“Hello.”
“Good morning, Commissioner. Volpi’s on the phone.”
“Good morning, Doctor. Any news for me?”
“I just finished the autopsy on Meluzza, I confirm that the cause of the death is the 7.65-bore bullet he was shot in the middle of his forehead, more than this there’s practically nothing.”
“Just a question about the victim, Doctor. Do you think he had dinner?”
“Yes, of course. A generous meal.”
“Can you tell me at what time?”
“The time of death? It was about 10.00 p.m.”
“I mean the time of the dinner....”
“Ok, about 9.00 p.m. I suppose”
“Well, I wrote down everything, doctor. Thank you for the prompt information.”
“It’s my duty, Commissioner, have a nice day.”
“You too.”
While he finished updating his notebook, Germano raised the phone receiver.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Silvestri. Germano’s on the phone.”
“Tell me, Commissioner.”
“I wanted to ask you if you find in the Fiat, or on Meluzza, a receipt of a snack bar, a restaurant or another place where he could have eaten.”
“No, for now nothing of that kind, but I’m convinced he had dinner at home last night.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Into the sink of the kitchen there was still a dirty pan, he probably cooked a breaded stick or something similar.”
“I will ask the police doctor, then... apart from this, how many people had dinner there, in your opinion?”
“The pan was rather small, and there was only a fork and a knife in the sink. You can draw the conclusion alone, Germano.”
“Ok, Silvestri, thanks for your helpfulness.”
“My pleasure.”
The Commissioner was considering the possibility that the killer could have acted in a premeditated way, in such case it was necessary to identify who could hate Meluzza so much.
He was carefully searching the files of the partners, written when the victim had been arrested some years ago, when someone knocked at the door and interrupted him.
“Please, come in.”
“Good morning, Germano, I’ve got what you asked me.”
Marshal Fiorenza from Financial Police, after an instant search which he probably started at first light, had found all possible tax and economic data ascribable to the victim.
“Please, take a seat, Fiorenza.”
As soon as he sat down, the marshal started the examination about Meluzza.
“The victim results indefinitely employed by Super S.r.l., a local supermarket.”
“Which was the salary?”
“From the statement of income we can deduce that the average salary was about one thousand-one thousand and two hundreds Euros a month.”
“What about his standard of living?”
“The victim didn’t pay neither lease nor loan because he had inherited the flat when his father died. However....”
“However?”
“We crosschecked the bank accounts and the credits cards and noticed that Meluzza travelled a lot, regardless of the expense. We also found a monthly expense of four-hundreds Euros for clothes and the same amount was spent for aperitifs and dining out.”
“In your opinion, Marshal, how much money he dodged each month?”
“Two or three thousands Euros, I think.”
“Ok, listen... for now I’m still obliged to keep a low profile towards this gang of thieves, fences and Lord only knows what else, but as soon as the investigation for the murder will take steps forward, I will immediately inform you, so that we can pursue such investigation together.”
“Well, Germano, I’ll wait for your call.”
“Of course, even if I don’t think we will find the killer so quickly.”
The two colleagues greeted each other and shook their hands, then they both returned to their activities.
The Commissioner asked Angelo Parisi to come to his office. He wasn’t very hopeful, but maybe he could have some news.
The Inspector arrived some minutes later.
“Hello, Vincent.”
“Hello, Angelo.”
“I would have come down in a while.”
“So I suppose there is something interesting...”
“I explain to you: analysing Meluzza’s old partners, especially the main one, I noticed that nothing has changed for them.”
“What do you mean?”
“They continue unperturbed in their illegal activities, they speak of them rather freely on the phone, while the situation should at least call for a little caution.”
“Maybe they haven’t been informed of their colleague’s death yet.”
“It’s very difficult, Vincent, the photo of the garage and the name of the victim were already on all newspapers this morning.”
“So, maybe, Meluzza had other partners, different from these ones.”
“I agree. Any idea?”
“Not at all, Angelo. Try to find information from the phone printouts or from e-mails, please update me even if you don’t find anything.”
“All right... more than this, what should we do?”
“Continue monitoring the activity of Meluzza’s old partners and when you realize that’s the right moment organise a blitz into the machine shop. Something more... before making anything inform Marshal Fiorenza from Financial Department, try to complete the investigation together.”
“Ok.”
“In the meantime, I’ll follow another track.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know yet.”
After having collected his thoughts, Germano took the service car and went to the supermarket where Meluzza worked.
First of all he needed to understand what kind of man he was and, having a chat with those who met him every day, he could clear his head.
The first person he met was a shop assistant. He asked her if he could speak with the director, reckoning there was no need to introduce himself, but when he realized that the girl had mistaken him for one of those customers eager for complaining, he immediately showed her his identity card.
The girl took Germano directly in front of the closed door of the director’s office. When she left, the Commissioner knocked at the door.
“What’s up?”
“May I come in?”
“Only if it’s for something important.”
Germano got in and showed again the identity card he had just put into the inner pocket of his jacket.
“My name is Vincent Germano, I’m a police Commissioner.”
“Oh, please tell me.”
“I’m here because I’d like to talk with you about one of your employees, Fabio Meluzza.”
“Which trouble did he get into this time?”
“This is what I’m trying to discover, Mr......”
“Pirolli, my name is Piero Pirolli.”
“Well, Mr. Pirolli, why don’t you help me understanding the reason why you don’t value Mr. Meluzza?”
“Actually, it’s not a question of value, the problem is that he’s often off sick or arrives late at work. In short, you could do without him with pleasure.”
“I suppose that from now on the problem is solved....”
“What do you mean?”
“He died this night, we found him poisoned in a park.”
“Bless me! ... Was it a suicide?”
“I hope you can help me to understand, Mr. Pirolli.... What kind of man was he?”
“He worked at the customer care, in direct contact with customers all day long, he seemed bent for such a task.”
“Please, explain to me.”
“I mean... he liked dealing with customers, in fact none complained up to now.”
“Ok, do you remember if he usually lingered on long talks with some customers?”
“I don’t know, but if you can ait
a moment I call one of his colleagues...”
“Yes, please.”
A few minutes later, after a gentle knocking at the door, a well-built young man came into the office of the director, who came straight to the point.
“Excuse me, Fabrizio, I called you because this gentleman would like to ask you some questions about Meluzza.”
Fabrizio Cerchi nodded and sat down in front of the Commissioner.
“Good morning, Fabrizio, my name is Germano, I’m investigating the death of your colleague...”
“I read the news this morning on the newspaper, what a tragic event!”
“Yes, of course .... I’d like to ask you if you ever heard your colleague while he spoke with customers. For example, did you ever feel that he had a familiar or at least friendly relationship with some of them?”
“In fact this was really strange, Commissioner... customers often looked for him. Doubtless, he was very good with public relations, however...”
“However?”
“However sometimes it seemed too much.”
“I see.... Did you ever hear your colleague speaking of cars?”
“Yes, quite often. He seemed to be a real expert... but what a horrible death!”
Up to that moment the director had kept silence, but at that moment he decided to speak.
“There’s also the possibility that your colleague killed himself, Fabrizio.... don’t draw rash conclusions.”
“Killed himself? And how? By firing himself a shot between the eyes, director?”
Pirolli was taken aback and immediately understood that the false information that Germano had given him could mean that also his name was in the list of the suspects; the Commissioner, guessing his embarrassment, reassured him by shrugging his shoulders to apologise, then turned again to the young man.
“The last question, Fabrizio, in your supermarket have you got some fidelity cards in which customers can accumulate points?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Can the staff of customer care access these cards? I mean... you can add or remove points?”
“Yes.”
“I see, please listen... if the director agrees I would like you to give me a complete list of the people registered to the fidelity program, with the total amount of points they have and the dates in which they were added. I also need Meluzza’s clocking in and out.”
The director immediately agreed, so a few minutes later Germano was heading for his service car with all documents in his hands.
He had decided to examine them later, once reached his office, so he put the car into gear and left the supermarket.
While the Commissioner got into the car, his colleague, Angelo Parisi, came to a first close about the possible meetings of Meluzza the previous night: currently there were no evidences and so no track to follow.
A little disappointed and lost, the Inspector got down to the ground floor of the police station to visit Germano, who had just come back into the office.
“May I come in?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Hello, Vincent.”
“Hello, Angelo.”
“I’d like to update you.”
“Yes, please.”
“Actually, there’s not so much to say, as far as we know Meluzza didn’t plan any meeting, I also gave a look at the data of the previous days, but I found nothing.”
“The killer cannot have emerged from nowhere....”
“I know... and what about you? Did you discover anything?”
“Analysing the lists of the fidelity program maybe I can extrapolate a couple of names, I had a quick look at it while I was in the car, but now I will examine it more in depth in order to be more precise.”
“Which fidelity program, Vincent?”
“The one of the supermarket where Meluzza worked, I suppose he met his customers there, and maybe he took the occasion to load them the card, so that they could get some TV or PC at the company’s expenses.”
“Maybe he used his customers as dummy for the points? I mean.... In order not to register them at his name...”
“I don’t think so, Angelo. I had a look at the electronic gadgets we found in Meluzza’s house and none matched with the ones promoted in the supermarket. As I told you, I think it was a sort of kindness towards his private customers. I know that somehow it’s a straining but currently it’s the only track we have.”
“So, do you think that Meluzza worked alone? In this case how did he find the cars from which he removed the parts? Did he steal them himself?”
“It could be, maybe not every night but I think that he could manage to do it four or five times a month, some theft could also be commissioned, but in general I think he was maverick, a professional of stolen goods and tax evasion.”
“I see, but now what shall we do?”
“Look at this list, that’s the one I was speaking of, please carefully watch the data of the card number 1120...”
“Good Lord... how much money should you spend to accumulate three thousand points in a month?”
“Look at the dates, the crediting of the points happens once each two months, I didn’t verify yet among Meluzza’s clocking in and out but I’m convinced that in those days he was always at work.”
“Well, let’s go and have a talk with Mr. Andrea Spalletta?”
“You took the words out of my mouth, Angelo... Let’s go and wait for him in front of his house.”
“I go for the car, Vincent. I’ll wait for you outside.”
The two policemen reached quite easily the residence where Spalletta lived.
The flat on the ground floor of the second building they met was recently built, such as all the rest, even if within one hundred of metres there was no trace of a tree or a lawn, cement was everywhere.
They only had a brief description of the boy they were waiting, so they had to stay next to the entrance door more than one hour, before they finally saw a young thirty-years-old man who was going to come in.
“Excuse me...”
“Yes, what do you need?”
“We are trying to deliver this parcel to a certain Andrea Spalletta, but...”
“It’s me.”
“Well, my name is Germano, do you think we can have a talk in your house?”
“It all depends.”
“From what?”
“First of all I don’t know who you are... and my mother always recommends me not to speak with strangers...”
“Don’t be so fussy.... I’m a police Commissioner, here is my identity card.”
“Excuse me, I mistook you for someone else ....”
After a moment of embarrassment, Andrea Spalletta took the two policemen into his flat.
Without exchanging civilities, the Commissioner promptly began to speak.
“We are investigating the death of a certain Fabio Meluzza, called the Taurus, we know you were friends ... ”
“Are you speaking of the guy who worked in the supermarket, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Sometimes we exchanged a few words, that’s all.”
“I see... we have finished here, Angelo. Now let’s go and have a look at the car of our friend Spalletta...”
When he heard the Commissioner speaking this way with Inspector Parisi, the boy decided to speak.
“Keep calm, Commissioner!”
“Excuse me but we are in a hurry”
“My car is in order, the MOT test, the road tax and insurance are ok.”
“Of course, but I’d like to have a look at some spare parts you recently mounted...”
“Wait a moment and sit down, please.”
The young man started relating the fellowship he had had with the victim, lasted some months and which consisted in placing some spare parts for cars from several brands, owned by Meluzza.
More than this, he confirmed that the victim ran the business personally, availing himself of collaborators only some times, in order to quickl
y get rid of the parts of cars which had been stolen and then disassembled.
At the end of the discussion the poor Spalletta asked the Commissioner to help him, fearing that his partner’s death could be ascribable to the type of activity he ran.
Germano confirmed he was ready to help and recommended the young man to contact him as soon as in the environment began to circulate the first rumours about the possible killer.
So, after a couple of hours out of the office, the policemen were going to come back, profiting by the drive to make some more suppositions.
This activity brought them to the same close to which Spalletta had come: Meluzza had probably stamped someone’s feet.
Once arrived at the police station, Germano was intent on updating the notepad in his office, when he was distracted by someone knocking at the door.
“Come in, please.”
Agent Venditti came in and delivered a letter, arrived that morning and addressed to the Commissioner. Without any hesitation, he opened it.
Cursive written with black ink you could read: “Pay attention, Germano: to complete well your job you must connect the facts instead of watching them separately.”
The Commissioner became immediately thoughtful and let Agent Venditti read the two lines. The agent, who in the meantime stood in front of his superior, after having carefully watched the sheet, gave it back to Germano, waiting him to speak first.
“What do you think about it?”
“Maybe one of those who use to write us, Commissioner...”
“I think so, too. However I never read a letter like this.”
“A tip-off, maybe?”
“It could be. Let’s keep the letter in case we should understand its meaning in the future... please immediately inform me in case further letters like this one should arrive.”
“Of course, Commissioner.”
“Thank you.”
Even if in the letter there was nothing that could let suppose something horrible would happen, the Commissioner was upset, the anonymous author knew his name and Germano suddenly felt someone was observing him.
5 days later (8.00 p.m.)
“Hello, here’s the Police Station”
“Good evening, I’m calling because from the flat under my own arrives a strange smell.”
“Could you be more precise, please?”
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