Death at La Fenice

‘Why are you doing this?’ she finally asked.

He dismissed the question with a gesture.

‘Why are you doing this?’ she repeated.

‘Because you didn’t kill him.’

‘And the rest? What I did do to him?’

‘There’s no way you can be made to suffer for that without making your daughter suffer even more.’

She winced away from this truth. ‘What else do I have to do?’ she asked, obedient now.

‘I’m not sure yet. Just remember that we-talked about this the first morning I came here to see you.’

She started to speak and then stopped.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘Nothing, nothing.’

He got suddenly to his feet. It made him uncomfortable, sitting here and plotting. ‘That’s all, then. I imagine you’ll have to testify at the inquest, when it happens.’

‘Will you be there?’

‘Yes. I’ll have filed my report by then and given my opinion.’

‘And what will that be?’

‘It will be the truth, Signora.’

Her voice was level. ‘I don’t know what the truth is anymore.’

‘I will tell the procuratore that my investigation revealed that your husband committed suicide when he realized that he was going deaf. Just as it was.’

‘Yes,’ she echoed. ‘Just as it was.’

He left her sitting in the room where she had given her husband the last injection.

* * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

At eight the next morning, just as ordered, Brunetti placed his report on Vice-Questore Patta’s desk, where it sat until his superior officer arrived at his office, just past eleven. When, after returning three personal phone calls and reading through the financial newspaper, the vice-questore brought himself to read the report, he found it both interesting and illuminating:

The results of my investigation lead me to conclude that Maestro Helmut Wellauer took his own life as a result of his growing deafness.

1.  During the last months, his hearing had deteriorated to the point where he had less than 40 percent of normal hearing. (See attached interviews with Drs. Steinmbrunner and Treport; and attached medical records.)

2. This loss of hearing resulted in increasing inability to function as a conductor. (See attached interviews with Prof. Rezzonico and Signore Traverse)

3.  The Maestro was in a depressed state of mind. (See attached interviews with Signora Wellauer and Signorina Breddes.)

4.  He had access to the poison used. (See attached interviews with Signora Wellauer and Dr. Steinbrunner.)

5.   He was known to favor the idea of suicide, should he arrive at a point in which he could no longer function as a musician (See attached telephone interview with Dr. Steinbrunner. Personal correspondence to follow from Germany.)

Given the overwhelming weight of this information, plus the logical exclusion of suspects who might have had either motive or opportunity to commit a crime, I can conclude only that the Maestro accepted suicide as an alternative to deafness.

Respectfully submitted,

Guido Brunetti

Commissario of Police

‘I suspected this from the beginning, of course,’ Patta said to Brunetti, who had answered his superior’s request that he come to his office to discuss the case. ‘But I didn’t want to say anything at the beginning and thus prejudice your investigation.’

‘That was very generous of you, sir,’ Brunetti said. ‘And very intelligent.’ He studied the facade of the church of San Lorenzo, partof which was visible beyond his superior’s shoulder.

‘It was unthinkable that anyone who loved music could have done such a thing.’ It was evident that Patta included himself among that number. ‘His wife says here . . .,’ he began, looking down at the report. Brunetti studied, this time, the small diamond tie tack in the form of a rose that Patta wore in his red tie. ‘. . . that he was “visibly disturbed.”‘ This reference convinced Brunetti that Patta had indeed read the report, an event of surpassing rarity. ‘Revolting as the behavior of those two women is,’ Patta continued, making a small moue of disgust at something that did not appear in the report, ‘it is unlikely that either of them would have the psychological profile of a murderer.’ Whatever that meant.

‘And the widow—impossible, even if she is a foreigner.’ Then, even though Brunetti had not asked for clarification of the remark, Patta gave it. ‘No woman who is a mother could have done something as cold-blooded as this. There’s an instinct in them that prevents such things.’ He smiled at the brilliance of his perception, and Brunetti, too, smiled, delighted to hear it.