Milano - Handouts

[robertod]

Cavollaro´s photos on the train.

The singer holds the group talking about her opera. She shows the investigators some photographs of the opera, the famous Aida. She explains that the Aida takes place in Egypt. The setting of ancient Egypt as it was reproduced on the stage is impressive. Cavollaro is enthusiastic in showing the scenography, the orchestra and the costumes. As a last photo, the Italian singer shows a picture of her with the three main patrons of the opera. One of the three patrons is a dark-skinned turkish man. One of the patrons immediately catches the eye of the investigators. They have no doubt. That man is Mehmet Makryat.

She points at each of the three men in the photo.
"This is Flavio Conti, the owner of the Alfa Romeo factory. This one is Arturo Faccia. Faccia is... an important Milanese family. And this one here is an acquaintance of Flavio and Arturo.... he´s a Turkish businessman. I don't remember his name. "

Spinola´s death

A small protest is taking place outside the Milan police station. Six workers hold signs reading JUSTICE FOR ENNIO SPINOLA. They talk about the killing of automobile worker Ennio Spinola whose body was found yesterday in Portello, not far from the Alfa Romeo factory where he worked.

Cavollaro´s disappearance
The police inspector dealing with Miss Cavollaro's case is called Mario Crespi.
"Well... the car Miss Cavollaro got in was a black Alfa Romeo. We interrogate two witnesses. They were not able to see the driver, but Miss Cavollaro got into the car as she knew the driver. We talked to the La Scala staff. Rumor has it that the driver could possibly be Flavio Conti, an old flame of Cavollaro's. We questioned Flavio Conti, and... he admitted that he had taken Cavollaro into her car to give her a ride. He says the woman suddenly asked to get off, a few blocks from the La Scala theatre. She had something important and urgent to do there. At the theater, however, she was never seen.

I think it is unlikely the Miss Cavollaro´s case is connected to the death of Spinola. The body of the automobile worker was discovered in a laneway off Via Tavazzano in Portello, not far from the Alfa Romeo factory where he worked. He was stabbed to death. We are pursuing enquiries among workers in the area. Spinola was an active unionist, and is reported to have been arguing about union matters with other workers in recent days. Spinola was killed when the union was about to decide if continuing to relentlessly face the factory´s owner, taking advantage of the businessman´s moment of weakness.

The factory´s owner is Flavio Conti... who is also the last person who has seen Cavollaro. They have been lovers and they are still friends. He has no idea about where she might have gone when she got out of his car.
Conti is a respectable citizen and gentleman. I don't think he's lying about Cavollaro. Neither I think he was involved in Spinola´s murder. Spinola was a subversive and hotheaded guy and that probably got him into trouble. "

Conti´s warehouse
The investigators follow the blood spots to an empty warehouse. Strangely enought, the warehouse door is open. Inside the warehouse is a gloomy maze of dusty crates. There is a shelf full of accounting paperwork regarding the accumulated material. The name of the company who the warehouse is registered to is Conti Machine Parts. The owner is Flavio Conti.

In the center is an open space with a stone slab in the middle. There are bloodstains on the slab, and outlines can be seen of the upper body, where two bodies lay side by side. The traces of blood on the surface do not suggest something violent, they clearly draw the shape of two human chests placed side by side.
Taking a closer look at the bodies, the two investigators note that the two men do not appear to be of Turkish ethnicity. They have dark hair but they are Caucasian, probably Italian. The wounds are not related to the strangeness of the face skin. They're wounds caused by a violent attack. In one body, five furrows are clearly visible as caused by claws. The clawed "paw" though... seems to be a human hand. The other body has two large perforations, that seem to have been caused by the teeth of human jaws.


Searching the place, at first the warehouse appears to contain nothing but dust and crates full of car parts. At a certain point, however, the two intruders discover something unexpected in one of the dark corners of the room. There are two human dead bodies. Two men middle-aged men in dark social attire. They are mortally wounded in the jugular, hit by something that violently tore the flesh.

But there´s something else... when Andriew and Archie flick the flashlight at their faces, they discover something unnerving and terrifyingly familiar. The two men have exactly the same face, with the same strangeness the investigators saw in the body of the man who died twice in London. The skin on the hands and chest looks different from the skin on the face. Hands and chest are younger, the faces... is more wrinkled.

[robertod]

La Scala


Antonio Toscanini.

"This place seems to be under a curse. In the last six years, La Scala has not been able to keep a lighting designer for more than three months. Every new person fell ill, and furthermore suffered profound disillusionment with the falsity and façades inherent in the theatrical arts. The illnesses included consumption, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, asthma, appendicitis, and in a few cases a strange dermatitis on the chest. Management has done everything possible, but has never pinpointed the cause of these maladies."

Luisa, the woman of the custumery.

I suspect Caterina might have purposely escaped from her life for a while. Those past days I´ve been feeling she could breakdown at any moment. You might have found her happy and enthusiastic, but that's just a mask. She suffers the pressure and the expectations of those around her."

"There have been rumors that Caterina was starting again a relationship with Flavio Conti. Before falling ill, Flavio looked quite interested in Caterina. He often appeared during Caterina´s rehearsals.

Caterina had also family issues going on. She had a quarrel with her major sister Virginia lately. Catherine and Virginia have always had a troubled relationship. Virginia suffered greatly from being an unwanted firstborn. Her father wanted a boy and so Virginia was not a wanted child. Then, Amedeo was born and lastly Caterina was. Caterina was born after the family got a male child, so her birth was welcome with more benevolence. Apart from that, Virginia is an opera singer too, but she has never been as talented as Caterina. I always had the impression that Virginia is envious, even if she tries to hide it.

Faccia is one of the patrons. But it is better that you stay away from him. We are living in difficult times and the theater has had financial difficulties. For this La Scala has had to seek funding from unusual patrons.

Faccia is a doctor from a wealthy Milanese family, but he´s also the leader of a gang of local criminals. In the last days before Caterina´s disappearance, that Faccia was sticking around here in the theater during rehearsals. He seemed to be up to something. There was another guy with him. Another patron. He looks foreigner. Arabian... maybe Turk... One evening, while I was tidying things up in the storeroom, I heard Faccia talking to someone in the corridor. He said he'll take care of Spinola. Then he left with the other person. I couln´t see who he or she was. But when I read about the unionist in the newspaper, I really felt bad. If you go to the police with this story, I will deny everything and tell them you guys are liears."