Page 26 of Murder at the Ponte Vecchio (Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery #11)
‘Verdi’s always been that way inclined, I’m afraid.
My wife knows his wife well and it’s clear she’s reaching the end of her tether with him.
But do I see him as a murderer, a multiple murderer?
No, I don’t.’ He stopped and gave a helpless shrug of the shoulders. ‘But stranger things have happened.’
As the questore finished speaking, Virgilio’s phone beeped and he picked it up.
He studied the message he’d just received very carefully and then handed it across the table to me.
‘I’ve just been sent this. This individual was caught on CCTV in the Grand Hotel last night.
As you can see, there’s little doubt he’s the person who murdered Jacobs. ’
I took the phone eagerly and studied the four photos, all timed at around half past ten the previous night.
One had clearly been taken on a landing, one in a corridor and one actually showed the figure entering what was presumably Jacobs’s room.
The fourth photo was of the man exiting via the lobby and I was immediately struck by the appearance of the killer.
He looked quite tall, almost certainly a man, and he was wearing dark trousers and a dark hoodie, pulled up so as to conceal his head.
I passed it across the table to the questore and shot a question at Virgilio.
‘I haven’t seen the CCTV footage of the man who murdered David Berg on the Ponte Vecchio, but, from the description Marco gave me, this looks like the same perpetrator. Have you seen the Berg footage?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘I have and it’s him, I’m sure of it.
’ He looked across at his boss. ‘I imagine you’re familiar with the circumstances of the murders of the two Dutchmen, sir, but to my mind, this unmistakably links them together.
Both Signor Armstrong and I felt that it was too much of a coincidence for the two murders not to be connected, but with these photos, we can now be almost certain that they were. ’
Livornese studied the photos carefully. ‘Very interesting. I hope very much that you catch this man but, above all, I hope you manage to catch the traitor in our midst.’
There was a serious expression on Virgilio’s face when he responded.
‘You can rely on me, sir. As far as the deaths of the two Dutchmen are concerned, now that we’ve established what looks like a definite link between Berg and Jacobs, it seems probable that both murders were committed by somebody trying to get hold of Berg’s diamonds, Jacobs’s three hundred thousand euros in payment, or David Berg’s cache of jewellery – or all three.
This was either the work of a professional jewel thief or it might be the work of a member of the Berg family.
They’re all involved with the jewel trade and one of the family, in particular, has no alibi for the times of either murder. ’
I nodded in agreement and Virgilio glanced across at me.
‘When we get back to Florence, the first thing I’m going to do is to sit down and have a serious talk to Luuc Berg about exactly where he was and what he was doing on those two occasions.
’ An afterthought came to him. ‘And while I’m there, I intend to check the three Dutch-registered cars for signs of damage consistent with what happened to Inspector Innocenti, just in case they tried to eliminate him.
Now that we’ve established a link between the deaths of David Berg and Axel Jacobs, both Dutch jewellers, this brings the family into play once again. ’
Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a massive wooden board laden with at least half a dozen types of grilled fish and seafood, ranging from tuna steaks and squid rings to prawns on wooden skewers.
Another waiter appeared and placed a big bowl of mixed salad alongside the fish and, just in case we were still feeling hungry, a large dish with a mountain of fries on it.
I distinctly heard a frustrated grunt from under the table as Oscar did his best to indicate that he was at imminent risk of dying of hunger.
I kept my resolve but the questore had no such scruples, and, in the course of the next twenty minutes or so, Oscar found himself on the receiving end of several prawns, a couple of squid rings, a succulent piece of tuna and even more breadsticks.
Tonight’s walk was going to have to be very, very long.
It was an excellent meal, but I was sure we all came away feeling frustrated.
Yes, the CCTV evidence from Jacobs’s hotel had maybe provided a bit of good news as far as the Berg/Jacobs case was concerned, but the problem of identifying and catching the police officer responsible for deleting the asylum seeker files and maybe murdering the two men at the station remained a real problem, complicated by the fact that everything had to be done in the strictest secrecy.
The questore promised that he would do his best to keep his eye on Verdi, the vice questore , while Virgilio offered to attempt some sort of surveillance of Superintendent Grande.
Inspector Faldo was the easiest of the three to keep tabs on now that he’d been brought in to fill Marco’s shoes.
Whether any of this would result in a breakthrough, however, remained highly questionable.