“None of your business, detective,” her voice resonated in a firm state. Yet, Maurizio felt a cold shiver crawling his spine, raising the hair on his neck.
“You were living with your father for a period, including the night of the murder. You knew he was going to kill Mr. Calvani. You could have called the police or warned your boyfriend. I believe he was devastated by the death of his father.”
Shaking her head, she furrowed the brows creasing her forehead. “Do you believe I haven’t thought about it? I was sure he wouldn’t come to the point of killing the man. I was sure that until I would have stayed with him, he might have not done something stupid that could have brought him to jail, ruining his life, together with the life of many others— me included.”
“So, what happened the night of the murder?” Maurizio wasn’t impressed. Of course, she could have at least warned Mr. Calvani. He would have been wise to hire a bodyguard. Unless it was her who killed the man, framed her father, and organized his murder, forcing Aldo and his crew to take part in the murder and concealing the corpse.
“I went to sleep, as usual, at ten in the evening. I wasn’t supposed to meet with Luciano, as the following day he needed to go to the University so we would have met in the afternoon. The morning after, my father was in his regular mood. He behaved like nothing had ever happened, so I couldn’t imagine he killed Mr. Calvani,” She replied, glancing around at her attorney, who gave a curt nod.
“Haven’t you heard anything? Like, for example, the door opening or closing. Something that woke you up.”
“No.”
The noise of someone knocking at the door startled the people present in the room. Maurizio glanced around, knowing it was the time to get Aldo and his crew in the room, to finally shed some light on the case.
“Yes, come in,” Maurizio answered.
An officer peeked from the door, and turning his face at his back, he let the guests come in one after the other. The five members of the Sea Rider entered the room, and silence fell like a heavy drape. Regardless of the fact that this meant the end of all the lies, Irina didn’t seem to be impressed by their presence.
With a loud click, the door closed behind the last member who entered the room, and none of them said a word. Everyone was holding his breath, waiting for something to happen.
“Ms. Leonova, do you know any of the people who entered the room?” Maurizio asked with a quiet tone of voice, trying to hide the turmoil and the racing heartbeat in his chest.
Irina didn’t reply, meaning that this was a question he had to ask the counterpart. Standing up from his chair, Maurizio approached the five men. “Do any of you, gentlemen, knows who this young lady is?”
They all nodded, “We know her. She is Irina Leonova. She used my boat on several occasions to enter and exit the Italian territory without passing through the border control.” Aldo’s voice resounded through the walls, loud and clear.
“Can you tell us your name?” Maurizio asked, glancing at Aldo.
“My name is Aldo Carrisi, and I’m the owner and captain of the Sea Rider,” his voice was broken as he tried not to look in Irina’s direction.
Opening the folder, where all the documentation about the case was, Scala took out a picture of Igor. He showed it around to all the people in the room, and finally to Aldo. “Do you know this man? Have you ever seen him?”
Aldo exhaled, “He is Igor Leonov, he was introduced to us as Ms. Leonova’s father. He is the man she asked us to murder. She made it clear to me that in case I refused to help, she would have killed us both, so it wasn’t the time for any brave choice to be made— it was him or both of us. I cowardly chose him, and I regret and regret more that decision every second of my life.”
Glancing at the same officer who brought the five men in, Maurizio said, “You can bring them back, I guess we have heard enough.”
As the crew left the room, Maurizio returned to sit at the table in front of Irina. Her head lowered, regretting not having killed them all.
“Ms. Leonova, do you have anything to say?” Maurizio spelled his words slowly, hoping she would have started finally to tell the truth.
There was a long pause of silence. Maurizio knew she was trying to fabricate another lie, he had experience with murderers; he knew they always had a good reason to justify their actions and the more the time that passed between his questions and her answers, the more he felt she was confirming his suspects, and she was the one who organized the murder of the two men. I can understand the reason why you killed your father; he would have been an uncomfortable obstacle to your theory by which he was the assassin. But why in this world would you want to kill Mr. Calvani, a man you hardly knew?
She shot him a serious glare. “My father was a horrible person; he ruined the life of my mother with his obsessive jealousy. He stalked her and threatened her, even after they divorced,” she commenced. “I could tolerate that, but how could I stand the fact that he killed the father of my boyfriend and the man with whom my mother finally found happiness?”
No, you don’t impress me, Maurizio thought. “Murdering a man, regardless of what he did is not allowed by the law. For this reason, you’re under arrest with the charges of first-degree murder, corpse concealment and
