The Etruscan Net

by Michael Gilbert

  Arturo picked his way carefully down after it, moving from rock to rock so as to leave no trace.

  When he got there he found that the bodies and the suitcases were still in the van. The tea-chest had been thrown out, had hit a rock, and disintegrated. Its contents were scattered over the hill-side. A circlet of gold had lodged in a bush, a scattering of ornaments gleamed from the weeds and grass. Both of the alabaster chests had fragmented and spilled their treasures broadcast. The goddess had been decapitated, and lay in the stream. The head, by some freak, had lodged on a rock above the water and gazed inscrutably at her destroyer.

  Arturo felt in his pocket for matches. Great care would be needed here. He knew something of the properties of petrol when thoroughly aroused.

  Shielding the flame from the wind, which had risen as the rain eased off, he lit a long spill of paper, waved it until it was well alight, pushed it into the back of the van and jumped clear. He stumbled on a rock, and was on his knees when the van went up in an explosion of white fire.

  He climbed back to the path, glancing, as he did so, at his watch. It was six o’clock. It seemed unbelievable that so much could have happened in a single hour. He was ten kilometres from home. The wound in his forearm had started to bleed again, and was throbbing unpleasantly. He had hurt his knee when he fell. And he was soaked to the skin with rainwater and sweat. But he was content.

  At six o’clock Mercurio arrived back at the Villa. The rain had almost stopped, and the clouds were shredding away under a strong wind. The earth was refreshed. A few birds were creeping out to shake their draggled feathers and tune tentative notes.

  Mercurio went straight up to his room, had a shower, and put on a complete outfit of new clothes. It was a measure of the urgency he felt that he spent barely a minute on his hair. Then he marched down to find the Professor.

  He drew blank in the study, and all other likely places, and rang for Arturo. Arturo could not be found. One of the houseboys thought that he might have gone out. He said that he had heard the van start up and drive off.

  Mercurio was annoyed. The new-found and altogether agreeable feeling of self-confidence, of mastery of the situation, which had been growing as he talked to the Professor, and had reached full flood in his interview with Annunziata and Tina, was now demanding action. If there was to be a palace revolution, all the plans for it must be ready by the time Danilo Fern got back from Switzerland.

  It was well after seven when his impatience drove him down to inspect the one place he had so far overlooked.

  The telephone purred in Tenente Lupo’s office. He swore quietly to himself as he lifted the receiver from its rest. It was a quarter past seven. He had been planning supper, a quiet evening, and early bed. Now what?

  He listened to the excited voice at the other end, said, ‘Speak more slowly, please,’ and, ‘Yes, of course I will come,’ and rang off.

  He thought for a moment, then went out into the passage, opened the door opposite, and looked in. Colonel Doria was still at his desk, studying a long typewritten report, making tiny notes in the margin. He looked up.

  ‘Something has happened,’ said the Tenente. ‘It might be of significance. I do not know.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘I have had a message from the Villa Rasenna. The body of Professor Bronzini has been found.’

  ‘Found? Murdered?’

  ‘I am not sure. Mercurio – he is the adopted son – discovered the body. He was not very clear. The shock–’

  ‘The shock must have been severe,’ agreed Colonel Doria, ‘You are going up?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I will come with you.’

  ‘I do not wish to distress you unduly,’ said Tenente Lupo. ‘But you will see that the present situation is not very satisfactory.’

  ‘I have told you all I know,’ said Mercurio. Shock had given place to something harder, something more calculated. Lupo was sufficiently experienced in interrogation to recognize this. He also appreciated the need for care. He was dealing with important people, and the situation was explosive. He said, ‘You have told me that you left here before four o’clock, to visit the Zecchis–’

  ‘Which you can confirm.’

  ‘I have no reason to doubt your word,’ said Lupo.

  As Colonel Doria, who was sitting quietly in the corner, well knew, an officer had already gone down to the Zecchi house. ‘You got back here at six o’clock, as your servants have confirmed. Death, we are told, took place some time after four. There can be no question of suspicion attaching to you. I say this bluntly, to make it plain that you have no possible motive for not answering our questions.’

  ‘I have answered them.’

  ‘You have answered a great many, very patiently,’ said Lupo with a smile. ‘But there is one point on which I am not yet clear. Had your father – your adopted father, I should perhaps say – any reason for taking his own life?’

  ‘None at all,’ said Mercurio. He said this with almost too much emphasis, and Lupo persisted. ‘No reason? He was then in good health and spirits?’

  ‘You’re wasting time,’ said Mercurio. ‘My father was murdered. And you know who murdered him. And why. Nothing could be clearer.’

  ‘These two men?’

  ‘Of course. You have seen the safe door. Who but men like this would have had the equipment to blow it off? One of our vans is missing. No doubt they have stolen it, and used it to carry off the loot. If you would take steps to catch them instead of spending all these hours here talking to me–’

  ‘All steps are being taken, be sure of that. The description of the van has been circulated, and road blocks have been established. Indeed, if these are the men we think they are, we shall be very interested to interview them. And not only in connection with this affair. They will have much to answer for. But one point seems to me to require explanation. Why were they here at all?’

  ‘My father was soft-hearted, and in some respects credulous. I have no doubt they told him some story.’

  ‘Did you know they were here?’

  ‘I knew, but did not approve.’

  ‘Did any of the servants?’

  ‘If anyone knew, it would be Arturo. He was in my father’s confidence.’

  ‘Would you send someone to fetch him.’

  Colonel Doria said, ‘What was in the safe?’

  ‘It was my father’s private safe. It had, as you see, a combination lock and the combination was known only to him.’

  ‘Then you have no idea what was in it?’

  ‘I can only tell you that it would not be money or securities or papers. These were all kept at the bank. It would probably be valuable Etruscan relics. Gold and silver, and possibly precious stones – ah! Arturo?’

  ‘I must apologize,’ said Arturo gravely. ‘Earlier this afternoon I badly strained my right arm.’ He touched the sling with his left-hand. ‘I was trying to start up the big tractor and it backfired. It was very painful. I lay down in my room, and must have fallen asleep.’

  He said this with his eyes fixed steadily on Mercurio, who looked as steadily back. The boy who had fetched him was well aware that he was lying. He himself, when the alarm had been raised an hour before, had gone up to Arturo’s room and found it empty. The Etruscan discipline of the Villa Rasenna was strict. It did not occur to him to open his mouth.

  Mercurio said, ‘I am sorry. It must indeed have been painful. The Tenente was asking about two men, guests of my father, who have been in the house since the day before yesterday. You knew about them, I imagine.’

  It occurred to Colonel Doria that if he had been asking the question he would have put it rather differently, but he did not interfere.

  Arturo said, carefully, and still watching Mercurio. ‘Yes. I knew of them. My master had invited them here, but desired that their presence should be a secret. I attended to them myself. They are occupying a single room at the end of the upstairs corridor. If you would wish to speak to them I could fetch
them for you.’

  ‘I wish that were true,’ said Lupo.

  ‘They are no longer there?’

  ‘They are no longer there. And would appear to have left in a hurry.’

  ‘Is it permitted to ask,’ said Arturo, looking slowly round the little group of men, ‘has some crime been committed? Something involving them, perhaps?’

  ‘Why do you ask that?’ said Lupo.

  ‘It seemed to me that these men were not of good character. That they might, perhaps, be of the criminal class–’

  He paused. Mercurio looked at Lupo who nodded slightly. Mercurio said, ‘Your master is dead. He died by violence. Whether by his own hand or the hand of others we do not know.’

  In the silence which followed the only movement was made by Arturo. He crossed himself.

  Tenente Lupo and Colonel Doria drove back to Florence together. It was after ten o’clock. Photographers and fingerprint men had finished their work. Professor Bronzini’s body had been taken to the mortuary for further examination by the State pathologist.

  The sky was clear, and the air was fresh. A host of stars looked down on them as they swung down the wide curving road from San Domenico di Fiesole.

  ‘It’s one of the oddest set-ups I’ve ever seen,’ said Lupo. ‘Why would a man like that take his own life? Always supposing it was suicide.’

  ‘There have been persistent allegations,’ said the Colonel. ‘I find them over and over again in the papers – in statements from that English naval officer – in comments on the witness, Labro – in remarks attributed to Milo Zecchi’s widow and his daughter – that the Professor was engaged in faking and selling Etruscan relics. I have been making a few inquiries about him here and in Rome. Twenty years ago, he was not a rich man. He was, of course, a recognized authority on Etruscan matters, but learned professors are not necessarily good men of business. A number of commercial enterprises in which he had been concerned had failed. It was at this time that he started to excavate the tombs which lay on his family property near Volterra. Coincidentally, his fortunes began to revive. But how? The relics which he discovered, and presented to the museums, brought him more glory than money.’

  ‘You mean that some of the relics, the better ones, may have been smuggled out of the country and sold abroad.’

  ‘I mean more than that. I mean that he would have been ideally situated to construct relics. Consider. He had the knowledge and artistry to design them convincingly. He had a ready made place for them to be found in. And he had a craftsman capable of executing them.’

  ‘Milo Zecchi. Of course. And if Milo was threatening to talk, that would be a reason for getting rid of him. But how–?’

  ‘There are still a great many “buts”,’ said the Colonel. ‘All that I have said is that, if threatened with the exposure of his plot, Professor Bronzini had a comprehensible motive for taking his own life.’

  ‘If he did hang himself, who took down the body? In itself, no light task.’

  ‘No indeed,’ said the Colonel. ‘It would need two ordinary men. Or one very strong one.’

  ‘You were thinking, perhaps, of Arturo?’

  ‘It did occur to me to wonder whether his account of how he hurt his arm was entirely candid.’

  When the car drew up outside Carabinieri Headquarters a man was waiting for them with a message which had just arrived.

  Lupo read it. He said to Colonel Doria, ‘It doesn’t seem that we shall get much sleep tonight. One of our patrols has just found the missing van.’

  ‘The truth, please,’ said Mercurio. ‘And no more stories about arms being strained in starting up nonexistent tractors. Also, I have spoken to one of the boys – the one who went up to your room at seven o’clock. And I saw the bundle of clothes which you had not had time to destroy. I have placed them, myself, in the large furnace.’

  Arturo said, ‘It had not been my intention to conceal anything from you.’

  ‘I am sure that is so. But if I am to do what is necessary, I must know exactly what happened.’

  It took ten minutes to tell. At the end of it Mercurio sat in silence for some time. Then he said, ‘You did very well. Now, I must think clearly, for both of us, so that no harm comes.’ He was silent again, his brain (a cool and logical instrument) analysing, considering, rejecting. Arturo stood behind him, also in silence. He had refused to sit. He was the physical force. Mercurio was the intellect. Between them they constituted a new and formidable alliance.

  Finally, Mercurio said, ‘I can see no weaknesses in the story. Lorenzo, the boy who went to your room, will be sent back to the farm. In any case, he will not speak. If the van has not been completely destroyed, your finger-prints will be on the steering wheel. But what of it? You drive the van daily. You are sure that no one saw you loading up the van?’

  ‘Quite sure.’

  ‘Once it was on the road you would not have been visible. And you met no one during your walk home.’

  ‘I used tracks, not roads. And it was getting dark. Might I ask a question?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘When I saw the body of my master hanging, and the safe door blown open, I did not stop to think. I assumed that those two men had been responsible for both. But now I have been thinking. Did my master take his own life? Why should these men have killed him?’

  Mercurio said, ‘Who can tell what wild beasts will do? But I think you are right. I think he ended his own life. No Etruscan ever feared death, particularly when he felt that his allotted span had been achieved.’ He thought again for a few minutes. ‘What is necessary now is to forget the past and think of the future. When does Danilo Ferri return?’

  ‘He comes by the Settebello Express from Milan. That arrives at eleven-forty. He has his own car, and will drive straight back here from the station.’

  ‘I hope,’ said Mercurio with a slight smile, ‘that he will not have found the business which took him to Switzerland unduly fatiguing.’

  Arturo smiled back.

  It was fifteen minutes past midnight when Danilo Ferri brought his car up the driveway of the Villa Rasenna, between the sentinel cypresses, black and silent, and into the front court.

  He parked at the far end of the court and walked slowly back to the house. His southern face, under its neat cap of black hair, was expressionless. No one would have supposed that he had just concluded six hours of bargaining with a circle of suspicious and ruthless men to whom he had been forced to make excuses for delay and firm promises for the future.

  It was Arturo who opened the door for him. He said, ‘What have you done to your arm, Arturo?’

  ‘I fell downstairs, Signor Ferri. I was carrying a heavy vase.’ He smiled gently. ‘The vase was not hurt, but my arm was.’

  ‘If you are hurt, you should have gone to your bed. One of the boys could have stayed up.’

  ‘It is no great matter,’ said Arturo. He added, ‘Signor Mercurio would like a word with you. He is in the writing-room.’

  ‘I’m afraid I’m too tired for more words tonight. Tell him I have gone to bed.’

  Arturo’s giant form was blocking the stairs. He said, ‘It is very important. I think it would be right to speak to him.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘We have had the Police here.’

  ‘Does the Professor know about this?’

  Arturo said, very gently, ‘The Professor is dead.’

  Danilo Ferri stared at him for a long moment, then he swung on his heel and strode off down the passage without another word.

  Arturo padded softly after him.

  Mercurio was seated at the Professor’s writing-desk, a huge pile of papers in front of him. It seemed as though he had emptied out every one of the desk drawers.

  ‘Is this true?’ said Ferri.

  Mercurio said, ‘Sit down, please. You must be tired.’

  ‘Is it true?’

  ‘You cannot make the journey to Switzerland and transact important business and return,
all in the same day, without experiencing fatigue.’

  There was an undertone to Mercurio’s speech which Ferri had never heard before. He sat down, and said very quietly, ‘I demand to know whether what Arturo has just told me is true.’

  ‘Much will depend upon what he told you.’

  ‘He said that the Professor was dead, and that the Police had been here.’

  ‘Both those statements are true.’

  ‘Is that all you have to say?’

  ‘You asked me a question, and I have answered it.’ His blue eyes held the black ones for a long time. In the end it was Ferri who shifted to break the deadlock. He said, ‘In your own good time then perhaps you will be kind enough to tell me about it.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Mercurio. He appeared to consider the matter. ‘Yes, I think it is right that you should know. Particularly since it concerns you. At seven o’clock this evening, the Professor’s body was found, by me, in the basement room. It was lying on the stone bench on the far side of the room. Ironical, is it not, that it should have been occupying almost exactly the place which he had always planned that his mortal remains should occupy?’

  Ferri said nothing.

  ‘However, I must tell you – and I do so in the full confidence that you will not repeat it – that this was not the first discovery of the body. Nor was it in that position when discovered. Some hours earlier Arturo found the body, hanging from a hook in the ceiling. He also observed that the safe had been blown open.’

  ‘What?’ The exclamation was forced out of Ferri.

  ‘You are surprised? Why should you be surprised? If you introduce two professional criminals into the house you must expect things like that, surely.’

  Ferri said, ‘Go on, please.’

  ‘The results were exactly what one might anticipate. Arturo is a Corsican. He was deeply attached to his master. He has no love for Sicilians. He went up to their room, found them packing up the treasure they had stolen, and killed them both. Then he took the bodies, and the treasure, in the small van, drove it into the hills, and burned it. By daylight tomorrow, at the latest, the police will have discovered the remains. They will assume that these two men robbed the safe, were running off with the loot, and, in the darkness and rain, turned the van over the edge, and it caught on fire. Whether they will assume that they killed the Professor, or that they found him hanging and seized the opportunity to rob him, seems to me to be immaterial.’