Broken Chord

by Margaret Moore

“No, I wasn’t and I was only too pleased when they had a row. It’s not a secret.”

  “So you were quite sure the marriage was off.”

  “I wasn’t sure about anything.”

  “Did you know that Signora von Bachmann phoned Guido at one that night?”

  “At one? You’re sure about that?”

  “Yes, why? You sound relieved.”

  “You’re right, I am. I’ve got something to tell you that I should have told you earlier but, well, for reasons of my own, I decided not to. The fact is, I saw Lapo leaving the house at one. He was carrying a plastic bag. I’m afraid I thought he’d killed his mother and that the bag contained his blood-stained clothes, but if you say she was still alive at one then there was no way he could have killed her. It was literally just one minute after one when I saw him. I’d just heard the village church clock strike.”

  “I can’t believe this. If you thought Lapo was a murderer, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

  “I don’t know. Misplaced loyalty, I suppose, and then when Lapo was killed I thought he couldn’t be the murderer so it seemed irrelevant.”

  “But you still had a niggling doubt.”

  “Yes, but then I kept thinking, well, he couldn’t have been the murderer if he was killed too. It didn’t add up.”

  “So you kept quiet.”

  “Yes.”

  “It didn’t occur to you that we should’ve had this piece of information from which we could have drawn our own conclusions? Perhaps we’d have arrested Lapo and he would still be alive,” said Drago gently.

  “Don’t you think I haven’t thought about that? I feel terrible. The thing is, I knew he was capable of killing his mother. He was very cruel and when Marta told me that Madam’s body had been hacked about, I thought he must have done it. But if she was still alive at one then he can’t have done it.”

  “So you feel relieved about that.”

  “Of course. I didn’t want to think it was her son who’d done that to her.”

  “But you did think it and you kept quiet about it.”

  “Marta would never have forgiven me and you see, she thought that Tebaldo had done it.”

  “Tebaldo?”

  “She saw him going out at about ten past one. I’d just gone to bed and she got up and saw him leaving the house”

  “And she didn’t think about telling that us either.”

  “Well, the truth of the matter is that Tebaldo is having an affair with someone. His marriage is on the rocks, or at least it was, as far as we could tell at that time.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I hired a private detective after their visit to us at Easter.”

  “That was very enterprising of you.”

  “I could see something was wrong between them. They live near Florence and I had no idea what was going on.”

  “You like to have total control over all the members of this family, don’t you Signor Lotti. You must have been furious when Guido tried to muscle in.”

  “He’s a fool.”

  “Why did you kill Signora von Bachmann? “

  “What! I didn’t.”

  “She phoned Guido and wanted to make things up with him. You couldn’t allow that.”

  “Don’t you think I would have killed Guido, rather than my employer?”

  “How do I know what your reaction was to the news that she’d changed her mind about Guido. Maybe you told her what you thought about him. Maybe she fired you.”

  “What rubbish.”

  “But you did talk to her about Guido.”

  “No, she talked to me about him. She said that the wedding was on hold for the moment. She told me I needn’t bother pretending I was put out by that, because she knew there was friction between Guido and myself. I agreed that there was, and she said that we should wait and see how things developed and that we’d talk about it in the future, if it became necessary.”

  “So she wasn’t saying Guido was out of her life forever.”

  “No, she wasn’t saying anything much. That was her way. She would only ever say what was strictly necessary. Some things don’t need to be said.”

  “So according to you, that was all that was said.”

  “Well, as I’m the only person who can tell you about the conversation, yes, according to me. The question is, do you believe me?”

  “Perhaps you would like to make an amended statement. Don’t go away. I’ll need to see you again later.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Drago paced up and down in front of Bruno, smoking a cigarette and ignoring his disapproving look.

  “Don’t say it! I told you I need to smoke in order to think. Without nicotine I feel brain-dead. Now listen, I want to look at the timing. We’ve been told that at about twelve thirty that night Lapo came back to the house. He was seen by Piero who hadn’t yet gone to bed.

  At one o’clock Ursula phoned Guido.

  At about a minute after one Lapo left the house carrying a large plastic bag full of whatever, and we will never know for certain what was in it.

  At, say, five past one, Piero went to bed.

  Shortly after that his wife got up to go to the bathroom.

  At ten past one she saw Tebaldo leaving the house.

  At some time before half past one Guido arrived, entered the house and Ursula’s bedroom.

  At the most, ten minutes later he left the house. The witness is Claudio Rossi who confirms Guido’s version. Guido drove straight back to his hotel wearing the same clothes he left in and he was not carrying anything, either when he entered or when he left the house. There were no bloodstains on his clothing. We have no forensic evidence that proves he killed Ursula, but he does admit he entered her bedroom.

  Claudio Rossi was at the villa. He does not admit entering the villa and we have no proof that he did, but… he could have done, using his aunt’s key.

  We know that Ursula was alive at one and according to the autopsy she was probably dead by two. This is confirmed by Guido.

  Isabella was alone in her bedroom from about ten past one until her husband came back. She could easily have killed her mother-in-law and cleaned up her clothing or she could have gone out and disposed of blood-stained clothing and the murder weapon, which we believe was the prosciutto knife taken from the kitchen.

  At four Lapo came back making enough noise to waken Marianna and he was heard by Marta as well.

  Marianna says she was alone in bed all night. She took a sleeping pill and heard nothing, apart from her brother returning at four. She could be lying and what I said about Isabella applies to her equally.

  The important time period here is between one and two. The phone call at one leads us to presume she was alive at that time. However, suppose she didn’t make the phone call herself. In that case Ursula could have been killed any time between midnight and one and the murderer made the phone call to entice Guido to the villa and place him at the crime scene, in the hopes of incriminating him.”

  “If the murder took place before one, that puts Lapo back in the running and clears Guido,” Bruno pointed out.

  “Yes, but it also clears Tebaldo and Isabella, unless of course they did it together. Otherwise, they provide each other with an alibi until ten past one,” said Drago firmly.

  “So who does that leave us with?”

  “Claudio Rossi, Marianna, Piero and Marta.”

  “In that case Claudio Rossi is the most likely suspect. We’ve only got his word for it that he arrived there at the time he said. He could have got to the villa earlier, used his aunt’s key, gone into the house, killed Ursula and then phoned Guido for the reasons you previously stated. Then he waited round to make sure Guido took the bait. In that case his big mistake was to try and blackmail him.”

  “Exactly. Let’s look at Piero, who says he didn’t go to bed until gone one. He says he saw Lapo leave and then went to bed. He was the on
ly one up and doing we don’t know what until that time. I think we’ll ask him more about that. He could have been killing his employer. We’ve only got his word for it that Lapo came back and left with a bag. He may be lying to deflect suspicion from himself.”

  “So, perhaps he murdered Ursula, because she’d decided to give Guido another chance. They argued about Guido, she sacked Piero, and he lost it,” suggested Bruno.

  “Or, perhaps Marianna, who had gone to bed earlier, got up, went to her mother’s room and killed her. We can’t exclude her.”

  Bruno thought carefully. “She could have done it. She had the means and the opportunity, though we don’t know of a motive. She had all the time in the world to get rid of any blood-stained clothing and the murder weapon.”

  “None of the motives appear to be good enough. Guido had been thrown out but if we are to believe it, Ursula phoned him, so perhaps she wanted a reconciliation. For all we know Piero might have been sacked, which would give him a motive. We know Claudio wanted to get rid of her, but he really just wanted her to leave the villa. He sent her the anonymous letters saying so. His was an obsession, but was it strong enough? Lapo was a vicious sadist and probably never forgave his mother for his unfortunate birth. Marianna said she had no love for her mother and she certainly didn’t appear to be heartbroken by her death. Isabella was snubbed by Ursula, and admitted she would have loved to kill her, but which, if any, of these motives is sufficient?”

  “I don’t know, and add to that the lack of any forensic evidence and where does that leave us? Not one of these people had any blood on their clothing.”

  “Except Tebaldo, who had some on his shoe, and Marta of course.”

  “What about Marta?” asked Bruno.

  “Marta, the faithful servant who adored Lapo, her substitute son. She was also the one who found Ursula’s body. Why would she kill Ursula?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps because she knew Ursula had sacked Piero?”

  “She couldn’t have killed her. Piero was up and about, but Marta was in bed. If she’d gone to Ursula’s room, he might have seen her.”

  “So… he might have seen any of them. Where was he from twelve-thirty till one?”

  “Let’s ask him. I’d like him brought back in.”

  Bruno left the room and Drago lit up another cigarette from the stub of the previous one. When Bruno came back in he raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

  “I’ve phoned for some coffee,” said Drago in a placating tone.

  “Great. I hope you specified decaf for me.”

  “Of course. I know what a healthy young man you are, with all the virtues and none of the vices.”

  “Don’t! You make me sound such a prig.”

  “Sorry. It’s my guilty conscience. Look at me. I’m addicted to caffeine and tobacco.”

  “Well it’s the tobacco that’s the more worrying. You can keep on drinking coffee. Have you thought of hypnotherapy?”

  “No. Does it work?”

  “You could try it.”

  “Maybe I will.” The coffee arrived and after downing it in one great gulp, Dragonetti put his cup down and started in again.

  “I hope you’ve got some clear ideas about what happened on the night of Lapo’s murder. We’ve got an approximate time of death between three and five in the morning. The murder weapon, left in situ this time, was a kitchen knife taken from the kitchen of the villa. There were no fingerprints. Everyone was in the house, everyone knew where the knife was and had the opportunity to take it, with the exception of Guido, who was in the hotel all night. I just got confirmation on that.”

  “So he’s definitely eliminated as a suspect for the murder of Lapo,” stated Bruno.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t kill Ursula, even though in my opinion the same person killed them both.”

  “I don’t agree. I think that the two murders are separate and that the second murder was a copy of the first. The fact that Lapo’s body was not mutilated points to two different killers,” Bruno said decisively.

  “And I don’t agree with you. It was the same killer, using the same kind of weapon from the same source. It takes time to mutilate and perhaps there wasn’t time.”

  “Surely the mutilation was an important part of the ritual of murder to this killer,” protested Bruno.

  “I think we have to agree to disagree on this, Bruno. I’m looking for one killer, you’re looking for two. You think Guido killed Ursula but because you know he couldn’t have killed Lapo, you have to believe there were two killers.”

  “You’re right. I do think he did it. He was there, he went into her room, and he had motive, means and opportunity but, I have to admit, I don’t have any ideas about who killed Lapo. Why do you think the killer mutilated Ursula?”

  “I think it was pure hatred.”

  “And if, according to you, this same killer hated Lapo enough to kill him, then why didn’t he mutilate him too? You see, it doesn’t add up.”

  “I don’t know, but it might not be important.” Drago took a long drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke out reflectively.

  Bruno waved the smoke away from his face. “Of course it’s important. I believe that this shows there were two killers, but you think we’re looking for a serial homicidal psychopath.”

  “Yes.” Drago sounded quite decided.

  “No way. Sorry, I don’t think so.” Bruno was equally adamant.

  A knock at the door put an end to the conversation and Dragonetti flicked his cigarette butt out of the window before turning back to the desk to greet Piero.

  “Come in, Signor Lotti,” Dragonetti smiled briefly. “Sit down.”

  Piero sat down and waited.

  “Just a few more questions. I have the feeling that there are many more things that you can tell me if you choose to and quite frankly I think the time has come.”

  “I think I’ve already told you everything I know.”

  “Have you? How honest have you been? I’m not saying you’ve been lying, but I get the feeling you’ve never said more than what, in your opinion, was absolutely necessary. Shall we say the bare minimum. I want to know more about the dynamics within this dysfunctional family.”

  “Dysfunctional?”

  “Well, let’s say this wasn’t your average happy family, was it. More than one member of this family has told me how difficult things have been. You’ve been with them for twenty-five years, so you know what I’m talking about. What I want is the full background. How did Ursula greet the arrival of a child with a physical handicap, what about Tebaldo and his little brush with the police over drugs, and whatever happened to Marianna to make her so detached from life? Tell me about them.”

  “What do you expect me to say? I’ve always been loyal to the family and I don’t intend washing their dirty linen in public now.”

  “And how did Ursula repay that loyalty? She was going to sack you, wasn’t she?”

  “No. I’ve already told you that we didn’t argue, we never argued. My job was quite safe.”

  “I’ve only got your word for it. I think that your little discussion the night she died was not half as amicable as you make out. I think she was going to reinstate Guido and told you that you could pack your bags and go if you didn’t like it.”

  Piero sighed, “Think what you like. It wasn’t like that.”

  “What did you do from the time Ursula left you, to go to bed and the time you went to bed?”

  “I remained in the study.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Going through the accounts. I’m a qualified accountant and I have always looked after the accounts.”

  “You were a little God in that house, weren’t you? You knew everything that was going on. You manipulated them all. You knew all their secrets and kept them safe from the prying eyes of the world. You hired a private dick to spy on Tebaldo. And you had the accounts under your control. You even opened all the post.”

  “Yes, I did, I do.
But I’ve never thought of myself as someone with absolute power. I think of myself as someone who does their job conscientiously and who is loyal to his employer. You may find that old-fashioned, but then I am old-fashioned.”

  “What did you really think about the family? You might have hidden their secrets from others but you knew what they were really like.”

  “Madam had a difficult life. The first marriage was disastrous, as I told you, and the second wasn’t much better. It was very hard for her when Lapo was born like that. She never got over it.”

  “Tell me about the children. Tebaldo took drugs and I know he did, not just because of his arrest but because I know from my sources that he was sent to rehab.”

  “Yes, he was. It was a private rehab facility where the utmost discretion was guaranteed, a rich kids’ safe house in Switzerland. He was there for three years in all.”

  “So his habit was a very serious one.”

  “Yes, very.”

  “Let’s take Lapo, a vicious little sadist with no interest in anyone other than himself, a damaged personality, right?”

  “Right. I’m not going to defend him. I had no love for Lapo and he wouldn’t have known what to do with anyone’s love anyway. My wife absolutely adored him, as you know, but I’ve never felt the slightest affection for him myself.”

  “Perhaps you hated him enough to kill him.”

  “No, I didn’t kill him. It’s true I disliked him intensely. He was very cruel. Over the years I have assisted his victims, from the animals he killed as a child to the women he injured as a man. He used to hurt his sister. Only the other day, well, I don’t know what he did to her but she had blood on her dress and remained in her room all day. She is damaged, as you said.”

  “What happened to damage her?”

  “As long as I am assured of your discretion, I’ll tell you.”

  “You have my word.”

  “I hope you realize what I mean when I say discretion. I wouldn’t like to injure that child any more than she’s already been. If you tell her what you know then it would be very upsetting for her. So, do I have your word on that?”

  “You do.”

  “Marianna was raped when she was fifteen. One of her mother’s lovers decided it was her turn. Unfortunately, he didn’t just abuse her, he got her pregnant and that, too, had to be dealt with. She became anorexic and depressed. She’s been in therapy for the last three years.”