Closing his eyes as he nodded, Maurizio relaxed into a smile. “Mr. Calvani, I completely understand your position, and I can assure you we will do everything in our power to find the killer and make sure the culprit will pay for this crime.”
With those words, Maurizio stood up to return to the department. Although he was sure that most of his collaborators had returned home, he needed to prepare the list of tasks and send emails to everybody to prioritize them.
Leonardo followed his example but remained silent. He was still trying to digest the details they received and started to formulate once again the crime scene, which began to get populated by people belonging to the international criminality.
“For the moment we have all the information we were looking for. We will let you know whether we will need to have another chat with you. Meantime, I hope you will call us whenever there is anything that comes to your mind that could help us to bring more pieces to this puzzle.” Maurizio concluded, shaking Luciano’s hand.
“I will try to recall every detail, even if it doesn’t seem to have any importance, I will inform you about it. I guess I’ve learned my lesson today,” Luciano said with a shy smile brightening his still wet eyes.
As they were ready to leave, the door opened, and Giulia returned. “That’s what I call perfect timing, Madam,” Maurizio chuckled. “We’re sorry we’ve entertained ourselves a bit too long. I hope you’ll excuse us.”
Giulia smiled broadly, “Detective, there isn’t any reason to apologize. Although, things haven’t worked out with Claudio, I hope you will find who is responsible for this despicable act. I would never have wished him dead.”
“I know,” Maurizio whined. “Not everybody is ready to walk away from an offense the way you did. Some people take revenge to the extreme, but we will find out who did it, be reassured. In the meantime, I wish you a pleasant evening,” he added with a slight bow, as he grabbed his jacket.
***
“What do you think?” Leonardo asked as they were back in the car.
“I think we absolutely need to find out more about this girl and also about her entire family,” he replied. “The father is a figure that intrigues me. I need to know whether he kept regularly paying for the child support, what job he’s doing, where he lives, and whether he could be the one who killed Mr. Calvani out of jealousy as his ex-wife started a relationship with him. According to the book, a jealous and oppressive husband, can turn into a stalker and murderer, if the wife walks away from his life,” Maurizio started to count the cases on his fingers.
Leonardo kept driving, maintaining his eyes on the road. “I think we should keep an eye on the boy. There was something in the way he twisted his fingers that told me more than a wish to hide his relationship from his mother. He knew we would have kept every single word he spoke to us confidential.”
Maurizio’s mind started to formulate his own hypotheses, when his glance met the clock glaring 07:00 pm with a huff, knowing he would have stayed at the office for a few hours, he sent a message to Anna.
The reassuring tone of the answer he received back, gave him some peace of mind; he would have not been forced to sleep on the couch. A grin appeared on his face, as he realized another issue— he would have skipped dinner.
CHAPTER 14
Alone in his room, Luciano’s hands still trembled, and his heart found no release from the pounding that had begun during the chat he had with the two officers. He needed to talk to Irina, wondering whether the Police were tracking every call he was making. Shaking his head, he grinned. If they got suspicious after this chat, it would still take time before they can arrange any tracking. I need to act fast.
Grabbing his telephone, casting away every hesitation, he called her number, hoping she’d answer right away.
“Hello?” her voice, at a whisper.
“Hi, can you talk?” He also tried to keep the tone of his voice lower, to avoid being heard by his mother.
She turned her eyes, spotting Igor’s figure in the living room, she narrowed her eyes, and tiptoed to her room, where she could reach the balcony, hoping for some privacy from her father. “I can talk now, but I don’t have much time. After the initial delay, due to some coordination problems between Alec and Aldo’s team, we might be ready to leave next week. Do you have any news?”
“Police came to ask a few questions. I have no idea how they figured it out, but they were aware of our relationship right from the beginning, and they knew you’re Madlen’s daughter. I seriously doubt they are suspecting you of any involvement, but we need to be very careful from this moment on. This should be our last call.” Adrenaline rushed in his blood, the last thing he wanted was to be accused of murder and having his life ruined. “The Police need a suspect, and we need to fabricate one,” he added as he waited for Irina to react.
A few interminable seconds passed without an answer from her. She needed to understand at which point they were, and which were the possibilities open
