Page 7 of Murder in Verona

She shook her head. ‘She was engaged to be married, but he was killed in a horrible skydiving accident. Why people have to choose to do such dangerous sports, I really don’t know.’

I couldn’t help a little spark of interest at another violent death affecting such a wealthy family and I resolved to check the death of Rosina’s fiancé just in case. ‘Are you in regular contact with Rosina and her brother? Will you be telling them you’ve hired me to investigate their cousin’s death?’

She looked up from her food. ‘I was going to tell Rosina – she and I have always been quite close. To be honest, I don’t often speak to Alfredo. He’s always a bit distant towards me and, like I told you, I’ve never been able to forgive him for not working as hard as he should. Do you think I should tell him about you as well?’

‘I think you should, for one simple reason. I’m going to need to speak to both of them and, unless you tell Alfredo who I am, there’s probably no way he’ll agree to see me.’

She nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I see. In that case, I’ll certainly inform both of them.’

I was interested at her hesitation. She had said that she didn’t speak to her nephew very often because he had always been ‘a bit distant’. Was that just because she was down here in Tuscany and he was up there in Verona? Had he worked out that she didn’t approve of his relaxed lifestyle? Alternatively, was it because of some rupture in the family – maybe caused by the wife who didn’t get on with her husband’s elderly aunt? I tried another line of questioning.

‘What about relations between Rodolfo and his cousins? Was he on good terms with Alfredo and Rosina? Did they ever argue about business matters?’

She shook her head. ‘Like I told you, he wasn’t in the least bit interested in the business so that’s why I acted for him. From the age of four, all he wanted to do was sing.’ Her eyes were sparkling with maternal pride, tinged with raw emotion. Clearly, mother and son had been close. After a brief pause, she continued. ‘But Rodolfo was on good terms with his cousins – he was friendly to everybody – and living in Verona, I’m sure he often met Rosina, although maybe not Alfredo.’ She added a few words of explanation and her expression darkened. ‘Alfredo’s wife, Ingrid, is downright antisocial.’

‘Did Alfredo resent having you looking over his shoulder when it came to the business?’

‘I’m sure he did, but I had Rodolfo’s one-third share to protect.’ That hard tone was back again and I could easily see how relations between her and her brother’s family might have soured.

‘Out of interest, were the terms of your son’s will common knowledge to all members of the family?’

A more cunning expression appeared on her face. ‘I knew, of course, because I wrote Rodolfo’s will – he had no interest in that sort of thing – but I’m sure it came as a surprise to the others. I know Alfredo was expecting to inherit Rodolfo’s share of thecompany – and so was Ingrid, his wife. You should have seen the way both of them were looking daggers at me in the lawyer’s studio when the will was read, passing Rodolfo’s share to me, not them.’ The expression on her face reflected a certain grim satisfaction and I realised – if I hadn’t already – that beneath the ‘elderly lady’ façade lay a decidedly vicious streak.

I took refuge in a sip of the excellent Chianti as I reflected on what she’d said. I’ve never liked pre-judging people, but I couldn’t help thinking that if one or the other of the two siblings had been hoping to inherit Rodolfo’s share of the company, they might have individually or together engineered his ‘accident’. His share of the company had now passed to Violetta so, if this were the case, might this mean that she could now be in danger? Presumably, as it was a family business, her interest in the company would ultimately revert to them if she also died. I looked around. With her all alone here in this isolated house with just a housekeeper and presumably a gardener, it wouldn’t take a criminal genius to dream up a scenario that resulted in her death: a fall, a shock, a heart attack or even another car accident maybe. As she was at the venerable age of eighty-one, it was unlikely that anybody would delve too deeply into how it happened. I thought I’d better warn her of this possibility, but it’s not easy to suggest that your close relatives might be considering murdering you, so I approached it obliquely.

‘What are your plans for the next few weeks? Will you be here if I need to contact you?’

‘That’s something else I need to consider. I took a call yesterday from Rosina, telling me that they’ve called an extraordinary board meeting for next Friday and I suppose I should be there.’

‘Where’s that going to take place?’

‘In the boardroom at Head Office in Verona.’

I didn’t like the sound of this. If Alfredo and/or his wife or sister were intent on a second murder, Violetta would do well to stay as far from them as possible. Again, I tried a circuitous approach.

‘Where do you stay when you go to Verona? With one of them?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I stay at the villa. I have an apartment there. I know it so well and the staff there look after me.’

My ears pricked up at her mention of ‘staff’. How bigwasthe Verona villa? ‘Who looks after the villa for you?’

‘Dolores is the manager and she really runs things. She’s Spanish and she’s a treasure. She keeps everybody on their toes.’

‘Everybody? Do a lot of people work there?’ Having a ‘manager’ for a private house was odd.

I could see her pause to do a bit of mental arithmetic. ‘Probably a dozen or so, maybe fifteen.’

I was obviously missing something unless her son had insisted on a different servant for every room of the house. ‘And what do they all do?’

‘They run the courses and look after the residents, of course.’

‘But I thought you said your son was living on his own in his last few months.’

‘I said that his wife had gone off gallivanting, but that didn’t mean that he was left on his own.’ Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she finally clarified the situation. ‘I’m sorry, Signor Armstrong, I should have explained. When Rodolfo inherited the villa, he and I created a non-profit-making charitable trust and transformed the place – it’s a very big building – into AOA, Accademia Opera Argento. We also transferred the villa to the trust so it wasn’t part of Rodolfo’s estate.’ That ruthless expression was back on her face again. ‘That way Alessia hasn’t been able to get her hands on it. We wanted it to become the number-one conservatoirefor opera stars of the future. Admission is fully sponsored by the trust so that everybody, regardless of their background, has the same equal opportunity. It’s a charity that was very close to his heart, and I have every intention of keeping it going.’

This meant that Violetta intended to keep her dearly beloved son’s memory alive, so there was an altruistic side to her after all. ‘I see. And how many students are there at the villa now?’

‘It’s summer course time so I don’t really know – twenty-five, thirty maybe – but you’ll be able to see for yourself when you’re staying there.’

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