"Right." Luigi crossed his legs and brushed off a nonexistent spot from his trousers.
Malcolm handed him a foaming beer mug. "You like the foam, right?"
"Right again." Luigi Amedeo lifted the mug, turned it around and looked at it. "Nice. Hockey players in action, painted by hand, I assume." Luigi Amedeo barely touched his drink.
"Yes. These mugs are a recent gift from my brother. He was thankful for a number of things." Malcolm drank his beer in a few quick swallows. "I thought we could exchange some ideas."
"I see," Luigi Amedeo said. He glanced at the reproductions of the Stanley Cup winners hanging on the walls. "About hockey?" he asked, a veil of sarcasm in his voice.
"No, of course not."
"About what, then?"
"I'll keep the subject of our informal meeting a secret until lunch time," Malcolm said with a serene smile. "At that time you will be served some of that old nebbiolo I ordered especially for you. The cru, on the label, reads 'Monteturro Castle.' "
Seated comfortably at a corner table of the Sorrento restaurant, Malcolm and Luigi Amedeo had talked for more than an hour about Tanya, the Monteturro family and their wine production, the exquisite lamb cutlet with mint sauce they had just finished-they had even chatted about the opening of the new hockey season.
"What is your relationship to Commissario Caltabieni?" Malcolm asked, casually.
"A minor acquaintance."
"So, Caltabieni isn't a friend of yours, you say, in spite of the visits to your yacht. And you still won't help me with any useful information." Malcolm poured the last bit of wine into Luigi Amedeo's glass.
"I don't have any useful information to give you."
"Is this some code of honor?"
Luigi laughed. "No, code of ignorance. I know nothing." A smile blinked in his eyes.
Malcolm changed his approach. "Caltabieni, or someone close to him, is likely responsible for the corruption of Edda Milton and Charles Aldrin, and of my own agent Joseph Halliday. If you had been outfoxed as I have been, wouldn't you seek some action?"
"Probably." Luigi Amedeo's eyes brimmed with tease.
"What do you mean, 'probably'? Wouldn't you make him pay for his crimes? Bring him to justice?"
Luigi Amedeo laughed. "No! I'm not a man of the law. I don't believe in justice. It's slow, it catches only a few-those least fortunate-seldom the worst criminals."