“Following this train of thoughts, none of the suspects would have had the chance to get his or her hands on such a firearm,” Leonardo objected.
Averting his eyes from Leonardo, glancing at the door as if attracted by a noise coming from the corridor, Maurizio said, “I figure it out to be easier for a stripper to get to know people in such an environment where she could easily get a weapon, more so than Luciano.
I think the most suitable suspects at this point are Ms. Fazekas, and eventually her former husband. We need to trace his position, because something tells me, he might have a role in this. He might be the one who would have had the opportunity to get the weapon.”
In his mind, Maurizio placed everything in order, together with all the laboratory results obtained by the forensics on the car, the house, and the crime scene.
“The laboratory tests we performed on the suspects’ hands to find traces of gunpowder resulted all negative, but this, once again, doesn’t mean they are innocent, but they were wearing latex gloves… If only we could find the gun…” Maurizio pondered. “We have to deal with someone who has carefully followed all the Police procedurals movies.”
Leonardo grinned. “Something meant to entertain gave an advantage to those ill-intentioned.”
With a long exhale, Maurizio stood from the chair. “There are a lot of things we need to focus on. The most important part now is to answer the following questions: ‘Who is Madlen’s ex-husband and where was he on the day of the murder? Who is Luciano’s girlfriend, is she Madlen’s daughter or another Irina? Was she in Hungary the night of the murder? Can we find her and have a chat with her?’” He counted on his fingers as he started pacing in circles around the room.
“One place to start, is to ask permission to track and record all the telephone calls Madlen receives. We also need to obtain the past call logs, who called her and from where. This will place the daughter to a precise unmistakable location,” Leonardo pointed out.
As Maurizio returned to his room at the Police Precinct, he started immediately to search on the citizen’s register for any information about Madlen’s daughter. She was born in Italy, but I don’t know if her parents had been recognized with Italian citizenship. However, Madlen said that she has a double passport, therefore I can start checking that.
He should have gone to the chief commissioner’s office to have permission to track all the phone calls of Madlen and Luciano, but he knew it would have resulted in a massive waste of time. Chief commissioner Angelini was the kind of person who could have taken half an hour of chatter to make his point. Conciseness wasn’t certainly one of his best characteristics. With a grimace, squaring his shoulders, he opted for an email.
His mind returned to Irina. For all the times she returned to Italy, her passport, whether Italian or Hungarian, should have been recorded from the passport control. All of this caused his head to boil. She didn’t need any visa to cross two countries, as passport control between the EU isn’t necessary. However, the authorities can request a list of the passengers.
He stared at the screen of his computer for a long time, immersed in his considerations, when a call arrived.
“Scala,” he replied, without caring who was calling him.
“Good morning, Detective, this is Loredana DeSantis, from the Vitas Insurances.” A soft feminine voice announced. He recalled that was the company Mr. Calvani used for his life insurance.
“Well, good afternoon, Ms. DeSantis,” he replied. “How can I help you?”
“To be honest, I think I can help you this time. Yesterday we received a call from Ms. Fazekas, one of the beneficiaries of the life insurance stipulated by Mr. Calvani. We just had a meeting, and she left a couple of minutes ago, asking about the process to be followed to obtain the fund. By our rule, in this case, we need to have a statement from the Police about her non-involvement in the murder. Yet, she was quite anxious and willing to reach a compromise and get half of what she was entitled to.”
That can be an interesting detail, he thought.
“At the moment, we don’t have any concrete proof against Ms. Fazekas’ involvement in the murder. Nevertheless, it’s still too early to come to a conclusion.” He needed some time and had to wait until he could talk to her in the afternoon. “Since the case concerns a murder, I would ask you to wait before releasing the settlements, both to Mr. Calvani junior and to Ms. Fazekas,” he said, thinking about the changed situation. “Did he contact you?” He wondered, hoping to get a wider image of the situation.
“He called once to understand the procedure to receive the allotment, but he never tried to get his hands on it. He was well-informed about the fact that until the case is solved, we’re not willing to release anything,” her voice quite categorical.
“So why did you have a meeting with Ms. Fazekas?” He narrowed his eyes, wondering whether they were trying to get a good deal on that, losing the rules in favor of paying less than the established amount.
“She wanted to talk with one of our representatives and didn’t mention the reason why she wanted to meet. We don’t have any reason to deny
