberto began looking for another job outside the legal field, which had become for him terra proibita as all the law firms in Genoa were aware that he had been fired. That the reasons for his firing may have been wrong was of no interest to the legal elite, which was a very tightly knit circle.
    During the Christmas holiday Roberto answered an advertisement for the position of personal secretary of Cesare Cortimiglia, the Mayor, who at the time was specifically looking for someone with legal expertise. His application arrived on the Mayor’s desk with perfect timing. The Mayor gladly hired him for the job, and with the new year Roberto began his career at City Hall.
    “It all worked out,” he told his father at the end of his first week. “The job is interesting, and I don’t have too many regrets. I’m disappointed I had to abandon the practice of law, but not that I lost my job at Berilli e Figli . I dislike that family. I’m glad I’ll have nothing to do with them for the rest of my life.”
    It made things easier (and Roberto proud) that Alessandro and Concetta were happy and in love. They would get married in one month and were already discussing the number of children they would have.
    “I can see that Mister Passalacqua may have reasons to dislike you,” Antonio said. “I believe I’ve met him on a couple of occasions. He struck me as a reasonable man, I must say. I wasn’t aware he had worked for you in the past. Now that I know, I’ll make sure to investigate him thoroughly. Let’s go on. Can you think of someone else?”
    Giuseppe pronounced the name with contempt. “Guido Orengo.”
    “Guido Orengo?” Antonio marveled. “He’s in jail.”
    “True, but he has a network of criminals at his service, as you know,” Giuseppe insisted. “The threat may have been carried out by one of his men.”
    “Were you involved in Guido Orengo’s arrest?” Antonio asked.
    “Indirectly.”
    “Meaning … what?”
    “I helped spread rumors about his illegal operations,” Giuseppe explained. “Those rumors, as you certainly remember, prompted a police investigation that culminated in the confiscation of over a thousand liters of smuggled alcohol stored in a warehouse by the docks.”
    “I remember,” Antonio said. “I was there when it happened. How exactly did you help spread the rumors, Mister Berilli?”
    “One of my clients, whose name is not important and I won’t reveal, sought my assistance in a blackmailing matter,” Giuseppe explained. “He had received anonymous letters threatening to reveal to his wife his steady relationship with a waitress at the Stella Maris establishment and his drinking habit. Given that the woman was acquainted with Guido Orengo and that he was the one who refilled my client’s cellar with tax-free alcohol, my client thought Guido Orengo could be the blackmailer. I suggested to my client that he contact the police, but he refused to do so for fear of a scandal. I then suggested that he write a letter to the police. He did. He mailed a three-page long report in which he described in detail everything he knew about Orengo’s illicit activities. I read the report to make sure it contained nothing that would send the police or Orengo’s gang chasing after my client. He signed the report with a false name.”
    Antonio nodded. He said, “I remember that report, and it’s true that we used it as the starting point of our investigation into Orengo’s alcohol contraband. I had no idea that the report had come from one of