“Obviously, father and son, are more attracted by the exotic beauties,” Berenice sneered.
He pretended he didn’t hear her comment, which was much probably supposed to be a loud thought. “Do you happen to know anything about his employees at work? Did you ever hear Mr. Calvani complain about the behavior of any of them?”
He did have a chat with the people he shared his working life with, but nothing conclusive came from them. Their relationship was quite relaxed, and nothing could have brought him to suspect that any of them had a reason to get rid of Claudio.
Everything turns around to this Madlen, but I am wondering whether she’s just someone easy to set up. Certainly, with the death of Claudio she won a lottery, 30 million Euros in fact, many people would be ready to kill for such a sum.
Still chewing the details in his brain, the case seemed far too easy to solve, and by experience when the solution seemed too evident, there were some discarded details, which would have required a closer examination.
Almost absentmindedly, he stood from the couch and strolled to the window to catch a glimpse of the road, as if there was some sort of detail that could be found there.
Indeed, it wasn’t a detail to be grabbed from the view out of the window, but he needed to take his eyes off the inquisitive stare of Berenice.
She remained on the armchair, observing every move Maurizio made. She knew she gave him a lot to think about. My only hope is that, besides giving him some hints about the life and times of my neighbor, I could also give him a wider view of the players in the game.
Inhaling deeply and closing his eyes, Maurizio turned toward Berenice, who was patiently waiting for him. “I believe I need to think about those details, if this was all you had to say, I would return to my office, and have them checked out with the forensic team, who’s working in the apartment.”
With a light groan, Berenice stood up from the armchair and offered him a smile. “Of course, Commissario. This was all, and if I happen to recall anything else, I will contact you.”
“Thank you very much for your cooperation, but next time, don’t call me on my personal number. If there’s anything you need to tell me, use the number I gave you before. If I don’t answer, leave a message on the answering machine. I’ll get back to you whenever possible,” he stated.
With a pout, she didn’t like to be placed on hold, “I understand, but please, if I leave you a message, don’t wait one week to call me back!”
“I promise you; I will treat your calls as a priority,” he promised as he started to walk toward the door. “Thank you for your hospitality and your information. I hope I will find a solution to this mystery.”
“You’re welcome. Have a nice day,” she greeted as he stepped out of the apartment.
“The same to you.” With a smile, he walked to the apartment, where the forensic team was ready to leave.
“How is everything going?” Maurizio asked as he spotted Leonardo.
“We are done here, all the important documents and data have been collected, and from this moment on, we can focus on analyzing, classifying, and start to reach some conclusions about the case. Of course, this doesn’t mean we’ll get the solution right away...”
Maurizio inspected around the room where Claudio probably used to work from. Yet, he was sure most of the information was to be gathered from his personal life, following a hurt son, who desperately wanted to gather the attention of his father, to the woman who stole him from the apparently happy, family life he had.
Almost whispering and glancing around to make sure nobody was in earshot he said, “Yesterday I attended the reading of Mr. Calvani’s wills. Apparently, everyone won the lottery, as the son and the girlfriend found themselves richer of thirty million each...”
“WHAT?” Leonardo raised his voice, interrupting what Maurizio was going to say.
Grabbing him by the arm, Maurizio guided Leonardo to a farther corner of the room, “Shh for the Lord’s sake! In this apartment all the walls have ears. That’s why I was keeping a lower tone.”
“Well, it’s a good reason to eliminate someone. In this case, the list of suspects shrinks at two, most probable the son, girlfriend, and none of them has a valid alibi for the night of the murder. The son was sleeping here, so he could be the first one to be considered. The second one, is the girlfriend, who could have lived like a queen forgetting to pretend to love him,” Leonardo whispered back.
Those words sounded like the judgment bells and as if he had an enlightening, Maurizio ran toward the door, wanting to immediately ask Berenice something.
***
As he reached the door of Berenice’s apartment, he hesitated for a moment to gather his composure back, and then he rang the bell.
“Detective Scala, what a surprise to see you so soon,” Berenice giggled. “Please, come in.”
“I only have one quick question,” he asked, entering the apartment. “Do you remember if by any chance Luciano left the apartment that night after his father left for the first time?”
“Absolutely not,” she replied certainly. “He listened to music and then switched on the TV until midnight. Then he went to sleep, or at least I think so because I didn’t hear anything.”
“Could it be he left the apartment, and you didn’t hear him leaving? Perhaps he had been very careful by closing the door without making any noise,” Maurizio started to be excited about the
