Page 22 of Murder on an Italian Island
Virgilio nodded. ‘Indeed, but, in light of this latest death, my feeling is that the original decision needs to be reevaluated. Two deaths in short succession – both members of the same family and both so similar in execution – strike me as decidedly suspicious.’ He stopped. ‘But it’s your investigation, Piero; it’s up to you. I don’t want to get under your feet, but if I can give any help, just say the word.’
‘Thank you, Virgilio, but aren’t you on holiday?’
‘Yes, but the offer still stands. Dan has a windsurfing lesson this morning, but I’d be happy to stick around and talk you through what we’ve found out over the past two days. We think it could well be that the same perpetrator has been responsible for both deaths.’
I left the two of them together and set off back to the hotel with Oscar, where I found Anna out on the terrace, sipping a cappuccino. I saw her eyes register the fact that my clothes were dripping wet, and she shot me an ironic smile. ‘Been swimming, Dan? Remind me to tell you about swimming trunks. They’re a lot more convenient than diving into the sea fully clothed.’
I told her what had happened and she rolled her eyes. ‘So one dead body wasn’t enough for you. You had to go and find yourself another one.’
I shook my head ruefully. ‘I’m sorry,carissima, but you know how it is.’
Now it was her turn to look rueful. ‘Oh yes, I know exactly how it is. You have the same nose for murder as Oscar does for food.’
Hearing his name and the word ‘food’ in the same sentence sent Oscar across to position himself primly alongside her where he gave her hisI’m starvinglook. As usual, it worked, and Anna handed him down a biscuit before looking up at me. ‘It’s probably a good idea if you go and get changed. I’ll look after Oscar.’
I did as I was told and all the time that I was in our room, I kept turning over in my head how this most recent development affected our investigation – and I really did think of it asourinvestigation now. Although the scenario I had painted for Virgilio of a single killer being responsible for both murders seemed most probable, I did my best to consider the alternatives. If the murders were unconnected – and that seemed improbable under the circumstances – the most likely motive for murdering the first victim was probably some form of revenge for what he’d done twenty years earlier. Of course, it was still possible that Ignazio had been murdered by his brother, who had then taken his own life in a fit of remorse – although striking yourself on the back of the head is far from straightforward. Alternatively, maybe Aldo had killed his brother, and then somebody else had killedhim.
But why? Assuming that Aldo had killed his brother, was it possible that somebody had decided to avenge that death? So far, I hadn’t come across anybody with a good word to say about Ignazio Graziani, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one lurking somewhere. Could Ignazio have had some sort of love interest here on the island? Considering that he’d been in prison for twenty years and had been released only a few weeks ago, it was either somebody so deeply in love with him that she had waited for him all this time, or it had been a whirlwind romance that had developed over the past couple of weeks. Either way, I was sceptical.
Then there was the Etruscan antiquities question. Could there be a connection between either or both deaths and the investigation being carried out by theCarabinieri? For a moment, I even found myself questioning whether maybe the two plain-clothes officers might have taken the law into their own hands but, again, this seemed highly unlikely – but not impossible. And, of course, Aldo had somehow managed to make himself a lot of money, and wealth can bring envy and bitterness. What about this Ernesto Morso, who had allegedly been forced into selling his land? Had he taken his revenge? But why wait five years to do so? Maybe Aldo Graziani had been killed by a disgruntled staff member or a relative of one of the women he had allegedly treated so poorly – even his ex-wife?
By the time I had showered and changed into dry clothes, my head was spinning with suspects.
When I got back to the terrace, I found that Lina had joined Anna, so I helped myself to a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and sat down with them. The aroma of bacon instantly brought Oscar to my side, doing his best to look underfed and unloved. As I handed him down a piece of bacon rind – he and I have an agreement that rinds belong to him – I discovered that the two women had been discussing this latest twist in the Graziani case.
Lina was the first to comment. ‘I’ll be quite honest, Dan: up till now, I’ve tended to believe that the first murder was nothing more than a drunken accident, just as the police said, but this second death has changed my mind. It’s too much of a coincidence.’
Anna had been thinking along the same lines as me. ‘You said that the two brothers looked very similar, didn’t you, Dan? Could it be that the first murder was a mistake? The killer got the wrong man and so he went back and did it properly the second time?’
I nodded. ‘That’s what I’m tending to think as well, but there’s the question of why. There’s an obvious motive for killing Ignazio in revenge for what he did to those women twenty years ago, but what possible motive could there have been for somebody to want to kill his brother?’
While I had my breakfast, we discussed the two cases and the similarities between them, but we were unable to make any kind of breakthrough.
I was just finishing a bowl of excellent fresh fruit salad when Virgilio reappeared. After helping himself to some food, he sat down with us.
‘I’ve spent half an hour talking Piero Fontana through everything we’ve discovered, and it sounds as though he’s in agreement with us that both deaths were suspicious. He’s given orders that all guests should stay at the hotel, and his people are now questioning everybody at the campsite and on the beach to find out if anybody saw anything, heard anything or can come up with any idea why Aldo Graziani might have been targeted. The pathologist has already removed the body, and she’s promised to do the post-mortem straight away. Hopefully, this will supply us with information about when and how he died – was it straightforward accidental drowning or something more? And you and I know what we think.’
This sounded good to me. ‘At least Inspector Fontana is taking it seriously – unlike his predecessor. It’s convenient that you two know each other. Was that from your days in Pisa?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘I worked alongside him there when I first started in the force. He’s a good man and a hard worker. I’m sure he’ll do a good job here.’ A more serious expression appeared on his face. ‘If it hadn’t been for the accident, I have little doubt he would have been acommissariohimself now.’
‘What accident? What happened to him?’ Anna asked the question that was on my lips.
‘A road traffic accident, a bad one. It was a high-speed chase that went wrong. He was driving, but it was no fault of his. One of the front tyres of the squad car blew out and the car spun off the road into a tree at full speed. The officer alongside him was killed outright and Piero was badly injured – spinal problems – and spent months in hospital. As a result, when he was finally allowed to return to service, it was clear that he’d never fully recover from his mobility issues, so they shifted him down to Livorno and stuck him in Admin. I’m sure he’s been good at what he’s been doing for the last twenty years, but the accident cut short a very promising career. He’s been telling me how happy he is to get back to the sharp end at long last – even if it’s just for a few weeks. The main thing is that we can be quite sure he’ll put in the effort that Bellini didn’t.’
14
TUESDAY
My windsurfing career took a turn for the better that day. It was as if my brain had finally accepted the logic of what I was supposed to be doing, and I found myself able not only to go up and down the beach in a straight line but also to turn around and come back again. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but by the time our lunch break came along, I was feeling positively ebullient – and a lot less full of salt water than previous days. More to the point, Anna had obviously been watching and she gave me her seal of approval.
‘I told you we’d make a windsurfer out of you, didn’t I, Dan? You looked really good out there.’
I was under few illusions as to how good I might have looked, but I thanked her all the same and decided that this merited a real beer rather than a low-alcohol one for a change. At that moment, Ingrid came walking past with Anna’s teacher, Stefano, and I asked them if they would like to join us. After ordering the drinks, I sat back and listened as the subject inevitably turned to the sudden death of their boss, the owner of the windsurfing school, campsite and villa. I was interested to see that, although both looked shocked, neither looked particularly saddened by the event, and Ingrid didn’t even bother trying.
‘I’ll be quite honest, Dan: if that had been you or your lovely Labrador lying dead on the beach, I would have been a lot more surprised and a lot more upset.’
Oscar had positioned himself alongside her with his nose on her knee, staring up at her in adoration. Doing my best not to sound like a private detective, I prompted her into elaborating.
