Page 42 of Murder in Verona

The officer nodded. ‘And I checked all the doors when I got here. They’re all locked except for the spare bedroom at the end of the corridor there, but it’s empty. By the way, your dog has been barking.’

To reinforce his words, I heard Oscar making his presence felt in the distance. Interestingly, this wasn’t his usual forlorn ‘whyhave you gone off and deserted me?’ bark but his aggressive ‘something’s going on’ bark. I realised that he was alerting me to something that had happened and I set off down the corridor, shouting to Ventura to follow me, until I got to our room. As I opened it, Oscar came bounding out and headed straight for the door of the spare bedroom. He pushed it with his nose and it swung open. I followed him inside and saw immediately that the French windows were gaping wide. They had definitely been closed when I had looked in before, so this would appear to be the way a potential double murderer had gained access to the roof terrace and, from there, the way would have been clear as far as Alessia’s apartment. I had no doubt now that Clarissa’s stomach upset had been an attempt to establish an alibi while she had come up here intent on rectifying the awful mistake she had made the previous month when she had killed the love of her life instead of the woman she saw as the impediment to her happiness.

The inspector and I squeezed between the terracotta urns and raced after Oscar along the terrace towards the windows of Alessia’s apartment at full speed. These, too, were wide open and I suddenly saw a movement over to one side of the terrace. Part hidden behind a massive banana tree in a pot were two figures, instantly recognisable as Clarissa with an unresponsive Alessia in her arms. Illuminated by the setting sun, Clarissa was manoeuvring the inert body of Alessia onto the parapet over the main façade of the villa and it was clear that she was intending to throw her rival for Rodolfo’s affections off the roof.

There was no time to debate whether Alessia was already dead or just incapacitated, so Ventura and I threw ourselves towards the two of them. I managed to catch hold of Alessia’s ankle and hang onto it for grim death while the inspector caught hold of her arm. Together, we wrestled Alessia’s body away from Clarissa but, even as we did so, the principal jumped athletically onto the low walland balanced there, the rays of the setting sun framing her body with a ghostly pinkish glow. She turned once towards us and the anguish on her face was all too clear before she turned back. Before either of us could get to her, she stepped into the void. One moment she was there; the next she was gone.

24

FRIDAY EVENING

Ventura and I stood just inside the front door with Oscar pressed against my leg on one side of me and Anna clutching my arm on the other. We looked on as the body of Clarissa was zipped into a bag and transferred into an unmarked van belonging to the forensic team. I was buzzing with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was pleased we had managed to solve the mystery of who had killed Rodolfo Argento and why but, at the same time, I wished I’d been able to figure it out earlier and prevent Clarissa’s death and the assault on Alessia. I felt that same bleak sensation in the pit of my stomach that had dogged me throughout my whole career at the sight of senseless deaths.

So close to the city of Romeo and Juliet – real or imaginary – Shakespeare would probably have appreciated this love story that had ended in tragedy, but to me, it all seemed such a terrible waste. An unprincipled man had ruined the life of a woman who had loved him dearly, and the result had been two deaths and a heartbroken wife and mother. Great opera singer he might have been but, as far as women were concerned, Rodolfo Argento had had the moral fibre of a sewer rat.

At that moment, I heard the lift doors behind us open and I turned to see two paramedics and a doctor emerge with a trolley and on it, propped up against a couple of pillows, was Alessia. The left side of her head was covered in surgical dressings but her eyes were open and she even managed to raise a little smile and a wave of the hand when she saw us – or more probably, when she saw Oscar.

As the paramedics took her out to the ambulance, the doctor stopped alongside us to report to the inspector.

‘She remembers very little of what happened. As far as we can tell, her assailant was waiting for her when she let herself into the apartment and struck her with one of the fire irons, rendering her unconscious. It was a nasty wound, but she will recover. It’s lucky you got there when you did.’

The inspector thanked him and turned to me. ‘I need to get back upstairs to tell the Forensics people they can get on with their job now that the casualty has been removed.’ He nodded towards the dining room and he gave me a wink. ‘It’ll be dinner time soon. Save me a seat.Ciao.’

After he’d left, I looked at my two companions. Oscar was already on his feet, nose pointing towards the dining room, while Anna was looking shellshocked at the rapidity and violence of the events that had unfolded here. I led her through to the bar and stopped to take a look around. There were probably a couple of dozen people here, milling about aimlessly, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Among them were the remnants of the Argento family group and the theatrical agent and his wife, still hovering in the background. As Violetta made eye contact with me, she immediately beckoned and I glanced back at Anna.

‘I need to go and talk to the family, but you don’t need to come unless you want to.’

She grabbed my arm with her free hand. ‘I’ll come with you. I’m interested to see how they react to what’s happened.’

She wasn’t the only one. In particular, I was dying to see how Violetta was going to react now that she knew that Alessia, rather than being the culprit, had almost become Clarissa’s second victim.

We went across the room and I found that it was a reduced family group. There was no sign of Alfredo and Ingrid, so there were just three of them now: Violetta, Rosina and Tosca, standing in silence. The first to speak was Violetta, stating the obvious.

‘We’re all in shock.’ She was looking her age now, and the other two looked similarly affected.

Fortunately, Oscar broke the ice by wandering around, nuzzling the three women and even managing to bring a hint of a smile to Tosca’s face. Fair play to Violetta, she then had the guts to admit her mistake. ‘I feel terrible. I was so very wrong about Alessia and I need to make it up to her. Tell me, Mr Armstrong, why do you think Clarissa did what she did?’

‘It’s clear that she was involved with Rodolfo before he met Alessia. Even after the marriage, she never stopped loving him, hoping against hope that the marriage would fail and she could have him back.’ What I didn’t voice was my suspicion that he had probably still been carrying on with her after getting married. This wouldn’t help Clarissa now and it would only hurt Alessia.

‘But what prompted her to murder Rodolfo if she loved him?’ Rosina sounded as puzzled as they all looked.

‘It was a mistake. Her intention was to murder Alessia.’ I saw comprehension begin to dawn on the faces around me. ‘And, instead, she killed the love of her life.’

Tosca was the first to react. ‘But why now? Rodolfo and Alessia married almost a year ago. Why wait so long to try to kill Alessia?’

‘This is unconfirmed at this point.’ I paused, wonderingwhether to voice my suspicions before deciding to just go for it. ‘I may be wrong, but it’s my belief that what tipped Clarissa over the edge was when she discovered that Alessia was expecting Rodolfo’s child.’

All three faces in front of me looked stunned. I saw Violetta’s mouth open and close a couple of times as she searched for words, but Rosina was the first to react. ‘Alessia’s pregnant? Can that really be true?’

I nodded. ‘Like I say, it still needs to be confirmed, but that’s my supposition. When she gets to hospital, that’ll soon be checked.’

Violetta finally managed to regain the power of speech. ‘You’re telling us that Alessia might be bearing my grandchild?’ She sounded overawed, but the bewildered expression slowly softened. ‘You think she might be expecting Rodolfo’s child? That’s amazing and, if it’s true, it’s the most wonderful news.’ A more serious expression appeared on her face. ‘Let’s just hope that tonight’s events don’t cause complications.’

I did my best to offer reassurance. ‘She’s in good hands, I’m sure.’

Violetta tapped me on the arm. ‘I do so need to see her. Do you think if I went to the hospital now, I’d be able to talk to her?’

‘I really don’t know, but when they took her out to the ambulance, her eyes were open and she gave a little wave, so it’s probably worth a try. Would you like me to call you a taxi?’

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