THE scene is the prestigious Lazio Rowing Club, Rome, on the banks of the Tiber. The date is sometime in 1988. A group of friends emerge from the club and one of them says to another. "Hey, Renato, don't forget this envelope, will you."
The envelope contained a lot of money, according to Ms Stefania Ariosto. The man to whom the remark was allegedly addressed was senior Rome magistrate, Renato Squillante. The man to have allegedly handed him the payment was Cesare Previti longtime friend of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, lawyer for Mr Berlusconi's Fininvest Group and former defence minister in Mr Berlusconi's 1994 government.
The second scene takes place in Milan, just before last Christmas. Ms Ariosto, the person responsible for the above allegations, is living under police protection and at a friend's address. In theory, only the police know her new abode.
One morning a Christmas present arrives for her. She wonders how it has arrived at the new and secret address. Overcome by curiosity, she opens the packet to find inside a bloody and recently severed goats head. Somebody is trying to tell her something.
The above forms part of the explosive testimony offered by Ms Ariosto, partner of Vittorio Dotti, another Fininvest lawyer and the chief parliamentary whip for Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. With her testimony to members of Milan's celebrated "Clean Hands" graft investigating team, she has sparked off the latest scandal to rock Italian political life, just five weeks short of next month's general election.
The immediate effect of her evidence was the instigation of a six month investigation which last week culminated in the arrest of Judge Squillante. The political effect of this latest scandal was an inevitable crisis within the centre right Freedom Alliance. Centre right leader, Mr Berlusconi publicly called on Mr Dotti to dissociate himself from his lover's evidence.
Mr Dotti refused to denounce his lover and was subsequently dumped by Forza Italia last weekend. After a brief period when it seemed that he might join forces with the "Italian Renewal" movement of current Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, Mr Dotti now seems headed for a premature exit from national politics.
The Squillante inquiry is still ongoing and further surprises may yet be in store. Furthermore, Ms Ariosto's credibility has been questioned, especially by Mr Berlusconi and Mr Previti. Ms Ariosto (47) has certainly led a busy life which saw her marry and divorce twice, lose three very young children because of an inherited disease, run up large gambling debts, be declared bankrupt and then run an antiques shop in Milan, all before she took up with, Vittorio Dotti eight years ago.
The arrest of Judge Squillante, however, and the nature of the allegations made by Ms Ariosto prompt serious questions. The favour of the inquiry can perhaps be summed up by Ms Ariosto's, much quoted remark, when referring to Mr Berlusconi's two lawyers Mr Dotti, her lover, and Mr Previti "Dotti is Berlusconi's lawyer for his legal affairs, Previti is his lawyer for illegal affairs."
In substance, Ms Ariosto has accused Mr Previti of having systematically influenced the Rome judiciary through bribes to Judge Squillante, bribes which may have influenced inquiries into the awarding of broadcast frequencies for Mr Berlusconi's three nationwide television channels, for example.
Ms Ariosto has been quoted as saying that she is "tired of the moral degradation" of the Berlusconi camp in which she has been a high level onlooker for the, last eight years. In crude terms she has spelt out accusations that, Mr Berlusconi's most bitter political rivals can only timidly imply namely, that Mr Berlusconi owes his rise and rise through the 1980s not to entrepreneurial know how but rather to bribery and corruption.
For the time being, it is too early to say how a sceptical public pinion will react. Those sympathetic to Mr Berlusconi may dismiss the whole episode as merely another attempt by a politically motivated judiciary to discredit him. Despite his continuing Milan trial for corruption, Mr Berlusconi and his "Freedom Alliance" continue to run a dead heat with the centre left in all recent opinion polls.