Page 35 of Murder on an Italian Island (Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mysteries #12)

As far as the first death here was concerned, there was always the possibility that Ignazio had deliberately thrown himself off the cliff, although I had serious doubts about that.

What, I wondered, might have driven the character in my book to do the same?

Desperation or guilt, but about what? And, of course, it was still feasible and maybe even probable that Ignazio had simply stumbled over the edge under the influence of an awful lot of alcohol.

Maybe the Graziani case was going to be of no help to me and my writer’s block at all.

I was still mulling all this over when my phone started ringing. I was delighted to see that it was Anna.

‘ Ciao , Anna, it’s great to hear from you.’ At my feet, I saw Oscar look up and wag his tail as he heard me say her name. ‘Oscar sends his love – and so do I. How are you feeling?’

‘I feel a whole lot better. The nurse brought me a plate of lasagne and I managed to eat most of it. It wasn’t quite up to the standard of the Hotel Augustus, but it wasn’t bad for hospital food.

’ She sounded more animated and I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief.

‘Anyway, the reason I’m calling is to tell you that I’ve gradually been remembering more about what happened.

That yellow thing I saw at the shed, it was a bike, one of those chunky mountain bikes.

I’m sure of it. It was leaning against the inside of the doorframe. Does that help?’

‘That helps enormously.’ I went on to tell her what had happened since I had last seen her and how this snippet of information from her was likely to prove highly significant.

We chatted some more and I told her I would come to the hospital at nine the next morning to see if she was going to be discharged.

As soon as the call ended, I phoned the inspector and passed on what Anna had just told me.

He gave a satisfied grunt. ‘That’s excellent news.

Morso has been stonewalling, but we checked the contents of his pockets and we found two sets of keys.

One set matches his house and car, but the others are confirmed as belonging to Aldo Graziani and one of them is a long, flat security key.

We’ve checked and, yes, it’s the key to the shed.

Morso’s prints are all over the inside of the shed and, in particular, on the trapdoor in the floor leading to the pit with the statues. I think we’ve got him.’

‘For the attempted murder of Anna and trafficking, yes, but what about Aldo’s murder? Any evidence to link him to that, apart from the keys?’

‘The keys are pretty damning. There’s no way Aldo would have handed over the keys to his villa and the campsite along with the key to the shed unless he was pressured.

A German couple at the campsite claim to have seen somebody of Morso’s description with Aldo just before midnight on Monday.

The two men were walking by the shore. We’re organising an identity parade, and hopefully, that will be the final bit of proof we need. ’

‘That sounds excellent. What about Teresa or the Giardino couple?’

‘That’s the other bit of good news. Once it sank in that we suspected the Giardino couple of being Aldo’s murderers, they caved in and admitted being the local handlers for Etruscan antiquities, although they vehemently deny any involvement in either death.

They’ve told us that Aldo was indeed their contact here and, most interesting of all, they said that they took a phone call at lunchtime today from none other than Fabio Morso, keen to pick up the business that his father started.

We’ve checked the phones and it’s as they say.

I don’t think they’re murderers, but we’ve passed them on to the TPC, and they are going to be in big trouble with the Carabinieri . ’

‘And Teresa? Any involvement in either of the murders or in the antiquities racket?’

‘No to both, I think. I’ve given her a rocket for lying to us about her relationship with Aldo and I’ve told her I could still charge her with obstructing a murder investigation, but I’ve released her and I see no point in having anything more to do with her.

It’s clear to me that she made a cynical decision to initiate a relationship with Aldo in the hope of getting her hands on his money.

She’s a tough character, but I don’t see her as a murderer and we have nothing else on her. ’

‘And Ignazio’s death?’

‘Given that we have a complete absence of any kind of evidence against anybody, including Fabio Morso, it’s looking more and more likely that Bellini was right.

The man was hopelessly drunk and he fell off the clifftop all by himself.

I’ll give it until tomorrow and then, unless anything else turns up, I’ll leave it as misadventure. ’

When the call ended, I sat there holding the phone, reflecting on what Fontana had said.

With no proof to the contrary, it looked as though the death of Ignazio Graziani would remain a mystery.

It was frustrating but there was little I could do about it.

I glanced down at Oscar, who was stretched out on the floor, eyes closed.

‘I’m afraid we’ll never know, Oscar.’

He didn’t even bother opening his eyes.