Page 21 of Murder on an Italian Island (Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mysteries #12)
TUESDAY MORNING
The police arrived in two blue and white squad cars. They stopped at the entrance to the beach, and I saw two people get out of the first one and start running towards us while the two occupants of the second car followed at a more sedate pace.
The first person to reach us was the same uniformed sergeant we had already met, and Virgilio gave him a grim smile.
‘Good morning, Sergeant Gallo. We meet again.’
‘You seem to collect corpses, Commissario .’ Gallo shook hands with both of us before looking down at the body. ‘Well, well, so you say you think this is Aldo Graziani. Now, there’s a coincidence.’ From his sceptical tone, it was clear that he felt the same way that we did.
Virgilio nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve never liked coincidences, Gallo. Are you the investigating officer now?’
The sergeant shook his head and pointed back along the beach.
‘No, that’s Inspector Fontana.’ From his tone, it sounded to me as if he wasn’t too sure about Bellini’s replacement, and my spirits sank.
Bellini had been bad enough, but if the new inspector was even worse, the chances of a rapid conclusion to the investigation seemed unlikely.
However, rather than put him on the spot, I took a closer look at the two figures coming along the beach towards us: a young constable in uniform and an older man in plain clothes, walking with a limp.
‘Is that him there?’ Gallo nodded and I gave him a prompt. ‘Have you worked alongside him for long?’
He glanced at his watch and gave me a hint of a smile in reply. ‘About twenty-five minutes. He arrived from Livorno last night and this is his first day. He’s what you might call a stopgap while Inspector Bellini is away.’
As the two men approached, I could see that Inspector Fontana looked some years older than me, probably well into his sixties.
He had a fine head of steel-grey hair and he was walking with the aid of a stick.
When he reached us, Sergeant Gallo started to make the introductions, but Inspector Fontana cut him off.
‘Thank you, Gallo, but the commissario and I already know each other.’ He held out his hand towards Virgilio and gave him a broad smile. ‘ Ciao , Virgilio, it’s very good to see you again, and congratulations on your promotion.’
To my surprise, Virgilio reached out with both arms and gave the inspector a bearhug. ‘ Ciao , Piero, long time no see. How’re you doing?’
‘I’m okay, thanks.’ There was a note of something in the inspector’s voice that could have been regret, but before I could dwell on it, he turned towards me and held out his hand. ‘And are you the gentleman who found the body?’
Virgilio was quick to specify. ‘He’s actually the man who leapt into the sea fully clothed and swam out to grab the body before it was washed away. He’s a good friend of mine: Dan Armstrong, from Florence.’
Fontana and I shook hands, and he raised an eyebrow in my direction. ‘Armstrong isn’t a common Florentine name.’ There was a twinkle in his eyes, and I smiled back.
‘I’m British and I moved to Tuscany three years ago.’
‘And that’s how you know Virgilio?’
‘That’s right. We have a lot in common.’
‘I’m pleased to meet you, and my thanks to you for swimming out to retrieve the victim.’ His attention switched back to Virgilio and he pointed at the body. ‘I gather you believe this to be Aldo Graziani. Did you know him well?’
‘This is the first time I’ve seen him close up, but the resemblance to his brother is unmistakable.
’ Virgilio went on to produce a quick summary of the events of the last few days, and I was pleased to hear that the inspector had already started familiarising himself with the case.
Fontana listened impassively until Virgilio finished, and then he asked the million-dollar question.
‘So, do you think this death is suspicious?’
We both nodded in unison and Virgilio replied. ‘Dan and I are both convinced that this death and the death of the man’s brother three nights ago were murder.’
‘You believe Ignazio Graziani was murdered even though his death has currently been dismissed as an unfortunate accident?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘Indeed, but, in light of this latest death, my feeling is that the original decision needs to be reevaluated. Two deaths in short succession – both members of the same family and both so similar in execution – strike me as decidedly suspicious.’ He stopped.
‘But it’s your investigation, Piero; it’s up to you.
I don’t want to get under your feet, but if I can give any help, just say the word. ’
‘Thank you, Virgilio, but aren’t you on holiday?’
‘Yes, but the offer still stands. Dan has a windsurfing lesson this morning, but I’d be happy to stick around and talk you through what we’ve found out over the past two days. We think it could well be that the same perpetrator has been responsible for both deaths.’
I left the two of them together and set off back to the hotel with Oscar, where I found Anna out on the terrace, sipping a cappuccino.
I saw her eyes register the fact that my clothes were dripping wet, and she shot me an ironic smile.
‘Been swimming, Dan? Remind me to tell you about swimming trunks. They’re a lot more convenient than diving into the sea fully clothed. ’
I told her what had happened and she rolled her eyes. ‘So one dead body wasn’t enough for you. You had to go and find yourself another one.’
I shook my head ruefully. ‘I’m sorry, carissima , but you know how it is.’
Now it was her turn to look rueful. ‘Oh yes, I know exactly how it is. You have the same nose for murder as Oscar does for food.’
Hearing his name and the word ‘food’ in the same sentence sent Oscar across to position himself primly alongside her where he gave her his I’m starving look.
As usual, it worked, and Anna handed him down a biscuit before looking up at me.
‘It’s probably a good idea if you go and get changed. I’ll look after Oscar.’
I did as I was told and all the time that I was in our room, I kept turning over in my head how this most recent development affected our investigation – and I really did think of it as our investigation now.
Although the scenario I had painted for Virgilio of a single killer being responsible for both murders seemed most probable, I did my best to consider the alternatives.
If the murders were unconnected – and that seemed improbable under the circumstances – the most likely motive for murdering the first victim was probably some form of revenge for what he’d done twenty years earlier.
Of course, it was still possible that Ignazio had been murdered by his brother, who had then taken his own life in a fit of remorse – although striking yourself on the back of the head is far from straightforward.
Alternatively, maybe Aldo had killed his brother, and then somebody else had killed him .
But why? Assuming that Aldo had killed his brother, was it possible that somebody had decided to avenge that death?
So far, I hadn’t come across anybody with a good word to say about Ignazio Graziani, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one lurking somewhere.
Could Ignazio have had some sort of love interest here on the island?
Considering that he’d been in prison for twenty years and had been released only a few weeks ago, it was either somebody so deeply in love with him that she had waited for him all this time, or it had been a whirlwind romance that had developed over the past couple of weeks. Either way, I was sceptical.
Then there was the Etruscan antiquities question.
Could there be a connection between either or both deaths and the investigation being carried out by the Carabinieri ?
For a moment, I even found myself questioning whether maybe the two plain-clothes officers might have taken the law into their own hands but, again, this seemed highly unlikely – but not impossible.
And, of course, Aldo had somehow managed to make himself a lot of money, and wealth can bring envy and bitterness.
What about this Ernesto Morso, who had allegedly been forced into selling his land?
Had he taken his revenge? But why wait five years to do so?
Maybe Aldo Graziani had been killed by a disgruntled staff member or a relative of one of the women he had allegedly treated so poorly – even his ex-wife?
By the time I had showered and changed into dry clothes, my head was spinning with suspects.
When I got back to the terrace, I found that Lina had joined Anna, so I helped myself to a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and sat down with them.
The aroma of bacon instantly brought Oscar to my side, doing his best to look underfed and unloved.
As I handed him down a piece of bacon rind – he and I have an agreement that rinds belong to him – I discovered that the two women had been discussing this latest twist in the Graziani case.
Lina was the first to comment. ‘I’ll be quite honest, Dan: up till now, I’ve tended to believe that the first murder was nothing more than a drunken accident, just as the police said, but this second death has changed my mind. It’s too much of a coincidence.’
Anna had been thinking along the same lines as me. ‘You said that the two brothers looked very similar, didn’t you, Dan? Could it be that the first murder was a mistake? The killer got the wrong man and so he went back and did it properly the second time?’
I nodded. ‘That’s what I’m tending to think as well, but there’s the question of why. There’s an obvious motive for killing Ignazio in revenge for what he did to those women twenty years ago, but what possible motive could there have been for somebody to want to kill his brother?’
While I had my breakfast, we discussed the two cases and the similarities between them, but we were unable to make any kind of breakthrough.
I was just finishing a bowl of excellent fresh fruit salad when Virgilio reappeared. After helping himself to some food, he sat down with us.
‘I’ve spent half an hour talking Piero Fontana through everything we’ve discovered, and it sounds as though he’s in agreement with us that both deaths were suspicious.
He’s given orders that all guests should stay at the hotel, and his people are now questioning everybody at the campsite and on the beach to find out if anybody saw anything, heard anything or can come up with any idea why Aldo Graziani might have been targeted.
The pathologist has already removed the body, and she’s promised to do the post-mortem straight away.
Hopefully, this will supply us with information about when and how he died – was it straightforward accidental drowning or something more? And you and I know what we think.’
This sounded good to me. ‘At least Inspector Fontana is taking it seriously – unlike his predecessor. It’s convenient that you two know each other. Was that from your days in Pisa?’
Virgilio nodded. ‘I worked alongside him there when I first started in the force. He’s a good man and a hard worker.
I’m sure he’ll do a good job here.’ A more serious expression appeared on his face.
‘If it hadn’t been for the accident, I have little doubt he would have been a commissario himself now. ’
‘What accident? What happened to him?’ Anna asked the question that was on my lips.
‘A road traffic accident, a bad one. It was a high-speed chase that went wrong. He was driving, but it was no fault of his. One of the front tyres of the squad car blew out and the car spun off the road into a tree at full speed. The officer alongside him was killed outright and Piero was badly injured – spinal problems – and spent months in hospital. As a result, when he was finally allowed to return to service, it was clear that he’d never fully recover from his mobility issues, so they shifted him down to Livorno and stuck him in Admin.
I’m sure he’s been good at what he’s been doing for the last twenty years, but the accident cut short a very promising career.
He’s been telling me how happy he is to get back to the sharp end at long last – even if it’s just for a few weeks.
The main thing is that we can be quite sure he’ll put in the effort that Bellini didn’t. ’