by Неизвестный
The two looked at each other.
"What do we do?"
Nino thought for a moment, then said
"We have to make sure she will tell us who did it. Surely if she was so determined to hide this news, the name of the murderer, it’s probably one of the family "
Nino went home and thought all day about their dinner with Madeleine.
What could I ask her, without frightening her?
Will she tell me something more, something that will help me not to shoot in the dark, against La Signora, Ascanio or anyone, but to go straight to the executioner?
The evening was all set for dinner with Madeleine.
The girls had come with their boyfriends and Emma had set the table with a handmade sculpture to dress the table, in the forest’s colors and fruits.
But everyone was nervous, knowing the guest could help unravel the mystery.
“ Here’s Madeleine "Nino said after introducing the woman in the dining room.
She shook hands with everyone, everyone smiled back and then sat where Emma had indicated.
"I know why I'm here" Madeleine said softly "Please ask what you want"
Nino smiled.
"It's not just for that, though I don’t deny a curiosity pushing me to ask you a lot of questions"
Elisa handed her a sandwich.
"Can I ask you some questions too?" she asked Madeleine
"Sure"
"What kind of person was your cousin?"
"Very quiet, at least about having fun. She loved walking by the sea, a good book by the fireplace…these things more than going to a disco and unleashing her energy.
I was the one going out, dancing, traveling.
We met when she came to meet her father, for years we had called each other just for Christmas and best wishes, instead
She came for what she called, laughing, 'the boyfriend' "
"What was so funny in that?" asked Nino
"She said he was quite old and she found it weird to call him boyfriend. But she was ecstatic.
Strangely, she didn’t talk about him when she told me of her coming to Italy,
when she went to her father’s funeral; she said that, on her flight back, she had met a nice Italian boy, but nothing more. Not until a few days before she died, when she said she was in love and had made a mess "
"She also didn’t mention the ring, the gift the Duchess Raineri gave her" Said Nino
Madeleine looked at him in amazement.
"Già…."
Nino took a piece of bread and continued.
"Forgive me if I press you, but Charlize received a precious ring and a trust fund, which would be hers after marriage"
"She told me about a ring, a beautiful ruby, but not that it was the Duchess’ gift "
"No, the Duchess gave her a sapphire" Nino stated "The ruby is probably her murderer’s gift.
I think Charlize was in love with another man. You see, Ascanio is only nine years older than your cousin, why was she referring to him as a much older man, saying she didn’t worry about age difference? "
"And laughing calling him 'boyfriend'" said Monica
Madeleine nodded.
"Charlize's father was very old, compared to her mother and fathers in general, so I thought he was much older than her, she always liked older men.
But maybe I was wrong "
"She refused the Duchess’ gift, but accepted that ring. She said no to the Duke’s proposal, but said something prevented the marriage ... "
"No, the Duke did not ask her to marry him, he proposed they live together.
That’s why she said 'there won’t be a wedding, after all'.
We joked about her being the new Duchess, but the Duke didn’t want to marry her "
Nino was puzzled: why was he lying? What was Ascanio hiding?
La Signora offered that gift to silence her, in some way, or because they had to convince his son?
"Sorry Madeleine" said Emma "but if Maria Guastalli didn’t like her why wanting her at all costs, tying her to the family?"
Madeleine smiled.
" La Signora told her she wanted to reciprocate what Charlize’s father had done for The Raineris many years ago"
"What?" asked Emma amazed
Nino sighed.
"Maria Guastalli Raineri was Gualtiero Arcuati’s first wife"
All the Canali women looked at him.
"Gualtiero Arcuati, you don’t know him as it happened many years ago, exactly forty-three, was La Signora Maria’s husband and Ascanio’s father"
Madeleine laughed.
"Ascanio’s father? I don’t think so: Charlize was adopted because Gualtiero was sterile "
Nino recalled the analysis he saw at Ghidelli’s, showing Charlize and Ascanio were no brother and sister, and thought of a reason why La Signora wanted to hide the body.
Now he knew why.
September 28th
While ringing Raineri’s doorbell, at Villa Isabella, Nino saw a game bag lying near the big door.
He rang a second time, but it seemed no one was in: unusual, as there was a butler, la Signora’s handyman, consultant and accomplice.
Nino was about to leave, when the butler, a tall and handsome man, came from behind the porch.
"Pardon me, sir" said the man, out of breath "but today La Signora decided to clean up the rose garden and I'm busy helping her"
Nino nodded.
"But where is she?"
"She told me she saw your car, so I came here to let you in.
You know, Mr. Ascanio just returned from his hunting trip, and Mr. Davide is in his studio to create, so he will come out next week.
I have instructions to bring him meals.
I have to leave them at the door and leave.
That’s the way artists work "
The two men smiled, the condescending smile we all reserve to art’s oddities.
The butler invited Nino to follow him and led him to the rose garden, a vast space behind the house.
Nino saw La Signora: from that distance, still a fascinating woman , elegant but disheveled, though each strand seemed to be where she wanted it.
The garden looked like an impressionist painting, with wild flowers arranged in an apparently randomness, like colors mixed on a palette, and the pond in which it reflected seemed as still as a picture.
When la Signora saw Nino, she slowly drew her hand on the forehead, to wipe off a sweatdrop, then she took her gloves off and smiled, going towards him.
“Nino caro ..." she said, holding out her hand as usual.
Nino smiled and kissed her hand as she expected, but his heart began to pound.
"Signora Maria" he said
"What brings you here, dear?"
"I have some news on Charlize’s autopsy"
He tried, but could not see even a minimum jolt in her reaction: the affable Signora smiled, as if he had told her about a dinner planned a long time before.
"And how should this be my concern?" she said only
"Oh, I guess it should. Especially the part regarding the name of Charlize’s father "
Again, he tried, but couldn’t find, a wave of fear or surprise.
Nothing.
She turned to the butler.
"Nigel, please, prepare some tea. We’ll be there in a moment "
The man bowed and left the garden tools to walk towards the house.
When he was far enough, she looked at Nino frowning.
"Dear Nino, what do you mean?"
"Charlize’s father: Gualtiero Arcuati. He married twice.
He lived in America for a while, where he went after leaving his first wife ... "
She made an impercettible smile.
"The Duchess Maria Guastalli Raineri" she stated
Maria’s nostrils flared and she took a deep breath, then looked down.
"You have no right ..." she muttered angrily
"I have, but you'd better tell me the story, before the police
will force you and it will become of public domain.
I don’t care about secrets embarrassing you, but this is about a murder, a young woman I never met but dead.
Frankly, I don’t like to be deceived "
The woman continued to look down, while they walked towards the house and she slammed her gloves to the doorsteps while reaching the door.
La Signora sat on the antique, red brocade sofa: looking at her, one might wonder if that was a movie set in ‘800, and why she was not dressed in lace and gauzy skirts.
Nino noticed that the anger she had shown off was completely gone as she invited him to sit next to her; Nino looked at her, as he sat down, trying to figure out if her ostentatious security was a mask, or she really felt invincible.
"Why did you ask Charlize to marry Ascanio?"
"I gave her the family ring and offered a trust fund, because Gualtiero had been very generous"
"She had a different ring, not yours, but a ruby someone else gave her"
La Signora showed no surprise.
Nino began to believe that nothing would have moved her from her hiding place and it was clear what his father meant, when saying ‘Remember woodcocks’.
He smiled, recalling the long hours spent to tail them, knowing the woodcock had to move from there.
But he also recalled how many times his woodcock had escaped anyway because he thought it was there and she had silently moved , and then flew away somewhere else, safe from Mark.
He had to scare la Signora before she slipped away.
"Did you know the name of Charlize’s father?"
"No," she promptly said
Nino knew she was lying.
He was determined not to miss the opportunity he had, while she believed she was still hiding.
"Arcuati was your husband, you thought they were siblings and you were scared. You investigated, after you saw you couldn’t get rid of her. That’s when you discovered she was adopted. So you staged the affectionate mother who wants her son’s best.
Charlize told you she was not in love with Ascanio, but someone else and she was dangerous, if she told the whole story”
La Signora stiffened and looked straight at Nino's eyes.
"I do not think you will stay for tea, dear Nino. I won’t tolerate your manner any longer "
The butler came in with a new guest.
Nino had called him because he knew the woodcock hunter always need a helper to win the queen.
"Commissario Bertoli" hissed Maria Guastalli "does this mean we are formally undr investigation?"
"You had the reason and the opportunity to commit the murder, poor Charlize being your guest," said Bertoli
Finally, Maria Guastalli no longer held back her anxiety and Nino thought that, after all, she was human too.
"The whole story: she was adopted because Gualtiero could not have kids" Nino continued "When did he discover Ascanio was not his son?"
Maria Gustalli Raineri tried to burn him with her gaze, but now fear had taken strength to her pride, accustomed to the intrigues of nobility.
"It was a time in which you could follow your heart" she began
She looked down, twirling a ring on her finger: Nino had seen that jewel many times, but never noticed its light.
La Signora fiddled a few minutes with the jewel, while Bertoli remained standing beside her.
"I did, I followed my heart and I don’t regret it: He was a jeweler from London, he came to bring my mother jewelry she had ordered. We talked all night, and since it was late, we invited him to stay.
That night I went to him "
She looked at Bertoli.
"I was living in a prison, betrothed to a wealthy bourgeois, which would bring money into my squalid family’s coffers, a family that squandered everything and continued to maintain castles and territories.
We saved the family mansion here in Verdana, while the rest was sold over the years.
Gualtiero saw that the baby was born too soon, two months earlier and so robust "
She got up and the agent who had entered with Bertoli ran his hand to his gun.
La Signora smiled at the young man.
"Sit down, Commissario" she said, looking at the young agent, then turning towards Bertoli "forgive me if the turmoil prevented me from seeing you’re uncomfortable"
"Don’t worry, duchess ... ehm ... sì..Signora"
"Yes, I am still Mrs Arcuati, there is no divorce for the Church.
He told me to leave and he didn’t disclose the news.
Poor Gualtiero ... he was broken. I think I loved him sincerely "
"I came back, to my family, while Gualtiero provided to Ascanio all of his life and gave him his part when he died. .
I must say my husband was a generous man "
Bertoli sighed.
"Charlize knew her foster father was Ascanio’s?"
" He called her to tell her about his last will, but had said the boy was a dear friend’s son he had adopted, financially.
Browsing through Gualtiero’s will, she discovered my name. Charlize didn’t want to blackmail me, I did it. I promised jewels and a trust fund if she kept her mouth shut. She was a good girl, after all, she went away leaving my gifts "
"Why was he so generous with a guy who did not even have his name?"
La Signora smiled and began to touch her ring again.
"He told me half of that child was the woman he had desperately loved. I begged him to keep us with him, but ….
He had loved me.
He said he would have loved that child more not seeing him and remembering every time what I had done.
He said:
“Please, be honest and tell me if you ever, in your life, loved me as I love you. Even just for a moment”
And I was sincere: what I felt for that jeweler was what came closest to my husband’s feelings for me"
She looked at Nino.
"This ring" she said, noticing Nino watched the emerald "is Gualtiero’s gift for our engagement.
He bought it from that jeweler and gave it to me a few days later.
It’s the synthesis of all the mess that was my life. Funny ... "she said, chuckling softly" as I slowly fell in love with Gualtiero, his integrity.
Over the years, his behavior towards Ascanio made me feel protected, almost beloved. I never married again because I loved him and I dreamed, in my heart, to see him coming back to me "
Nino thought the human soul is full of paths, shortcuts and alleyways, but nothing is like the woman’s, who walks forgotten paths of gratitude and passion where no one would find love or feel protected, but she finds them somehow viable.
No matter if these emotions stem from denied love in their lives; women want to believe in love, always, even when they pretend to be an emancipated libertine, they’re stubborn free souls.
Still, a woman places a romantic accent in everything she does, and Nino saw it in that absurd claim to noble feelings Maria Guastalli sported with the same dignity she had been wearing the emerald ring for all those years.
She showed its light, never its greatness; discreetly she loved, looking like a sad single woman, with magnificence she atoned for her mistake, never sharing its sad intrigue.
But now, perhaps, she had gone further.
Now, she had enabled the cowardly fear to show its bite.
That was how he captured the woodcock, when her astuteness and kingship gave way to fear.
"Did you kill Charlize?" Asked Bertoli
La Signora smiled.
"Why should I have ? She was so candid that I thought to turn her naivety in my favor; that honesty making her so attractive to D ... " she paused" Ascanio.
No, Commissario, I had no reason "
"Do you know who did?"
She looked up at Bertoli, but remained silent.
"Come on, guys"
Davide had appeared at the door next to the big painting, an antique hunting scene, opposite the red sofa.
"Stop it, you are unnecessarily harassing my sister"
Nino saw Maria Guastalli’s terrified look turning to her brother.
"Appealing to Davide” said Nino “that’s what she was saying"
Finally his intuition took shape
Davide laughed.
"If you had met her, you would have been attracted too. And you too, commissario "
"Yes, true” Nino replied “but I wouldn’t have killed her. That is not automatic, in the face of a beautiful woman, "said Nino" Instead that’s what happened, right?
It was not supposed to happen, but you fell in love with your nephew’s girlfriend. And she reciprocated. You wanted her, no matter what "
Davide sat in a chair near the sofa, watching his hands.
"Yes" he said "she reciprocated, but wanted to leave me. She said the situation was too complicated. She wanted to go to Venice "
"And you thought she was leaving you" Nino said
Davide looked surprised
"However," continued Nino "she just wanted to put a little space between the pressure your sister was making and yours, with your impatience"
"I am 65!" exclaimed Davide, while the dramatic gesture toward Nino, with his hand extended upward, and a hint of attack, deflated immediately, as he sank back in his chair.
"I’m 65" he repeated with less vehemence "You'd be looking forward too with a woman like that"
"Thirty-four" remarked Nino "When Madeleine told me Charlize was in love with a man whose age difference did not frighten her, I quickly realized they could not be nine years, that’s what separated her from Ascanio. So there must have been another man and that man had to be related to the family, because otherwise why else would she be defining 'a mess' the problem that arose here? "
Bertoli looked at Nino.
"A mess" he specified again "so she called it on the phone while talking to her cousin. 'I screwed it up' she said, as the reason for her sudden departure "
Davide opened his mouth to speak, but he only moved his lips and no sound came out.
"Yes, she loved you and would have been back, if I know how women work" said Nino smiling
A woman who wants never to return goes to the airport.
Charlize chose Venice, a cousin who was not a friend, because it was close to Davide.
Nino smiled, he was living with three women: after all, he could have been considered an expert.