by Joseph Grady
[←103]
“Is everything alright, girl?”
[←104]
“Well, yeah, more or less.”
[←105]
“What’s wrong?”
[←106]
“Nothing. No. Really, I’m fine. I don’t know. It’s just that… it’s just that… all this stuff about the murder, and all that, it’s just left me shaken up, y’know?”
[←107]
“Oh, definitely, Lucy. We’re all a little shaken up.” He placed his hand on her knee and leaned in. “If there’s anything I can do to keep you company in these difficult moments, you’ll let me know, right?”
[←108]
“Of course, but…”
[←109]
“But what?”
[←110]
“I mean… it’s just that this murder has left me with so many doubts, so many uncertainties about the life here at the Palazzo, y’know? I really want to know everything, but I really don’t know anything about what’s happened.”
[←111]
“I already told the story about how I found the body. You want me to tell it to you again?”
[←112]
“No. I don’t know… I want to see. Understand? I want to see…” She leaned in close to his eyes and wet her lips with her tongue. “I want to see what happened, just as it happened.”
[←113]
“I get it.”
[←114]
“So you’ll help me?” She put her hand on her knee and let her thumb lie casually on his hand.
[←115]
“I get it.” He took his hand off her knee and leaned back. “They told me that American women always speak in a less direct way compared with Italians. But come on, you’re not at all subtle. Anyways, I see that I’ve got to talk direct to you. Look. I can’t let you have the recordings. At this point… I mean… already a good number of journalists and lawyers have offered generous donations to the Palazzo Mortimer fund in order to get their hands on those things — in cash, if you understand. You’re a student, right?”
[←116]
“How much do you want?”
[←117]
“As much as possible.”
[←118]
“Come on, Gambetti. At least tell me again what happens in the recordings.”
[←119]
“Fine. But there’s not much to say. The recordings show this one guy, Eugenio who shows up in the lobby at 14:40, and then leaves at 15:10. Then he comes back later to the lobby. There’s this other guy who comes in after him completely covered in a rain jacket and rain pants. They talk for about three minutes. The one guy shoots the other in the head five times. He gets on his vehicle which was parked just outside and leaves.”
[←120]
“What kind of vehicle?”
[←121]
“We don’t know. The camera angle doesn’t capture it. But that’s enough, Lucy. There’s nothing more to say.”
[←122]
“But this guy, Eugenio, who was he? Why was he here? Is he somebody’s relative?”
[←123]
“I said that’s enough. Nobody knows anything about him, and there’s nothing in our files.”
[←124]
“And Ginevra? Who is Ginevra? There’s not a Ginevra around here? Or somebody with a relative named Ginevra?”
[←125]
“What?”
[←126]
“Ginevra. Who is she?”
[←127]
“I don’t know. What are you crazy? I said enough!”
[←128]
“Um… my name is Alice Kloepfer, and I’m here with my colleague Mr. Ronald Lindbeck. We’re from the South African Embassy in Rome.” Even in Italian Lucy kept her fake English accent.
[←129]
“Yeah? What do you want?”
[←130]
“If we’re not a disturbance, we’d like to come up and ask a few questions about last week’s events.”
[←131]
“Fine… the elevator is on the right. Third floor. Last apartment.”
[←132]
“Anyways, that guy Kavanaugh’s wrong. The greatness of man is in this,” Cristiano muttered quietly at his beer, more to himself than to Lucy, “that he has awareness of his own misery. The true dignity of man is in his suffering.”
[←133]
“Alright, Lucy, could you explain to us what we’re doing up here? Cristiano wouldn’t tell us anything.”
[←134]
“Eh… yeah… Look, the concept is simple enough. From up here, we can look down on Palazzo Mortimer’s terrace over there.”
[←135]
“Okay.”
[←136]
“We have reasons to believe that the murderer is someone who lives up there on the roof.”
[←137]
“But don’t you live there too?”
[←138]
“Yep.”
[←139]
“So then what are we doing up here?”
[←140]
“Cristiano is the only one who’s been investigating the murder, and he’s the only one who’s been publishing articles about Eugenio and everything that happened three weeks ago. Basically, we’re assuming that the murderer is following Cristiano’s articles. So Cristiano is going to sit up there on the terrace of Palazzo Mortimer. The murderer will know who he is. Therefore, we can be sure that the guy… or rather, the girl… who recognizes him is the murderer. Understood?”
[←141]
“Yeah… And what are we doing?”
[←142]
“We’re going to be up here filming the meeting between Cristiano and the murderer. We want to see the reaction of each student as they come out of the door on their way to class, and they see Cristiano sitting there. He’ll have an audio recorder on him, so later we can put together the video with the audio. Do you get it? The person who has a reaction to Cristiano being there is the murderer.”
[←143]
“But won’t it be dangerous?”
[←144]
“I said the same thing to Cristiano the other day when we came up with this plan, but he insisted. And at the end of the day… come on… if the murderer is the person we’re thinking… I don’t think he’ll be in much danger.”
[←145]
“What time is Cristiano supposed to be up there on the terrace?” One of the models asked.
[←146]
“He should already be up there,” responded Lucy.
[←147]
“I don’t see anybody.”
[←148]
“Is he dead?”
Lucy could only nod her head.
[←149]
The model looked frightened, “What now?”
[←150]
That what now was the first thing to bring Lucy back to her senses. What to do? Lucy could only stammer back, “Nothing! We’re the stupidest girls in the world. He’s dead and it’s our fault, and he died in vain. Don’t you get it? We didn’t film anything!”
[←151]
“Lucy, he wanted to do this. It isn’t at all our fault.” The model wagged her finger at Lucy.
[←152]
“Fine. Think what you want,” Lucy responded. “For now… I don’t know… for now… I don’t know what to do.”
[←153]
“witch”
[←154]
“Excuse me, miss… um… Do you… um…” the poor officer mumbled. “Do you by chance live here?”
[←155]
“Yes,” Lucy snapped back at him, and the officer almost whimpered.
[←156]
“What’s your name?”
[←157]
“Lucy Fox.”
[←158]
“Okay, Ms. Fox, I need to ask you a few questions.”
[←159]
“Go ahead.”
[←160]
The friend of my friend is my friend, the enemy of my friend i
s my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
[←161]
“Okay, here we’ve got another spritz for everybody. And a few things to nibble on.”
[←162]
“Milan? Where in Milan?”
[←163]
“The Metropolitan Niguarda Hospital.”
[←164]
“I’ll be there right away.”
[←165]
“Listen, visiting hours are over. You can go tomorrow at ten.”
[←166]
“Fine.”
[←167]
“Okay, the last storage locker for today!”
[←168]
“I’m going to talk straight with you,” One of them told her. “You can cooperate and if you’re lucky, maybe even survive. Unfortunately we don’t have time for games tonight. At the first sign of your not cooperating, we will kill you immediately. Understood?”
[←169]
Lucy just whimpered.
[←170]
“Understood?” he yelled, slapping her face from behind. A red mark appeared.
[←171]
“Alright. Good. What are the bank account numbers?” He took the bandana out of her mouth.
[←172]
“There is no bank account.”
[←173]
“You have one more chance to tell us the truth before we kill you.”
[←174]
“Hey there, beautiful,” Gambetti was opening the porter’s office.
[←175]
“Hi Gambetti.”
[←176]
“Oh, Lucy, wait a second. There’s some guy outside here who wants to talk to you. He says he’s not a journalist, but your Dad’s lawyer.”
[←177]
Lucy stopped. “Shit. Is he Czech?”
[←178]
“No, it seems he can see just fine.”
[←179]
“No shit, Gambetti. Is he from the Czech Republic?”
[←180]
“Let’s say he has a somewhat particular accent, yeah. And he is blond, so, I don’t know. I’d say yes… anyways…”
[←181]
“So you’re awake now?” the uninjured man asked Lucy, leaving his accomplice to treat his own wounds. “Are you ready to talk?”
[←182]
Lucy nodded her head.
[←183]
The man took out a gun — Natasha’s gun — and placed it on Brian’s forehead. He planted his feet right in front of Lucy and towered over her. “You must not scream or do anything like that. If you do, we’ll shoot this guy in the head. Understood?”
[←184]
Lucy nodded. He ripped the tape from her mouth.
[←185]
“Alright, you need to tell me the number for the bank account,” he said again.
[←186]
“Oh hi, Lucy. Sorry I’m late. There was a bit of traffic. Okay, what are we up to?… um… Oh my God! What the hell is going on here?”
Table of Contents
’STE CHIAVI
LE RAGAZZE NON FANNO VISION QUEST
IL PALAZZO
L'INCULTURAZIONE FALLITA DEL CAFFÈ
LEI È LA SIGNORINA LUCY FOX?
I MOBILI SPEZIALI
IL GIORNALISTA
PICCHIATO IN FACCIA
LA "B"
ROMA, SEI BELLA.
IL BAGNO TURCHESE E IL RIPOSO
SIAMO DELL'AMBASCIATA SUDAFRICANA
ANCORA IL GIORNALISTA
PIOMBATO
IL PIANO
IL BAGNO TURCHESE E LA PISTOLA
DE FRATRIBUS
SBRONZA E POSTUMI
COSA VUOI?
’NA GAMBA SPEZZATA
LA CHIAVE DELLA CHIAVE
IL BAGNO TURCHESE E LA CATENA
LUX ET ANTHROPOS
LA CHENOSI
L'ESCATON E IL TEMPIO MORMONE