"Yes, but if you shouted for help, who would hear you? It was by pure chance that Belle was found by Marco you know. She could have died down there. In fact I'm surprised she didn't."
"Yes, she was very lucky. Where did she go down exactly?" asked Alex
"I don't know. Apparently she was going to get wood from the wood shed, and fell over on her way back to the house."
Alex went out and looked about him, the woodshed was to the left of the house, and there was a little path, which fell away to one side. He walked to the edge, and looked down. Miranda joined him,
"It doesn't look like a very big drop, does it? It's steeper over there, near the front of the house," she said.
"Well, she couldn't have gone down there, the path is too far from the edge."
"No, I suppose not. Perhaps she dropped her torch and missed the path."
"Well, you'll be able to ask her soon, if she remembers, that is. After that sort of injury, people often don't."
"I wish she would wake up. I've been talking to her for hours, and I keep thinking she will, but nothing happens. I told you, she did speak once to Jerry, but not a word to me yet."
"What did she say to him?" asked Alex.
"He said that she opened her eyes and said, quite loudly, ‘What happened to that poor girl?’ and then closed her eyes again. He got quite a shock!"
"I'm sure he did."
"I'm going back in; I want to get some night clothes and stuff for Belle."
Alex wandered about outside, looking around. A fine plume of smoke was coming out of Isabelle's chimney, and the little house looked very charming. The sun was shining, and there was an air of serenity.
He sat down on a grassy bank, and then lay down, and closed his eyes. The sun was warm, and he felt very sleepy. The Christmas dinner was taking its toll.
Hilary went out onto the terrace and looked up at the clear sky, and over at the view of the valley, with ranges of mountains in the distance. Ruggero stood beside her, and said, "I think this will be a good place for the child to grow up, better than a town."
"But you won't always be here."
"No."
Camilla joined them, "Cosimo is asleep, but I couldn't sleep. It’s such a beautiful day, I didn't want to waste it."
"Sit down, Camilla," said Hilary, moving a chair forwards.
"Thank-you Hilary, and thank-you for everything. I know I keep saying it, and you don't want me to, but what I really want to say is that I'm glad it's going to be you."
"I hope I'm up to it."
"Yes, you are the right person. I can feel it. I'm so glad he'll have two parents."
The three of them sat there together companionably for a while, enjoying the afternoon sunshine.
The next day, Isabelle opened her eyes again, and said to her daughter, "Where am I and what on earth are you doing here?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Boxing Day, Santo Stefano, was another sunny day, after a cold night. Alex went out to lunch with friends, while Amanda and James after another hearty meal, went for a walk. Camilla again ate very little, and was very quiet, and subdued. Ruggero disappeared during the morning, and fell asleep on the sofa after lunch. Cosimo was taken up for his afternoon rest, but Camilla came downstairs after only half an hour.
"I shall have to think about leaving fairly early, or the traffic will be terrible."
"Stay on until tomorrow morning. You haven't got any appointments have you?”
"No, no appointments. There's nothing to go back for. A neighbour is coming in to feed the cat, so if that's alright with you, I will stay another night."
"Camilla, I want to ask you something."
"What."
"Well, what plans have you made, for when things get worse."
"I don't know, I don't really want to go into a hospital. I have to tell you that as a doctor, I don't intend to suffer any more than is necessary. When the time comes, I'll decide when I go. I've got the means."
"Oh! Well, that's your choice."
"But you don't approve?"
"Oh, I do, I do. I would do the same myself in your situation. In fact, I have always said I would, but I find it difficult to talk about it in a matter of fact manner, when I know that you will actually be doing it."
"As a doctor, I’ve seen death many times, I know it intimately, and it doesn't worry me at all. I mean it. No, the hard thing is leaving Cosimo."
"Of course." She paused and then added, "Look, Camilla, I wanted to ask you if you would consider coming to live with us, until the end. I won't interfere with you in any way. I respect your decision, and I would never try to dissuade you, or prevent you from whatever course of action you have decided to take. No, my reason for asking you to stay, is for Cosimo. If he can get used to us and the house, with you here, then when you have to leave, he will be less traumatised. It will make it easier for us too, so you can see I'm not being purely altruistic about this. Hopefully, we will have a lot of time to settle him in here, and for you, there would be the benefit of not being alone."
"I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Go home tomorrow and think about it, and let me know. You can come any time, next week if you like, the sooner the better I think."
"Thank you. There, I’ve said it again."
Hilary smiled.
Isabelle looked at Miranda in amazement. "I don't understand ," she said.
"Oh. Belle, you're awake, how fantastic!" She pressed the buzzer, and excitedly told the nurse who called a doctor. Isabelle asked, "What happened to me, Miranda?"
"You fell over, and hit your head."
"Did I? How extraordinary!" She thought for a moment, and then asked, "What about that poor girl?"
"What girl, Belle?"
"I can't remember, but there was a girl."
"I think you must have had a bad dream. There wasn't any girl."
"Oh! Was it a dream? How strange. I could have sworn it was real."
The doctor arrived and asked Isabelle to move her limbs, and say how many fingers he was showing, and her age, and she said, "Do I have to tell you." He laughed, "Whisper, so no one else hears."
Afterwards he told Miranda that he was very pleased with his patient, and that Belle would be home in a few days time.
Later Isabelle said, "You know Miranda, I'm sure that there was a girl."
Hilary picked up the phone, "Pronto"
"Signora, it's me, Marco Rossi, the builder."
"Yes."
"I was just wondering how the Signora Annabella was doing. Is she still in a coma?"
"Of course, you're the one who found Isabelle. Well as far as I know, she hasn't woken up yet, but they think she's going to be fine. That's really thanks to you, because if you hadn't found her, well, I don't think she would have lasted much longer in that cold."
"I didn't do anything, really. It was just luck."
"Well, anyway, I'll let you know if there's any change."
"Thank-you"
Camilla had gone up to fetch Cosimo, and Hilary stood staring out of the window at the valley. Amanda came into the room quietly, and watched her mother, then she went up to her and touched her arm. "Ma, are you really sure you want to do this, have Cosimo I mean?"
Hilary turned round and looked at her, "Yes. Absolutely."
"It will be an enormous change in your life style."
"It won't be the first."
"Agreed, but you are older, do you really want to start all over again."
"Amanda, I'm not having a baby myself, thank God, but I expect I'll be able to manage physically with a child, if that's what you're talking about."
"No, it isn't and you know it."
"Well, let's say, I want to do it, and that's half the battle. There is one other thing to take into consideration," she looked directly into her daughter's eyes. "I love Ruggero, and this child is his son."
Amanda looked away as though embarrassed by her mother's blunt declaration.
"You've
got to remember Amanda, that I am a person, not just your mother, though of course I am that, and will always be. I think and feel like a person, not only as a mother, but just like you or any of your friends, do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
"Yes. It's just that you are my mother, and well, I can't get used to the idea... you know."
"Yes, I know." She put her arm round her daughter's shoulder, and hugged her.
"So you really do want to marry him."
"Yes."
"Good. I like him a lot, you know. I think he's right for you."
In the evening, Miranda rang and told Hilary at length about her mother's awakening. Hilary then phoned Marco Rossi, and told him briefly that Isabelle was awake and would be home soon. It wasn't until she went up to bed early, tired after days of cooking, and clearing up, that she found time to mention to Ruggero what had happened.
"Ruggero, Isabelle has woken up. I forgot to tell you. I've been so busy that it slipped my mind."
"That's good news. Is she alright. Mentally I mean?"
"Well, Miranda is a little worried actually. Isabelle seems alright, but apparently she keeps talking about a girl. The doctors think it must be a dream."
"Does she remember what happened to her? Does she know that she fell?"
"Apparently not."
"I expect it will take a few days for her to feel normal again, and some people never do remember what happened to them."
"Ruggero, I've been thinking. You don't think someone pushed her over do you? I mean maybe that's why she remembers a girl."
"I hope not. I don't even want to think about it. I’ve got enough to deal with as it is."
"Well you know what she said about being alone up there and feeling unsafe. I didn't take it very seriously, but then I thought that, well, it was a possibility."
"Well, unless she remembers something herself, then it remains a hypothesis."
"I'm probably wrong, anyway."
"Let's hope you are."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Marco Rossi drove down to Pisa dressed in his Sunday best. On the passenger seat a bunch of extremely expensive red roses lay packaged in cellophane. He had never bought flowers for anyone before, but he had thought it was the only thing suitable. He was going to visit Isabelle.
He knew where the hospital was, because a cousin had been there the previous year when a tree had fallen on his head, and he had miraculously survived. "They have hard heads in your part of the world," joked the doctor, and Rino had survived, and now a year later, was back chopping down trees as though nothing had happened.
He parked the car, and checked his face in the mirror, brushing his hair into place with his fingers. He took a small bottle out of the dashboard, unscrewed the top, and poured a little of the clear liquid onto his palm. He rubbed both hands together and applied the perfume to his face. Then he carefully screwed the top back on, and replaced the little bottle to its hiding place behind the ice scraper.
The hospital was, as he remembered it, a city within the city. The rectangular buildings all alike, one after another, endlessly similar, confusing outsiders, but he knew which building she would be in. When he reached the ward it was bang on morning visiting hours and he was pleased that he had made it so punctually. Isabelle was sitting up in bed wearing a very pretty pale blue bed jacket .Her hair was normal on the side facing him, but when she turned, he saw that the other side had been hacked and shaved. A large white plaster made her look vulnerable. She was wearing makeup, which was the first thing she thanked God for when she saw Marco enter the room. Whispering to the surprised Miranda, "My dear, I must look a perfect fright," she beamed a welcoming smile at Marco who was timidly approaching. Miranda saw a slim dapper sixty year old wearing a suit which looked outdated, and extremely shiny black shoes. He gave off waves of cheap after-shave.
"Signora Annabella, come sta?" he said.
"Molto bene, grazie." She took his outstretched hand and pulled him towards her for an Italian embrace and a kiss on each cheek. She indicated her daughter, and said, "Mia figlia, Miranda."
They shook hands, and then Marco handed Isabelle the roses.
"Oh, for me?" she trilled, "Molto bello. Darling, could you possibly get a vase for these," she asked, turning to her daughter who took them and went off without saying a word.
"Mio salvatore, my saviour," said Isabelle giving him another smile.
"No, no, non ho fatto niente. It was nothing," he murmured.
"Si. Grazie, grazie Marco." She gave him her best smile.
Miranda came back with the roses in a vase. A nurse hovered, and Isabelle cried ungrammatically, "Ha salvato mia vita," pointing to Marco, saying that he had saved her life, so that the nurse and Marco were forced into stilted conversation.
The conversation languished a little after that, though Isabelle expressed her desire to have a big party to celebrate her homecoming, with everyone, all her friends. When Marco finally left, after patting Isabelle's hand and gazing into her eyes, Miranda heaved a sigh of relief
"Goodness, a middle-aged Romeo."
"Don't be silly darling, he saved my life as I have just told everyone, and he is a good friend."
"Friend? Watch him; I think he thinks he'll be more than that."
"Really Miranda, we're both too old for that sort of thing." She smiled waiting for the rebuttal.
"I doubt that anyone is ever too old for that sort of thing."
"Anyway it was very nice of him to come, and the roses are simply divine, aren't they?"
"Lovely. He looked a bit seedy though. I mean, that suit!"
"Don't be such a snob Miranda."
"Sorry Ma, but you wouldn't …" she halted abruptly
"Wouldn't what dear?" said her mother innocently.
Camilla left at about ten, and embraced Hilary before she got into the car. Cosimo watched her waving her hand at him through the car window, and gave her a wonderful smile. She went back into the house and made herself a coffee.
Alex staggered down for a late breakfast at eleven thirty, and found his mother in the kitchen cooking lunch.
"I hate the morning after," he said into his coffee cup.
"Then you shouldn't have the night before."
"Where's the happy couple?"
"Out, shopping."
"You've rather stolen their thunder, you know."
"I've what!"
"Well they were all thrilled and bursting to tell you about the baby and the wedding, and you’ve already got a baby and a wedding."
"Really Alex. That's ridiculous. Amanda knows I'm thrilled for them."
"Yes, but you won't be knitting little things for their baby, you'll be looking after his."
"His?"
"Well, Ruggero's baby."
"I'm going to be his wife, Alex. Amanda was always on at me to marry Bruno, and now that I am marrying someone, I think she's pleased."
"Do you?"
"What's your problem Alex? Are you jealous or what."
"Would you be marrying him if it weren't for the baby?"
"Probably not, I'm not into legal ties, but I love him."
"Ah, love."
"Yes."
"Oh well, that's alright then. I thought you were being pressured."
"I am in a way, I suppose, but not in the way you think. I have thought this out quite carefully, and I know it won't be easy, but I want to do it. I haven't told Amanda yet, but I have asked Camilla to come and live with us until she dies."
"I don't believe it."
"Do stop being childish, Alex. I'm doing it for Cosimo, and for me. I hope he’ll have enough time to get to know us, and the house, before his mother dies, so that when she does leave him it will lessen the trauma."
"You are incredible."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Yes, I think it is."
Antonio Valdese, and Alessio Pinucci were brought in for further questioning. Leopoldo Baldacci had been returned to Torre del Lago to answer
the charges against him there.
Di Girolamo paced up and down, talking to himself rather than to the Maresciallo. "O.K Let's suppose that Antonio Valdese is the murderer. He killed the first two as a vendetta, and used that ghastly method because they had offended him in some way that merited that sort of punishment. Perhaps they sodomised him with something, and derided him. Whatever they did must have been very degrading, and /or violent, for him to react like that. After the first two murders, everyone was being vigilant, so he killed the third boy in a different way, and as he couldn't go through with his usual ritual, he mutilated him. In that case, Pietro Lagonda's was an accidental death."
"Mmm."
"On the other hand, if Alessio Pinucci is the culprit, then he killed all four of them. His reason for doing so could be that they set themselves above him, offended him, made jokes about him, and he couldn't take it anymore. If it was him, there would obviously be no problem about capturing his prey. They would have gone like lambs to the slaughter.
There is a third alternative; Antonio did the first three, and Alessio did Pietro who laughed at him for being with Mad Maria. Or, Alessio did the first two and the last one, but Antonio Valdese did Italo. I think that is highly improbable."
"Yes. Of course Baldacci could still have done the first one, and an accomplice the others, but we have no proof, nothing that ties him to the boys, or to an accomplice. The man is so awful he doesn't have any friends."
"He's out of it for now. If we need him, we know where to find him, but he's not our man. No, it's one or the other or both of these two, unless, of course, we can prove a connection between one of them and Baldacci. There is the photograph. I wonder if there is a connection. It's a possibility."
"Who would you like it to be?"
"Antonio, with or without Baldacci, but that probably means it's the other one. I've often noticed that it is rarely the one I'd prefer," remarked Di Girolamo.
"I prefer Alessio, and if it's him, there'll be diminished responsibility."
"Right you take yours, and I'll take mine, and good luck to us both."
The Tuscan Mystery Trilogy Page 65