choose to name, that I will never repeat what you tell me, will forget
it the instant you tell me, will not allow Lieutenant Scarpa, no matter
what means he employs, ever, to wrest it from me.'
She considered this. 'What if he makes horrible threats?'
'Like what, invites me for a drink?'
'Worse. Dinner.'
The shall be strong.'
She capitulated. There's a way to access military personnel files. All
you need is the code and then the service number of any member.'
Because she was volunteering this, Brunetti did not ask how she got the
code or the numbers. 'Parliament is too easy,' she said with contempt.
'A child could get in.' He assumed she was talking about the computer
files, not the building.
'And the lists from the schools?' he asked.
She gave him a long, speculative look, and he nodded, renewing his vow
of silence. She said, Tucetti stole them when he was there and gave
them to me in case they might be useful.'
'Have you had time to study them?'
'A little. Some names occur on more than one list.'
'For example?'
She pulled a sheet of paper from the first pile and pointed to two
names that she had already highlighted in yellow. 'Maggiore Marcello
Filippi and Colonello Giovanni Toscano.'
Tell me he said. 'It's faster.'
'The Maggiore was in the Army for twenty-seven years and retired three
years ago. For the six years immediately before his retirement, he was
in charge of the procurement office for the Paratroopers. His son is a
third-year student at the Academy.' She pointed to the second name.
'The Colonello served as military adviser to the parliamentary
committee on which Moro served. He now teaches at the Academy. He was
in Paris, attending a seminar, during the week the boy died.'
'Isn't that something of a fall from grace, to go from a job in
Parliament to teaching at a military academy in the provinces?'
The Colonello retired after twenty-two years of military service under
something of a cloud,' Signorina Elettra said. 'Or at least,' she
immediately corrected herself, 'that's the sense I get from reading the
internal files.'
Internal files, Brunetti repeated to himself. Where would she stop?
'What do they say?'
That certain members of the committee registered less than total
satisfaction with the Colonello's performance. One of them even went
so far as to suggest that the Colonello was not at all impartial in the
advice he provided the committee.'
'Moro?'
'Yes.'
'Ah.'
'Indeed.'
'Less than impartial in what way?' Brunetti asked.
'It didn't say, though there's not far to look, is there?'
'No, I suppose not.' If the Colonello were partial in a way which the
committee did not like, it would have to be in favour of the firms
which supplied the military, and the men who owned them. Brunetti's
atavistic cynicism suggested here that it might just as easily mean
that Toscano was in the pay of companies different from those making
payments to the parliamentarians on the committee. The marvel here was
not that he was partial why else seek a position like this but that he
should have been .. . Brunetti stopped himself from saying the word
'caught', even in his mind. It was remarkable that he should have been
forced to retire, for Brunetti could not imagine that a man in this
position would go quietly. How obvious or excessive must his
partiality have been if it had led to his retirement?
'Is he Venetian, the Colonello?' he asked.
'No, but his wife is.'
'When did they come here?'
'Two years ago. Upon his retirement
'Do you have any idea of how much he earns as a teacher at the
Academy?'
Signorina Elettra pointed to the paper again. 'All of their salaries
are listed to the right of their names.'
