Page 29 of Marcello

The bells in my head became sirens.

“The Camorra?” I asked.

She looked at me in surprise. “You know about them?”

“It’s pretty common knowledge,” I said, trying to play it off.

“Yeah, the Camorra,” she said sourly. “The fucking scourge of Naples. Anything bad that happens here, they’re usually behind it.”

I knew I should’ve been repulsed by whatever this guy had done –

But instead, I was excited to finally get my first clue. “Where do they hang out?”

Federica looked at me like You did NOT just ask that.

“So I can avoid them,” I added hastily.

“Oh,” she said, but she didn’t seem totally convinced. “They’re mostly in Terzo Mondo – ”

“‘Third World’?”

“It’s slang for a bunch of poor neighborhoods outside Naples. Slums that the cops have basically just abandoned.”

“Holy shit,” I muttered.

“Yeah, it’s fucked up.”

“If they’re from outside Naples, why is there a shrine here?”

“He probably grew up here.”

“And moved to Terzo Mondo?”

“Why the fuck do you care?” she asked, irritated.

“I mean, I just – there’s no Camorra in the historic center of Naples, is that what you’re telling me?”

“Oh, they’re around,” she muttered. “Just not as much as in the poorer neighborhoods, that’s all.”

“How do you know if somebody’s in the Camorra?”

“I don’t know,” she said impatiently. “If they’re a street-level thug, they usually have shitty tattoos. Some of them wear track suits. But the bosses – the rich ones – look like regular businessmen. At least from what I’ve heard.”

“What do you do if – ”

“Why are you so fucking curious about the Camorra?” she asked, obviously angry.

I shrugged. “I’m just interested, that’s all.”

“This isn’t a fucking movie, dude,” she snarled. “This is real life. The Camorra are awful. They kill people, they sell drugs to kids, they extort small businesses, they traffic women and force them to be prostitutes – basically, they prey on the weak and powerless.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, putting up my hands like Don’t shoot.

“The Camorra are everything that’s wrong with Naples, and nobody ever does shit about them. Nobody ever stands up to them. Don’t be ‘interested’ about them – either fight them, or forget about them. They’re evil.”

“Alright, I got it,” I snapped.

It was the first time I ever got angry with her.