Death in Tuscany (43 page)

The detention order on Simonetta Palladiani and Massimo Verga had produced no results so far. The two of them seemed to have vanished into thin air. Without them, the investigation had stalled, and the summons from Deputy Prosecutor Armando Lupo, on a public holiday, didn't bode at all well.

Lupo had told him to expect an important piece of news, but the fact that this news was coming from another source and not from himself merely increased his unease. His birth sign was Virgo and he didn't like surprises.

When he entered Lupo's office and saw, as well as from Lupo, a woman he didn't know, with vaguely aristocratic and authoritarian features, and the chief superintendent from the Florence
Squadra Mobile,
whom he'd already met in circumstances he'd have preferred to forget, he knew this would be an August bank holiday to remember.

'Please sit down, Captain, we were waiting for you,' Lupo said cordially, offering him a seat next to him, facing the other two across the desk.

The woman was smiling, and seemed at her ease. Ferrara was smoking a cigar, which did not seem to bother the others.

The captain did not sit down immediately. He stood by the chair, waiting for the introductions.

'Deputy Prosecutor Anna Giulietti, of the Prosecutor's Department of Florence,' Lupo said. 'Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara you already know.'

'Pleased to meet you,' he replied, addressing Anna, as he sat down.

In those few seconds he tried to prepare himself. This unexpected tableau was eloquent enough: the two Prosecutor's Departments had got together to try to settle the dispute between the police and the Carabinieri, in an attempt to save Ferrara from an unpleasant procedure: a procedure he, Fulvi, had requested. Was he ready to negotiate? He wasn't sure. After all, Ferrara had been the first to threaten to go to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and he had simply got in ahead of him in order to safeguard himself and his own investigation. If Ferrara was eating humble pie now, he would have to sweat to obtain his 'forgiveness'.

Ready to savour Ferrara's unconditional surrender, he was caught off guard by Lupo's introduction, which was about something else entirely.

'Captain, allow me to bring you up to date on a number of developments which cast a new and unexpected light on Ugo Palladiani. Thanks to these developments, we have decided that the investigation into his death can only benefit from a collaboration between this department and the one in Florence, represented by Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti, who is in charge of the investigation into the murder of an unknown girl in Florence. Once we have pooled our knowledge, it will be easier to decide on the strategies to follow in pursuing our respective investigations.'

‘I’m listening,' Captain Fulvi said.

Lupo, appealing only twice for confirmation, once to Ferrara, once to Anna Giulietti, effectively summarised the events which had led to the discovery of paedophile activities in Palladiani's abandoned factory, culminating in the death of a young girl, still unnamed, beside whose body a cufflink had been found bearing the letter P. He showed Captain Fulvi the photograph.

At this stage of the investigations,' he concluded, 'we don't know if Palladiani's death is related to his paedophile activities, but Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti and I have agreed that it would be negligent on our part not to consider the possibility that there may indeed be a connection. That's why we think it's desirable for there to be an exchange of information between the forces dealing with both cases and, if necessary, active collaboration on the investigation into Palladiani's murder. I know that you and the chief superintendent haven't seen eye to eye over the involvement of Signor Massimo Verga, but I hope your differences can be put aside, in the interests of justice. Is everyone agreed?'

Giulietti and Ferrara nodded. Fulvi, unable to find an immediate counter-argument, did the same.

He was, however, thinking hard. Even though the paedophile angle did not necessarily contradict his own theory of a crime of passion, it did weaken it. It was hard to imagine a man with such perverse sexual interests harbouring resentment towards the boyfriend of a mature woman from whom he had been virtually separated for years and who had certainly had many other lovers. But if he was on the right track - and he didn't doubt for a moment that he was - then the conclusions which Chief Superintendent Ferrara and Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti were trying to reach must be wrong.

'From your reconstruction, Signor Lupo, there would appear to be a strong possibility that Ugo Palladiani was involved in circumstances which led to the death of this unknown girl—'

'Call her Stella,' Anna Giulietti interrupted. 'That's what we've been calling her for the sake of convenience.'

All right,' the captain resumed. 'What I'd like to understand, though, is how strong this possibility really is. In other words, has Palladiani's guilt been proved or demonstrated, or is the evidence just circumstantial?'

'We know that paedophile activities took place in his factory,' Anna Giulietti said. 'We also found items of clothing that very probably belonged to the victim there.'

'But Ugo Palladiani abandoned the factory years ago,' Fulvi insisted, 'and he was involved in another business entirely. How can we be sure he didn't rent it to someone - or even lend it, which would be even more difficult to demonstrate because there wouldn't be any paperwork?'

'What about the cufflink with the letter P?' Lupo asked.

'I admit it may be a significant coincidence, but for it to be considered proof that Palladiani was present at the spot where the girl was found, we'd need to demonstrate it was his . . . There are a lot of surnames that begin with the letter P. We'd have to find the other one of the pair among his things, or something else that indicates that he used that symbol, but we haven't found anything like that. On the contrary, the idea we've built up of him suggests he preferred a totally different style, to be honest
...
A more modern, casual, youthful style. Nothing baroque like that
..."

Noticing that Lupo seemed quite impressed with this argument, Ferrara hastened to refute it.

'We're checking everything we can. My men have a warrant from Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti to search Palladiani's apartment, office, car and yacht. We'll see what emerges from that. Obviously, by itself the cufflink isn't much of a lead. I brushed it aside myself at first, but when you put it together with what we discovered in the factory . . . Though I have to admit, Captain, your idea that he might have lent the factory to someone else is a good one. We certainly can't rule it out, if we want the investigation to be consistent and exhaustive, as all investigations should be. Fortunately the warehouse was abandoned in a great hurry and Forensics have found a large number of fingerprints. In fact, I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask Deputy Prosecutor Lupo for a copy of the fingerprints taken during the autopsy on Palladiani. That should help us to prove whether or not he was in the factory that night.'

'No problem,' Lupo said. Any other questions?' he asked the captain.

'Not for the moment. But I'd just like to make one thing clear, because I don't want you to misunderstand my position. I'm not trying to say that what you discovered in the factory is unimportant, or that your theory about the cufflink isn't an attractive one. But to be absolutely honest, as evidence they do seem to me a lot weaker than the evidence we've already gathered, which points us in a different direction entirely. Not to mention the fact that, in the last analysis, the two crimes could be completely unrelated. The man might have killed the girl that night and then himself been killed for other reasons, without there necessarily being a connection. That's why I consider it my duty to continue along the same track as I have been. Naturally, if you find any actual evidence in the course of your investigation which you think might help mine, I'd welcome any suggestions, but for now I can't see that any such evidence exists.'

Lupo took note of the captain's clearly expressed position and turned to Ferrara. 'Chief Superintendent?'

'If I can go back to the beginning,' Ferrara responded, 'Captain Fulvi told me that Ugo Palladiani was definitely murdered, and the newspapers confirmed it. May I know why he was so sure?'

'Would you like to answer that, Captain?'

'Do I have to?'

Lupo kept his patience. 'Listen, Captain,' he said good-naturedly. 'I've known Chief Superintendent Ferrara in other professional situations, and I can guarantee that he is a first-class detective. I have no hesitation in saying it in front of him. I realise that he is emotionally involved in this case, and I respect his distress and his strong sense of friendship, but I'm absolutely certain that this hasn't had, isn't having, and won't have the slightest influence on his work. I don't even have to ask him first when I say that if Massimo Verga turns out to be guilty he himself would be the first to want to bring him to justice.

'I started this meeting hoping that you could collaborate, but I have no intention of forcing you to do so. It's up to you to decide.'

Captain Fulvi said nothing. The character testimony may not have meant anything to him, but the reference to friendship seemed to have struck the right note.

'I'm sorry,' he said at last. 'Believe me, Chief Superintendent, I'm sorry about your friend. But he is a prime suspect. Ugo Palladiani didn't die by falling down the stairs. According to the autopsy, there were two previous factors which contributed to his death: internal lesions not consistent with those of a fall, and the consumption of narcotics in a quantity much higher than the average limit of tolerability.'

An overdose?' Ferrara said, glancing at Anna.

'Yes,' the captain confirmed.

'Like Stella . . .' Anna said, slightly regretfully. 'It could be a mere coincidence, but I must point out how damaging the consequences of a conflict between the police and the Carabinieri would be
..."

Convinced that he was on the side of reason, Captain Fulvi ignored her remark and gave Ferrara an openly reproachful look.

'So Palladiani was hit before he fell, or was pushed, down the stairs?' Ferrara asked, lightly, as if downplaying it. 'Exactly,' Lupo confirmed.

'The state of the room where Palladiani had been sleeping suggested that a fight may have taken place there,' the captain added.

Any fingerprints?' Anna Giulietti asked.

'Lots. Unfortunately we can't attribute them with certainty to Massimo Verga because we don't have any prints to compare them with. They weren't taken when he was arrested in 1970. But they will certainly be a determining factor when we find him and Simonetta Palladiani .... if we ever find them.'

'Of course,' Ferrara admitted with a pang in his heart. Although seeing that Massimo was Simonetta Palladiani's guest, it can't be ruled out that he might have left his prints at some other time, can it?'

'Signor Verga had his room in the guest apartment. But it's possible that before renting it he may have slept in that bedroom, you're right about that. The totality of the evidence will be what decides . . . and his confession, of course, when he makes it - as I'm sure he will.'