Instinctively the ME follows the detective’s train of thought. ‘As you just saw from our crude re-enactment, this kind of homicide is very personal. It has to be done at close quarters in order to be so precise. Had I really been attacking you, you would have been going crazy – wriggling, curling up, falling to the ground, fighting for your life – and I would have been hacking at you with the knife and creating wounds elsewhere. There’s no forensic evidence to suggest that anything like that happened.’
‘So the victim was restrained?’
‘Not necessarily.’
Valentina looks confused.
‘He was dead. Or at least very close to death. And judging from the marks of the knife against the bone, I think it fair to say that he was on his back when most of the cutting was done.’
Valentina’s cell phone rings.
There’s a strange number on the display.
Whoever it is, they’ll have to wait.
‘Have you seen anything like this before, Professoressa?’
Nonna half laughs. ‘Of course. Ritually disembowelled eunuchs are turning up all the time here in Rome! Fitting them in around those other plentiful cases of severed hands found in church porticos is a real drain on the unit.’
‘Stupid question. Sorry! I was just hoping you might have something more to add.’
Nonna starts to move things away for her next case. ‘I’m afraid not. I really wish I had some old case notes or a similar experience I could recall to help you, but I don’t.’
‘ Grazie. You’ve helped a lot.’ Valentina walks round and picks up the report the ME left on the drawers for her.
‘A little advice.’
Valentina stops in the doorway.
Filomena Schiavone points to the body. ‘Whoever did this is extraordinarily dangerous, Captain. Be careful – really careful. The only way I ever want to see you back in here is standing up and asking questions.’
51
On her return to base, Valentina checks her missed phone message.
It’s from Tom. Made from a hospital pay phone.
There’s been an accident, a fire at her apartment, and he’s fine but the apartment is not. It’s gutted.
So is she. Apparently she’s homeless.
But he’s safe, that’s the main thing.
She’ll call the hospital and arrange to pick him up just as soon as she’s dealt with a more pressing matter.
Cafe Luigi is just around the corner from headquarters. Lots of cops go there for an espresso before work or a beer at the end of the day.
Some probably even go for a beer before the start of their shift.
It’s here that she’s told Lieutenant Federico Assante to meet her.
He’s sitting in the corner.
His hands are wrapped around a mug of black tea.
Valentina unbuttons her short dark wool coat, hangs it over the back of the cheap chair and sits down. Assante looks miserable and worried.
Good.
He’s every right to feel that way.
She peels off her black leather gloves. ‘Twenty minutes from now, I’m due to be with Human Resources, reviewing a list of lieutenants who can be freed up to help me.’ She stares sternly into his eyes. ‘I don’t want to make that appointment. I want to give you a second chance and have you help me solve this case. Is that something you want?’
He looks surprised. ‘In the office you said-’
‘I know what I said. I don’t have short-term memory problems. Now do you want to work this case or not?’
He doesn’t have to think for long. ‘I want to work it.’
‘ Bene. Then there are conditions.’
He thought there might be.
‘You work your sexist ass off. You put in more hours than you’ve ever done and you don’t grumble or complain about anything to anyone. Understand?’
He nods.
‘Perfetto. Now I’ll tell you what you get in return. If you put in a hundred per cent effort and a hundred per cent loyalty, I’ll be the first to sing your praises. Credit where credit is due. But if you screw with me – if you go behind my back and start playing politics – then I’ll wreck your career so badly you won’t be able to get a job shining Caesario’s shoes by the time I’m done. Understand?’
‘Understood.’
‘ Va bene. Then we’re a team again.’
‘ Grazie.’ There’s an awkward silence, then he adds, ‘Just so you know, the major insisted that I report directly to him. It was his idea, not mine.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ She stares at him again, a steely gaze that shows he’s still on thin ice. ‘He won’t do it again, and neither will you. From now on we’re going to be judged by results, not by whether we’re male or female or friends with the major or not.’
‘ Si.’
‘Now in the interests of our new relationship, how about you get me an espresso?’
He’s up from the table and standing at the bar within seconds.
Valentina smiles. Her old boss, Vito Carvalho, was right. Rethinking what to do with Assante was a smart move.
52
Late afternoon, and a sombre Louisa Verdetti finds herself in Sylvio Valducci’s office.
He’s tired. His eyes are bloodshot and he needs to keep wiping them with a tissue. Louisa doesn’t care enough to ask if he’s all right. Besides, mentally she’s still at the graveside of her former school friend, a mother of three, who two hours ago was lowered into the earth less than six months after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The big C. The most feared letter in the alphabet.
They caught it late – far too late – and the tumours had spread all over her body.
‘Have you seen it yet?’
Louisa looks up. ‘I’m sorry. Have I seen what?’
Valducci triumphantly slips the crayoned drawing across his desk. ‘Suzanna’s latest masterpiece. Or should I say Suzie’s.’ He looks like the cat that got the cream. ‘What do you make of it?’
Louisa frowns at it. ‘Where did this come from?’
‘I saw the patient when you were out. I just wanted to personally look in on her, and she was in the middle of drawing this.’
‘You saw her without consulting me?’
He shrugs. ‘It is my right to. I can see any patient I wish.’ He looks at her challengingly, then adds, ‘It may please you to know that she manifested many of the signs you mentioned, including violence.’
