The Magistrate's Ultimatum

The tension that preceded the arrival of retired magistrate Roberto Valenti had turned Castello di San Corvo into an armed fortress of stone and iron. At two o'clock in the afternoon, four black Carabinieri executive sedans, accompanied by an armored tactical transport van, had wound their way up the private cliffside mountain road from Taormina. At the castle’s outer iron portcullis, the Carabinieri officers had been required to surrender their…