“Thank you, Detective, my movements are no more as prompt as they used to be when I was a teenager. Those were the times!” she complained, observing Maurizio placing the tray carefully on the small table and helping her to sit on the armchair.
“Let me understand one thing, how do you know so many things about this potential girlfriend, when you haven’t ever seen her?” Maurizio wondered, fearing he would have regretted that question.
“Well, I might not have seen her, but when she was here, she didn’t sound like your typical friend, if you know what I mean. These walls contain some noises from one apartment to another, but not everything, and particularly loud voices can be heard distinctly, whether you want it or not,” she replied, sipping her coffee.
And certainly, there isn’t anything you don’t want to hear about the neighbors, he thought, amused. “I still don’t understand why this is something you consider important for the investigation. After all, Rome is a cosmopolitan metropolis, and a University student like Luciano gets in touch daily with people coming from every place in this world. Moreover, he’s a young man, and I can’t see anything strange in the fact that he has a girlfriend.”
He slowly reached the tray with the biscuits and grabbed one. He knew he wasn’t supposed to accept anything when he was on duty, but how can one refuse the hospitality of a kind elderly lady? It would have sounded impolite not to accept anything, besides, his stomach was already complaining because he hadn’t yet taken advantage.
“Detective, you seem to underestimate this detail, which is quite important. The fact that he has a girlfriend is irrelevant, but the fact that this girlfriend is a foreigner and probably coming from any of the States of the former Soviet Union, should ring a bell to you. If it doesn’t, maybe you’d better check to see whether this girl isn’t connected to Mr. Calvani’s girlfriend, the one who, in my opinion, killed him for his money,” she said, gracefully holding a cup in one hand and swinging a cookie in the other to underline her point.
Maurizio remained open-mouthed. Admittedly this could have been a possibility, that this girl had to do with the murder, if ever she was somehow connected with Madlen. He clenched his fist and placed it against his mouth, taking his time to ponder about it.
I haven’t asked Madlen about her family, and perhaps this could be one path to follow, but what kind of relationship did this girl have with Madlen? She was obviously the same age as Luciano.
“Are you considering this possibility?” She wondered excitedly.
Raising a finger in mid-air, he opened his mouth to say something, but remained to ponder before giving an answer to Berenice.
“Mr. Calvani’s girlfriend is much younger than him. What kind of relationship would these two women have in common with one another?” He wondered.
“How about being mother and daughter?” Berenice dared.
“We’re going too far, I guess. The age might not match...” Maurizio shook his head, but there was again the nagging little voice that kept whispering in the back of his head that Berenice might have seen long enough.
Well, this is a good point, but what in this world had any meaning if, and I repeat, IF, father and son were dating Madlen and her daughter? It would confirm that the world is small, but in terms of the investigation there isn’t any meaning in those, eventual, relationships.
He needed to be alone to ruminate on that detail, and perhaps he should also have a chat with Luciano to see whether he would hide the fact of having a girlfriend or he would openly reveal her identity.
Munching the last bit of the cookie, he grabbed his agenda and wrote down a note.
“So, to recap a bit the story,” Maurizio raised his glance to Berenice. “Mr. Calvani senior has a girlfriend, a foreign woman who works in a night club. You’ve never seen her, but you seem to know more about her than everyone else in the family. How so?”
“As I explained, I have my network of friends and the walls don’t retain all the noises. People around here talk about almost everything and the information is easily shared from one another,” she giggled, understanding she should be minding her own business.
“Sometimes the information shared can be affected by a certain amount of distortion; and if I can’t find a certain trusted source, I can’t decode the distortion it went through to get the actual facts,” Maurizio placed the agenda on his lap, getting more comfortable on the couch.
Berenice remained to think for a second, wondering whether she might have missed something, or could she counter his point of view. “So far, all my information was true, isn’t it?”
With a cringe, Maurizio had to admit she was right, there was indeed a girlfriend coming from the former Soviet Union, and indeed she was working as a stripper. “You’re right, but in my job, I need more evidence than rumors. I will go and investigate about Luciano’s girlfriend, but I don’t think this information holds any relevancy to the case.”
A sigh escaped Berenice, who glanced at Maurizio with a saddened expression. “I understand, and I don’t expect you to believe everything I’m going to tell you, but at least I wish that you’d consider everything I say as something that needs to be verified. Since I hear a lot of what happens in the neighboring apartments, you can consider me as a sort of ‘black box’.”
Maurizio’s features brightened up into a chuckle; although she had to be considered like a broken black box, the value of her information was still high. “Sorry, Madam, I didn’t mean to laugh at you, but I found it funny you being a
