Horoscope

by Claudio Ruggeri

  “Ok, Vincent.”

  “So, I go. Let’s hope a snowstorm is not arriving.”

  “Wait a moment! Don’t you want the information on the call at the emergency number?”

  “Of course, tell me.”

  “It came from a call box in Cava dei Selci, a few kilometres from the place where the twins have been killed.”

  “Is the hour consistent with their death?”

  “I think so, at least according to the information I had from the police doctor. He killed them and then went to the phone.”

  “What a son of a bitch.”

  During the drive towards Carabinieri station, Germano’s car went out of control at least twice; a thick layer of snow already covered the asphalt and let think it didn’t want to stop.

  Once the Commissioner reached the station, a corporal led him to the office of Captain Colombo, who was waiting for him.

  After having shaken their hand they both sat down.

  “We must solve a big mystery, do you agree?”

  “Unfortunately you are right, Colombo...”

  “It’s the first time that something similar happens in this area, honestly speaking we cannot say we are experts of this sort of events.”

  “It’s the same for us, but we must catch him. We must be cleverer than him, and also sharper.”

  “Yes, but for now we have only a few information. We investigate on the killed woman but we obtained nothing.”

  “It’s the same for us with that fence, but I suppose a classical investigation isn’t enough this time.”

  “What do you mean, Germano?”

  “I received some anonymous letters that I let analyse. While I read them, to be honest, I didn’t feel they were written by the same person that with such a lot of impudence killed two people and then called the emergency number to inform us.”

  “Do you think he’s looking for popularity?”

  “I’m quite sure. While I was coming here with my car, I wondered if we should make it public, that is expounding everything.”

  “What do you mean? Should we inform the press that we found a connection among the victims?”

  “Exactly. Maybe if the actions of this madman became public, he could get tired, at least for a while. In the meantime we could have enough time to approach him.”

  “So, in your opinion, Germano, this person has a mania of grandeur or wishes success? That’s why he kills, isn’t it?”

  “I think so, he likes everyone to admire his actions, it’s evident that we are dealing with a raving mad.”

  “Yes... but you didn’t tell me yet if the person who called you was a man or a woman.”

  “A middle-aged man, probably, with husky voice without inflections or accents. But we aren’t sure the letters were written by him.”

  “Why?”

  “Observing the handwriting I felt she was a woman, but I could be wrong. What about you, Colombo? What can you tell me?”

  “Undoubtedly I’ve less to say. Dealing with a single murder we focused our investigation on the private life of the lady and now I understand why, maybe, this type of investigation gave no results.”

  “I already asked a colleague of mine, Inspector Parisi, to interact with you, in order to discover if the victims had something in common.”

  “Do you think the killer knew them?”

  “We don’t know yet, but I don’t think so. However I’m sure he didn’t choose them at random, there must be something in common and we must discover what is it.”

  “Our offices will be at your disposal, this morning the ballistics colleague made the comparison very quickly; the problem is finding the point from which we should start.”

  “I think that first of all we should give him some visibility. The fact that nothing was said up to now didn’t stop the murders; on the contrary, in my opinion, it quickened them.”

  “I see... as to telephone consumptions investigations, what should we do?”

  “I already gave orders to my colleagues, but I don’t think we will have some results.”

  “So... let me understand, Commissioner. In practice we are dealing with a mad that, more than wanting to keep in check the area, would like to let everyone of us appear like idiots, isn’t it?”

  “Exactly, even if more than be mad, he’s also very clever. This is why I feel that this time we should follow other tracks.”

  “Ok, Germano, let’s keep abreast of the times and try to catch him.”

  “We must be successful.”

  After about half an hour of conversation, they said goodbye and promised to work in close contact in the following days.

  The road surface was wholly covered with snow and the Commissioner had difficulties in controlling his car, so proposed, once arrived at the police station, to ask someone helping him and mounting the snow chains. Fortune had already stood by him in a few occasions that morning and he didn’t want to tempt fate again.

  As soon as he entered, he took off the snow gathered on his coat during the short way between his car and the entrance door, leaned the umbrella, which inexplicably he didn’t use, and headed for his office.

  Once seated, he immediately phoned Parisi and asked him to come down. The Inspector arrived in a few moments.

  They had just begun to speak when the Commissioner’s phone rang.

  “Hello.”

  “Good morning, Commissioner, Frisco’s on the phone. I’m taking care of handwriting analysis, I think you asked our support, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, of course. My envelope...”

  “It arrived early this morning and I immediately analysed it.”

  “Very well. Tell me everything.”

  “From the handwriting I think the writer is a person with a rather open nature, even if while she wrote the letter she probably was somewhat frightened, we can see it from the style and trembling of several characters.”

  “So, do you think it was a woman?”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, and also rather old to be precise. Young people don’t write vowels and consonants like this.”

  “Could you understand also the period, or the decades, in which this person learnt to write?”

  “No, not yet. We will try to find it out and then we will let you know.”

  “In a short time you will also receive a second letter, now the forensic department is analysing it, but in a few days it will be your turn.”

  “Ok, I’ll be ready and I’ll let you know something soon, Germano.”

  “Thanks, Frisco. Good bye.”

  After having hung up, the Commissioner informed Parisi about the conversation, then they resumed making suppositions on the murder.

  “Excuse me, Vincent, but maybe he really chooses his victims at random, couldn’t it be?”

  “It’s a supposition, even if little probable. This guy hides, controls and finds information and I don’t exclude that he came into contact with his victims before killing them, maybe with the excuse of asking an information about a piece of jewellery he talked with the jeweller, while he could have spoken with the fence in the supermarket where he worked and so on. What can you tell me about the twins?”

  “Some records for pushing, two months ago the newspapers talked of them because they were suspected to be the ones who pushed that badly cut drug, the one that caused a series of overdoses, do you remember?”

  “Pushing... we could think that someone, maybe a relative of the young killed, wanted to take revenge... but I don’t think this is an isolated case of murder, that it’s not part of the series of the signs of the zodiac.”

  “However we cannot be sure, Vincent, isn’t it? I can check the relatives of the five people who died of the overdose, maybe we will be lucky and find out something interesting.”

  “Ok, let’s try.”

  “Do you think he will kill someone else in a short time?”

  “I don’t know, Angelo, as I just told y
ou we will let the story be published on the newspapers, hoping this can be enough to satisfy him, at least for a while, but I think we can gain only a few days...”

  “The problem is understanding what the fuck the victims had in common, I’ve been reading information and crosschecking data for the whole morning, but I couldn’t find anything. We are at a dead end.”

  “Please, go on trying, Angelo... in the afternoon I will help you. Prepare a place for me.”

  “Four eyes are better than two.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  The Commissioner spent his lunch break in the office, alone, eating some pasta taken from home, looking out of the window the spectacle of the snow which covered and cancelled everything, and relaxed for a while. Observing the children running and throwing snowballs, he remembered a holiday on the snow with his family, when he was a teenager, and the memory of Colorado mountains managed to get a half smile out of him.

  After lunch, as promised, he went to the last floor of the police station and knocked at the door of his colleague Parisi.

  The Inspector, guessing it was him, told: “Come in, please.”

  The two policemen immediately got to work, in the desperate attempt of detecting a possible track, useful to avoid a new murder.

  They began to analyse the relatives of the first boy who died of an overdose and found out that his parents had died many years before, nothing strange about the cause of their death: it was a natural death. Then, they analysed the data of the boy’s brother but he was a pilot flying on scheduled flights and living in the United Arab Emirates, so it was rather improbable he had come to Italy to organize such a murder and the phone call they did to the immigration office confirmed their assumption.

  The case of the second victim was different: the father was currently detained for extortion, while the mother had died some years before, so the position of Alfio Biffi, the father of the boy dead of an overdose, was analysed more carefully.

  While the policemen were speaking, the telephone rang.

  “Parisi’s on the phone.”

  Germano, even if he couldn’t listen to the conversation, guessed the gist of the speech, so got ready to take the receiver.

  “Germano’s on the phone.”

  “Good afternoon, I’m Mrs. Lotti, you asked my opinion about the possible criminal profile of your killer.”

  “Yes, we spoke yesterday in the evening, I think.”

  “Yes, sure. I will send you a detailed report at the end of this week, not before, but in the meantime I’d like to confirm your idea.”

  “So do you think it’s a very intelligent person with a regular life?”

  “Yes, I think so. I suggest you to look for him among people with medium-high incomes and with particular employments, even rather important roles, I mean.”

  “He’s not the classic outskirts criminal, isn’t it?”

  “I’ll tell you more... it’s likely that up to now, that is up to the day of the first murder, he didn’t commit any crime and has a clean record, too.”

  “Why do you think so?”

  “Due to something you told me yesterday, Germano. Do you remember when you told me that this method of operation reminded you more a film script than a street revenge?”

  “Did I say these words?”

  “Yes, Commissioner...”

  “I don’t remember now... however thank you for your helpfulness and quickness, also considered that today it’s Christmas Eve.”

  “No problem, I’ll send you the report by the end of the week.”

  “Yes, thanks a lot.”

  Once hung up, Germano took the file about the previous offender they were analysing and pushed it away.

  He informed Parisi about the impressions of the criminal psychologist, then they focused on the third name.

  His familiar background was rather different from the previous ones, the father was employed in the post office and the mother a housewife, they had a house, two medium-engined cars and a dog.

  The Commissioner immediately took the receiver and dialled the number of the post office where Mr. D’Ubaldo had been working for more than twenty years.

  “Hello.”

  “Good afternoon”, Germano introduced himself and asked to speak with the director.

  “Hello.”

  “Good afternoon, I’m....”

  “I know, how can I help you?”

  “Nothing serious, only a question. I’d like your opinion about a certain D’Ubaldo Mario. He works there, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, of course ... but to be honest I have only a few contacts with him... I don’t know....”

  “Excuse me, but what’s his task?”

  “I think he sorts the mail, or something similar.”

  “Did he always have the same task?”

  “I think so.”

  “I see... listen, I understand you can’t tell me more about this employee now, why don’t we see us at the end of the week? Maybe I could come to your office...”

  “Ok, Commissioner. In the meantime I will try to find out something more.”

  “Thank you. See you on Friday or Saturday morning, then.”

  “On Friday would be better.”

  Germano noted down the appointment in his diary and put aside the file about D’Ubaldo, waiting he could complete it.

  The name of the fourth boy was familiar to the Commissioner, in fact he was his neighbour’s son, so he immediately rejected the file because he knew that those people were unable to plan serial murders.

  The last name belonged to a girl, a prostitute found poisoned on the street, maybe by some customer or her pimp, however it was improbable that her death was bound up to the current investigation.

  Observing his colleague, who was more and more thoughtful, Parisi broke that strange silence and asked directly to Germano why he had such an expression. The Commissioner answered after some seconds.

  “Listen, Angelo.... I think it’s correct to investigate also in this direction, but in my opinion in order to organise such a series of crimes a lot of coolness is required. I mean, a person blinded by fury for the death of someone he loved wouldn’t have used such methods. I’m sure it’s a case of clear madness... How would you plan the murder of the killer of one of your relatives, Angelo?”

  “I don’t know... but actually it doesn’t add up.”

  “Let’s continue to search everywhere but....”

  “What about going home with our wives, Vincent? Tomorrow we will continue, when we will feel fresh.”

  “Tomorrow it’s Christmas, Angelo...”

  “It’s not Christmas for killers... how could it be for us?”

  The last words of his colleague, which announced the holiday work of the following day, convinced the Commissioner to stand up from the chair, wear his coat and go home.

  Germano took more than a minute to reach his car, but not because the snow had made his movements difficult, on the contrary, that world so muted, motionless and incredibly white looked like the contrary of the dark and grey one in which he had to move every day.

  That feeling followed him along the drive towards his house, until a snowball hit him while he walked across the entrance path.

  His son Luca was always the same and maybe he would have been like this for many further years; as a rule in front of such a scene, he would have opened his arms and had a withering look, but not that day. He gathered some snow and decided to play balls with him.

  When father and son stopped covering each other with snow, they headed for the door, but the feeling of freedom they had felt before immediately vanished when they crossed the threshold.

  Germano noticed a heavy atmosphere, as if something serious had happened and none, neither his wife nor his parents-in-law, wanted to tell him.

  After some moments of that surreal Christmas eve, the Commissioner decided to speak to his wife in private.

  “Arianna, what the devil is happening?”

  “Nothing,
Vincent.... we are all tired today... we shovelled the snow and mounted the...”

  “Who are you trying to fool?”

  “Excuse me... but ....we saw the news today.”

  “And so? Bad news shouldn’t upset you any more, isn’t it?”

  “They spoke of that beast you are looking for... they told you probably will catch him, so...”

  “You should be happy.”

  “No, Vincent, I don’t think you should expose you like this, for your and our safety.”

  “No, Arianna, it’s not like it seems...”

  “No? And, how is it really?”

  “Let me speak... it has been an agreed move, the important news wasn’t the name of the person in charge of the investigation, but the fact that the plan of that fool is somehow recognized. We think that in this way we can gain some time before he kills again.”

  “So everything they told is true? It wasn’t a press caricature, isn’t it?”

  “No, unfortunately, everything is true.”

  25th December, Christmas lunch

  The Commissioner, at the last course of that endless lunch, was looking forward to his well-deserved afternoon rest, when the phone rang.

  Guessing who it could be, Germano reached the phone and answered.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, Vincent. Angelo’s on the phone. Happy Christmas!”

  “To you too, even if I think it’s not the real reason for which you called, isn’t it?”

  “No, in fact.”

  “I’ve got it.”

  “I brought some work at home and I was having a look at it.”

  “Playing bingo is too much for you, Angelo?”

  “It’s not my fault, I suggested it but my sister and her children began to play a game in which you must find the murderer and...”

  “... you didn’t resist...”

  “Exactly, but apart from this... in our case there are a few details that should be analysed better, in fact I was going to...”

  “Only a few? Excuse me, Angelo, but how many people are there in your house now?”

  “Seven: my wife and I, my mother, my sister with her husband and the children.”

  “Is it a trouble for you coming here?”

  “Everyone?”