Sicilian Murder

by Alec Peche

  “Perhaps.”

  Angela wasn't sure what to make of that answer. Was that a 'yes' or a 'no'. She decided not to push for an answer immediately as it might be a 'no', and searched for the next question to ask.

  “How often are hikers injured or killed on Mount Etna?” Jill asked.

  Maybe if they tag teamed the two officers, they would get more answers thought Angela.

  Rosso and Cavallaro looked at each other murmuring in Italian and Rosso responded to Jill, “Neither of us remembers another death on Mount Etna, although we're sure there have been deaths and injuries when the ski lifts are operating. Also, when the volcano is active and explodes, tourists have been injured by lava exploding when it meets up with snow.”

  Angela shuddered at the thought of being burned by flying lava rocks and trying to move down a rocky slope away from the lava.

  “Have you no warning of when the volcano is going to explode? Or are people trying to capture that on film once it has exploded?”

  “Both Signorina Weber. Sometimes it's more important to capture a photograph, than to stay safe, no?”

  Jill thought the Italians sure had a laid back attitude to investigating deaths at a ski resort. That would have made news in the United States, generated lawsuits, and safety inspectors would be called in to make sure other skiers were not injured or killed.

  “Was there snow on the crater when your officers arrived?” Jill asked.

  “No it had melted by then. As I said, this is the way with early snow. It covers the ground for less than an hour,” Cavallaro said.

  “So everyone's assumption was he either tripped and fell down the crater or he had a heart attack, yes?” Jill said.

  “Yes,” came the reply from the front seat.

  “Did anyone take his temperature?” Jill asked. “Perhaps the ambulance attendants?”

  “I don't know,” Rosso said. “Why?”

  “Randy Chen was last seen at seven in the morning according to his family, if his body was found at one in the afternoon, a core body temperature could be used to calculate his time of death. I'm also wondering if he was killed elsewhere and dumped on the crater, something I could also use the temperature for if I knew it.”

  There was conversation in the front seat in Italian, then Rosso began texting someone.

  “We will check,” he replied.

  In the back seat, Angela and Jill felt like they were behaving like teenagers when she would text to Jill what was said. The two officers had a discussion about whether the case really was a murder, but Angela wasn't fluent in enough Italian to follow the entire conversation. Her conclusion was the front seat occupants thought Jill had some valid points that this death was suspicious.

  “I've also requested the phone records of Mr. Chen from his family, but that may take some time to get. I thought I might be able to follow his movement on the day of his death or better still, the days leading up to his death,” Jill offered.

  Again the two officers nodded but didn't say anything. Jill decided they were reserving comment until they were more convinced that this was a murder investigation. Jill and Angela decided to just admire the views out the window of the police car.

  They passed through small charming towns slowly heading uphill toward the top of Mount Etna. Some trees had changing leaf colors, and there was a lot of rock walls serving as fences. Eventually they climbed out of the small towns and into the start of the volcano. It was marked by copious amounts of large chunky lava rock in a dark charcoal color, and eventually a rather barren landscape. They pulled up at the base of the ski lift which was being used to ferry passengers up the mountain for hiking. There were a few patches of snow, after all Mount Etna was at nearly 11,000 feet. There was what Jill would call a snowcat parked at the end of the parking lot and Cavallaro headed over to talk to the driver as Rosso waited for Angela and Jill to exit the car carrying jackets. Jill was wearing sturdy hiking boots, while Angela had regular athletic shoes on as that was all she had packed for her trip to Italy which was only supposed to cover wedding activities. Of the two of them, Angela was much more sure-footed than Jill, and she thought they would both be okay. Jill had checked the weather on Mount Etna before she left and had packed layers for a possible trip up the mountain. As Angela was six inches taller, she had Nathan bring a jacket to keep Angela warm in case they ended up investigating Randy's death in a snow-covered landscape.

  They walked over to the vehicle, which had a high suspension and massive tires. It reminded Jill of the monster truck from her previous case in Louisiana. Fortunately, there were stairs to reach the cabin. She asked the driver before she entered, “Do passengers get car sick on this road?”

  Apparently the driver didn't speak English as there was a quick conversation between the two officers and the driver before Rosso said, “Some passengers have felt sick as the truck climbs over some rough terrain.”

  “Then, can I sit in the front seat? I do better with nausea if I sit there,” asked Jill.

  More conversation in Italian and then the driver escorted Jill to the front seat. Jill had read-up on the mountain and her understanding was that this vehicle would take her to a point, then they would have to hike the last bit. Based on pictures posted on the internet, it didn't look like a far walk, only one at a higher altitude than she was used to. How hard would it be to hike carrying the dead weight of a murdered man?

  “Can anyone drive an off-road vehicle up this mountain or will park rangers or the polizia stop such a thing?”

  “Cosa?”

  Jill assumed that was the Italian word for 'what?'

  “I was wondering if Mr. Chen was killed elsewhere and moved to the crater to make it look like an accident, how would you get a body up there? It would seem that you would need a car like the one we're riding in. So where would our killer get such a ride?”

  “Before you think of ways to get a body up the mountain, shouldn't you have proof that Mr. Chen was murdered?” Cavallaro said.

  “Unless we find something unusual on this mountain, I believe Mr. Chen was murdered,” replied Jill. “That indentation of his skull is not the usual traumatic blow you see in a fall. His head should have had skull fractures throughout if he had taken a tumble. His, did not.”

  “Maybe you are trying to earn your consultant's fee,” muttered Rosso.

  “And maybe the two of you should have my expertise by having performed over one-thousand autopsies for crime labs. How many have you even watched? One, I believe you said? You have no expertise in this area,” Jill said losing her temper.

  There was dead silence in the van other than a little Italian muttering coming from the back. They hit rough patches in the mountain and Jill was suddenly focused on holding on to her stomach contents. With single-minded focus, she looked through the windshield at the top of the road keeping a straight horizon in her view. She was relieved when they came to a stop at the base of a slope that Jill presumed belonged to the southeast crater of Mount Etna. She was thrilled to step onto firm ground while her stomach settled. She zipped up her jacket and reached in for her backpack.

  Once they all met at the front of the vehicle, Jill pointed and asked, “Is that the crater where Mr. Chen was found?”

  Cavallaro opened a file she was holding and said, “Yes.”

  Jill proceeded up the hill knowing Angela would follow her and not really caring whether her two police representatives did. She hadn't been aware until their conversation in the vehicle that they were not treating Mr. Chen's death as a potential murder. Note to self, if she ever wanted to murder someone, do it in Italy given their investigative skills.

  The slope consisted of charcoal gray sandy dirt scattered with clusters of lava rock. Jill imagined that this was what the surface of the moon looked like although Sicily looked much more alive than any picture of the moon. They were nearing the top when she felt the ground move beneath her.

  “Earthquake! If I were at home, I would tune in to the internet to
find the magnitude. That felt like a 3.0 to 3.2!” Jill said to Angela.

  “Let's hurry up and get off this crater! Aren't earthquakes a precursor to volcanoes blowing up?”

  “Yes and no,” Jill explained as she continued to the top. “The latest I read on the topic goes like this – Imagine that you're driving a truck and the bed is filled with say heavy jello and you brake. The jello will roll within the truck bed. With earthquakes, if the earth's plates move, it sloshes around the hot lava beneath us and that may cause a build-up of pressure that blows the volcano.”

  “I get your explanation and so shouldn't we leave? Now!”

  “No. First we don't know where the epicenter of the quake was – maybe it wasn't underneath us and Mount Etna averages ten quakes a day, most too small a magnitude for us to feel. So an earthquake isn't necessarily a reason to run,” Jill said with a smile as she continued her journey up.

  “Yes, but what if you fall into the crater because you're shaken off your feet? And what about Pompeii. Didn't they all die shortly after a big quake?”

  “I'm not worried and I'm far more likely to do myself damage by tripping. As for Pompeii, they had a big quake months before the volcano blew and their people were buried in ash. I think our monster truck can get us off the mountain before we're covered in ash.”

  They reached the top of the crater and looked down. Jill's immediate thought was Mr. Chen couldn't have died here in a fall. Then she questioned herself, was she being objective or was she so mad with Rosso's comment that she was jumping to conclusions. She thought back to the picture she'd seen of Mr. Chen and began searching for rocks that might have done the damage to his skull that she saw on the x-ray film.

  All she saw was rocks that could have done the damage. There were hundreds of rocks of the approximate size that could have dented Mr. Chen’s skull.

  She looked back at Rosso and Cavallaro and asked, “May I see the photo of Mr. Chen again?”

  Without a word, Cavallaro held out the photo. Angela took a picture of it between taking pictures of the crater. Jill studied the picture and then the crater going back and forth repeatedly. She moved to an area that she thought Mr. Chen was found and looked for other marks on the slope that she might be right. From the report from the two officers, there should be a sliding mark where his body slid and then a lot of footprints as people attended him. She took her hydrogen peroxide out of her backpack prepared to drop it on the rocks close to where Randy had been found.

  “Scusami?” Rocco asked looking at Jill’s bottle.

  “I’m looking for the rock that Mr. Chen banged his head on. By pouring peroxide on these rocks, I’m looking for them to bubble up brown as evidence of iron in the hemoglobin in the blood. That doesn't begin to tell me if the blood is human or animal or indeed Mr. Chen's, but if none of the rocks bubble, then how did he get the dent in his skull?”

  Jill studied the slope which wasn't as steep as she feared and she had good traction from her hiking boots. She gingerly stepped down the slope sprinkling the various rocks with her peroxide. The only rocks that bubbled were too small to cause the damage Jill saw in Mr. Chen's skull. Still Angela took a bunch of photos and Jill collected the rocks that bubbled with iron. Mr. Chen had bled from the back of his skull and so she could check to see if the blood on the rock matched her victim's. That really didn't tell her anything new, but it might be useful later.

  She stood on the slope and looked up at Tenete Rocco and Vice Questore Cavallaro and asked, “Do you officers see a rock that made the dent in Mr. Chen's head? Have I missed something?”

  “What size rock are you looking for?” asked Cavallaro.

  “It needs to be at least fifteen centimeters.”

  The two officers looked around and then Jill felt the ground shifting underneath her again as another earthquake hit the area. Before she knew it, she was sliding down the crater, and when she came to a halt, she was now one-hundred feet below the rim of the crater. Her hands were scratched and she was dusty, but otherwise, the no worse for wear. She stood up and waved to Angela and the two officers signaling that she was fine. She studied the slope and decided if she moved about fifteen feet to the right, the pitch of the slope would be less and so she thought she had a better chance of climbing out of the crater. She set out on the climb and was soon short of breath given the altitude of nearly ten-thousand feet, but she really wanted off the mountain before another earthquake hit.

  Upon reaching the top and short of breath, she said between gasps, “Let's get out of here! I'm done.”

  “Are you hurt?” Angela asked.

  “My hands took a beating,” Jill said holding out her scratched and bleeding hands. “I think that the last earthquake proved a point. I believe Mr. Chen was dead when his body was disposed of in the crater. Why else would his hands lack scratches like these from the lava rock,” Jill said holding out her hands. “I know from his autopsy that he didn't have a heart attack or stroke. He had no history of diabetes. I have no medical reason for him to black-out so quickly that he didn't have time to put his hands out before he fell to the ground. I think he was placed in the crater in the position he was found.”

  Jill said these last words looking at Rosso and Cavallaro who had said nothing to this point.

  Finally Cavallaro spoke up and said, “You have some very good points Dr. Quint. I think we must contact our prosecutor and open this case as a potential murder investigation. I will need you, your autopsy results, and any test results you get back to be made available to our prosecutor. I will try to arrange an interview immediately. When are you planning to leave Sicily to return home?”

  “I would guess I will be here for at least a week. The family has engaged me to investigate Mr. Chen's death and to proceed with an investigation of my own if I find he died under suspicious circumstances. The results of the autopsy yesterday and my inspection of the site today have caused me to conclude that our victim has died under very suspicious conditions.”

  Within the hour, Jill and Angela had returned to their apartment in Catania just as Marie and her sister were arriving by taxi. Cavallaro and Rocco had driven away with Jill's contact information and the admonishment to stay available for their prosecutor.

  Chapter 6

  Jill had met Brenda before, but it had been several years. She held out her hand and said, “Sorry for your loss. I'm fairly convinced and I've almost convinced the Italian police that Mr. Chen was murdered.”

  Brenda knew from what Marie had said that this was the likely conclusion that Jill was heading toward, but the words soon had tears pouring out of her eyes, “That's so sad. He was so full of life and good ideas and he was loved by his family.”

  Brenda found herself in a group hug by everyone. Angela dug out a tissue and when she had a moment of composure she asked, “Have you notified Melissa?”

  “No. Do you know if she has internet access? I'm not sure where she is at the moment.”

  Brenda finished wiping her tears, looked at her watch and thought about what Melissa said was her schedule.

  “She's en route to Rome or she may have landed there. She has a long journey home with Randy's remains. The fastest route included connections in Rome, then Atlanta, and then home to Green Bay.”

  “Okay, thanks. I'm going to go upstairs and make the call to her cell phone from the apartment and see if I can reach her. It sounds like if she isn't available now, she will be in a few moments.”

  The apartment building had a small elevator, so Jill and Angela took the stairs while Marie and Brenda and her luggage followed in the elevator with all of them arriving at the same time. Marie was showing Brenda into the room they would share, while Jill went into her bedroom to make the call. Nathan had left a note that he was out at a cafe for breakfast and to call him if she needed him.

  Jill took a moment to write a few notes down of what she wanted to convey to Melissa Chen, then she dialed her cell phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi
Ms. Chen, this is Dr. Jill Quint and I wanted to provide you an update. Is this a good time?”

  “Yes, I just exited one plane and my next is set to board in ninety minutes. What have you found?”

  “I'm afraid that I'm reaching the conclusion that your father did not die of natural causes. I don't have a confirmation on that yet, but I expect I will by this time tomorrow.”

  “Oh, God.”

  Jill waited a few seconds trying to judge what was happening on the other end of the line. Had Melissa fainted, or did she want to say more?

  “Ms. Chen?”

  “Yes, I'm here,” said a shaky voice.

  Jill hated giving this kind of news over the phone, but she had no choice. Melissa needed to escort her father's remains home and plan a funeral. Jill gave her the details of what they had seen at the crater that morning, the earthquakes, and the entry of the Italian police into the case.

  “I don't have your father's toxicology results back yet. I had them flown to a Swiss Lab known for its accuracy. It will take longer, but I'll feel more confident with the results.”

  “Okay,” was all Melissa Chen said.

  “At this point, you could save your family money and end my services and let the Italian Police take-over.”

  “Are you kidding? Let them take over the investigation? I have no faith that they will get it correct,” Jill heard the strength return to Melissa's voice with these comments. “Use your PI license and find my father's killer!”

  “Alright then, I always want to check in with the family to see if they still want me on the case as it will save you money.”

  “Spend whatever you need to find my father's killer and I mean that. If he were here, that's what he would say.”

  “Okay. I should have an update for you once you arrive in Atlanta that I'll provide by email. Call me anytime. I know the Italian police will ask for this and I would like it first, but could you mail me your father's cellphone from the airport now with his password if you have it?”

  Jill knew the cellphone had been with Mr. Chen at the time of his death as she had asked Melissa what personal effects the police had turned over to her.