Leonardo’s expression changed and turned serious in a matter of a second. That wasn’t the time indeed to nag at his old friend. “Interesting, and in this case, he might have a lot to explain, as the whole apartment is seized, and its access is restricted only to the forensics. I hope he knows what he’s doing, because he won’t leave the building with his own car; he’s coming with us for an interrogation.”
The rest of the journey went on in silence, with the Police radio as the only background to their thoughts.
Reaching the building in via Giuseppe Luigi Lagrange, they couldn’t recognize any vehicle belonging either to Luciano or to any of the suspects. Unless he parked in the underground garage? Well, we’ll find out soon.
The gate of the building was open and, as they reached the main door, it buzzed open. “The efficiency of Mrs. Moretti is surprising.” Leonardo chuckled, amused.
At the elevator, Maurizio hesitated for a moment. “You take the stairs in case he decides to leave using the other escape route.”
Without objecting, Leonardo started to climb the stairs; it wasn’t more than four floors that wouldn’t have caused much of any delay to the operation. And besides, he was in better physical shape than Maurizio.
They met again in front of the apartment, where Berenice was waiting for them.
“There hasn’t been any other noise coming from there, but I haven’t seen anyone coming out either,” she whispered as she saw them.
“Are you sure you heard correctly, and the noises came from this exact apartment?” Maurizio whispered back, trying to make sure they weren’t going to arrest a mouse or creaking furniture.
“Well, there isn’t any other way to find out, but to come inside,” Leonardo added, extracting a couple of sets of latex gloves from his pocket, and plastic protection for their shoes.
As they were ready, Maurizio tried to open the door, but finding it closed, he turned to Leonardo, hoping he had the keys to the apartment with him. “Were you looking for the keys?” he whispered.
The unavoidable clicks of the door lock echoed through the whole building, regardless of its metallic sound. Entering as silently as possible, Maurizio turned his eyes at Berenice, whose breath was almost at his neck.
“You can’t come in. This is an official Police operation. Stay here,” he whispered, fearing that he had to leave Leonardo there watching her, avoiding any intrusion. With a pout, she backed up a couple of steps without saying a word.
Of course, she knew she wasn’t allowed to enter the apartment, but the curiosity was too strong to resist the temptation of following the two officers in the apartment.
Maurizio remained to listen to any possible noise coming from any of the rooms, but it seemed as if whoever was there, if any, had left already. A silent home not necessarily meant an empty one, so, he started to move toward the corridor leading to the bedrooms as Leonardo remained close to the entrance, ready to block anyone who might have tried to leave the apartment. With a slow movement, keeping his eyes in the direction of the corridor where Maurizio disappeared, he closed the door behind him, careful not to make any noise.
It took a few minutes before Maurizio returned once again in the living room. “Nobody’s here,” he declared, slowly strolling toward Leonardo.
“So, this means we came for nothing?”
“I haven’t said this; I said presently there isn’t anyone in this apartment, but the window in the bedroom of Mr. Calvani junior was open. Do you remember leaving it open or is it possible to find out who forgot it so?” Maurizio’s heartbeat kicked up a few paces. He knew Leonardo and every member of his team. None of them would have made such a rookie mistake, but he needed to hear the confirmation of it from his mouth.
Shaking his head, with a grimace. “You know me, and you know my team. We would never keep any possible ways for contamination open.” Creasing his forehead, he grabbed his mobile phone, and called one of the officers who took care of the collection of the data.
Meantime, Maurizio returned to the room, hoping to find something that would have cast some light on the case. I have to admit it was pure luck to have Berenice to keep her eyes and ears open to this apartment. Without her call, we would have given back the keys of the apartment to Luciano, possibly losing some traces that might give us more data to analyze.
He reached the window and leaned out of it, trying to figure out a possible way from where an intruder could have come inside or left.
His attention was caught by the cornice. Hmm, it’s quite narrow, but not too much to impede a thief or a murderer to enter or to use as an escape route. I’m wondering where it might lead to.
Without thinking about it, he decided it was time to get into action like the good old days. The noise of footsteps approaching the room from the corridor stopped him momentarily from his purpose, and as Leonardo appeared from the door, he got a brilliant idea.
“I called my team. None of them recalled having left the window open. According to them, and also to my memory, we didn’t open it; it wasn’t necessary to the investigation as the murder happened in the garage,” Leonardo informed, placing the mobile phone back in the pocket of his trousers.
“Then, I guess we might search for every trace and see whether we can get more information about the visit of our intruder. However, now I’ll need your help as I intend to walk the cornice and see where it might lead. I don’t recall having seen it, but if there’s an
