'He thought she was having an affair.'
'Was she?'
'No.' Her answer left no doubt in Brunetti's mind. 'But he was a
jealous man, always. And violent. We all warned her not to marry him,
but she did.' After a long pause, she added,
'Love/ as though asked to name the disease that had destroyed her
sister.
'How long ago did this happen?'
'Eight years. Giuliano was ten.' The woman suddenly folded her arms
across her stomach, her hands grabbing at the opposite arms as though
seeking security there.
When it occurred to him, the idea so shocked him that he spoke before
he considered how painful the question would be for her. 'Where was
Giuliano?'
'No, he wasn't there she answered. 'At least he didn't do that to
him.'
Brunetti wanted to know the full extent of the damage to the other
woman, but he recognized this as the prurient curiosity it was, and so
he forbore to ask. The evidence in Luigina's behaviour and
asymmetrical face sufficed to indicate what was left: this woman's
vitality was enough to suggest what had been taken.
As they were walking across to the back of the house, Brunetti asked,
'Why did he leave the school?'
'He said .. .' she began but then stopped, and Brunetti sensed that
she was sorry not to be able to explain it to him. The think it would
be better if you asked Giuliano that.'
'Was he happy there?'
'No. Never.' Her answer was instant and fierce.
'Then why did he go, or why did he stay?'
She stopped and turned to face him, and he noticed that her eyes, which
had at first appeared dark, were in reality flecked with amber and
seemed to glow, even in the dim light of the hall.
'Do you know anything about the family?'
'No. Nothing/ he said, at once regretting that he had failed to ask
Signorina Elettra further to invade their privacy and ferret through
their secrets. All of this would then have been far less surprising,
and he would have known what information to try to get out of her.
Again, she crossed her arms in front of her and turned to |r face him.
'You didn't read about it, then?'
'No, not that I recall.' He wondered how he could have missed a case
like this: it must have been a three-day wonder for the press.
'It happened when they were in Sardegna, on the naval base there she
said, as though that would explain it. 'And my sister's father-in-law
managed to keep it quiet.'
'Who is he, her father-in-law?' Brunetti asked.
'Ammiraglio Giambattista Ruffo,' she said.
Brunetti recognized the name instantly: the man known as the 'King's
Admiral' for his avowedly monarchist sentiments and opinions. Brunetti
thought Ruffo was Genovese by birth, had a vague memory of having heard
people talk about him for decades. Ruffo had risen through the ranks
of the Navy on merit, keeping his ideas to himself, but once his senior
rank was confirmed and Brunetti thought this had been about fifteen
years ago he had ceased to disguise or equivocate about his belief that
the monarchy should be restored. The attempt on the part of the War
Ministry to silence Ruffo had given him a sort of overnight celebrity,
for he refused to retract any of his statements. The serious
newspapers, if, in fact, any can be said to exist in Italy, quickly
tired of the story, and it was relegated to those weekly magazines
whose covers devote attention week by week to various parts of the
female anatomy.
Given his celebrity, it was nothing short of miraculous that his son's
suicide could have been kept from turning into a media feeding frenzy,
but Brunetti had no memory of the case. 'How did he manage to silence
it?' Brunetti asked.
Tn Sardegna, at the naval base, he was in command,' she began.
'You mean the Admiral?' Brunetti interrupted to ask.
'Yes. Because it all happened there, the press could be kept out.'
'How was it reported?' Brunetti asked, knowing that, given these
conditions, almost anything was possible.
That he had died in an accident, and Luigina had been seriously injured
at the same time.'
