The Year of the Mantis

by P J Mann

  Pursing his lips, Luciano grabbed all his strength and self-confidence. “Yes, I still live with my mother. I haven’t yet received the keys to the apartment where I was living with my father.”

  Maurizio looked at the clock, and after a fast calculation of the time necessary to reach Luciano, he nodded. “I’m with Forensic Inspector Romizi, from the forensic team. We will arrive within half an hour, so he can tell you about the time required to return you the keys.”

  “That would be great. I’ll be waiting for you. See you soon.”

  Luciano hung up the phone, without waiting for any answer from Maurizio. He was glad to know there was, at least something he could clarify, and that was when he could return to the place, he called home. He loved to be with his mother, and during the time they lived together he had the chance to appreciate her better than he’d ever done so far. Nevertheless, the freedom of having his own space was something he started to miss. With his father, things were easier; he was rarely at home, so most of the time, it was like living in the apartment alone. His mother was completely different, she enjoyed spending her time at home, and they spent a lot of time together. It was good to have the feeling of being considered more than a roommate, as he sometimes felt with his father.

  ***

  “We’re going to the address of Mrs. Martini, it’s via Colfiorito 8.” Maurizio said curtly to Leonardo. “And this time, try to behave, or I will be the one who reports you directly to the Chief of the Department and have you transferred on point duty.”

  Leonardo gave a fast glance at Maurizio and they both burst into a loud laughter.

  CHAPTER 13

  It took about twenty minutes for Leonardo and Maurizio to reach the building where the apartment of Mrs. Martini was located. The main door got opened as one of the residents came out, and they reached the top floor. Without any hesitation, Maurizio rang the bell expecting to see Luciano.

  A light surprise flashed Maurizio as Giulia came to open instead. “Detective Scala, Luciano informed me about your arrival, please come in.”

  Her voice calm, and kind, returned a serene feeling to Leonardo, who still felt upset for his gaffe with Madlen.

  “Good afternoon,” Maurizio replied. “Please forgive this late afternoon visit. I understand you might have just arrived from work. This is Forensic Inspector Romizi from the forensic team.”

  With a shy smile Leonardo shook her hand, “Pleased to meet you Ms. Martini,” he greeted briefly.

  “There’s absolutely no problem about it,” she replied, guiding them to the living room. “Lucio! Come here, Detective Scala arrived!” she called.

  Turning her eyes back to her visitors, she took their jackets and offered for them to sit on the couch. “He will come soon. He’s preparing for one exam and he’s always in his room studying.”

  “Ah, the life of a student; I miss it,” Maurizio replied chuckling.

  “Good afternoon,” said Luciano appearing from one of the doors leading to a corridor that remained in the darkness.

  Maurizio and Leonardo stood up to greet him, “Good afternoon, Mr. Calvani. We will try to be brief and not to steal too much of your time. This is Forensic Inspector Romizi, and if you prefer to talk in private...” he explained peering at Ms. Martini.

  Giulia glanced at them, understanding that probably they wanted to ask confidential questions, and included details of his private life, one she might not be aware of. They never spoke about a relationship, and she was afraid he was feeling slightly embarrassed to open up his private life to anyone, particularly to his mother. That was something she was aware of, and she accepted the fact that probably a daughter would have felt more comfortable talking about boys and relationships with a mother, meanwhile a son would have preferred speaking to his father.

  “Oh, I was going to see a friend of mine on the second floor, you can chat freely here,” she winked, feeling amused.

  “Thank you, Mom,” he smiled shyly at her.

  As they were alone, and seated on the couch, Luciano scrutinized both men, trying to guess their thoughts, and wondering about what they knew. “Is there any news about getting the keys back to my apartment?”

  “We expect to have everything ready by the end of next week. We’re sorry for the delay, we needed to collect as much information as possible,” Leonardo replied in an apologetic tone.

  He understood there had been several delays due to the lack of manpower at the laboratory, but that was a detail he wasn’t willing to share with anyone.

  “That’s not a problem, I can certainly wait.”

  “I know you have already answered this question, but I would like to go into a bit more detail. How would you describe your relationship with the victim? I know there had been highs and lows, like in every family, but the neighbors were claiming having heard quite inflamed arguments coming from your apartment. Can you tell me a bit more specifically the reason why you argued with your father?” Maurizio needed to handle the question of the girlfriend with care.

  He could not get straight to the point, in that case, besides being considered rude, it would have raised some suspicions from one of the potential assassins.

  Luciano averted his eyes from him and slowly entwined his fingers on his lap. “Our relationship was sometimes a bit troublesome, I understand. The reason we were often arguing was because of his broken promises,” he commenced, raising his glance shyly. “My father was a busy businessman, and that wasn’t something new. The problem began when he started to be more serious with his girlfriend and had no time for me anymore. I felt like a useless presence in his life, and I tried in every way possible to spend some time with him.”

  “Did you ever ask your mother for advice?” Maurizio started to dig deeper.

  With a sarcastic chuckle, Luciano tilted his head backward. “He divorced her because of his girlfriend, and I asked her for any advice on how to have my father back. She suggested to leave him, because it was a lost cause.” Returning serious, his eyes returned to his hands. “Perhaps she was right, and I should have returned to live with her. She always listened to me when I asked her something.”

  “What about your friends, your girlfriend, did you ever talk to her about your problems?” Leonardo chimed in. He regretted it immediately and waited for another admonition coming from Maurizio.

  Nevertheless, Maurizio nodded, considering his way of introducing the presence of a girlfriend, simply brilliant.

  “Irina? Yes, she was the one who was always listening to my complaints. Sometimes I feel guilty for including her with my personal problems, but this is what a relationship is made of, isn’t it?” Luciano asked.

  “So, Irina is your girlfriend, that’s a beautiful and exotic name. Where does she come from?” Maurizio wondered, pretending to be curious.

  “I met her at the University. She’s originally from Hungary, but she has the double passport.” Luciano replied, hesitatingly. He realized he made a mistake in telling them anything about his relationship with Irina and her citizenship, but it was too late, and he had to hope this information wasn’t going to bring any trouble to either of them.

  “Does she study here in Rome?” Leonardo pursued, intending not to let go that lead for any reason in this world.

  “No, I met her when she was trying to figure out what to do with her life. She is still deciding whether she is going to follow any course or not. She still lives in Hungary with her aunt and comes here only for holidays. She has a job as a waitress back in her country and can’t come here as often as she’d like. Sometimes I go to visit her, so we can spend more time together.” He desperately hoped this would have taken her away from the crime scene so they wouldn’t think about pursuing that lead.

  “When was the last time she was here to visit you?” Maurizio intervened. That would have been a good starting point and his heart started slowly to increase its pace, at the thought that perhaps this would have been another piece to be added to the puzzle.

  “H
mm... Let me think, it was sometime in October. When my father was murdered, she asked me whether I wanted to have her here. I told her it would have been better if she’d remain away for a time, as I needed to take care of my life, and put the pieces back together. I still need to figure out what I’m going to do from now on.” He peered cautiously at them, twisting his fingers.

  After a short pause, Leonardo brought his closed fist to his mouth. “You said this girl, Irina, lives with her aunt. Where is her mother, or father? Do you know anything about them?”

  He noticed Luciano’s discomfort and knew it was because they were reaching a critical point.

  “We never spoke about her family. I don’t know...”

  “How come? She knew everything about your family, she knew your parents divorced and your father was murdered. Yet, although you were in a romantic relationship, you cannot say where his parents are? Did she keep it secret, or weren’t you interested in that detail?” Leonardo pressed. He didn’t care whether his questions were impolite or not. He was smelling a dead rat, and by glancing at Maurizio, the stench was so strong, they could almost see the rotting corpse.

  “What are those questions about?” Luciano snapped. “I wasn’t interested in her background, and if you had seen her, you would have understood that the last thing you come to think of is about her family.”

  “Do you happen to have a picture of her?” Maurizio’s voice was calm and tried to sound as reassuring and friendly as possible, but he knew they were close to something big, something Luciano wanted to keep secret.

  The reason for this secrecy, not necessarily was connected to the murder, as there could have been thousands of explanations, for example keeping secret from his mother the fact that he was having a relationship with the daughter of the woman who stole her husband.

  Thinking about it, he realized there would be more than a good reason to hide his relationship, yet he should know that we are supposed to keep the maximum confidentiality on every private detail of the people we are interrogating. It doesn’t matter whether they are serial killers or witnesses, they all have a right to privacy. Maurizio considered.

  Luciano relaxed his muscles and drew a deep breath. “Sorry for being rude, I have a picture in my mobile phone,” he said with a defeated tone. With a slow movement, he stood from the couch and pulled it from the pocket of his jeans.

  Browsing through his pictures, he returned to sit and as he found what he was looking for, he handed the mobile phone to Maurizio. He was aware of the incredible resemblance to her mother and was waiting for their reaction. Now I need to play my cards wisely. I can still win this game.

  Maurizio inspected the picture and immediately recognized the daughter of Madlen.

  “She’s indeed a very beautiful girl and resembles quite closely....”

  “I know!” Luciano interrupted, throwing his hands up in mid-air. “How do you think my mother would react if she knew I’m dating the daughter of my father’s girlfriend?” Luciano knew he just found the greatest escape plan from a hopeless situation.

  “You should have told us, because hiding any sort of detail can be considered a way to misdirect the investigation,” Maurizio warned, his brows furrowed as he handed him back the mobile phone.

  “I…I” Luciano’s lips twitched as his heart sank. “I didn’t mean to hide anything. I was sure this was a detail that held no importance whatsoever. I’m dating Irina, who’s generally living in another country. What does this detail have to do with the murder of my father?” His voice trembled as tears started to form in his eyes.

  He covered his face between his hands and felt hopelessly slipping into an abyss he’d never imagined possible.

  “Mr. Calvani,” Maurizio commenced. “We’re not accusing you of anything, but you need to understand we need every single piece of information. Let us judge what’s important and what isn’t.” He tried to keep his voice calm, although he wanted to run to the Department and start delegating the team to search for every member of Irina’s family and their moves in the last three months, together with their backgrounds.

  There was a pause of a few long moments, where Maurizio and Leonardo gave a chance to Luciano to regain his composure and try to calm down. The silence in the apartment brought every noise in the foreground to take center stage. And so, the slight buzz of the fridge, almost imperceptible, took life, merging with the regular ticking of the clock on the wall, and the muffled noises coming from the other apartments.

  They weren’t there to arrest him. Not yet at least, but there are so many questions open. I am afraid nobody here has told the whole truth, and Mrs. Fazekas, Mr. Calvani and this girl, Irina, will have to explain a lot once this puzzle will start to come together, Maurizio bit his lower lip, scrutinizing every little movement of Luciano.

  Leaning back on the couch, Luciano closed his eyes for a second to inhale deeply, recalling the fact that they didn’t have any proof against him, and certainly never will.

  He opened his eyes once again and scrutinized Maurizio, who remained almost frozen into the same expression and position.

  “You’re right, detective, and I’m sorry for not having considered this particular. I should have thought about the importance of every detail to find out who has killed my father and the reason why,” he tried to explain and apologize at the same time for something that might have almost caused him to climb up the list of the suspects. “There isn’t a person who wishes to know the identity of the assassin more than I do. We might have had our disagreements, we might have yelled at each other, but he was still my father. It doesn’t matter whether he wasn’t perfect— none of us is.”

  Closing his eyes as he nodded, Maurizio relaxed into a smile. “Mr. Calvani, I completely understand your position, and I can assure you we will do everything in our power to find the killer and make sure the culprit will pay for this crime.”

  With those words, Maurizio stood up to return to the department. Although he was sure that most of his collaborators had returned home, he needed to prepare the list of tasks and send emails to everybody to prioritize them.

  Leonardo followed his example but remained silent. He was still trying to digest the details they received and started to formulate once again the crime scene, which began to get populated by people belonging to the international criminality.

  “For the moment we have all the information we were looking for. We will let you know whether we will need to have another chat with you. Meantime, I hope you will call us whenever there is anything that comes to your mind that could help us to bring more pieces to this puzzle.” Maurizio concluded, shaking Luciano’s hand.

  “I will try to recall every detail, even if it doesn’t seem to have any importance, I will inform you about it. I guess I’ve learned my lesson today,” Luciano said with a shy smile brightening his still wet eyes.

  As they were ready to leave, the door opened, and Giulia returned. “That’s what I call perfect timing, Madam,” Maurizio chuckled. “We’re sorry we’ve entertained ourselves a bit too long. I hope you’ll excuse us.”

  Giulia smiled broadly, “Detective, there isn’t any reason to apologize. Although, things haven’t worked out with Claudio, I hope you will find who is responsible for this despicable act. I would never have wished him dead.”

  “I know,” Maurizio whined. “Not everybody is ready to walk away from an offense the way you did. Some people take revenge to the extreme, but we will find out who did it, be reassured. In the meantime, I wish you a pleasant evening,” he added with a slight bow, as he grabbed his jacket.

  ***

  “What do you think?” Leonardo asked as they were back in the car.

  “I think we absolutely need to find out more about this girl and also about her entire family,” he replied. “The father is a figure that intrigues me. I need to know whether he kept regularly paying for the child support, what job he’s doing, where he lives, and whether he could be the one who killed Mr. Calvani out of jea
lousy as his ex-wife started a relationship with him. According to the book, a jealous and oppressive husband, can turn into a stalker and murderer, if the wife walks away from his life,” Maurizio started to count the cases on his fingers.

  Leonardo kept driving, maintaining his eyes on the road. “I think we should keep an eye on the boy. There was something in the way he twisted his fingers that told me more than a wish to hide his relationship from his mother. He knew we would have kept every single word he spoke to us confidential.”

  Maurizio’s mind started to formulate his own hypotheses, when his glance met the clock glaring 07:00 pm with a huff, knowing he would have stayed at the office for a few hours, he sent a message to Anna.

  The reassuring tone of the answer he received back, gave him some peace of mind; he would have not been forced to sleep on the couch. A grin appeared on his face, as he realized another issue— he would have skipped dinner.

  CHAPTER 14

  Alone in his room, Luciano’s hands still trembled, and his heart found no release from the pounding that had begun during the chat he had with the two officers. He needed to talk to Irina, wondering whether the Police were tracking every call he was making. Shaking his head, he grinned. If they got suspicious after this chat, it would still take time before they can arrange any tracking. I need to act fast.

  Grabbing his telephone, casting away every hesitation, he called her number, hoping she’d answer right away.

  “Hello?” her voice, at a whisper.

  “Hi, can you talk?” He also tried to keep the tone of his voice lower, to avoid being heard by his mother.

  She turned her eyes, spotting Igor’s figure in the living room, she narrowed her eyes, and tiptoed to her room, where she could reach the balcony, hoping for some privacy from her father. “I can talk now, but I don’t have much time. After the initial delay, due to some coordination problems between Alec and Aldo’s team, we might be ready to leave next week. Do you have any news?”