As Urbino had felt when he had assembled jigsaw puzzles as a child, each easily neglected and even trivial piece had significance as long as you did not also lose sight of the much larger picture.
The contessa had a troubled look on her face. She must still be contemplating the sad and unavoidable costs of their having freed her loyal Mina.
‘But Olimpia was your cousin, too, don’t forget,’ Urbino emphasized. ‘You have loyalty to her and her memory. For your own sake and Mina’s. Mina loved her. And speaking of Mina, if you hadn’t been what you call disloyal to Eufrosina, Mina would still be in prison,’ he said, finding it necessary to reinforce the obvious.
‘But it’s all taken its toll on us, hasn’t it? You’re looking a little weary.’ Her gray eyes played softly on his face. ‘Things are so mixed up in my head – or is it my heart? When I console myself that justice has been done, I see Eufrosina’s face in front of me. And then when I think of poor dead Olimpia, I remember that she was a blackmailer, after all. I can all too easily imagine her taunting Eufrosina with the letter. But then I even get upset at Apollonia for having become so hardhearted and inflexible in her later years. If she had been more understanding and forgiving, Olimpia would never have been able to blackmail Eufrosina. If she hadn’t been so afraid of her mother, none of this would have happened.’
‘But not just afraid of her disapproval, Barbara. She was afraid of being cut out of her will.’
‘As she was anyway. Do you think Apollonia knew about Eufrosina and Achille?’
‘No. She would have confronted Eufrosina. It was a case of one child getting the greater influence over a parent. Alessandro wanted almost everything and now he has it. But he didn’t have to make too much of an effort to turn Apollonia against Eufrosina. She seems to have kept asking her mother for money, to pay off Olimpia and to liquidate her debts. A woman like Apollonia couldn’t easily abide the idea of Eufrosina throwing away her carefully conserved money, though I suspect much of it is going to slip through Alessandro’s fingers quickly. He should be able to carve a whole army of figures and not have to worry about financing himself. He has some talent, I will grant him that. Who knows? He might open a shop.’
‘What about Nedda Bari? She seems to have known about the affair.’
‘Known or strongly suspected. She was suspicious about the blue sweater, though she doesn’t seem to have known for sure that Eufrosina gave it to Achille. But she kept whatever knowledge she had to herself. She wanted to protect Apollonia, she said, and I am assuming she meant protect her from the knowledge of Eufrosina’s affair with her own first cousin, someone you said was almost like a brother to her. Can you imagine Apollonia’s reaction? You’re shocked enough yourself, and so am I. Remember that Apollonia didn’t even approve of widows remarrying. Small wonder that letter gave Olimpia so much power over Eufrosina once she figured it out.’
The contessa selected one of the petits fours on the plate.
‘Eufrosina was desperate to find the letter once she had killed Olimpia. It linked her not only with Achille but also with Olimpia’s murder. She had plenty of opportunities to look for it in the atelier and Olimpia’s rooms in the weeks after the murder. It was obvious that someone had gone through her desk and other things.’
‘And the exhibition,’ the contessa exclaimed. ‘She took Olimpia’s purse out of the display case. She thought Olimpia might have put the letter in it.’
‘And she removed the other things for cover. I thought it was suspicious when you told me about her unannounced visit to the exhibition. But she should have realized Olimpia wouldn’t have put the letter in the purse. You or someone else might have found it.’ Urbino took a sip of his sherry and glanced into the Piazza, where all the noise and activity struck him as some kind of ritual for the rapidly vanishing snowman. ‘Do you have any idea whether Eufrosina ever went up to Mina’s room, looking for the letter?’
‘Surely someone would have seen her and mentioned it to me, but I suppose it’s possible.’ The contessa shook her head slowly. ‘Can it really be only three short weeks ago that Eufrosina met us here? Three long weeks, I should say. I don’t know which they are. Back then we were concerned with Gaby. Little did we realize …’ Her voice trailed off.
‘All Gaby’s fears seemed to be about things outside the house, precipitated by the deaths of her parents and Achille. But who knows? She might have sensed that something was wrong in the house. Many people who live alone or isolate themselves become sensitive to every little thing around them. It was visibly painful to her to have us all gaping inside the blue rooms. Probably Olimpia was afraid that if we took Gaby seriously, we might find out about the blackmail.’
‘Which you – we – did.’
‘But only after she had been murdered because of it.’
‘What was it that Gaby said? “There’s sin in Eufrosina”? You don’t think she knew, do you?’
‘No. If she had, she would not have just played around with it that way. She would have been more direct with me. She wouldn’t have wanted her sister’s murderer to go free.’
‘What do you think will happen to her and Ercule now?’
‘Some good things.’
The contessa’s gray eyes widened with surprise. It was not what she had expected him to say.
‘Yes,’ Urbino emphasized. ‘Eugene told me something this morning that’s going to make a big change in their lives.’
A smile of pleasant expectation curved the contessa’s mouth. Urbino explained how Eugene had done some thinking about the Palazzo Pindar when he had been away from Venice with the Chins. Yesterday, on his own and without consulting Urbino, he had gone to the Palazzo Pindar and spoken with Gaby and Ercule. He had told them he would like to buy the Pindar collection but that the collection would be kept in the building. Nothing would change, he said, and Gaby would be the curator for as long as she wanted.
‘The only conditions are that they put up a plaque mentioning the Hennepin name and install a top-of-the-line security system. He’ll pay for it. He took to Gaby. When he heard about what happened at the wake, he became determined to help her. He’s offered them a lot of money. He’s proud of coming up with the idea, and he has every reason to be.’
‘That’s absolutely wonderful, caro! Are they accepting?’
‘It seems they are. They would be foolish not to. They get a great deal and lose nothing. And Gaby seems to have great trust in Eugene. It may be because he seemed to come from nowhere, from outside the house, and is helping solve their money problems. He may even be able to get her to agree to see a professional, who would come to the house. I’m hoping she’s going to start healing, not despite what the family has just gone through, but somehow because of it. We’ll urge her on our part.’
The contessa nodded.
‘Eugene will set as many things in motion as he can before we leave. He’s an astute businessman. He says he’ll return later, maybe when I come back, so that everything can be firmed up. Bianchi is drawing up the documents. Gaby keeps the collection and her relationship to it. They both keep the house. And Ercule will have enough money from his half to go to Istanbul for a long time.’
‘And the building stays in the family. But Gaby will be alone once Ercule leaves.’
‘Not necessarily. Alessandro might end up staying and have Nedda continue to rent his building. Or, if he decides to move back in himself, maybe Gaby and Ercule could rent out Olimpia’s atelier and the floor below it to Nedda.’
‘If Nedda thinks it would be suitable for her.’
‘It could work out well for everyone concerned. And it would be good for Gaby. She would have an almost constant stream of people passing through the house. When you think of it, it could all make for a good mix in the Palazzo Pindar. It would help keep up its reputation for eccentricity – a long history of it. And eccentricity – true eccentricity – is an endangered species these days.’
‘It isn’t hard to see why you would come out in d
efense of it.’
When Urbino could not dispute the truth of something, he remained silent, as he did now, enduring the contessa’s gentle, ironic smile.
‘And what about the blue rooms?’ she asked. ‘Do you think Ercule and Gaby will clear them out?’
Urbino thought a few moments before responding. ‘I doubt it, Barbara. Neither of them is up to that. And to be honest, I believe that some doors should remain closed – even locked forever.’
‘Why does that not surprise me?’ The smile returned to the contessa’s face. She held his gaze until he looked away.
The contessa sipped her tea.
‘This case of ours, Nick, has been too much about the past. Let’s think of the future. My Fortuny exhibition and your Fortuny book. The successful conclusion of your business back in America. And a happier future for my remaining Pindar relatives.’
‘To the future, Nora.’ Urbino raised his sherry glass. ‘And long live eccentricity!’
Zouzou chose this moment to awaken. She gave a quiet little bark that sounded like one of agreement.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Edward Sklepowich
Cover design by Elizabeth Connor
ISBN 978-1-5040-0137-3
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