Arturo looked as though he wanted to say something, but then appeared to change his mind.
Aunt Beatrice muttered to Chiara, “What does he mean? I can’t understand. Did he say, one of us?” Chiara squeezed her hand gently and murmured, “Ssh.”
There was a timid knock on the door, and Anna Gonnella came in. Ruggero nodded to her, and she went to sit quietly beside Orlando, who looked surprised, but said nothing. Arturo glared at her suspiciously. The others watched her, until she sat down, and then turned their faces back towards him.
“I will ask all of you questions, and everyone here will hear the answers. I want you all to tell me the truth, no matter how compromising you think it might be. If you are innocent, this will become apparent. If you know that someone is lying, I want to you to tell me.
Firstly, let me state that on Saturday afternoon, Diana Fothergill, went to the pergola at roughly ten minutes to two. She was alone. At just after two o'clock her daughter Francesca, went to talk to her, and said she was asleep.”
They all looked at Francesca, who felt obliged to say, “I needed to talk to her, and I hoped she wouldn’t be asleep, but she was.”
“Yes. She was. The pathologist has confirmed that it was impossible for her to have died at this time. She had eaten late, so at two o'clock digestion would have only just begun. That was not the case when she died. Francesca, therefore, was the last person to see her alive, other than her murderer, of course.
Now, during the afternoon, at times that would be concordant with the time of death, several of you have admitted being near the house, or in it. None of you has a reliable witness for your movements during the afternoon, so let us now, take these people one at a time, and try to ascertain the truth. I will ask random questions, there is no one factor that is more important than another.”
He looked at them all, and they remained totally still and silent.
“Ambra, you have no alibi. You say you were in the house asleep all afternoon. Can you prove this?”
“No,” said softly.
“Can anyone else say that they know for certain, that she was in her bedroom asleep?”
Silence. Riccardo held her arm tightly, as Ambra turned pale, and said quietly. “I was there.”
“Isn't it true that you had an argument with your mother, during which she said that you would marry Riccardo , and I quote, 'over her dead body'?”
“Yes, but…”
“Yes, no buts! You are expecting a child by the man you want to marry, and your mother was determined to make things as difficult as possible. That could be a motive for murder. Perhaps it was.” He saw Emily turn her face from her sister, and apply the handkerchief to her eyes.
Ambra said quite clearly, “I did not kill her.”
Ruggero ignored her, and turned to her sister. “Chiara, you came up from the stables at roughly a quarter past three, and say that you went to the cantina to look for something. Did anyone see her?”
He looked at them all hopefully, but no one answered. “You did not come in for tea until well after four. A footprint that you admit to be yours was found just outside the pergola, where your mother was brutally killed. I think that you could well have killed your mother, cleaned yourself up and then come in for tea. Did you?”
“No, I did not.”
“Did you go into the pergola?”
“No. I've already told you this.”
“Yes, you told me that you did not go into the pergola because someone else was there. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Who was this person?”
There was a lengthy silence.
“It was me,” said Cosimo.
They all turned to look at him. Emily gasped, and Arturo put his arm around her shoulders.
Di Girolamo ignored Cosimo, and switched his attention to Riccardo.
“Riccardo, you came from the stables and were seen on the side path, going towards the orchard or possibly the pergola, at roughly twenty five past three, give or take a few minutes. You were seen by Emily, and have not denied it, even though you had neglected to tell me this, at first. Did you see anyone?”
“No. I went to the orchard, to collect a ladder, not to the pergola.”
“You are quite sure, that you saw no one at all, at any point of your journey.”
“No, I saw no one at all.”
“You did not see Emily?”
“No.”
“We know that Emily was at the house, because we have a witness who can place her at the house, at that time.” He looked round the room.
“Not all of you will know that Emily, who spent the afternoon at the swimming pool with her husband, came up to the house to fetch a sun-block cream for her husband, at approximately three o'clock, or shortly afterwards.”
Arturo seemed to want to rise from his chair, but was restrained by Emily.
“Emily, you say you saw Riccardo at approximately twenty past three, as you were returning to the swimming pool. Did you see anyone else?”
“Only the courier, no one else at all.”
“Orlando, what shoes were you wearing?”
Orlando looked startled but replied, “When?”
“When you went for your assignation with Anna.”
All heads turned as one towards Anna who looked down, obviously embarrassed.
“I was wearing espadrilles, then, but before coming down for tea I changed my clothes and put on a pair of shoes. My mother liked us to be presentable for tea.”
“Arturo, what shoes were you wearing?”
“Me? What’s that got to do with it?”
“Answer the question.”
“I was wearing trainers. I was going on to my mother’s, for tea.”
Ruggero swivelled round and said, “Riccardo, you are an ambitious young man, you have done well. You completed your education and have a good job. Recently you discovered that you now have the chance of marrying into a wealthy family. There was only one thing standing between you and your goal. Diana Fothergill was violently opposed to your marriage with her daughter, whom she considered to be far too young to marry. Apart from that, she disapproved of you as a prospective husband. She was going to make things as difficult as possible for you. She was even going to fire you. So I'm sure you asked yourself what you could do about it. You were determined to marry Ambra, at all costs. You had got her pregnant for that reason. It was the easiest way to improve your financial situation, and your social status.” He looked straight at Riccardo who stared back at him with an expression of stupor.
“You could easily have come up to the pergola and killed Diana. You knew she was there, and you left the axe there, to hand, for that evil purpose. There was only one finger print on the axe. It was yours. All the evidence points to you and I think that you could well have killed Diana Fothergill. You had everything to gain from her death and you were seen going towards the pergola at about twenty past three, the time at which Diana probably died.” Ambra looked down and buried her face in her hands muttering, “It's not true. Tell him it’s not true,” while the others all stared at him with horror.
Emily said loudly, “I might have known it was him. I said it couldn't be one of us.”
“I did not kill Signora Guerrazzi,” Riccardo said in a firm voice. There was a terrible silence.
“You're not going to believe that are you. Arrest him!” Emily sounded slightly hysterical.
“All in good time. I will make an arrest when the moment is ripe.”
Emily stared at him puzzled. Then she stood up and began waving her arms about with jerky movements. “You have just said that he killed her. He is a monster. I saw my mother…what he did to her.” She began weeping with great harsh sobs. “What are we all doing, sitting here like this, discussing murder as though it was some party game. Our mother is dead, and that man killed her.”
“I said that he could have killed her. Please sit down Signora Esposito, and try to keep calm. Rest assured that I will make an arr
est this afternoon.” He sounded far more confident than he felt.
Arturo put his arm round Emily’s shoulders and sat her down. “Don't you think you could hurry up? My wife is not well. I have told you this repeatedly, but you seem to take some kind of sadistic pleasure in upsetting her.”
“That was not my intention. This afternoon I intend to get at the truth. When I make an arrest, you will all be quite certain that I have arrested the person that killed Diana.” He looked around at them all, then turned back towards Arturo, and said, “Arturo, you also had quite an unpleasant argument with your mother-in-law, didn't you?”
“What kind of a question is that? I don't see the point of all this. I thought you said that Riccardo killed Diana. This isn't some game, you know, as my wife has already pointed out.”
“I am well aware of that. Wouldn't it be true though, to say that you had both motive and opportunity? You live here in this house, on sufferance, as Emily's husband. You had an argument with your mother-in-law the other day. I know that it was about the position that your wife occupies here, as general dogs body. You would have preferred to leave, but that wouldn't have suited Diana, nor would it have been welcomed by Emily. They both had too much to lose, in different ways. So perhaps you thought that with Diana dead, things would change for the better.”
Emily muttered, “That's disgusting.”
Ruggero continued, “You could have run up from the swimming pool and killed your mother-in-law, and been back in the water, washing the blood spatters from your body, by the time Emily returned from the house.”
Emily gazed at him in horror. Unperturbed, he continued, “With Diana dead you would be free, free to live as you wish, and with enough money as well. You are no longer as young as you were. You have a boring, ill paid job, which keeps you away for most of the week, leaving your wife here to be her mother's unpaid servant…”
“How can you say all this? It just isn't true! You said Riccardo killed mother. Why are you accusing Arturo like this?” Emily shouted hysterically.
“Arturo, what colour is your swimming costume?”
“What!”
“Answer the question,” Di Girolamo barked at him.
“White.”
“Thank-you.” He paused and then looked at Emily. “Signora Esposito weren't you tired of being treated like a servant by your mother, of obeying her whims, and living with her, most of the time without the support of your husband. The terrible argument that your husband had with your mother must have been a turning point for you. When you came up to get the sun-block for Arturo, which you had deliberately forgotten, I think that you then went to the pergola and killed your mother. No wonder you are in such a state of nervous exhaustion. You have done something so terrible that you can hardly bear to live with yourself.”
Emily became incredibly pale, and gazed aghast at her accuser. “No, no, no.”
Arturo turned red in the face, "How dare you! My wife has been ill. This awful crime has almost destroyed her. How can you suggest that she would kill her own mother?” Di Girolamo ignored him.
“Francesca, did you come back to the Villa during the afternoon, and kill your mother?”
“No, as I'm sure you have verified, my car was parked in the same place all afternoon.”
“There are other means of transport. We are not talking of a great distance, merely a couple of kilometres.”
“Well, I didn't.”
“It is true though, that your mother had given you an ultimatum after a terrible argument. She had told you to stop drinking, or get out by the end of the month. How did you react to that?”
“It was the best thing she ever said to me. It made me get myself together. I've already found a house and…”
“Very convincing, but witnesses tell me that it wasn't very pleasant for you when your mother turned on you. When did you decide to kill your mother? You knew that she slept in the pergola every afternoon. What could be easier? Oh of course, it must have taken careful planning, but I'm sure you found a way.”
“Find someone who saw me go back to the Villa before you accuse me. I didn't have it in for Madre. I was happy because I was leaving her at last. I had no reason to kill her.”
Di Girolamo watched them all for a moment and then changed tack again. “Cosimo, why did you go into the pergola?” They all turned to look at him.
“I wanted to talk to my mother, to make her see sense, and leave me to do what I wanted. I hoped that my absence had given her time to reflect, and change her mind.”
“Perhaps you decide to change her mind for her? Perhaps your family doesn’t know that you had her blood on your sleeve.” Cosimo turned pale.
“She was going to leave you without a penny, so why not solve all your problems with a single stroke.”
“She was already dead when I got there. I couldn't believe it, so I went to her. I touched her, that’s how I got the blood on my sleeve, but she was dead.”
“So somebody saved you the trouble.”
“God, I can't stand much more of this,” murmured Cosimo
“Yes, I think we're all getting a bit tired of it. I don't think you have the right to do this anyway. You seem to be accusing us all. It's hardly orthodox. We should have legal representation,” said Arturo.
“I have almost finished. Please bear with me a little longer.” He looked round the room at them.
“Emily, what colour is your costume?”
“Black,” said in a flat voice.
“What shoes were you wearing that afternoon?”
“Flip -flops.”
“Ah, yes, more suitable for the pool. Does Arturo wear them too at the pool?”
“Usually.”
“But he didn’t have them with him on Saturday?”
“No. He’s already told you why.” She sounded weary.
“Orlando, your brothers and sisters probably do not know that you spend some summer afternoons in the gazebo with a friend, so I will tell them now, that you were there all afternoon from a quarter past two until four o'clock… apart from a very brief absence to collect something from your car. Anna, will you verify that?”
“Yes,” said in a low voice.
“Orlando, you lied to me at first, and your original alibi was false. Are you lying again, and asking this woman to commit perjury?”
“No. I am telling the truth, and so is she.”
“Anna?”
“He only left me for a few minutes.”
“Orlando, will you tell me what you were wearing when you left your friend for those few vital moments?”
“I was wearing underpants.”
“Anna, what colour were his underpants?”
“Dark blue, boxers.“
“Shoes?”
“Espadrilles.”
“Did anyone see him?”
“I did,” said Riccardo. All heads swivelled towards him. “I went up to the orchard at about twenty past three. That is, I don't know the exact time, I didn't look at my watch as I had no idea I might need an alibi, but if Signora Esposito says it was three twenty, then I won't argue with that. I went to collect the ladder that I had left there. It was at the furthest point from the stables, and the nearest point to the car parking area. I remember now. I heard a car door slam, and looked up, and saw him leaving the area.”
“There you see. You told me you had seen no one, and now you are able to remember seeing someone. At what time was this?”
“Well, I suppose it must have been after three thirty by then. Yes, it was, I heard the Duomo bells ringing the half hour as I was coming up. I had forgotten.”
“Good. You see that our collective effort is already bearing fruit.” Di Girolamo looked happily at them. “It may interest you all to know that the courier, who brought the package that Emily signed for at three seventeen, circled round the flower bed with his van as he left, and as he straightened his car to enter the drive, saw a man running, across the road, from the house area towards the lawns. In hi
s statement, he tells us that the man was wearing underpants.” He looked round at them.
“Arturo, coughed and asked,” Are you telling us that it was Orlando, that he killed Diana?”
“No, I am telling you, that it wasn’t Orlando that the driver saw. He has already admitted being in the area, although he was uncertain of the time. No, what I am telling you is that someone else was there, someone who has told me that they were not there, someone who was wearing underpants, someone who was barefoot and left a partial footprint in the pergola where Diana was ruthlessly killed.”
They all waited. He looked towards Arturo.
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t leave the swimming pool.”
“But you did! Riccardo tells us that he saw no one as he went along the path from the stables, which runs behind and beside the pool. What he said is true; there was no one to see. Arturo was not at the pool.”
Riccardo looked at Arturo in horror as he realised that this was true, he searched his mind frantically, but no, Arturo had not been there.
“Furthermore, Emily signed for the package at three seventeen, the time was noted meticulously by the van driver. He then circled the flower bed, and saw a man running, at what time? Surely not later then three twenty. Emily, meanwhile, had gone back into the house and put the package in her mother’s study. She left the house again, and when she was halfway down the lawn, saw Riccardo starting up the side path. By then it must have been nearer three twenty five. He did not see her, as he had by now crossed into the orchard. He continued, and reached the top of the orchard, where he heard a car door slam, and saw Orlando at the parking area. What was the time by now? It had to be after three thirty. So this is not the man that the van driver saw. No, he saw a man in a white swimming costume. He thought the man was wearing underpants, because most men of his age wear white underpants.” He waved the photo of an enlarged footprint. “This is a photograph of a partial, bare footprint here. Who made it?” He looked at the family. “I will tell you. It was Arturo, who did not wear beach sandals to the pool, by his wife’s admission, and had run barefoot from the pool across the lawns to the pergola, where he killed his mother-in-law. Then he fled back, as fast as he could, to be found by Emily, when she returned, swimming in the water, where incidentally he washed off any bloodstains.”
The Tuscan Mystery Trilogy Page 47