Disillusioned

By Barbara Loos

The book exposes the lives of the characters that first appeared in Unidentified Person in Italy and continues in Disillusioned. This story provides an insight into how people whose lives have been in turmoil still have opportunities to make decisions that will alter and impact them forever. Beppe, now incarcerated in Florence, Italy and awaiting trial, attempts to explain the motivation and life’s setbacks that drove him to be a suspected serial killer. He writes a journal to the young woman he fell in love with, and kidnapped, in hopes of defending himself and proving his innocence. He believes she is the only one he can trust and if he can tell her his reasons for taking her that night and can he convince her to return to Italy to help him? How is it possible that his kidnapped victim holds his life in her hands?

“Barbara Loos has unraveled the story of Leslie Lotton and the mysterious Italian characters we met in "Unidentified Person in Italy " in her sequel, "Disillusioned." In this heady sequel we find out about the lives of the people she encountered in Italy as she attended the Italian language school. We find out about the life of the man who kidnapped Leslie and went to prison for murdering several women. Leslie finds that the Italian culture can run deep and wide with secret and dangerous people tied to drugs, prostitution and death. All the characters have their own stories that Ms. Loos's readers will be hungry to read about. Along the way, readers will understand why Leslie was kidnapped and how the so called serial killer is exonerated.” Vickie Stockman

“Barbara spins an intriguing story about two people whose lives come together again after their first anonymous encounter in Barbara's earlier book, "Unidentified in Italy." They are destined to meet again under very unusual circumstances. Leslie Lotton is one of the characters and Nico "Beppe" Parello is the other. The earlier book involving these characters tells of Leslie's kidnapping while visiting and studying in Florence, Italy. She escapes without ever knowing the kidnapper. This story starts with Beppe being in prison accused of being a serial killer and writing a journal about his life, his wife, his daughter and their respective family entanglements some of whom are prominent and others who may have mafioso roots and criminal activities. The story gets very captivating when several years after her kidnapping, Leslie returns to Florence to assist the police in pursuing a lead about criminal who may have some connection to her past while in Florence. Initially, Leslie doesn't grasp why the police need her help, but when she views a police lineup, the fear and anxiety of the kidnapping reawakens. She is allowed to talk to one of the suspects alone. The tenseness and fear is vividly portrayed and holds the reader's attention. Your attention will be held intensely as mine was right up to the surprising ending. Hugh

“Disillusioned did not disappoint!! From the first chapter it had my attention and I found myself not wanting to put it down. Barbara Loos did a great job with the characters and making them "alive" for the reader. I won't spoil the ending for you - but it did leave me wanting to read a third book about Leslie Lotton and what she is up to now!” Suzy Bushman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Loos
• Release date: Aug 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9780991064632

Barbara Loos

While attending the University of Michigan, I spent a summer in Florence through one of the universities programs. This is why my first two books are set in Italy.Traveling became a life style. Not only traveling for vacations but I have also lived overseas in different countries for fifteen years. This has and will have a significant influence over the books I write.When not writing or working to publish these books, this is the most difficult part of the process, I enjoy painting in acrylics, sculpturing in clay, exercising at the local gym, jewelry designing, a little golfing, gardening, entertaining, taking my dog for a walk or just relaxing with a good book or movie.

Book preview

DISILLUSIONED

Barbara Loos

Copyright © 2013 Barbara Loos.

The Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Smashwords License Notes

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Yellow Star Publishing Co., except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. If you want to share this book, please return to Smashwords and purchase an additional copy as a gift. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

First Edition

First Printing, 2013

Book cover designed by Scarlett Rugers Design

www.scarlettrugers.com

Formatted by Debora Lewis

arenapublishing.org

This is a work of fiction based on the events presented in Unidentified Person in Italy. The author has used her imagination to intertwine the actual events and the fictionalized story. The names of the characters have been changed. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locations is entirely coincidental.

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Yellow Star Publishing Company, LLC

Tucson AZ 85741

[e-mail]

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Dedication

To those who have been indirectly affected by drugs and have paid the price as an innocent person.

To those who stood up with and assisted the innocent.

To the men and women who fight drug crimes every day of the year.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Character List

Introduction

Prologue: Beppe’s First Entry In His Journal To Leslie From Detention

One ~THE KIDNAPPING AND RESCUE OF SOPHIA

Two ~ADOLF’S RECEPTION AND FINANCIAL DONOR IDENTIFIED

Three ~VENEZIA ON LOCATION

Four ~BEPPE’S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Five ~SEÑOR ENRICO CABRERA’S PLAN BEGINS

Six ~BEPPE’S HOMECOMING

Seven ~FIRST CONFRONTATION WITH ENRICO

Eight ~SUSPICIONS

Nine ~ENRICO’S PLAN

Ten ~DARK DAYS AHEAD

Eleven ~LEVEL THREE REVEALED

Twelve ~STRAINED RELATIONS and ENRICO MAKES HIS MOVE

Thirteen ~FILOMENA RECONNECTS WITH CAPRICIA

Fourteen ~LUCIANA PAYS THE PRICE

Fifteen ~ENTER LESLIE LOTTON

Sixteen ~ENRICO’S RAGE

Seventeen ~REVELATIONS

Eighteen ~THE SKELETON IS OUT OF THE CLOSET

Nineteen ~TORMENT AND TRAGEDY

Twenty ~SHATTERED DREAMS

Twenty-one ~TAKEN

Twenty-two ~ITALIAN AUTHORITIES REQUEST HELP

Twenty-three ~UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Twenty-four ~THE FINAL INTERVIEW

Twenty-five ~THE KEY

Twenty-six ~THE TRIAL and CONCLUSION

About Barbara Loos

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Acknowledgements

To Federico Moro, author of Venice at War: The Great Battles of The Senissima, who kindly gives his permission to use scenes from Venice at War, one of the many books on Italian history that he has diligently researched and written in both Italian and English. Federico Moro is one of Italy’s great historians and well-known authors with more than twenty published works.

To Fabiano Zorzetto, whom I always want to acknowledge as the most giving, caring person I have ever known. He gives me faith in mankind.

To my friend, Angela Schaefer, who read Disillusioned as a movie script and was my muse when it came to new ideas.

To my friend Hugh Schaefer, who read the Disillusioned as a manuscript and provided useful suggestions on how to improve the story.

As always, to the dysfunctional fan club that finds inner strength at www.LeslieLotton.com where we all work out our little kinks and use them for the better.

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Main Characters

Adolfo Conti – Husband to Filomena Ricci. Father of Luciana. Member of the Italian government.

Basilio – (Nicknamed Shorty) – Employee in Enrico’s organization.

Capricia Ricci – (Nicknamed Capri) – Enrico’s mother, disowned by the family when she became pregnant out of wedlock.

Damiano Ricci – Member of the Bianchi crime family who served as their consigliore until he married Maria Clementi at which point they moved and assumed the name Ricci.

Enrico Cabrera – (AKA Alessandro) Capricia’s son. Relative of the Clementi crime family, seeking revenge for his mother’s treatment by her family.

Enzo – Security guard at the Conti Building.

Filomena Ricci Conti (Nicknamed Fili) – Daughter of Signora Maria Ricci. Married to Adolfo. Mother of Luciana. She is a surgeon specializing in oncology.

Frank Miletti – Son of Ilario Miletti, Beppe’s lifelong friend and confidant. Leslie’s chauffer and protector in Hollywood.

Giacomo – (AKA Giaco) Motorcycle mechanic.

Ilario Miletti – Best friend to Beppe. Assistant director for the documentary production company owned by Beppe (Signor Porrello). They grew up together in the same village.

Inspector Mattia Giaromo – Italian police inspector assigned to the case against Beppe, and Leslie Lotton’s contact in Florence.

Jessie Williams – Leslie’s roommate during the summer program in Florence, from Ohio, and an associate of Enrico in his organization.

Leslie Andrews Lotton – American from a dysfunctional family in the southern part of the United States, attends a summer program in Florence. Comes to Italy looking to change her life. Writes a book Unidentified Person in Italy that is used as evidence in the Porrello Case.

Lonnie – Friend to Jessie and works for Enrico.

Luca – Enrico’s associate and driver. Drives a 600 Series Mercedes.

Luciana Conti Porrello – Beppe’s wife of ten years. Daughter of Signora Filomena Ricci Conti. Mother of Sophia.

Maria Ricci - (formerly Maria Clementi) – Married Damiano Bianchi, but changes their name to Ricci to disassociate from the Bianchi crime family. Mother of Filomena. Daughter of an abusive father who was a member of the Clementi crime family, which was originally from Brazil, but has ties to the Camorra family from Napoli, Italy.

Marie Louise – French girlfriend turned into a mule in Enrico’s organization.

Nico Beppe Porrello – Husband to Luciana. Father of Sophia. Producer of Italian history documentaries. Comes from a small village in Italy – Castagneto-Carducci, a town consisting of grape vineyards and wine growers. His father had condemned his desires to be a documentary producer and predicts Beppe will fail. Beppe fears his father’s prediction has come true.

Nunzio – Lead actor in Beppe’s latest film.

Paula Dumont – Leslie’s publisher. Lives in New York City, and travels with her to Italy.

Señor Cabrera – Capricia’s husband, Enrico’s father, Argentinean, but moves family to Brazil in hopes for a better life.

Signorina Gina – Housemaid to the Porrello family. Pronounces Porrello name Parelli

Sophia Porrello – Daughter of Beppe and Luciana, kidnapped at age four; rescued by her father and lived in an overprotective environment, the penthouse. Died from inhaling fumes from a keyboard cleaner called bomboletta, Italian for compressed dust cleaner, used to feel euphoric but has dire consequences.

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Introduction

As Disillusioned begins, the suspect, Beppe Porrello, is writing a journal from his detention cell in Florence, trying to explain to Leslie, now labeled by the police as The one that got away, what led up to his stalking and kidnapping her all those years ago.

In the book Unidentified Person in Italy, Leslie Lotton has written about being kidnapped by an unknown Italian man while she was in Florence and about the investigation seven years later when the Italian police contact her because they suspect, based on information found in her book, that her abductor may be a serial killer.

In Florence only weeks earlier, at the request of the Italian police, to assist the police in identifying the suspect. Leslie left the prison after Beppe would not answer how he knew so much about her life. A question she desperately needed answered in order to put the pieces together to make his story believable.

The suspect’s journal entries begin after she returns to the US from her trip to Italy to identify the suspect. The story unfolds as the entries are made. The journal: shares parts of his life that made him who he is today, a description of Leslie’s time in Florence for school, her original trip to Italy to identify him, and his thoughts of her—a person he loves. It is important to him that she understand this confession, because he also has a plan to bring her back as part of his defense.

Does he think she will change her statement to the police and help him gain his release? Would she return to Italy?

Journal entry: There is a saying that goes something like this: In order for evil to triumph, sometimes all it takes is for good men to do nothing.

What determines who is good and who is bad? Certainly the statement he makes in his journal is valid. But who is the good man and who is an evil one?

Discover how someone can turn bad, and how another, who is considered bad, is given the opportunity to turn good. How the inner workings of a dysfunctional family can work both ways.

The characters illustrate: how to break that dysfunctional connection, how to turn them into a positive, how the struggles change the cycle, and how a debilitating habit of a dysfunctional family can be recognized and dealt with.

Prologue

BEPPE’S FIRST ENTRY IN HIS JOURNAL TO LESLIE FROM DETENTION

Day One, after Leslie’s departure

I am writing this journal to you, Leslie, to set the record straight about all that happened before and after the death of my beloved Sophia and Luciana. To try to explain why I did what I did and to ask for your understanding.

When a man reaches a certain place in his life, when he has been dealt one too many hard blows by fate, by chance, by life itself… he sometimes simply cannot take any more. He does things he may regret. Yet, sometimes these things must be done, no matter what punishment awaits.

Yes, my dear Leslie, it was I who took you that rainy night. I had stalked you for the three months you studied in Florence. When you saw me in prison, I couldn’t allow myself to tell you this was how I knew you. You asked me many times, and I should have told you. I’m ashamed of myself but… I do know you. Please believe me.

I had to know the truth. Were you part of Enrico’s organization and did he love you?

I wanted to hurt Enrico as he had hurt me. When I abducted you that night, yes kidnapped you, I found I could not hurt you; instead my feelings for you grew even stronger.

There is a saying that goes something like this: In order for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men to do nothing. I am writing this account to simply tell the truth. This has cost me greatly. I had to step out of the dream, face my disillusionment about what men can do to one another, and put together a plan to stop that evil. I did not want to be one of those good men who does nothing to stop evil.

I will let the facts fall where they may as you read the accounts of what led up to my incarnation. All I have left is hope—hope that my actions will someday be understood. Most of all—hope you will forgive me. I will probably never be set free… but a man can dream.

One

THE KIDNAPPING and RESCUE OF SOPHIA

On a balmy Friday evening in May, thirty-five-year-old Nico Beppe Porrello—in the guise of an old man, limping with a cane—walks the streets of a small town one hundred sixty-eight kilometers southwest of Florence, Italy. Knees worn thin in the pants, frayed shirt, scuffed black shoes. He enters a dingy, run-down apartment building.

Standing in the dark hallway, he looks down at a faded, handmade cardboard badge in his palm. The inscription on the badge reads Prende Il Coraggio: Take Courage. The same phrase is tattooed in small, ornate lettering on the inside of Beppe’s right wrist. Beppe smiles and slips the tattered badge into the pocket of his threadbare pants.

Day Two

Leslie, let me tell you more about my life. I produce documentary films about the history of my beloved country, Italy. I was married to my wife, Luciana, for ten years. Our beautiful daughter, Sophia, was four when the incident happened. Sophia couldn’t pronounce the name Poppy. She called me Beppe. That’s how I have the name today.

I believe I am well liked by most people. Or, I should say I was well liked before the second incident happened. I grew up in Castagneto-Carducci, ninety kilometers outside of Florence. Most of the families in Castagneto-Carducci grow grapes. It is the Tuscany region of Italy—famous for wine grapes. The people there probably still like me. They know me; they understand me. They knew my father, too. And they feared him—just as I did. My father predicted that I would fail as a filmmaker. Well… I am a famous filmmaker now, aren’t I, Papa? You can’t deny that.

My life changed forever the morning I walked into Sophia’s bedroom in our house in Lucca, Italy to find her missing and a note on her bed. At the time, she was four…

As he writes those words, Beppe, a third-two year old man with light complexion, six foot, slender with shaggy dark hair that falls onto his face and a wrinkled brow, recalls that day. Sitting on the lawn with him, in a grassy area in front of a little stone house in Lucca, is a tall, northern-Italian blonde woman. Lanky, beautiful, olive skin. This is Luciana Conti Porrello, Beppe’s twenty-eight-year-old wife.

A four-year-old girl, their daughter Sophia, scampers giggling around to the other side of the house, her long, wavy blonde hair floating out behind her. After a short while, the sounds of her pattering feet and giggling cease. After a few more moments of silence, Luciana shades her eyes from the sunlight and looks at Beppe with mild concern in her eyes.

She has been gone a while, don’t you think? she says.

She’s playing in the house, probably.

Let’s go check.

Inside the house, in Sophia’s bedroom, the curtains over the open window are moving slightly from the breeze. Sophia is gone. A note lies on her empty bed.

Day Three

Luciana and I had spent those first few days in horror of what our little girl must be going through. We could think of nothing else. Did they hurt her? Was she frightened? Was she crying for her mama and papa? Every form of torture crossed our minds in silence, each of us afraid to say the words out loud for fear that they might come true.

Why not take me? Why should an innocent child experience this—for money? Hold a gun to my head. Tear out my heart with your bare hands, but why a small child? God, why?

The police believed the kidnapping to be the work of a known criminal couple, a man and a woman who had been observed near our neighborhood. The authorities’ plan was to disguise one of their officers to look like me, and make the ransom drop in my place. The cop would then capture the male kidnapper. At the same time, another policeman would enter the place where Sophia was being held and catch the woman and release Sophia. I strongly disagreed with the second part of their plan. I had to be the one to find her. Luciana feared that Sophia would be more terrified of the disguised person who would rescue her. That it would haunt her memory forever. I did not understand her fear but had to help both Luciana and Sophia. Our daughter would hear my voice and be comforted. That’s what mattered, to know that her papa was there for her and the ordeal was over.

I was able to convince the police to allow me to disguise myself as a weak old man and do whatever was necessary to save little Sophia myself…

Beppe hesitates at the kidnappers’ apartment and puts his ear next to the dilapidated door. He hears nothing. Fear takes over, as he doesn’t want to make a mistake. His baby girl is at risk. Remembering his badge of courage, he slips his hand in his pocket and rubs it between his finger and thumb, trying to gain strength.

For you, my Sophia, and you, Luciana, he whispers as he takes his hand out and presses it against his pocket where the badge lies. Give me courage, my God, to do my best and to bring Sophia back home.

He looks up and down the deserted hallway, takes a step back, and charges at the door, ramming it with his shoulder. It bursts open.

A middle-aged woman is rising from a tattered sofa near the door. Beppe whacks her on the head with his cane. She slumps to the floor. He hears a small, muffled scream from another room.

Sophia! It’s me, your Beppe!

He rushes to the door and shoves it open. Light floods into the dark room, revealing little Sophia, tied to the bed, mouth taped shut, eyes wild with fright. Beppe kneels down to her, loosens the ropes, and embraces her, smiling through his tears as he gently removes the tape from her mouth.

Beppe! she cries.

Day Four

That was four years ago. I became a hero. But I only did what any father would do for his child. Our only child. My precious Sophia.

Before Luciana and I were married, she was a member of a volunteer organization that helped restore the old frescos in smaller churches. It was our love for Italy’s heritage and our desire to preserve it that drew Luciana and me together in the first place. I still feel that way. But after Sophia’s