Coming outside the room felt like being immersed once again in the world, after endless confinement in solitude. With a grin, he peered around with the same expression of a man who returned to a place he hadn’t visited since his childhood.
“I was expecting you to arrive earlier,” Leonardo observed, seeing Maurizio appearing from the laboratory door.
“Something happened since I returned this morning. I could finally work without being disturbed. I’m not used to this, and a couple of hours were spent going through the preliminary data,” Maurizio explained, still failing to believe the sort of miracle that happened. “This means I have my list, and I’m going through the points on it. So, you found the telephone in Mr. Calvani’s pocket? When will I have the chance to go through it?”
“You won’t need that,” Leonardo grabbed a folder from the desk. “Here’s the call log and the preliminary results of the general analysis performed on its surface. For a more detailed one, or to have my permission to hold the mobile phone with your grubby hands, you’ll need a couple of days.”
Maurizio grimaced at him, and grabbed the folder, snapping it from Leonardo’s hands. “I guess this can be enough for the moment. Do we have any other details?”
“Not yet, the coroner is working to establish the time of death, trying to extract as much information as possible on the body of the victim. We’re working on the possible weapon, analyzing the shell we’ve found, and, on every trace, we can find on the car. I will send you the preliminary report this afternoon before leaving. I can’t go any faster. These things require time and patience if you want to have something that is even closely reliable.”
Maurizio lowered his gaze glancing at the folder he got. For every murder case he predicted the onslaught of a lot of headaches and sleepless nights. Story of my life…
Glancing back at Leonardo, he sighed. “There’s still much to do, so better to get started at least from something. I’m going to check those call-logs and try to find who the girlfriend is and have her interrogated.”
The girlfriend was probably the last person to see him alive, and her testimony could give information about the last hours of his life. The mysterious call was also of crucial importance because that was coming from the killer.
Maurizio sat down at his desk, hoping to still enjoy the blessings of being left alone for the rest of the day.
“So, let’s see what number called him last,” he muttered, opening the folder. He was surprised to see that whoever compiled the log, also cared to make a search of the most important numbers, and the last one was completely inconclusive as it belonged to a Russian prepaid sim card. He took note of that number and continued checking the log.
“This is a number I might call, Madlen Fazekas,” he said, getting on his feet. “Here, there’s also her address, so rather than give her a call, I might want first to see whether she’s home at the moment. I bet she’s the girlfriend.”
Grabbing his jacket, he paced out of the precinct, determined to reach her home, and perhaps also gathering some information about her from her neighbors. The apartment was located in a prestigious location. Maurizio remained open-mouthed as he parked the car outside the building. I’ve chosen the wrong profession. He walked to the entrance and searched on the video intercom her name.
“Hello,” a seductive female voice answered.
For a moment, he found himself surprised by her deep and warm tone; one he wasn’t expecting to answer the interphone.
“Good afternoon, this is detective Scala, am I speaking with Ms. Madlen Fazekas?” His voice was a bit shaky as he hesitated to ask, still caught off-guard by her tone. A short pause of silence fell between them as if she were expecting a call from the police or had too many reasons to be afraid.
“Y… yes, that’s me...” she finally answered in a lower tone of voice.
“Ms. Fazekas, would you, please, open the door? I need to have a chat with you about Mr. Claudio Calvani.”
A familiar buzz and the clicking of the lock of the main door informed him she agreed to meet him. “I live on the fifth floor,” she replied with an apprehensive shade on her voice. He walked inside the hall of the building and reached the elevator. He wasn’t sure whether it was normal for a stripper to be able to afford to live in such a building; he had no certain idea of the price to buy or to rent one apartment there, but he knew for sure it was out of his reach.
CHAPTER 3
As Scala reached the fifth floor, a woman was waiting for him at the door of her apartment. Her long dark hair was secured into a high ponytail. She didn’t wear any makeup but considering the smoothness of her skin and the shine of her hair, Maurizio didn’t notice that particular. For him, it was more than clear the reason why Mr. Calvani lost his mind and destroyed what he’d built with his wife to chase this alluring creature. Despite the elegant beauty of Mrs. Martini, there was a light in the back of Madlen’s eyes capable of enchanting and bringing a man to damnation. Particularly if the man in question was extremely sensitive to the female charm, like
