Brunetti had tossed Il Gazzettino into the waste-paper bin before leaving the Questura, but still he took the subject of one of the lead articles home with him. As he settled on the sofa with Cicero's Against Verres and its denunciation of a corrupt official, Brunetti's thoughts were frequently diverted to the cascade of money opened by the pandemia that had, until recently, so ravaged the country.
Not even the deaths of more than 125,000 people had put an end to greed - not that Brunetti has thought for a moment that it would - nor had it dulled the ability of organized crime to get its snout in the virtually unguarded trough. Money had rained down and countless companies had requested compensation from agencies whose task it was to bestow the largesse of a frightened Europe. He'd cringed at the sight of some of the names he'd read, both in the governmental agencies, as well as among the directors of some of the companies receiving them. No doubt he and his colleagues in the Guardia di Finanza would become more familiar with those names as time passed.
-Donna Leon, Give Unto Others: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
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