Suffer the Little Children

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

DONNA LEON

Donna Leon has lived in Venice for many years and previously lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, where she worked as a teacher. Her previous novels featuring Commissario Brunetti have all been highly acclaimed and include Friends in High Places, which won the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Uniform Justice, Doctored Evidence, and Blood from a Stone.

Praise for SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

'Suffer the Little Children is Donna Leon at her best, deftly mixing Commissario Guido Brunetti's detective work with perceptive awareness of social issues’ The Times

'Leon tackles this difficult issue sensitively, without stinting on mouth-watering descriptions of Venice’ Daily Telegraph

'Summarizing Leon's plot, like telling the story of an opera, cannot do justice to the subtlety, drama and narrative skill that keep us turning the pages, wondering until the end how she will manage to tie up so many loose ends . . . [and]

Leon's fans who use Brunetti as an insider's guide to Venice will not be disappointed.' TLS

'As ever, Leon writes with an insider's knowledge of Venice, expertly navigating its complex geography’ Sunday Times

Wenn die Gotter tins bedenken, Unsrer Liebe Kinder schenken, So Hebe Heine Kinderlein!

How happy we will be

If the gods are gracious

And bless our love with children.

With darling little children!

Die Zauberflote The Magic Flute Mozart

I

'... and then my daughter-in-law told me that I should come in and tell you about it. I didn't want to, and my husband told me I was an idiot to get involved with you because it would only lead to trouble, and he's got enough trouble at the moment. He said it would be like the time when his uncle's neighbour tapped into the ENEL line and started to steal his electricity, and he called to report it, and when they came, they told him he had to .. ‘

'Excuse me, Signora, but could we go back to what happened last month?'

'Of course, of course, but if s just that it ended up costing him three hundred thousand lire’

'Signora’

'My daughter-in-law said if I didn't do it, she'd call you herself, and since I'm the one who saw it, it’s probably better that I come and tell you, isn't it?' 'Certainly’

'So when the radio said it was going to rain this morning, I put my umbrella and boots by the door, just in case, but then it didn't, did it?'

'No, it didn't, Signora. But you said you wanted to tell me about something unusual that happened in the apartment opposite you?'

'Yes, that girl’

'Which girl, Signora?'

'The young one, the pregnant one’

'How young do you think she was, Signora?'

'Oh, maybe seventeen, maybe older, but maybe younger. I have two boys, you know, so I could tell if she was a boy, but she was a girl’

'And you said she was pregnant, Signora?'

'Yes. And right at the end of it. In fact, that's why I told my daughter-in-law, and that's when she told me I had to come and tell you about it’

'That she was pregnant?'

That she had the baby’

'Where did she have the baby, Signora?'

'Right there, in the calle across from my place. Not out in the calle, you understand. In the apartment across the mile. Ifs a little way down from my place, opposite the house next door, really, but because the house sticks out a little bit, I can see into the windows, and that's where I saw her.'

'Where is this exactly, Signora?'

'Calle dei Stagneri. You know it. It's near San Bortolo, the calle that goes down to Campo de la Fava. I live down on the right side, and she was on the left, on the same side as that pizzeria, only we're both down at the end, near the bridge. The apartment used to belong to an old woman - I never knew her name - but then she died and her son inherited it, and he started to rent it out, you know, the way people do, by the week, to foreigners, or by the month.

'But when I saw the girl in there, and she was pregnant, I thought maybe he'd decided to rent it like a real apartment, you know, with a lease and all. And if she was pregnant, she'd be one of us and not a tourist, right? But I guess there's more money if you rent by the week, especially to foreigners. And then you don't have to pay the...

'Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose that isn't important, is it? As I was saying, she was pregnant, so I thought maybe they were a young couple, but then I realized I never saw a husband in there with her.'

'How long was she there, Signora?'

'Oh, no more than a week, maybe even less. But long enough for me to get to know her habits, sort of’

'And could you tell me what they were?'

'Her habits?'

'Yes.'

'Well, I never saw too much of her. Only when she walked past the window and went into the kitchen. Not that she ever cooked anything, at least not that I saw. But I don't know anything about the rest of the apartment, so I don't know what she did, really, while she was there. I suppose she was just waiting’ 'Waiting?'