but the dogs weren't doing anything. They probably saved my life,
those dogs.'
She stopped and looked directly at him, as if to ask if he had any
questions, and when he said nothing, she went on, 'One of them used his
handkerchief and made a tourniquet, and then they carried me to their
Jeep, which was just at the edge of the woods. And they took me to the
hospital. The doctors there are used to this kind of thing: hunters
are always shooting themselves or other hunters down there, it seems.'
She paused and then said softly, 'Poor things,' in a voice so filled
with real sympathy that he was struck by how vulgar and cheap his
conversation with Signorina Elettra sounded in comparison.
'Did they ask you at the hospital how it happened, Signora?'
The men who found me told them what had happened, so
all I did, when I came out from surgery, was confirm what they'd
said.'
That it was an accident?' he asked.
'Yes.' She said the word with no special tone.
'Do you think it was?' he asked.
Again, there was a long delay before she spoke. 'At the time, I didn't
think it could have been anything else. But since then I've started to
wonder why whoever it was that shot me didn't come to see what they'd
done. If they thought I was some sort of an animal, they would have
come to check that they'd killed me, wouldn't they?'
That was what had troubled Brunetti ever since he'd first heard the
story.
'And when they heard the dogs and then the other hunters, they would
have come to see what all that was about, if they thought someone else
was going to take the animal they'd killed.' She let some time pass
and then said, 'As I said, I didn't think about any of this at the
time.'
'And what do you think now?'
She started to speak, stopped herself, and then said, 'I don't mean to
be melodramatic, but I have other things to think about now.'
So did Brunetti. He was wondering if a police report had been filed of
the incident, if the two hunters who found her had noticed anyone in
the area.
Brunetti could no longer keep her from her cigarettes, so he said, 'I
have only one more question, Signora.'
She didn't wait for him to ask it. 'No, Ernesto didn't kill himself.
I'm his mother, and I know that to be true. That's another reason why
I think it wasn't an accident.' She prised herself from her chair,
said, 'If that was your last question ...' and started towards the
door of the room. Her limp was slight, the merest favouring of her
right leg when she walked, and as she wore slacks, he had no idea of
the damage that had been done to her leg.
He let her lead him to the door of the apartment. He thanked her but
didn't offer his hand. Outside, it had grown marginally warmer, and as
it was already after noon, Brunetti decided to go directly home for
lunch with his family.
Brunetti arrived before the children did, so he opted to keep Paola
company while she finished preparing the meal. As she set the table,
he lifted pot lids and opened the oven, comforted to find nothing but
familiar dishes: lentil soup, chicken smothered in red cabbage, and
what looked like radicchio di Treviso.
'Are you bringing all of your detective skills to bear in examining
that chicken?' Paola asked as she set glasses on the table.
'No, not really,' he said, closing the oven and standing upright. 'My
investigation has to do with the radicchio, Signora, and whether there
are perhaps traces in it of the same pancetta I detected in the lentil
soup.'
'A nose as good as that,' she said, coming over and placing the tip of
her finger on it, 'could effectively put an end to crime in this city.'
She lifted the lid from the soup and stirred it round a bit, then said,
'You're back early.'
'I was over near San Marco and so it didn't make any sense to go back,'
he said, taking a sip of mineral water. 'I went to
see Signora Moro/ he began, pausing to see if Paola would react. She
did not, so he went on, 'I wanted to talk to her about the hunting
accident
'And?' Paola prodded.
'Someone shot at her from the woods near her friends' house, but then
some other hunters came along and took her to the hospital.'
'Are you sure they were other hunters?' Paola asked, giving evidence
that her native scepticism had been enhanced by more than two decades
