Yet, those eyes kept watching every move, waiting for him to the bottom of the sea. His heart raced as his feet slowly touched the mainland. Gathering all his strength, he walked to the places where all the fishermen had their storages, with repairing gears, spare parts, and other supplies.
His eyes steady to the nothingness, immersed in his own thoughts and consideration. He hardly acknowledged what was happening around him. At that time of the night, there wasn’t anything particular going on anyway. Many fishermen had left; many others would have departed in the morning depending on the kind of fish they were after and their schedule. As for him, the best time to raise the anchor would have been between one or four o’clock in the morning and unwilling to wait for one of the crew to bring everything he required, he had no other choice but to take care of that detail personally.
“Sir!” a male voice abruptly interrupted his thoughts. He knew there weren’t other people at the dock, so, whoever was calling, it was certainly directed at him. His stomach churned at the sole idea of having to interact with someone else but the members of his crew.
His blood ran cold when he noticed two men approaching and one wearing a forensic police vest. He couldn’t tell for sure, but there were a few doubts about the reason for their presence there.
The turmoil in his mind slowly brewed into a storm and tightening the muscles of his whole body he forced a smile. “Yes,” he replied with a frown.
“We got a notice about a parked car around this dock. Maybe you can help us with some directions,” Maurizio commenced explaining the reason for their visit at that time of the night.
Aldo backed away from them as they approached. “I don’t know. I rarely leave my boat— that’s my house. Perhaps if you tell me the place where this car should be, I might be more helpful.”
His feet wanted desperately to run in the opposite direction and be as far as possible from the two policemen. He wouldn’t be able to hide his discomfort, and sooner or later, they would have understood the reason why.
“We only know that a white FIAT Punto has been parked in the same spot for about three weeks around the Roman Dock.” Maurizio didn’t want to ask about the location of the car. When he saw Aldo hesitating to climb down the boat and the way he stepped as if the floor was on fire, caught his attention. Something told him that man had to be questioned, whether generally or specifically.
Drawing a deep breath, Aldo scanned the dock area and shrugged. “There are many places where a car could have been left abandoned.” He turned himself toward the other side of the dock and pointed his finger in the direction of a building. “There’s a larger parking lot over there behind that building— you might want to check that first.”
Changing the direction of his finger, tracing the distance along the dock line, he continued. “Following the road, there’s a smaller one. Perhaps the car’s there. I can’t say, but those two places are where you might start.” His voice flickered.
“Is there anything wrong?” Leonardo wondered.
Aldo closed his eyes, swallowing his tears, “I’m tired... very tired, and my day has just begun, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to get some supplies for the night.” With those words, Aldo left, hoping not to be disturbed any longer.
The presence of the police never led to anything good; not at least for those ill-intentioned or those who have something to hide. Increasing his steps, he reached the storage without turning back to the two officers.
“Why did you have to ask him anything?” Leonardo wondered as they traced back their steps in the direction of the parking lot where the car was located.
“Because that man... I can’t explain it, but there’s something in the way he kept his gaze lowered as he walked. Something bothered him before he saw us, but got almost terrified, when I called him,” Maurizio replied, keeping an eye on the place where Aldo disappeared. “Then, the flicker in his voice when he claimed being tired. It was as if he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He might know something about the car or its owner.”
Leonardo shrugged. “We generally make people get restless, particularly when they meet us in the middle of the night.”
They reached the car and Leonardo started to take photographs of the location, and other traces he could add to the archive as they were waiting for the tow truck to arrive.
Wearing his latex gloves, Leonardo tried to open the door, wondering whether it had been left open—it wasn’t. Besides, the car was supposed to reach the Forensic Department, and from that moment on his team would have collected every sort of evidence to answer at least a couple of the most important questions: Who was driving the car? Was he alone? Were there traces of blood, which were cleaned up? Any other body fluids?
While they waited for the tow truck, Maurizio kept an eye on the place where Aldo went and waited to see him coming out. The parking place wasn’t the closest one, and the view to the dock was restricted. Nevertheless, if there would have been anything that attracted his attention further, he could have moved away.
The truck arrived at the same moment as Aldo got out of the storage. “Take care of this; I’m going to follow our friend,” he said without taking his eyes off
