ALFREDO ANNA DANIELE DIEGO ELENA ELIA EMILIO ERNESTO GIANCARLO GIULIA LUCIANO LUISA MARTA MATTIA MEDICO PISCOANALISTA PSYCHOTHERAPIST ELENA - there are children on a train, on a school trip - they are laughing and joking around - I’m with them- ELENA - but it’s not me now, it’s me when I was eighteen. PSYCHOTHERAPIST Was it you when you left Venice? ELENA Yes. PSYCHOTHERAPIST What happens next? ELENA Some of the children are hungry, I get up and go to the restaurant carriage. ELENA - as I’m going there I see out of the window that there is a high cliff and below it a grey sea with huge waves- ELENA At the restaurant counter I order some Cantonese rice- ELENA -and as I’m paying for it I realize that the carriage that the children are in is becoming detached from the rest of the train. I run back to get them out of there, but the door between the two carriages is blocked, it won’t open, I bang my fists against it, I start screaming, but nothing- ELENA - then the carriage breaks away - and I wake up - The therapist says nothing for a moment and then asks, alway in his calm tone. PSYCHOTHERAPIST Are the children the ones you have already told me about? ELENA Yes - PSYCHOTHERAPIST It seems to me that in this dream, like in the others, you’re trying to elaborate narratively the pain you are subjected to because of your job- ELENA I don’t do enough. That’s the truth- The therapist is struck by Elena’s words, she has said them with harshness, and he doesn’t agree in the slightest, even though he tries to say this tactfully. PSYCHOTHERAPIST That isn’t true, you dedicate your entire life to your work - ELENA It’s still not enough. And I find that impossible to accept. It’s just not enough. PISCOANALISTA God is almighty. In all cultures. Have you ever asked yourself what this really means. ELENA That he can eradicate evil and suffering from the world. PSYCHOTHERAPIST We, however, don’t have the power to do that. PSYCHOTHERAPIST In the majority of cases we can only accept things that happen. ELENA I can’t, if I gave up, They would continue taking them. DIEGO It started ten minutes ago, but don’t worry I’ve paused it. DIEGO Did you get any Cantonese rice? ELENA That and plenty more besides. DIEGO Great. Can we eat on the sofa? ELENA Of course. DIEGO What do you say, go? ELENA Go- DIEGO What are doing, sleeping? ELENA No. I’m just resting my eyes a bit. DIEGO Yeah, sure. Why do I bother waiting if you then just sleep your way through it!? ELENA I’m telling you, I’m awake. ELENA Alfredo-- ELENA I’ll be right there- ALFREDO This is the photo that appeared online-- ELENA Have you already cross-checked it- ALFREDO It’s not a very clear image, but he still doesn’t match any recent missing person’s report. ALFREDO Time to pay. They all remain silent for a moment, waiting for orders. Elena pulls herself together. ELENA Let’s pay! LUISA Misuri said- ELENA Forget what she said! Just pay! ELENA What the fuck’s going on?! MATTIA They’ve taken the money but haven’t unblocked the page. ELENA Try again-- ELENA Let’s get all the elements from the photo that can help us identify the subject and the place the photo was taken in. LUISA They’ve closed down the page- ALFREDO Why?! Elena shakes her head, restless. ELENA I don’t know--I don’t know, something must have happened-- ELENA Fuck! DANIELE Let’s get him to the Santa Maria fast--- GIANCARLO There’s left nothing to do-- DANIELE In Milan they saved a boy who’d spent nearly an hour underwater--- GIANCARLO He’s dead Dan. I’m sorry. GIULIA Where were you? DANIELE A fisherman got his nets caught on a piling-- using his torch he realized there was a body at Giudecca- DANIELE I’d never seen a child. GIULIA What happened? DANIELE He was wearing a backpack full of stones- GIULIA Jesus Christ- GIULIA Has the family been informed? DANIELE We still don’t know who he is, he wasn’t carrying any identification- GIULIA No missing child report? DANIELE Not yet. DANIELE He was right in front of me, his face in front of mine. DANIELE I don’t know why, but I thought he was still alive- ELIA Daddy, is today odd or even? DANIELE Even- ELIA So it’s the day that you make my egg your way, isn’t that right mummy? EMILIO For me too please- DANIELE Of course. Special eggs on their way, but I need my two trusted assistants- DANIELE Do you want one too? GIULIA Only if someone will digest it for me- EMILIO Who’s taking us to school today? DANIELE Both of us. EMILIO Yaaaaay- ELIA Yaaaaay- both of you- ERNESTO It arrived. DANIELE When? ERNESTO At six, but the report was actually filed yesterday, just before midnight. There must have been a delay in uploading it onto the database. DANIELE We need to let the family know- ERNESTO I’ll get Emilia to go now- ERNESTO You need to go to the airport to pick someone up-- DANIELE Send Vincenzo to the airport- ERNESTO --I need you to go. DANIELE I pulled him out, I have children, I know what it means, I want to be the one to tell his parents- ERNESTO The person arriving at the airport from Rome is the head of the COCP. Especially for this case. DANIELE This isn’t a case for the COCP, this is the case of a twelve year old boy who killed himself. ERNESTO They are not convinced, and have sent one of their top investigators. ERNESTO -an old acquaintance of yours. DANIELE I don’t know anyone at the COCP. ERNESTO Are you sure? DANIELE Wait here. DANIELE Hello Elena--- ELENA Hello Daniele--- DANIELE I didn’t know you worked at the COCP. ELENA I’ve been there 7 years. I didn’t know you were in homicides. DANIELE I’ve been there since 2012. ELENA Didn’t you want to be a musician? DANIELE I spent so long trying to find you that I eventually realized I preferred being a detective. Though I never solved your case. ELENA I also know that Giulia didn’t end up doing marine biology- DANIELE Yes, she’s at the flying squad with me - but she’s off work at the moment- on maternity leave- DANIELE We’re expecting a daughter. ELENA You---? DANIELE We got married in 2010. ELENA Wow! ELENA That means I’ll be able to see the two people in this city I care most about in one go- DANIELE Of course- ELENA What do we know about the boy? DANIELE Gilberto Ballarin, thirteen years old. He jumped into the canal with a backpack full of stones. ELENA Has the autopsy already been carried out? DANIELE No. His family haven’t yet been to identify the body - according to the statement in the missing person report, his father dropped him off at his basketball practice yesterday at 5 pm and he was supposed to walk home from there alone at around 6.30 pm. When they realized that he hadn't returned home they called a couple of his teammates - apparently Gilberto left the gymnasium without even going to his practice. ELENA What time did they realize he was missing? DANIELE At 11 pm. ELENA Why so late? DANIELE His parents have a tavern, his older sister works as a waitress at the Davide Hotel. In short, they all work most evenings and the boy generally organized his own dinner. ELENA When did they report him missing? DANIELE Around midnight, in Marghera, but we only received the report this morning at dawn. It seems there was a technical hitch. DANIELE Why is the special child protection department involved in a suicide case? ELENA I’m following a case on a paedophile ring that has been active in the north east of Italy since at least 2015. There are eight cases that I believe are connected. But I think they are many more because often the children are not even reported missing. DANIELE How can that be? ELENA Families of illegal immigrants who do not want to reveal their presence, children in care homes, children of border-line Italian families who convince themselves their children left of their own free will and that, perhaps, one day they will return. DANIELE But in this case Gilberto Ballarin had 20 kilos of stones on his back, and the family immediately reported him missing. ELENA I’m not so sure that Gilberto did this himself. DANIELE On what basis do you doubt it? ELENA I’m sorry. Before telling you I need to wait for the result of the biometric cross-check. DANIELE Cross-check with what? ELENA A cross check between photos of Gilberto Ballarin and another photo in our possession. GIANCARLO Are you the Ballarin family? LUCIANO I’m Gilberto’s father and this is his sister, my wife couldn’t bring herself to come- MEDICO We’re ready. But there’s no hurry. Take all the time you need- MEDICO I’ll leave the door open: come in when you’re ready- ELENA I’m deputy commissioner Elena Zonin. I’ve very sorry about what has happened, I know there are no words-- ELENA We’re here for anything you need-- MARTA What happened to him? ELENA We still don’t know. To find out we need all your collaboration- ELENA We need to carry out a meticulous search of Gilberto’s bedroom, but which will also involve your entire home-- MARTA When? ELENA It would be best to do it immediately. ELENA It’s important. MARTA Ok. Just give me the time to let my mother know- ELENA And I would need you to answer a few questions. ELENA I know I’m asking you a lot, but time is crucial in these cases, if we have any chance of finding who hurt your son it is only by acting quickly. ELENA In your report you stated that Gilberto didn’t go to the basketball practice that you had dropped him off for. LUCIANO Yes, so we found out when we started to look for him. ELENA None of you saw him again after that moment. Correct? MARTA I got back from work at ten. My parents were still at the tavern. I had a shower before going to check that Gilberto was in bed - if only I had gone immediately- ELENA There was no way you could have imagined what would happen, you mustn’t feel guilty. The only guilty parties are those who harmed your brother. ELENA Did Gilberto have another phone aside from the one he left at home? MARTA No- ELENA Did he have a computer or access to one, an iPad or any other electronic devices? MARTA At home there is only one computer, but Gilberto didn’t know the password-- ELENA Playstation? Wii? Nintendo Switch? MARTA I’d promised him one for his birthday. ELENA Had he seemed strange over the last few days? ELENA Did he tell you anything? Did you notice any unusual behavior? LUCIANO No, but the truth is that we were often at work. DANIELE I think that’ll do for now. ELENA No, we need to go immediately and carry out a recce at the Ballarin family home . DANIELE We’ll get the prosecutor’s authorization then let you know. ELENA I’ve already been given authorization. DANIELE They are under a lot of strain-- ELENA Yes-- DANIELE Can’t we give them time to recover a little? ELENA No, I’d like to but I can’t. DANIELE You said you’re waiting for a confirmation, right? DANIELE So why don’t you wait to have it before upsetting them even more? ELENA Because if the confirmation arrives, every minute we have waisted causes irreparable damage. ELENA Can you trust me until then? DANIELE The last time I did that, things didn’t go too well. MARTA Mama, this is the deputy commissioner who is handling Gilberto’s case- ANNA You must tell me- I want to know- ANNA Did he---? ELENA No. I don’t believe your son took his own life, but I can’t be sure yet. However you have my word that you will be the first to be informed of any development- ELENA Have they found anything? DANIELE His phone was here. Switched off and charging. No double phone. No hidden video-games- DANIELE This is who Gilberto was- ELENA The computer? DANIELE It had a password-- ELENA Let’s take it anyway and have it checked. DANIELE At your orders deputy commissioner. ELIA Mama, how will Stella come out of your tummy? EMILIO She won’t come out of her tummy. She’ll come out of her fufu- ELIA But mummy, how will she come out of your fufu? ELIA Mummy, how? GIULIA Go and wash your hands with your brother, then I’ll tell you- DANIELE How did it go? GIULIA He scored three goals. For the wrong side- DANIELE Goodbye to the dream of giving up my job to become his manager- GIULIA I popped into headquarters this morning- DANIELE Can’t you just get some rest? GIULIA No. I get bored at home. And I have nothing to do until four thirty. GIULIA You weren’t there- DANIELE I went to talk to the boy’s family. We searched the home- GIULIA Did you find anything? DANIELE I’m waiting for the autopsy results. Giancarlo promised I’ll get the report today. GIULIA It must have been awful. DANIELE You know she’s here, don’t you? GIULIA I found out today, at headquarters. DANIELE It was awful to see her like this, in these circumstances--- DANIELE She’s convinced it was’t suicide- DANIELE But she won’t tell me why. Do realize how ridiculous that is? She says that first she needs to receive a bio-metric report. She doesn’t trust me! Can you believe the paradox? SHE doesn’t trust ME! GIULIA How is she? DANIELE She’s well, she works at the COCP, dealing with missing children. GIULIA Has she changed? DANIELE Yes, but I couldn’t tell you in what way. GIULIA What was it like to see her again? DANIELE In what way? GIULIA Well - that was your song- DANIELE What are you trying to insinuate? GIULIA Is she still beautiful? DANIELE Yes, but not as beautiful as you- DANIELE Hey little one, are you there? Will you tell your mum ‘cause she won’t listen to me- DANIELE You are my loves. You tell her. Giulia finally relaxes, feeling reassured. Daniele holds her tightly. GIULIA You should invite her to dinner. GIULIA As far as we know it’s the first time she’s been back for twenty years. She has nobody here. Except us. ELIA Mummy, my hands are washed. Now can you tell me how Stella will get out? DANIELE First of all she needs to be tickled, like this- GIANCARLO He died between 1 AM and 4 AM on Saturday--- GIANCARLO The first thing to note is that there is no water in the lungs. ELENA So he didn’t drown--- DANIELE And the backpack full of stones? GIANCARLO Somebody probably put it on him to ensure the body would sink. DANIELE What is the cause of death then? GIANCARLO An acute respiratory crisis. There are significant traces of ketamine in his blood and also, to a lesser extent, of salbutamol, the active ingredient of Ventolin--- ELENA He suffered from asthma------ GIANCARLO In asthmatics, narcotics can act as catalysts to an acute respiratory distress. ELENA Are there---signs of violence? GIANCARLO No. But there are traces of organic matter under his fingernails. ELENA A sign that he fought back. GIANCARLO Yes. ELENA Let’s get them analyzed-- DANIELE So? ELENA May I? DANIELE Of course. ELENA This was uploaded to Silkway at 3.37 on the night he disappeared- ELENA It’s blurred, but my colleagues in Rome spent all day yesterday carrying out a meticulous biometric analysis-- ELENA His ear, eye and arm. The measurements have a 100% match. DANIELE What is Silkway? ELENA A kind of virtual market where all kinds of things are bought and sold. But it isn’t to be found on the web that we know, it’s in another obscure parallel web called the deep web. ELENA Imagine the web as if it were the ocean. The surface is the web as we know it. Beneath the surface there is an intermediary layer which is hard to access and where...obscure transactions take place. ELENA Then there is the deep web. Inaccessible to those who do not have sophisticated IT skills. It’s the deepest layer of the ocean, the abyss in which monstrous creatures live. It is there that all kinds of things are auctioned off. Weapons. Drugs. Organs. Children. ELENA If events had followed the usual pattern other images and videos of the boy would have been uploaded over the following hours. So that anyone who wanted to see them could make an offer. DANIELE Basically an auction- ELENA Exactly. An auction to be able to watch live what they would do to the thirteen year old boy they had kidnapped- DANIELE I can’t believe there are people who can do things like that- ELENA Unfortunately they exist. And they are far more than you think. And today, thanks to the web, they have a place where they can easily get in touch with each other. And you know what’s the worst thing? ELENA Knowing what will happen but knowing there is almost nothing you can do to prevent it. DANIELE What do you mean almost nothing? ELENA You see a child, perhaps a blurred image like this one, you know that he has probably been kidnapped, you know that something terrible will probably happen to him, but you don’t know who he is or where he is, you don’t know anything. DANIELE You said almost nothing before. ELENA Yes, of course. As soon as the photos appeared on Silkway we started to try and find the lapse. DANIELE What does that mean? ELENA They use highly sophisticated screening and encryption systems. But occasionally they make mistakes --- they leave a digital footprint that you can try and follow. It happens rarely, but it does happen. And that is what we hope for, every time. That we can get there in time, find out where they are logging in from, and establish a link between that damned virtual world and reality- ELENA This time however, something different happened. DANIELE What? ELENA Shortly after uploading the image online, they suddenly cancelled the auction before it was finished. Initially we believed they had blocked us because we had been found out or because we hadn’t paid yet. But it had nothing to do with us. DANIELE Gilberto had died. ELENA Exactly. They drugged him to kidnap him, then took some photographs and put them online. But then they discovered that the ketamine hadn’t had the desired effect. Gilberto didn’t wake up. DANIELE That’s why you spoke of a network. All this couldn’t be done by an individual. ELENA That’s it. You need a network. A well organized and structured one. The one I have been trying to trace, for eight years. ELENA The only thing I care about is finding the people who killed that boy before they kidnap another one. Because they will. You can be sure of that. Finding them is all I care about. I have little time and can’t afford to make any mistakes. Wasting time is one of the worst mistakes to make. DANIELE Come round to our place for dinner tonight- Giulia would love to see you again. Then you can meet the kids too. ELENA How old are they? DANIELE Elia is seven, Emilio is nine. DANIELE And then there is Stella on her way- ELENA When is she due? DANIELE Officially in 40 days-but if she’s anything like Elia and Emilio she’ll keep us waiting- ELENA What a lovely family! Well done. I’d love to meet them - and see Giulia again, but tonight - I don’t know- ELENA I’ll think about it for a moment, ok? DANIELE Of course- no hurry- ELENA Hello--- ELENA Yes. We can come. ELENA Okay, as you prefer. We’re on our way. ELENA It was Marta Ballarin. She wants to talk to us. MARTA I asked you to come here because I didn’t want mum and dad to hear what I have to tell you. Things are already too much for them as they are. MARTA My brother had a beautiful voice, I always joked with him about hurrying up to become a singer so he could bring some money in --- sometimes, when we were on the ferry together, he would start singing out loud and I would hide with embarrassment, but the truth is I have always been very proud of him--- MARTA About a month ago I was sent to the train station to forward a piece of luggage that a client had left behind at the hotel. And when I got there I saw my brother. MARTA He was supposed to be at school. But instead he was there, at the station. My brother looked older than he actually was. He was mature for his age. ELENA Who was he with? MARTA With some older kids, most of them foreigners--- ELENA And how did you react? MARTA I’ve always been like a second mum to my brother, I know him inside out: I know that if you don’t approach him the right way it’s worse than saying nothing--- MARTA I didn’t say anything to mum and dad, but I went straight to the school to check. I found out that Gilberto had been missing a lot of school--- absences that none of us were aware of--- MARTA I took that evening off work. I didn’t tell anybody, just him. I took him out for a pizza- MARTA I told him that at his age I too sometimes felt like he did. And I wasn’t just saying it, it was true-- MARTA When I was Gilberto’s age dad had a gambling problem. He lost a lot of money. MARTA That’s also why, even though he then stopped and despite paying off all the debts, business never picked up again. MARTA At that time there was so much tension in our house you could cut it with a knife --- there were constant arguments --- and everyone had more important problems than to listen to me. I felt very lonely. I wanted some attention. It didn’t matter how, where or from who. The important thing for me was just to find someone. MARTA That’s what I said to him. And I also told him I loved him immensely, even if I didn’t always show it. That if he needed anything I was always there for him. And that I wouldn’t say anything to mum and dad, but he had to promise me he would go back to school. MARTA Gilberto then gave me a hug. He promised me he would be good --- and I trusted him. MARTA You told me that any detail could be useful- ELENA It is. Very- MARTA He didn’t harm himself did he? MARTA And will you find who did it? DANIELE You can be sure of it. DANIELE You told me about a network that operates in the north east-- ELENA All the cases of missing minors that I have connected to each other occurred in an area between the provinces of Rovigo and Pordenone DANIELE Any other leads? ELENA What I’ve learnt through my profiling work. DANIELE And that is? ELENA That they are Italian. Dangerous people but above suspicion, unaffectionate people who, however, have a traumatic past. And, as I already told you, now that their designated victim has accidentally died they will look for another to replace him. ELENA We don’t have a second to waste. There’s some kid out there, more alone and defenseless than others, who’s in danger. DANIELE I promised myself I wouldn’t ask you anything, but ---why did you disappear like that from one minute to the next? DANIELE I searched for you desperately but your grandmother’s house was empty, we didn’t know who to ask, we were all worried- DANIELE Why didn’t you call me just to say hello, sorry, but ---, I don’t know, I’m fine --- anything --- instead you said nothing. To me, to Giulia or to any of our friends. DANIELE One day, two years later, Guido arrived saying he’d bumped into you in Milan. And that you were fine. DANIELE I didn’t even ask him where you were or if he had your new address, or phone number. DANIELE I was so angry with you. You were fine, and in Milan. What the fuck would it have cost you to call and let us know? ELENA I’m sorry. DANIELE Yes, ok, but why Elena? Why? After such a long time you could give me an explanation. ELENA There is no explanation. And it doesn’t matter now. DANIELE That’s not true! It does to me. ELENA No, it doesn’t. Not to me. Not to any of us. We’re no longer who we wee twenty years ago. You said so yourself. We’re different people. And it shouldn’t be of any interest to those people. It happened and that’s it, ok? ELENA Please Dan, let’s not talk about it again. DANIELE Ok Elena. As you wish. DANIELE But in exchange, for these new and different people that we are, you must accept our invitation to dinner, tonight.