Dying on the Vine (A Gideon Oliver Mystery)

by Elkins, Aaron

  “Right now, this minute?” Rocco’s eyebrows went up. “Who to?”

  Severo hadn’t expected to be impeded. He was flustered. “To . . . signora Batelli.”

  “The lawyer?” Rocco, of course, had already heard about signora Batelli and Cesare’s suit from Gideon.

  “Yes, I want to call her, the lawyer, to inform her of what I have just heard.” He had retreated to Italian. “I hope to put a stop to a pointless and unpleasant proceeding. I am sure she’ll see that their suit is no longer tenable.”

  “Very well, signor Quadrelli,” Rocco said. “But please make yourself available to us over the weekend. We’ll want to speak with you again.”

  “With me? Why?”

  “With everyone. We’ll want to interview you all. If any of you have problems with that, I need to know now. Anything we should be aware of?”

  “I’ll be here, I’ll be here,” Quadrelli said, and scuttled off.

  “How long are these interviews going to take?” Luca asked. “I have this class I’m doing all day long Saturday.”

  “Not long,” Rocco said, switching the conversation back to English. “A half hour should do it, I’d guess. An hour at most. We’ll try to accommodate your schedules as much as possible, and we do appreciate your patience. Well, thanks, everybody. I think we can wrap up for today. Anybody have any questions?”

  “I sure do,” Luca said. “Who do you think did kill them? Do you have any leads? Do you have a motive? Why would anyone kill them?”

  “Give us a chance to get going, Luca,” Rocco said, smiling. “We haven’t even—”

  “Faida,” Franco murmured darkly. “The marriage.”

  “That’s always possible,” Rocco said. “We’ll be looking into that angle.”

  “Oh, but do you really, honestly think that was it, Franco?” Linda asked skeptically. It was her first contribution of the afternoon. “It was so long ago.”

  “There’s no statute of limitation on faida, Linda, no sell-by date. It never ends. Now think about it. Someone might have wanted to kill babbo for one reason or another. That’s certainly possible. And, conceivably, someone might have wanted to kill Nola, although I can’t think of any reason why. But can you come up with any possible reason, other than the old vendetta, that someone might want to kill both of them?” He shook his head. “No, you cannot. They have a very long memory in Barbagia.”

  Nico snorted. “Give us a break, Franco. “This is 2011, not 1911.”

  “Well, then why? Who?”

  Rocco waited a few seconds to see if anybody would respond. When no one did, he said: “As long as you’ve raised the question, though, Franco, let’s give it a little thought. Who do you think might have killed your father?”

  “I just told you. The families back in Barbagia—”

  “No, I’m not asking you who might have killed them both, just your father.”

  “Just my father?” Franco seemed confused by the question. “I have no idea. Why ask me?”

  “Because you said you did have an idea.”

  “No, I explicitly said I didn’t have any idea. Other than faida.”

  “No, you said you had no idea who might have killed Nola.”

  “No—”

  From his chair near the wall, Martignetti interrupted, reading from his shorthand notes. “‘Someone might have wanted to kill babbo for one reason or another. That’s certainly possible. And, conceivably, someone might have wanted to kill Nola, although I can’t think of any reason why.’”

  “‘Certainly possible,’” said Rocco. “It seems to me that suggests—”

  “It was just a figure of speech, for God’s sake. Oh, I suppose I might have been thinking of various feuds babbo had over the years. With other vintners, distributors, some of our own people . . . He could be a difficult man to get along with.”

  “I see,” Rocco said, unimpressed.

  “I can give you some names, if you want, although, really, I doubt—”

  “Let’s be honest for once in our lives,” Nico said. “If you’re looking for people with motives, Lieutenant, you’re sitting in a room full of them.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Franco exclaimed angrily “Us? We had motives to kill babbo? That’s a hell of a thing to say. I can’t believe—”

  “Whoa, calm down, buddy,” Nico said, putting a placating hand on Franco’s shoulders as if to keep him from exploding off the settee they shared. “I’m not saying anybody here killed him, God forbid. I’m just saying the motive was there. It was, Franco. He’s gonna find that out anyway, and I just figured we might as well tell him about it now.”

  “What motive? Are you crazy? I don’t—”

  “Humboldt-Schlager,” Nico said quietly, which shut Franco down in mid-sentence.

  “Humboldt-Schlager,” Luca said musingly. “Yeah, the kid’s got a point, Franco.”

  “I think,” Rocco said pleasantly, “it would be really nice if somebody told me what you’re talking about.”

  Gideon and John shared a mildly amused glance. Rocco had said it in all innocence, just as if Gideon hadn’t told him all about the Humboldt-Schlager affair not even three hours earlier.

  “Go ahead, kid,” Luca said to Nico. “You started this.”

  “Okay. In a nutshell, Humboldt-Schlager—you know, the brewing company—wanted to buy the winery, and babbo was gonna sell it.”

  Franco had his arms folded. “We don’t know that for a fact.”

  “Yeah, we do,” Nico said. “Get real, Franco. Of course he was; it was written all over him. Am I right, Luca?”

  “You’re right, Nico.”

  Franco shrugged.

  “And none of you wanted him to do it?” Rocco asked.

  The three brothers looked at each other for a second before Franco replied. “We did not. We felt the terms were inimical to the interests of the family.”

  Luca hooted with laughter. “Translation: they were gonna boot us out on our asses. The minute the contract was signed.”

  “And Linda, how did you feel about it?”

  “I felt the way Luca did.”

  “I see,” Rocco said. “Okay, guys, telling me about it was the right thing to do. We’ll be following up with you on this.”

  “May I point out that Nola was also murdered?” Franco said. “And Nola had nothing to do with it, so how is it relevant?”

  But Rocco was tiring. He’d had enough. “I think we can wrap this up for now. Thank you all for your cooperation. Franco, I’m gonna want to confer with the maresciallo here for a minute. Okay if we just stay here?”

  “Actually, I think the small conference room might be better suited, Lieutenant. You remember where it is?”

  “Sure, fine, whatever,” Rocco said, annoyed. “Any chance of having some coffee sent over there for us? I’m flagging.”

  “That might be problematic. I’m afraid Maria is tied up in the refectory kitchen with Luca’s—”

  “I’ll take care of it, Franco, don’t sweat it,” Linda said, getting up, and then under her breath: “Sheesh.”

  As people filed thoughtfully out, Luca caught Gideon and John. “Tonight the group is on its own for dinner. How about you and the girls join Linda and me for something special? I want to take you to the best restaurant in Tuscany.”

  “You’re too late,” John said. “We already found it. I had pizza carnivora. Fantastico, tremendoso!”

  Luca responded with a hearty, appreciative laugh. “I think maybe we’re talking about different places. Eight thirty okay? We’ll be driving to Arezzo.”

  EIGHTEEN

  IN the conference room, Rocco leaned back in one of the pearl-gray Aeron conference chairs with his feet up on another. He sat with his hands clasped behind his neck, a Marlboro between his lips. Across the table Martignetti jotted notes in his pad.

  “You think there’s anything to this Cesare angle?” the lieutenant asked, blowing smoke toward the matte white panels of the fluoresce
nt-lit ceiling. “You think he could have killed them both? On account of the will?”

  “I’d say he’s our best bet right now. Better than the beer company angle.”

  “You think he’d kill his own mother for a few thousand euros?”

  “He’s a cokehead, Tenente,” Martignetti said, as if that was more than enough to explain things.

  Which it was, in Rocco’s opinion. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said sleepily. “Look, you come right through the Santa Croce district to get to work. Why don’t you pick him up on your way in tomorrow morning and bring him in? I’m interested to meet the guy.”

  At which point Linda swept in with a tray on which were two espresso cups, a glass pot of coffee holding an additional three or four cups of coffee, and a plate of almond-orange biscotti.

  “Linda, God bless you!” Rocco said. “I was just gonna fall asleep. You saved my life.”

  She set down the tray. “If Franco saw you with your feet up on one of his chairs like that, your life wouldn’t be worth much, Lieutenant.”

  Rocco, leaving his feet on the chair, poured the coffee for himself and Martignetti. “But you won’t tell him, will you, sweetheart?” He drank the entire cupful and sighed with pleasure. “The heart begins to beat again,” he said. “The blood flows.”

  “Nothing in comparison to how it’d flow if he knew you were smoking in his conference room. But no, I won’t tell.”

  “You’re a wonderful woman, Linda,” he said, but he ground the butt out on the heavy paper doily on the tray. “Wait, before you go,” he said as she turned to leave. “Do you think there’s anything to that Humboldt-Schlager thing? Is that something we should be focusing on, in your opinion?”

  “No. None of those guys killed Pietro, Lieutenant. They worshipped the man.”

  “Sometimes, disappointed worshippers can turn—” Martignetti began.

  “They loved him too, Maresciallo. I know you two have to investigate every lead that turns up, but believe me, there’s nothing in this world, no disappointment, no resentment, no argument—and there were plenty of those—that would have been capable of leading any of them to lay a hand on him. It would have been like laying a hand on God.”

  “How about on Nola?” Rocco asked.

  “Well, now, that’s a different question,” Linda said, smiling. “But as Franco said, Nola had nothing to do with the Humboldt thing, so—”

  “She had no say in it at all? It wasn’t a joint decision?”

  Now she laughed outright, a husky, pleasing chuckle. “That, Lieutenant, was not a term in common usage around here in Pietro’s time.” She paused, then added in an undertone: “Not so common now, either.”

  “Franco runs a one-man operation too?” Rocco asked. “Like his old man?”

  “Very much like his old man, although he’d hate to hear anybody say it. Is there anything else you need, Lieutenant? I have to get back to the course. I’m demonstrating this afternoon, and my torta di riso is coming out of the oven in five minutes.”

  “Go in peace,” Rocco said, and raised his cup to her in heartfelt appreciation. “And thanks!”

  On her way out, she very nearly collided with Severo Quadrelli, who was striding buoyantly down the hall. “Linda, Linda,” he greeted her. “Lovely girl.”

  Linda looked at him curiously. “Hi, Severo.”

  Martignetti, facing the open doorway of the conference room, called out to him. “Hallo? Signor Quadrelli? Could we see you again for a moment, please?” He spoke in Italian.

  Quadrelli stopped and came to the doorway. “Yes, what is it?”

  “We realized there are a few more things we need to ask you about. Come in, please. Sit down.”

  “Will this take very long? I have quite a number of things—”

  “Please,” Rocco said. “Sit.”

  “Very well, very well.” The chairs were a bit narrow for him, but he waggled his bulk into one of them with a sigh, smiling forbearance. “Now, then, what can I do for you?”

  “Your call to Cesare’s attorney went well?” Rocco asked. “You seem pleased.”

  “Very pleased, yes. She very politely thanked me for the information. She was quite subdued, as I would have been in her place. I’d venture to say that’s the last we’ve heard of signora Batelli. How could it be otherwise? This suit of theirs is founded on grievances suffered as a result of signora Cubbiddu’s “wrongful death” at the hands of signor Cubbiddu. Now we learn that he was not among the living at the time of her unfortunate death, so how can he have been responsible? Causa finita est.”

  “I’m happy that we’ve been of service. The suit was against signor Cubbiddu’s estate?”

  “Against Franco.”

  Rocco frowned. “I understood that all three sons were beneficiaries of his will.”

  “Yes, that’s so. But Luca and Nico—and Cesare, may I point out—received stipends, extremely generous stipends. Franco, naturally, was bequeathed the great bulk of the physical estate, including the winery and this property.

  “‘Naturally’ because he was the oldest son?” said Martignetti.

  Quadrelli correctly sensed an implied criticism and drew himself up a little. Into the armholes of his vest went his thumbs. “It is thanks to the institution of primogeniture, Maresciallo, that many historic and culturally precious properties have been kept from dissolution. Could Villa Antica have remained as it was, had it been divided among the four young men? Especially with Cesare having a quarter interest?”

  “True, but it is also thanks to primogeniture—” began Martignetti, but Rocco quickly cut in. Tonino was the second oldest of seven children in the family of a wealthy publisher who also subscribed to primogeniture, and he, like his siblings, had wound up out on the street when the eldest brother inherited. Tonino was a good-humored man, but primogeniture was his bête noire, and Rocco had learned it was best not to let him get started.

  “You served as the executor of signor Cubbiddu’s estate, is that correct, signor Quadrelli?” Rocco asked.

  “Yes, quite correct, quite correct,” Quadrelli agreed, feathers only slightly ruffled.

  “And what about the time during which the two of them were missing? The time before they were found? You acted as . . . I don’t remember what it’s called.”

  “It’s called ‘conservator.’ Yes, I was appointed conservator. By the courts.”

  “Right, conservator. Which means you oversaw the accounts and handled finances in general, both the Cubbiddu family accounts and the Villa Antica accounts. You saw that debts were paid and so on, do we have that right?”

  “Yes, quite right, quite right. And I requested and received a judgment permitting me to make disbursements in accord with his will.”

  “Good,” Rocco said pleasantly, although the lawyer was getting under his skin with his jovial, patronizing condescension. You could practically hear a benevolent “my boy” tacked on at the end of his responses. “We’d like to have copies of those accounts, if you don’t mind. Tonino, maybe you could go with signor Quadrelli to his office—”

  “The accounts? But you already have them. I gave them to you—to Maresciallo Martignetti, actually—at the time of the disappearance, don’t you remember, Maresciallo? But if you need duplicates, I’ll be more than happy to provide them. Anything at all I can do to help.” My boy.

  “No,” Martignetti said, “those were the accounts up until the time the two of them disappeared. What we’d like to see now are the accounts for the time just afterward; say, October through November of last year.”

  “I don’t understand. Pietro was already deceased by then, no? What possible relevance could his—his postmortem finances, so to speak—what possible relevance could they have to your investigation?”

  “Well, it’s just that we have to cover every possible source of information,” Rocco said.

  Quadrelli coughed gently and cleared his throat. “You’re welcome to them, of course, but I must admit to a certain hesit
ance. The privacy of the entire family is involved, you see, and I consider myself the custodian of . . . not that any of them have anything to hide . . . but you see, a natural, ah, prudence constrains, ah . . .”

  A barely perceptible look passed between the two carabinieri. Over the years, Rocco Gardella and Antonio Martignetti had developed a highly productive interview routine when the situation called for it. Not bad cop vs. good cop so much as dumb cop vs. smart cop; or maybe friendly, easygoing, what-you-see-is-what-you-get cop (think Columbo) vs. streetwise, don’t-mess-with-me cop (Kojak in a smaller, quicker, better-looking version). Martignetti was the nice guy, Rocco was the dangerous one.

  The roles came naturally to them: wearing a leather bomber jacket, Rocco would pass more easily as a hood than as a cop. But when he was a cop, everything about him practically said out loud that he knew you were lying, and if you weren’t lying you were covering something up, and if you weren’t covering something up you were, at the very least, fudging the facts. And you’d better shape up if you knew what was good for you. Martignetti, five years older and ten years longer in police work, took a more tolerant view of human nature, and his kindly, world-weary mug and intelligent, blue-gray eyes told you he was more happy than your average police officer to take you at your word and less eager to toss you in the clink if you inadvertenly said something you hadn’t meant at all. At least until contrary evidence came along.

  The glance between the two was accompanied by the barest of nods from Rocco, a signal that he was jumping into character. “If there’s nothing to hide,” he said crisply while Quadrelli was still hemming and hawing, “then there’s no problem. Let’s go get them now.”

  “Yes, but you see, it’s not as easy as that. As I’ve tried to explain, it’s, ah, my job to protect the welfare and privacy of the Cubbiddu family—”

  “You just told us there wasn’t anything to hide. Am I right, Maresciallo?”

  Martignetti looked at his notes. “‘Not that any of them have anything to hide,’” he read.

  Quadrelli twisted his neck as if his collar were too tight and the fluorescent panels caught the gleam of sweat on the curve of his forehead. “And there isn’t anything to hide. All the same, I feel it’s incumbent on me to ask that you provide a warrant—”