“Of course, we will spend the Christmas night together.”
“Wait a moment, please, I ask the other ones.”
Inspector Parisi was very convincing with his family, so at four o’clock p.m. they all reached Germano’s house.
Arianna, the Commissioner’s wife, immediately understood that in her husband’s mind there was something more than the wish of spending a day with a friend, but she preferred to shut up.
Germano and Parisi literally confiscated the kitchen, with the excuse of taking a coffee. Once there, they sat down and began talking.
“Which details were you speaking of, Angelo?”
“The first one concerns the jeweller’s lover, at first they thought he had an airtight alibi, but during the second questioning something didn’t convince our colleagues.”
“Tell me more, please.”
“At the beginning two witnesses swore that Alessio Verruti had played cards with them up to 9.00 p.m. but then one of them disappeared and the other one... actually didn’t know the game they were playing: the first time he said they were playing Tresette while during the second questioning he often mistook it for Briscola.”
“Ok, let’s focus on Verruti, then... did you find out something more?”
“Nothing for now, I couldn’t access the database from my house, so we will have to wait till tomorrow.”
“Ok, let’s note down this name and put it together with the post office employee.”
“All right, Vincent.”
“And what about the other detail to analyse?”
“It’s the easiness with which the killer convinces his victims to open the door, in the first case the jeweller’s door, in the second one the door of the garage and in the third case the door of the house. I wonder if he could be someone asking for help. Maybe someone able to play and moan who manages to mislead the victims.”
“It could be. But I can’t understand how he could disconnect the cameras of the jeweller’s without someone noticing it... I read the file which reports that the video signal was cut off when everything was all right into the shop. Then the killer got in, led the owner at the back and killed her with two point-blank shots, isn’t it? Did you think he uses one of our techniques?”
“What do you mean, Vincent?”
“The ones you can see in a film, where the policeman who wants to place a bug, first of all cuts the wires and then arrives pretending to be an electrician ready to repair everything.”
“I’m sure he acts without hesitation, maybe he uses some devices like this and adapts them depending on the situation, or maybe he has an aid.”
“Hum... I think he planned everything before, otherwise how can we explain that the second and the third murder happened at such a close range? After all he must have studied and watched the victims at least for some time, isn’t it? Especially if he’s not an experienced killer.”
“And then, Vincent...” the conversation was interrupted by Luca, the Commissioner’s son, who ran in looking for lemonade.
“Look into the fridge, mum usually puts it there.”
“Thank you, daddy....”
Germano didn’t want to resume the conversation, waiting his son to drink and go back to the living-room, but the boy had a different idea.
“What game are you playing?”
The two policemen looked at each other, with a meaningful smile, then Parisi answered.
“It’s a strange game... like the one children usually play.... but I don’t remember the name.”
“I see, the one where you must discover the murderer but you never succeed.”
“It depends from how clever you are, Luca...”
“I don’t like it. At the end I always feel like a stupid. When they tell me who the murderer was, I realize I had all news in front of me and only a fool couldn’t see them!”
“Don’t worry, Luca, it happens to us too...”
“Now, please, let us finish this coffee and don’t bother too much”, these last words, as usual, were told by the Commissioner.
Once the boy left the room, the two policemen were alone, but they didn’t resume the conversation immediately. Germano, in fact, had suddenly become thoughtful.
“What are you thinking of, Vincent?”
“I was thinking of my son’s words, when he spoke of the news, and I realized that we have a lot of news and also details concerning the case as a whole. I recognize you are better than me, Angelo, how could you gather so many news? And in a pre-holiday period moreover?”
“It was easy, all victims had...”
“What?”
“They all had criminal records, so many data were stored in our databases...”
“The jeweller too?”
“Yes, she was convicted for tax evasion and false invoices.”
“Hum... maybe it’s only a coincidence, Angelo.”
“It could be.”
“Even if it’s strange that the killer probably has a clean record, at least according to the first criminal profile, while all victims committed some crime.”
“I agree, Vincent, it’s strange.”
“I don’t know.... Trying to base on this theory, who could be the next victim?”
“Someone with reports or convictions.”
“Do you remember the last letter I received? It suggested us to look into the hospitals were cancer is treated. What time is it, Angelo?”
“A quarter to six.”
“We won’t dinner immediately... why don’t we go for a walk and take another coffee?”
“No problem for me... but I’m not sure we can reach the police station with all this snow, because it’s there you want to go, isn’t it?”
“Yes, the snow... maybe if we drive slowly...”
“I see, Vincent, do you prefer using your car or mine?”
At the end, despite the predictable protests of the respective families, the two policemen started the car and, after almost half an hour of uncontrolled drive, they reached the police station.
The incredulous policemen on guard helped them, when they saw Germano’s car bogged down on a pavement next to the building.
“What are you doing here, Commissioner?”
“Nothing, Venditti. I wanted to wish you Happy Christmas. Besides, I forgot my cigarettes on the shelf.”
The agent didn’t answer, perfectly guessing that there was something more behind Germano’s words.
Once into the office, Parisi and Germano shook off the snow and immediately set to work.
The Inspector nervously stared at the PC screen, waiting for a key word to enter.
“From where should we begin, Vincent?”
“From where we stopped in my kitchen... please verify among all people reported or convicted in the last six months if you find a nurse.”
The search led to three names in the area of Rome and province, all the documents concerning the investigations were printed, placed in special folders and put in a corner of the desk, in order to be analysed later on.
“Now please, look for doctors.”
In this case the search provided only one name.
“At the end enter the word hospital, we will analyse each case, except for the four ones we already found.”
This analysis lasted about half an hour, the cases to analyse were almost fifty, but they immediately rejected the ones where the crime had been committed near a hospital or where the victim worked or had something to do with hospitals.
They also rejected the four cases they had already identified, for which they had already prepared the folders to analyse. At the end they found three further cases, concerning radiologists, stretcher-bearers and cleaners.
In these cases too Germano printed all documents and placed them in separated folders.
Giving a look at his watch, the Commissioner noticed that is was almost dinner time, so he collected the seven folders and invited his colleague to stand up.
Once outside, the two policemen looked at
their car with which they had reached the office in the afternoon. Exchanging glances each other, each one searched in the other the possible solution to put the car on the road. In fact, more that having two wheels completely immersed in snow, the car had to be pushed down from the pavement on which it had been parked.
At the end they decided to ask an agent to drive them for half of the way, and to walk the other half, as the house was in an uphill road very dangerous for cars.
They rang the bell, exulting as two runners who breasted the tape. When the Commissioner’s wife opened the door, she found them trembling, their trousers were drenched up to the knees and their lips were already verging on violet.
After half an hour they began to feel better so, after having washed and dried themselves, the two policemen sat in front of the lighted fireplace.
After dinner, they finally managed to relax for a while, aware that the work waiting for them the following day wouldn’t have allowed them distractions nor downtimes.
26th December
Inspector Parisi’s car reached Germano’s house some minutes earlier than expected, however the Commissioner was already waiting for him leaned under the porch, watching the snow falling down.
They reached the office safe and sound, despite the continuous skids of every car who moved on such an asphalt.
When Germano got off in front of the police station door, he found a beautiful surprise: his car, unrecognizable only some hours before, had been freed from snow by his colleagues and was ready to be used.
After a quick coffee they immediately settled down to work.
The first name they analysed was Aldo Verri, a radiologist, convicted some months before for drug trafficking. He had declared to the Marshal of Carabinieri who was questioning him, that with his wage he couldn’t afford all instalments he had to pay, so he had decided to invent a second job.
Nevertheless he was still prisoner, so he couldn’t be the next victim of the killer.
The second person in their list was Francesco Sica, a stretcher-bearer denounced by a colleague for stalking. The investigations were still in progress and there was no indication that he was involved in the current inquiry of the Police.
However he was still free, so Germano didn’t feel up to definitively eliminate him from the list.
The part concerning the three nurses, actually, was a single investigation. In fact the three people, not completely satisfied of the wage they received from the hospital, had organized a wide circle of illegal betting, probably of more than one hundred thousand Euros a month. The judge feared that the group could tamper with the evidence, so he had remanded them in custody in prison.
In this case too, the fact that they were prisoners left them out, at least at the moment, from the list of the possible targets of the killer.
The second-last to be examined was a doctor, Gianni Braghesi, charged with having taken kickbacks from some patients in order to let them skip the waiting list. He was under house arrest.
The Commissioner’s curiosity increased when he read that the doctor’s specialization was oncology: the cancer.
After a quick look, doctor Braghesi’s file was placed next to the one of the stretcher-bearer, in order to analyse it more in depth later.
The last case concerned a cleaner of a Roman hospital, but in this case too Germano closed the folder quite immediately. Piero Massa had a heart attack some days after the charge and died.
So the Commissioner resumed the two files he didn’t have rejected yet, the stretcher-bearer and the doctor.
As the search had provided only a few results, the two policemen decided to directly contact the two suspects and, after having received all necessary authorizations, they immediately phoned them.
The first one was Francesco Sica.
“Hello.”
“Good morning, Mr. Sica, excuse me if I disturb you, I’m the Commissioner....”
“I already told everything, damn! Today it’s holiday and...”
“Please listen to me! First of all my name is Vincent Germano and you never spoke with me. Besides, the subject I need to broach with you is in your interest.”
“Listen, Commissioner, let’s be frank. I don’t want to speak of some of my colleagues, that maybe have a second job to pay the loan, only to avoid a conviction or to have some benefits.”
“You have a wrong opinion of our work, Sica, almost diverted I would say... but I don’t want to convince you of my good faith, besides you just reminded me that today is holiday, so it’s holiday for us too. Good bye.”
Germano hung up under the incredulous look of Parisi.
“What did you do, Vincent?”
“He’s a shit!”
“I see, but...”
“He will call back....”
The Commissioner was still smoking the cigarette he had lighted during the conversation with Sica, when the phone rang.
“Germano.”
“Good morning, Commissioner, I’m Venditti. There’s someone on the phone, who....”
“Put me through, please.”
After a nod towards Parisi, Germano made himself comfortable on the chair and opened the stretcher-bearer’s file.
“Commissioner... we spoke some minutes ago, I’m Sica.”
“Hello, what let you change your mind?”
“I only wanted to be sure it was the police...”
“You watch too much television! Please, tell me something interesting for me, for example: at what time can we come at your house?”
“Today?”
“Yes, why not?”
“Hum, maybe after lunch...”
“Before it would be better... what time is it now?”
“A quarter to ten.”
“At eleven o’clock we will be there.”
“Ok, I’ll be waiting for you.”
“See you later, Sica.”
When Germano hung up his colleague was still incredulous and, smiling, he asked him the details of the conversation.
“Well? What did Sica tell you?”
“He says that at eleven o’clock we can go and take a coffee with him, while I say we should go immediately, Angelo.”
“Now?”
“Why not? Let’s go to the car.”
The flat towards which the two policemen were going was in Frascati. During the short drive it began to snow again and Germano, looking at the sky, felt it wouldn’t have stopped for hours.
While Parisi got off the car and rang Sica’s bell, several millimetres of snow deposited on his shoulders and in the hair; observing the scene the Commissioner wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to put everything off until the following day.
The noise of the gate that opened dispersed Germano’s doubts. After having parked, the two policemen quickly went up the stairs.
Sica was waiting for them out of the door of the flat, as soon as he saw them he nodded to come in.
After having exchanges civilities, they sat down in the living-room.
“Do you live alone?”
“Yes for now. I’m married but...”
“What?”
“My wife left when I was denounced for stalking.”
“I suppose you did it several times before... but why don’t you tell the whole story to me too?”
“Ok. Everything began a couple of years ago, when in the hospital arrived a girl, she was some years younger than me, I was thirty-five and she was twenty-eight. Her name is Laura Cavallini.”
“She’s the one who reported you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Please go on.”
“At the beginning, such as everyone, Laura needed to do some training, to learn the foundation of the work...”
“I suppose you were charged with this...”
“How do you know, Commissioner?”
“Simple, otherwise today you wouldn’t be in this situation, isn’t it?”
“Yes, you are right. However... as we often worked to
gether, also in the night, Laura and I familiarized. She told me her problems and I told her mines. She spoke of her brother, that is ill, and of her disabled mother and I....”
“Do you remember which was her brother’s illness?”
“To be honest not even his relatives knew it, they decided not the let him hospitalize, even if... he did strange things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Sometimes he had hallucinations and thought he saw God, otherwise he went for animals, cats, dogs and any other form of animal life that came within his range.”
“Could you give me more details, please?”
“Laura told me that her brother exposed the creatures to terrible pains, once he was also shot for this.”
“Please tell me this fact, too.”
“Mario, Laura’s brother, while they went on a trip to Umbria, suddenly disappeared, so the whole family looked for him and at the end they found him... on the ground with a blooding foot. Next to him there was a farmer with a gun in one hand and two hens in the other one. The boy had butchered them. It was very difficult to placate the farmer but at the end they could take Mario home and let him treat by an uncle, who was a doctor, avoiding in this way to explain everything to the hospital.”
“Do you know the name of the doctor?”
“I don’t remember... but he died some time ago.”
“The doctor?”
“Yes, he had a heart attack.”
“I see... do you think that Laura’s brother could organize more complex or elaborated things?”
“I don’t know, but I remember that Laura always said that when her brother wanted to do something at the end he always found the way to do it. So, despite he was odd or maybe creative, I suppose he could elaborate and use, maybe in the wrong way, his intelligence.”
“Ok.... And then, what happened with Laura?”
“Nothing peculiar...”
“Sica? If we are here now I don’t think it can be as you say...”
“Ok, ok.... We began to see each other, but it was nothing serious.... At least this is what I thought.”
“Whereas?”
“The reality was that when Laura left me I understood that it wasn’t only an affair of sex.”
“Hum... I don’t want to get to the heart of your relationship, as the investigation is still in progress...”
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