Between Master and Slave (Manxman, Mature)

Is This a Clinic

The air up here is fresh even in the early summer. The view of Florence is spectacular. The old town with its maze of streets and buildings, the Arno river in the foreground winding its way along the old wall, the duomo with its tower and cupola dominating in the distance above the rest of the city. Rightfully so a replica of David on its pedestal is the eternal spectator of the view from Piazzale Michelangelo. Even this early, a small crowd is already enjoying the day and the piazza.

"Mr. Romano. Nice to see you." The voice snaps me out as I look over the balcony that delimit the piazza, De Laurentis seems happy, I thought he would be mad for forcing him to see me today.
"Inspector, nice to see you." We shake hands. "What a spectacular view."
"Yes, Piazzale Michelangelo is one of my favorite spots in Florence. Have you ever been here?"
"No, I must say I did not even know it existed. It is breathtaking."
"I am glad I met you here then. Shall we? There is a coffe shop nearby. My treat."
"Well then, how can I say no?" I am also in a good humor. As we go to the bar I keep the light conversation.
"I thought you would be mad at me for forcing you to see me today."
"What! No, on the contrary. I have a beautiful excuse to leave the stuffed office, and officers, don't go around repeating my words."
He smiles, I quickly join in. The inspector is making a joke, is a first.
"Truth is, I wanted to see in person how the tests are doing. After your call I realized that the boy is also my responsibility and I should be a bit more involved on first basis."
We arrive to the bar nearby. We take a table.
"So Mr. Romano, how are you doing? Is your B&B finished?"
"Yes, I even had my first customers. A couple, they checked out yesterday, before I left to come here."
"I am glad for you."
"How is your investigation going? I mean if you can tell me about it?"
"Actually, thanks to you we are making incredible progress. Now I am even working on the case full time."
"What do you mean? Thanks to me and now working on the case full time."
"As you know I work with the Polizia di Finanza, but I was an inspector with the criminal investigation squadron. About a month and half ago, an ex colleague contacted me to ask some help with an investigation."
"The man with a blown out chest?"
"The man with the blown out chest. I started looking into it, and I fell on the organization. At the beginning people thought I was crazy. My friend and I saw my supervisor, and he told me to profile a possible buyer. If we were successful he would give us the resources to carry on. Even when we received the response from the organization, my supervisor put me officially on the case when I brought the boy back and Doctor Keller showed him a picture of the implant in the boy's back. Until then even him was incredulous."
"And now you are working on the case full time?"
"Yes, they figured that since I was the one to understand what was going on, I would be the best suited to work on the investigation, so they put me on the case full time."
"You said you have made some progress since you were on it."
"Yes, for instance, the documents they gave you for the boy."
"You mean the passport and birth certificate."
"Yes, they are real."
"What do you mean real, I invented the name."
"Yes, but they actually exist in the registry. So we are looking on how they made it possible. We have found leads on how they did it. Actually, I have a question for you. Did they tell you that the boy had to be Italian?"
"No, they told me I could choose from a list of countries."
"Do you remember that list?"
"There was Canada, Italy, France, USA, Germany. Some African and Asian countries as well. About 15, maybe 20 countries."
"You chose Italy. Did you chose which city for his place of birth."
"No, they only let me choose the country, the name and the date of birth. I assumed that they would make false documents and so I did not push it further."
"You chose Francesco Picone."
"Yes I chose Francesco."
"Just out of curiosity, Francesco is Francis in English, like your lover's name."
"How do you know Frank's real name?"
"I had to look into it, remember? I am just curious as to how you came up with it."
"Is it part of your investigation?" I smile, what is the inspector objective? He always make me weary.
"No, just curiosity. I feel I am starting to know you. You do not have to answer if you do not want."
"It's the first name that popped in my mind,"
"Just like that? No other motives?"
He pushes for the information, fine if you must know. I think to myself frustrated.
"Frank may have been part of it. You know Vladimir was right. Many people that go there are not looking for a slave. They are looking for a fantasy. I guess I was creating my fantasy without wanting to."
In the silence that follows we sip our drinks, each absorbed in his own thoughts.
"What is going to be your next move?" I ask after a while to break the silence.
"Next we have to find out exactly how they did create Francesco and who." We already know that they have accomplices in the offices in Caserta to create the birth certificate and Rome for the passport."
"Why Rome?" Now I am curious, "I understand Caserta to create the birth certificate. But once that is done, they could just ask for a passport."
It would never be delivered in time. Plus they need an address, which should be verified. All of which was skipped. So they have accomplices in Rome as well."
"This sounds like a conspiracy."
"No, no conspiracy. Just bought government officials."
"Ohh," I am almost disappointed.
"Shall we go?"
"Yes, of course."
"Ohh, Mr Romano, if anyone asks, I have invited you to come here to answer a few questions to help with the investigation."
"Cool. Do we take my car or yours?"
"Both, I have to be back to the office and you will be already on your direction to Southern Italy. I doubt you will want to come back."