by Неизвестный
Nino got up and went to welcome his guest.
After they had been all introduced, Bertoli sat next to La Signora.
"Doctor Canali, on the phone, told me your son’s girlfriend suffered from a strange allergy ...
Are you saying that could be her death’s cause? "
"Oh, my God, I don’t say anything!" the woman hotly said "I just say that nobody talks about it, so it's best that I do so"
"Do you believe an allergy may have killed her?" Bertoli repeated, hoping that reformulating the question, the woman would say more
But she looked into his eyes, a straight and austere gaze, as she did when demanding respect .
"I only say that Charlize was suffering from a severe form of allergy to pine essence"
"And why did she go into a forest and then cover herself with leaves, dressed only in a silk dress in mid-September, to die from allergy?"
The woman looked at the policeman, but it was the only concession to his urge; her expression turned stern and authoritative immediately.
"Commissario, am I formally under investigation?"
Bertoli almost jumped in his chair; clenching its thin arms and leaving them, as if he had thought of running away but then giving up.
Damn, he thought, that woman was putting him in awe.
"Signora, I did not say so, but you came to say ..."
"I've talked to my doctor and I agreed to talk to the police, then you came"
The woman’s nostrils slightly widened and Nino realized she was in trouble.
"Exactly" he cut in " La Signora, on my advice, agreed to talk to you, but this is an informal conversation"
"Well," Bertoli said with a groan "So let’s make sure that it is not also a waste of time. Doctor, do you believe we might have a clue if she died from that? "
"There were no signs of anaphylactic shock, but she was out in the cold, after a long time, Ghidelli says it could have altered results."
"It still does not explain taking her into the woods and hide her when the death was accidental" Bertoli noticed
The woman smiled.
"Forgive me, Commissario, I cannot hear these things and remain impassive"
She took a tissue from her purse and made a gentle movement, as to dry a tear, but Nino noticed that no tear was there to be dried; he remembered her brother Davide called her the Ice queen.
Davide’s stories about his eccentric family, sometimes painted as an odd bunch, sometimes a crazy one, allowed him to decipher many of the quirks the Duchess had.
Like her turning her eyes to the right, when she felt inappropriately under investigation, and her widening her nostrils gently, when under pressure.
And she had done it twice, that night.
"Signora, I'm sorry, I understand they are grisly details, but the girl was found under a blanket of leaves and had it not been for the dogs ..."
"Please" interrupted Nino "may you avoid details that might upset La Signora?"
Bertoli snorted.
" Miss von Berger was your guest, do you remember for how long?"
She did it again, Nino noted, watching the woman had turned her gaze to the right, slightly widening her nostrils with a long sigh of disappointment.
"The von Berger arrived one week before"
Bertoli and Nino looked surprised.
Bertoli went nearer and looked her straight in the eyes.
"The ... von Berger?"
Maria Guastalli Raineri spun around, annoyed.
"It's no secret that I do not like guests. And that girl stopped just too much "she seemed to rebuke him
"Oh, I was not referring to that" Bertoli cleared out "but you called her: the ... von Berger.
After a week together as a future daughter, is that how you call her? "
"Commissario" she said, suddenly changing her tone and trying to be conciliatory "I don’t like women my son brings home ... he must have taken from his un..."
She did that long irritated breath again, followed by her widening her nostrils and then she seemed to regain control.
“ Let’s say the tendency for ... how to define them ... lively women"
"And Charlize von Berger was ... .lively?" Bertoli said
The woman chuckled.
"Yes" she said
Bertoli seemed tired, looking at Nino for help, but Nino smiled.
Both were standing in front of the duchess and she was not making a move ..
Then something happened.
The phone rang and Nino, watching the display, said "Davide”
The woman seemed to suddenly take new energy: she smiled to the policeman, almost flirting, while Nino talked to her brother.
"He invited me for a coffee" Nino said.
"Oh, Davide needs company, yes. He loves his nephew dearly and he suffered a lot these days. You know ... to see all his sadness "
"Sadness? Where?” Bertoli sarcastically said
Nino shot a fierce gaze on him.
"Well, my son is worried, sad ... scared. For his life, I guess….”
Nino and Bertoli neared her, as to capture the revelation.
"... Well, my son thinks ..." she tittered "... that those who killed his girlfriend might be angry with him"
"Why?" the men said together "was she married, had a boyfriend, a broken promise?"
"Oh, no ... not that I know of. But we think it could be a crime of passion "
As she finished, Maria Guastalli Raineri got up, took her purse and politely farewelled the two men.
"I apologize, but it's late.
It is not a formal interrogation, as you told me.
So excuse me if I go ... have mercy on an old Signora "
The two men stood up, Nino more readily, accustomed to aristocratic manners, while Bertoli rose awkwardly from his chair, without even knowing whether it was good or bad.
Of course the old woman commanded respect and in front of her it was almost natural to behave like in an old movie.
"Nino, dear, see you soon" she said holding out her hand to kiss, which they both did, Nino impeccably, Bertoli staring at her for a while and then shaking it vigorously.
La Signora smiled and squeezed back, without a hint of disappointment, like great ladies do.
When she left, the two men stood in silence for a while , feeling duped, but fascinated by the lady who left them high and dry.
"What did the brother say" Bertoli asked
"He asked if we can meet for coffee"
Nino smiled at Bertoli: he had never worked with a policeman and was trying to understand what was crossing his mind.
Bertoli was handsome, but discolored by frustration; with his jerseys a size too big and worn glasses, he looked like a man who had loved to remain home.
He looked like an educated man, instead he was abrupt and hardheaded, never feeling like pushing his brain in conjectures, even if it meant finding a murderer.
"Dr. Canali, do you have any idea why she came here to tell us this fairy tale?"
"Maybe she did not do me a favor, but wanted to make me believe so"
"Do you think she wanted to give us the wrong information on purpose?"
"I think she wanted to give us an accurate, but unnecessary clue.
And I think she is hiding something "
Bertoli hated that case more and more: an elderly, stern woman, a noble family, and he was waiting to leave Verdana.
His relocation would slip, he could feel it.
Nino walked him to the door, then went back to the office and ushered in the first patient.
But he could not take his mind off the feeling that La Signora left him, after she stopped on the phrase about Ascanio’s inclination to lively women
The woman said something that sounded out of tune.
He knew that feeling, at times, when he followed the woodcock’s track, then discovering he’d almost walked over her, watching her flying away behind him.
September 22nd
Davide was waiting at
the Coffee Shop, a place in Verdana main square, where all the upper class drink their coffee.
Davide Guastalli Raineri was no different from his sister Maria, the same piercing eyes, the same noble walk and austere flair.
He was ten years younger, his hair slightly long, as all artists, he loved to joke, and the complexion of a forty year old.
He practiced yoga, namely the Five Tibetans, five yoga poses brought from Tibet by a British general, who was lost in Tibet when he was 60 and, coming back after five years, looked younger than thirty.
Since then the legend that the Five Tibetans did rejuvenate had become increasingly imaginative, but Davide practiced them and, at least on him, the legend seemed founded
As one approached him, his warm smile and his friendly eyes welcomed anyone.
"Thanks Nino for coming” he said as Nino sat down at his table
"My pleasure. You seemed worried "
"Actually I just wished that you would leave my sister alone, how could you make her endure an investigation?”
Nino looked at him.
"I called Bertoli because it’s important to collect your sister’s words"
"My sister just wanted to ask you if the allergy could be the cause of Charlize’s death.
You can die from an allergy "
“Your sister told me Charlize was suffering from a severe allergy and you saved her"
Davide looked uncomfortable.
"Well, I had a kit with cortisone, I did what anyone would have done. Did you find something with Ghidelli? "
Nino leaned back in his chair.
"No, you know Ghidelli, he says a little, and the police did not tell me anything, as if I was just an annoyance, not someone working for them”
Davide laughed.
"Yeah, no one likes to be involved in a murder. That poor girl, so beautiful "
"It seems impossible someone wanted her dead” Nino said
"Who knows, a jealous lover ..."
Nino recalled the scene: the woman, the composure with which the body had been left in the woods.
"You know, she looked like she was sleeping, her hair on one side, hands close to the body. As if someone wanted her to be…perfect somehow; yes ... maybe someone who, at least once, loved her "
Davide had his sister’s same habit of taking a long breath, dilating nostrils slightly, whenever he felt irritated.
"Or a perfectionist" he said “but then…why there…without a jacket, a shawl
"Certainly he took her there after she was already dead" Nino suggested
“Why ‘he’…what if he was a she?”
“It’s hard to carry a corpse for so long, I mean putting her in a car, then down, then carrying her to the place…”
“Please Nino!” Davide nearly yelled
Davide sipped his drink and leaned back, leaving his glass on the table.
He looked at the square, while the sun was going down and lights were lit: I would paint Verdana at this time of the day, he told himself, when all people seem to return home tired and happy, after work, when people shut their shop...
He heard a shutter roll down: strange, he thought, now shutters are all electrical, he hadn’t been heard that sound since….
When he was little, that was the sound of the night, shutters rolling down heavily, shopkeepers greeting each other and bicycle bells, which men used to go home, after they earned the bread for their family.
Life was not so hard then and even though his family had never known poverty, he remembered his father helping people who asked him for work, hiring them at the factory they had in town.
They were rich and beloved, then, and his family always helped the poor.
"What are you thinking?" Nino asked, surprised by his friend’s silence
Davide shrugged.
“Golden times… when Maria was the most beautiful girl in town. When it seemed the whole world would be hers. Before she met ... "
He lowered his glance.
Nino really knew nothing about Ascanio’s father and no one knew much.
"When ..." David said again "it was not so hard to be happy"
"You've never told me the whole story, they say she found him with another .."
"Do you know if Bertoli will talk to my sister again?" Davide said hastily
"I guess he won’t"
"Come on, Nino, she’s seventy-five, leave her alone. She’s already suffered enough "
He couldn’t forget his sister once home, with that little bundle that would become Ascanio and saw, in his mind as if it was the day before, his sister in tears, staring at nothing.
She had her child on her lap while whispering to Davide
"Now there’s only me and him"
"My nephew will tell you more about it, my sister just wanted Ascanio to be happy"
Nino looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"My sister opened a trust fund for Charlize and gave her my mother’s ring.
She didn’t like her much, but wanted Ascanio, at forty-three, to give her a grandchild”
"A ring? How did the ring look? "
"A sapphire, surrounded with diamonds, blue like
the family crest.
Maria told Charlize she could keep it and think about the marriage quietly, once in America "
Nino took a sip of his drink.
And he took a deep breath.
Yes, he thought, I should have a chat with Ascanio.
September 23rd
Emma was attending Mass, like every Sunday at 11am, in the front rows, answering invitatory and prayers.
But she never sang the Agnus Dei: she didn’t like the ramshackle chorus, among which there were certainly some matching bystanders, lost however, in the slats of most, and so she preferred to recite it.
"Lamb of God ..." she said, while the minister sang "... You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us"
Then she waited for the second verse, to recite it with reverence .
"Too bad, I'm sure you would have a beautiful voice"
Emma turned: Ascanio was behind her and, if she didn’t know him well, she’d say he was flirting.
After the Mass, Ascanio reached her out of the church.
"Can I walk with you for a while?" he asked
"Of course, you shouldn’t ask" she said kindly
Kindly, but with much surprise, as Ascanio, though both Raineris and Canalis were friends, had never been easygoing .
"You knew the murder is unfortunately tied to my family" Ascanio said
"Yes, of course. Sorry, you all must be shocked "
Emma’s formality seemed to worry Ascanio, who thought to surrender and stop that conversation; he expected, or hoped, she would make it easier to ask what he wanted to know.
"Did your husband say anything about it?" he tried to continue
"No, newspapers and television are doing all the work" Emma tried to joke
Ascanio looked at her: she was a very beautiful woman, though a few years older than him; he would have courted her, if she weren’t married.
He smiled, looking how fashionable she was with her grey hair and how her blue eyes looked incredibly like his mother’s, impenetrable in their light.
But surely, Emma was not like the ice queen, Ascanio noticed: she was not like the noble, hard, unfathomable Maria Guastalli Raineri.
"Do you think I could talk to him about the discovery?"
Emma stopped to look at him.
"I guess so. But this morning he’s hunting, you know "said she, starting to walk again
"Yes, yes, I'll wait till the afternoon, let’s say… for a tea?"
Emma smiled watching Ascanio trying to be informal: she noticed he couldn’t, even if he tried.
“Ok" she said smiling
They arrived in front of her house: Ascanio formally kissed her hand and she smiled, thinking he was really a clumsy, elegant child.
Nino was there already and she told him about the strange me
eting she’d had that morning.
"I understand he wants to know details, maybe he’s the only one who really cared about that poor woman" said Nino
After lunch he lay down on the couch for a moment, drifting into a dream of woods and woodcocks.
Mark was excited, but walked slowly, sniffing the air and expecting the woodcock to rise.
Sometimes Nino thought that maybe the dog had smelled a robin’s scent, very similar to the queen’s .
Woodcocks blend from a position they choose, they don’t care where the dog stops. They fly from open positions: paths, meadows, so they don’t make a noise the dog can hear, putting the hunter on alert, like wings touching against the foliage.
And you see her fly away, without even having the time to figure out how she did it; you don’t know if she just escaped from under your nose, or you made a noise that warned her.
She shows up when it rains and it’s cold and walking, you may crack thin ice layer even if you’re careful.
Though dog and hunter were experienced, she could sense them coming: the hunter stepping on a twig, frosted foliage, or the dog sniffing, everything could put her on alert.
When it happened, Mark watched her fly away and turned towards his owner, as if to say 'Please, don’t let her go'.
But Nino could only stare, like him, watching the queen leaving.
He awoke suddenly, while the door-bell rang.
"Nino” Emma whispered” Ascanio’s here"
"Yes, just a moment, I'm going to wash my face and I’ll reach you"
Ascanio was sitting on the couch, talking with the eldest daughter when Nino appeared.
"You know, Dad, I didn’t know Charlize was a good painter. Ascanio was telling me she had some good stuff she showed his uncle"
Ascanio stood up and shook the doctor's hand.
"Thank you for talking to me" he said obsequiously
"Oh, please, I owe it, what can I do for you?"
Ascanio's eyes filled with tears even before turning off his smile.
But, as his family taught him, it was not elegant to show feelings in public, and he covered his eyes for a moment, while sitting down.
Then he lowered his hand and looked Nino in the eyes, when he began to speak.
"I know my mother told you Charlize had a terrible allergy" he said "But she was a painter and knew solvents composition.