by P J Mann
He would have generally taken the elevator to reach the top floor, but in that occasion, he considered climbing the stairs, to get another perspective of the building and about the people living there. The building was not very tall, only four floors, but those seven flights of stairs felt like one hundred, and Maurizio reached the floor breathless.
Leonardo was coming out from Calvani’s apartment at the same moment as Maurizio placed his hand on the wall to sustain his body, which wanted to collapse.
“Getting old?” he chuckled.
Maurizio glared at him. “Not today. The morning started to piss me off already, don’t you get into it, too, please!” His voice, still gritty from the climb.
“We’re a little edgy today.” Leonardo raised his hands in mid-air, and went to the elevator, “by the way, for your information, it works.”
A loud growl forced Leonardo to flee inside the elevator to escape Maurizio’s rage.
Drawing a deep breath, Maurizio turned his eyes to the apartment where Berenice stood, tapping her foot on the floor, a disapproving frown darkening her features. “Detective Scala, I wish to remind you this is a respectable and civilized neighborhood, and these types of sounds, belonging more to a caveman than to a civilized human won’t be tolerated.” Her voice echoed in the hall through the staircases, and Maurizio felt like a child caught by his mother doing mischief.
Pursing his lips, he peered at her. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Moretti, you’re right, I should have behaved in a more considerate way.”
Berenice’s features relaxed at his apologies, and a smile brightened her eyes. “Well, let’s not think about it anymore, I have something you might be interested to know,” she said, inviting him into her apartment.
Closing the door behind him, she inspected the room as if she wanted to make sure nobody was in earshot. When she was sure she could speak freely, she commenced. “You see, I remembered Luciano, the son of Mr. Calvani, had a girlfriend. I’ve never seen her, but I know she visited him here every now and then, so I can’t say who she is or what she looks like. One thing I do know for sure is she’s a foreigner, and her name is Irina.” She guided him to the living room, inviting him to have a seat on the same couch where they had a chat the first time.
Glancing around, Maurizio started to feel the environment familiar, as much as the scents of the old furniture, together with the aroma of the coffee she obviously just brewed for him.
“I’m going to get the coffee, a morning without it is not even closely acceptable,” she giggled as she walked with fast little steps toward the kitchen.
When she returned, she was carrying a tray with biscuits and sweets together with two cups of coffee. Maurizio stood up immediately and helped her.
“Thank you, Detective, my movements are no more as prompt as they used to be when I was a teenager. Those were the times!” she complained, observing Maurizio placing the tray carefully on the small table and helping her to sit on the armchair.
“Let me understand one thing, how do you know so many things about this potential girlfriend, when you haven’t ever seen her?” Maurizio wondered, fearing he would have regretted that question.
“Well, I might not have seen her, but when she was here, she didn’t sound like your typical friend, if you know what I mean. These walls contain some noises from one apartment to another, but not everything, and particularly loud voices can be heard distinctly, whether you want it or not,” she replied, sipping her coffee.
And certainly, there isn’t anything you don’t want to hear about the neighbors, he thought, amused. “I still don’t understand why this is something you consider important for the investigation. After all, Rome is a cosmopolitan metropolis, and a University student like Luciano gets in touch daily with people coming from every place in this world. Moreover, he’s a young man, and I can’t see anything strange in the fact that he has a girlfriend.”
He slowly reached the tray with the biscuits and grabbed one. He knew he wasn’t supposed to accept anything when he was on duty, but how can one refuse the hospitality of a kind elderly lady? It would have sounded impolite not to accept anything, besides, his stomach was already complaining because he hadn’t yet taken advantage.
“Detective, you seem to underestimate this detail, which is quite important. The fact that he has a girlfriend is irrelevant, but the fact that this girlfriend is a foreigner and probably coming from any of the States of the former Soviet Union, should ring a bell to you. If it doesn’t, maybe you’d better check to see whether this girl isn’t connected to Mr. Calvani’s girlfriend, the one who, in my opinion, killed him for his money,” she said, gracefully holding a cup in one hand and swinging a cookie in the other to underline her point.
Maurizio remained open-mouthed. Admittedly this could have been a possibility, that this girl had to do with the murder, if ever she was somehow connected with Madlen. He clenched his fist and placed it against his mouth, taking his time to ponder about it.
I haven’t asked Madlen about her family, and perhaps this could be one path to follow, but what kind of relationship did this girl have with Madlen? She was obviously the same age as Luciano.
“Are you considering this possibility?” She wondered excitedly.
Raising a finger in mid-air, he opened his mouth to say something, but remained to ponder before giving an answer to Berenice.
“Mr. Calvani’s girlfriend is much younger than him. What kind of relationship would these two women have in common with one another?” He wondered.
“How about being mother and daughter?” Berenice dared.
“We’re going too far, I guess. The age might not match...” Maurizio shook his head, but there was again the nagging little voice that kept whispering in the back of his head that Berenice might have seen long enough.
Well, this is a good point, but what in this world had any meaning if, and I repeat, IF, father and son were dating Madlen and her daughter? It would confirm that the world is small, but in terms of the investigation there isn’t any meaning in those, eventual, relationships.
He needed to be alone to ruminate on that detail, and perhaps he should also have a chat with Luciano to see whether he would hide the fact of having a girlfriend or he would openly reveal her identity.
Munching the last bit of the cookie, he grabbed his agenda and wrote down a note.
“So, to recap a bit the story,” Maurizio raised his glance to Berenice. “Mr. Calvani senior has a girlfriend, a foreign woman who works in a night club. You’ve never seen her, but you seem to know more about her than everyone else in the family. How so?”
“As I explained, I have my network of friends and the walls don’t retain all the noises. People around here talk about almost everything and the information is easily shared from one another,” she giggled, understanding she should be minding her own business.
“Sometimes the information shared can be affected by a certain amount of distortion; and if I can’t find a certain trusted source, I can’t decode the distortion it went through to get the actual facts,” Maurizio placed the agenda on his lap, getting more comfortable on the couch.
Berenice remained to think for a second, wondering whether she might have missed something, or could she counter his point of view. “So far, all my information was true, isn’t it?”
With a cringe, Maurizio had to admit she was right, there was indeed a girlfriend coming from the former Soviet Union, and indeed she was working as a stripper. “You’re right, but in my job, I need more evidence than rumors. I will go and investigate about Luciano’s girlfriend, but I don’t think this information holds any relevancy to the case.”
A sigh escaped Berenice, who glanced at Maurizio with a saddened expression. “I understand, and I don’t expect you to believe everything I’m going to tell you, but at least I wish that you’d consider everything I say as something that needs to be verified. Since I hear a lot of what happens in the neighboring apartments, you can consider me as a sort o
f ‘black box’.”
Maurizio’s features brightened up into a chuckle; although she had to be considered like a broken black box, the value of her information was still high. “Sorry, Madam, I didn’t mean to laugh at you, but I found it funny you being a type of ‘black box’. Then, there’s Luciano’s girlfriend, a mysterious girl called Irina. She’s also a foreigner and eventually someone he met at the University,” he mumbled, almost to himself.
“Obviously, father and son, are more attracted by the exotic beauties,” Berenice sneered.
He pretended he didn’t hear her comment, which was much probably supposed to be a loud thought. “Do you happen to know anything about his employees at work? Did you ever hear Mr. Calvani complain about the behavior of any of them?”
He did have a chat with the people he shared his working life with, but nothing conclusive came from them. Their relationship was quite relaxed, and nothing could have brought him to suspect that any of them had a reason to get rid of Claudio.
Everything turns around to this Madlen, but I am wondering whether she’s just someone easy to set up. Certainly, with the death of Claudio she won a lottery, 30 million Euros in fact, many people would be ready to kill for such a sum.
Still chewing the details in his brain, the case seemed far too easy to solve, and by experience when the solution seemed too evident, there were some discarded details, which would have required a closer examination.
Almost absentmindedly, he stood from the couch and strolled to the window to catch a glimpse of the road, as if there was some sort of detail that could be found there.
Indeed, it wasn’t a detail to be grabbed from the view out of the window, but he needed to take his eyes off the inquisitive stare of Berenice.
She remained on the armchair, observing every move Maurizio made. She knew she gave him a lot to think about. My only hope is that, besides giving him some hints about the life and times of my neighbor, I could also give him a wider view of the players in the game.
Inhaling deeply and closing his eyes, Maurizio turned toward Berenice, who was patiently waiting for him. “I believe I need to think about those details, if this was all you had to say, I would return to my office, and have them checked out with the forensic team, who’s working in the apartment.”
With a light groan, Berenice stood up from the armchair and offered him a smile. “Of course, Commissario. This was all, and if I happen to recall anything else, I will contact you.”
“Thank you very much for your cooperation, but next time, don’t call me on my personal number. If there’s anything you need to tell me, use the number I gave you before. If I don’t answer, leave a message on the answering machine. I’ll get back to you whenever possible,” he stated.
With a pout, she didn’t like to be placed on hold, “I understand, but please, if I leave you a message, don’t wait one week to call me back!”
“I promise you; I will treat your calls as a priority,” he promised as he started to walk toward the door. “Thank you for your hospitality and your information. I hope I will find a solution to this mystery.”
“You’re welcome. Have a nice day,” she greeted as he stepped out of the apartment.
“The same to you.” With a smile, he walked to the apartment, where the forensic team was ready to leave.
“How is everything going?” Maurizio asked as he spotted Leonardo.
“We are done here, all the important documents and data have been collected, and from this moment on, we can focus on analyzing, classifying, and start to reach some conclusions about the case. Of course, this doesn’t mean we’ll get the solution right away...”
Maurizio inspected around the room where Claudio probably used to work from. Yet, he was sure most of the information was to be gathered from his personal life, following a hurt son, who desperately wanted to gather the attention of his father, to the woman who stole him from the apparently happy, family life he had.
Almost whispering and glancing around to make sure nobody was in earshot he said, “Yesterday I attended the reading of Mr. Calvani’s wills. Apparently, everyone won the lottery, as the son and the girlfriend found themselves richer of thirty million each...”
“WHAT?” Leonardo raised his voice, interrupting what Maurizio was going to say.
Grabbing him by the arm, Maurizio guided Leonardo to a farther corner of the room, “Shh for the Lord’s sake! In this apartment all the walls have ears. That’s why I was keeping a lower tone.”
“Well, it’s a good reason to eliminate someone. In this case, the list of suspects shrinks at two, most probable the son, girlfriend, and none of them has a valid alibi for the night of the murder. The son was sleeping here, so he could be the first one to be considered. The second one, is the girlfriend, who could have lived like a queen forgetting to pretend to love him,” Leonardo whispered back.
Those words sounded like the judgment bells and as if he had an enlightening, Maurizio ran toward the door, wanting to immediately ask Berenice something.
***
As he reached the door of Berenice’s apartment, he hesitated for a moment to gather his composure back, and then he rang the bell.
“Detective Scala, what a surprise to see you so soon,” Berenice giggled. “Please, come in.”
“I only have one quick question,” he asked, entering the apartment. “Do you remember if by any chance Luciano left the apartment that night after his father left for the first time?”
“Absolutely not,” she replied certainly. “He listened to music and then switched on the TV until midnight. Then he went to sleep, or at least I think so because I didn’t hear anything.”
“Could it be he left the apartment, and you didn’t hear him leaving? Perhaps he had been very careful by closing the door without making any noise,” Maurizio started to be excited about the direction his mind was headed. He might have found someone else who could have been exactly at the crime scene; someone nobody thought about.
“No, Sir, and I can tell you why, please follow me.” She walked outside her apartment and reached one particular spot in front of the apartment of Claudio. “See here—there’s an irregularity in the floor. Every time someone comes and goes from their apartment, it sounds like a loud clang in my apartment. I would have noticed if he’d left the house.”
Maurizio placed his foot on that spot but couldn’t find anything that could have confirmed what she was telling him.
Understanding his skepticism, knowing she was telling the truth, she pursed her lips. “Go inside my apartment and close the door,” she said. “Go to whatever room you like, even in the kitchen, which is the farthest room from here.”
Maurizio hesitated for a second.
“Just go, I will walk about here, and you’ll hear, I’m not imagining things!” she pushed Maurizio toward her apartment.
Squaring his shoulders, he walked inside and closed the door. With uncertainty, he walked to the kitchen and waited for something to happen. When he felt convinced, she was simply making up things to cover the fact that her purpose in life after retirement became spying on whatever happened in that condo, a creaking noise came to his ears. Indeed, it was something clearly audible. It sounded as if the pipes or whatever else for the matter, were bending and banging against the floor surface.
I’d be damned! This is definitely something as loud as an alarm, it doesn’t indeed go unheard, he thought.
Walking to the door, he opened and glanced at Berenice. “You were right, I could distinctly hear the clanging when you were walking there.”
“Yes. I have tried, God-only-knows, how many times to raise the attention of the administration of the condominium on this problem. They never cared about it or came to inspect the problem,” she grunted, disappointed. “Whatever the matter, this is the reason why I can clearly say Luciano didn’t leave home after his father.”
“Could it be that he left when you were asleep?” He didn’t want to doubt everything she said, but he h
ad to make sure the information he gathered was as accurate as possible to reconstruct the dynamics of the murder. He needed to place every player in a defined place to mark those who possibly could have been in the exact same spot with a weapon willing to kill Claudio.
“Detective, at my age, my sleep is as light as a feather. I get easily awakened, and that noise is certainly something able to break my sleep.”
“Well, thank you, for now, that was enough, if I need anything...”
“...You will let me know,” she continued his sentence with a giggle. “I’m at your full availability.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Moretti, and have a nice day.” He turned to walk back in the direction of Claudio’s apartment, ready to tell Leonardo the news.
CHAPTER 10
That day, Madlen’s thoughts turned to the reading of the testament. This was the first time that she could get her hands on a substantial inheritance and wondered whether there would be any problem getting the insurance settlement, since Claudio was murdered.
The ringing of her telephone brought her back from her contemplations and a smile appeared on her face when she recognized the telephone number of Irina.
“Hello darling, how are you doing?” she answered, relieved not to be left alone with her thoughts.
“Everything is fine here, I called to see how you are managing with all that is going on. “
“I’m still confused, today. Yesterday there was the reading of the testament. I was surprised to be invited and perhaps I should have sent someone to represent me. It hadn’t been easy to be in the same room with Claudio’s ex-wife,” Shaking her head she walked to the living room, where she sat on the couch to get more comfortable. “I fully understand her hostility, but it wasn’t because of me that their marriage didn’t work out. If it weren’t me, it most probably would have been someone else. Claudio was looking for a companion, and he was already considering divorcing her when I met him.”