"Sure." Carlina went to her bedroom and pulled the scarf from the basket where she kept her accessories. "Have fun. But don't forget to bring it back."
"Of course not! Thank you so much." Annalisa blew her a kiss and waved at the Commissario. "Ciao!"
The Commissario took his cup and got up too. "Your family is very . . . refreshing."
Their eyes met. "My thoughts exactly."
The door opened and Fabbiola rushed into the apartment. "Carlina!"
"Ciao, Mama."
Fabbiola's gaze darted from the Commissario to her daughter. "What have you discussed?" She put her hands on her hips and faced the Commissario. "How did you get into my daughter's apartment?"
His face remained impassive. "Your daughter opened the door."
Fabbiola turned to Carlina. "You should have told me, then I would have come with you! I don't think it's clever to talk to the police all on your own." She threw a glance at Garini. "You'll forgive my plain speaking, Commissario."
He inclined his head. "Certainly, Signora Mantoni-Ashley."
Carlina suppressed a giggle.
"This is not funny, Carlina!"
Garini went to the kitchen and placed his cup next to the sink. "I'm afraid I have to insist on talking to every one individually." His cool gaze assessed Fabbiola.
She swelled with indignation. "Certainly not."
"It's all right, Mama." Carlina placed her hand on Fabbiola's arm. "He needs to find the murderer of Grandpa. We want that too, don't we?"
"Of course!" Fabbiola crossed her arms in front of her chest. "But he won't find the murderer by talking to the family." She rounded on her daughter. "Why do you grin like that?"
Carlina bit back her smile. "I'm not grinning."
"I forbid you to talk to the police without me!"
Too late. I already told him everything.
"Maybe I can talk to you right now, Signora Mantoni-Ashley."
"What do you want to know?" Fabbiola pressed her lips together.
"Which event from the past did your father throw at you?"
Fabbiola's mouth fell open. "What?"
"First, you have to agree that this conversation will be recorded," Carlina said.
Garini's mouth twitched. "Correct. Do you agree, Signora Mantoni-Ashley?"
Fabbiola waved her hands. "Yes, yes, whatever. Now explain what you meant."
"Do you wish to take a seat?"
"No!" The strand of hair that kept coming loose from her bun fell forward. "Tell me!"
"You told me your father had a so-called bad past phase just before his death." Garini leaned his shoulder against the door frame of the kitchen.
Carlina slid onto her seat at the window without a sound. Maybe he'll let me stay if I don't say anything.
Fabbiola lifted her eyebrows. "Yes?"
"I understand that during this phase, he told several family members about their bad deeds of the past."
"Oh, that." Fabbiola made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "What about it?"
"What event from your past did he use?"
Fabbiola's glance darted to her daughter. She licked her lips and swallowed.
Carlina blinked. Her mother embarrassed? What on earth is going on?
Garini's light eyes never left Fabbiola's face. "Do you wish to continue this conversation without your daughter?"
Carlina held her breath.
"No." Fabbiola pulled back her shoulders and stood up straighter. "It was all nonsense anyway."
A dove landed on the roof with a scratching noise. It started to coo next to the window, the sound too loud for the silence in the room. Carlina frowned and waved her hand at it. The dove veered away and tripped around the window in a wider curve.
"Father said Carlina wasn't her father's daughter."
Carlina's hand fell into her lap as if she had been shot. Her mouth dropped open.
Garini didn't blink. "Isn't she?"
Carlina glared at him. Ruthless questions seemed to be his specialty.
"Of course she is." Fabbiola went to her daughter and put an arm around Carlina's shoulders. "Just because she has blue-green eyes doesn't mean she's from another man."
"What color were your husband's eyes?" Garini looked straight into Fabbiola's brown eyes.
"Blue."
Something hard and cold formed inside Carlina's stomach. Dad's eyes had been light-brown, amber. She would have to take his picture off the wall the minute the Commissario left her apartment. Oh, my God. What is going on here?
"I see." Garini's voice sounded mild. "When did the conversation about your daughter's father take place?"
Fabbiola shrugged. "At lunch, in Benedetta's kitchen, a few days before Emma's wedding."
Nobody told me about it. Carlina felt as if a black pit opened in front of her feet. I thought I knew everything about us.
"I don't remember the exact date," Fabbiola spread her hands in an apologetic gesture, but she remained close to Carlina.
Garini nodded. "Do you remember what he said to the other family members?"
Carlina could feel her mother's rigid body softening. Don't relax, Mama. This guy is dangerous.
Fabbiola frowned in thought. "He said something about Angela."
"Angela?"
"My niece Angela, who married the young doctor Marco."
Garini nodded. "Yes, I remember. What did he say?"
"He said Angela had blackmailed Marco into the marriage."
Carlina remembered the blank look Marco had given his wife. Blackmailed into marriage? She shouldn't have stayed. She didn't want to hear all these terrible things about her family.
The Commissario frowned. "Did he say how she blackmailed him?"
"No." Fabbiola shrugged. "It was all nonsense anyway."
"Anything else you remember?"
Fabbiola shook her head.
"Thank you." The Commissario looked at her for a moment, his gaze cool. "I now wish to talk to the other family members."
"You have to come downstairs to do that." Fabbiola pushed back her strand of hair. "Benedetta is preparing Ravioli and can't spare the time."
Annalisa opened the door to Benedetta's apartment the instant they arrived on the landing. "There you are! I was just going to call you. Dinner is ready. Do you wish to join us, Commissario?"
Carlina closed her eyes. Oh, no.
Fabbiola hissed in her breath.
"Thank you, that would be nice." The Commissario smiled.
Carlina rolled her eyes. Of course he could smile at her lovely cousin. But wait until he started to grill her. Annalisa would wonder if he was the same man the minute he concentrated on her every secret with those hawk-like eyes.
Carlina waited until Garini and her mother had gone down to the kitchen, then she sidled up to Annalisa and said under her breath, "Why did you invite him? You said he's scary!"
Annalisa threw her a surprised glance. "I thought you liked him."
"Me?" It came out as a yelp.
"Yes. Besides, we always invite everybody who's in the house when dinner is ready."
"Not the police." Carlina threw his back a dark look.
"I'm sorry." Annalisa pulled at her lower lip with her pearly teeth. "But I can't un-invite him now. What should we do?"
Carlina shrugged. "Eat Ravioli, I guess."
Chapter 7
I
Carlina chose a chair as far away from the Commissario as possible. Unfortunately, she could still see him very well. The kitchen smelled of garlic, hot butter and fried sage. It smelled of home. Carlina took a deep breath, but the feeling of wellness she usually got at home didn't filter through her fears.
"Carlina, pass me the Parmesan, will you?" Fabbiola nudged her daughter.
"Sure." Carlina felt like a puppet, stiff and awkward. This is the Muppet Show, she thought. Mantoni-style. Watch us all play the piece to perfection. If only we remembered our roles.
"So." Benedetta ladled molten butter and crisp sage leaves onto her Raviolis. "Do you ha
ve a sweetheart, Signor Garini?"
Carlina choked.
"No." The Commissario met Benedetta's searching gaze with one of his unemotional stares.
"Ha." Uncle Teo waved his fork. "That's not very clever of you. A man needs a woman."
Exactly. Carlina suppressed a grin and picked up another piece of pasta. She loved the taste of spinach with Ricotta. And she loved to see the Commissario in dire straits.
"How about your family?" Benedetta's red mouth disappeared behind a fork-load full of Ravioli.
Ah, the big interrogation. Carlina started to enjoy herself. How's that for turning tables, Commissario?
Benedetta swallowed her Ravioli and returned to battle, ignoring the Commissario's silence. "Do your parents live in Florence, Commissario?"
"My father lives in Fiesole." Garini continued to eat with unmitigated appetite.
"That's not too far away. Do you see him often?" Benedetta was like a dog with a bone; she chewed with relentless intensity.
The Commissario speared his food with his fork. "These Raviolis are very good, Mrs. Mantoni-Santorini."
"Please call me Benedetta."
Carlina's food got stuck in her throat. Hello? Had Benedetta forgotten who he was? He wasn't Annalisa's latest boyfriend or Ernesto's current buddy. He was the Commissario who was trying to find a murderer within the family!
"My name is Stefano." The Commissario smiled.
Damn. When he smiled, he looked almost human. From the corner of her eyes, Carlina saw Annalisa's eyebrows going up. Oh, no. What if Annalisa started to picture herself in love with the Commissario? How long had she been going out with Tonio? Four weeks? Five? Damn. That was about the time it took to make her bored with a guy.
"And your mother?" Annalisa flashed a hundred-watt smile across the table.
Great. Now her cousin had joined the big interrogation. Carlina almost felt sorry for the Commissario.
The Commissario regarded Annalisa for a moment, then he said without once drawing breath, "My mother died when I was twenty-one. She had cancer, but thank God she didn't suffer for long. I have one sister who lives in Switzerland. She works as an event manager at a luxury hotel. My hobbies are playing the saxophone and reading science magazines. My shoe size is forty-three, and I have lived in Florence for ten years."
Carlina burst out laughing.
The family stared at her in consternation. "What's so funny?" Fabbiola frowned at her daughter.
"Nothing." Carlina met the Commissario's gaze. The glimmer of a smile in his light eyes filled her with a hum of happiness. She averted her gaze.
II
Stefano Garini opened the window of Nico's living room and took a deep breath. He had suggested this room as neutral territory, but he had not counted on the stuffy smell. Carlina's apartment had been a lot more cheerful. He had felt at ease with her, something he didn't want and couldn't use. She was his main suspect, and it wouldn't do to look for the ready smile to emerge in those cat-like eyes, or for the crinkle of amusement in the corner of her mouth.
He closed the window and leaned with his back against the sill, waiting for Benedetta to join him. If he was lucky, she would stick to his instructions and come without another family member in tow.
He shook his head. The Mantonis made him feel as if he was walking on eggs. You never knew when the next would crack. The whole case had started on a bad footing, and that's how it continued. First, his mistake not to take the death seriously. Second, Carlina with her cat-like eyes who didn't fit into any category he knew. Third, her family, a collection of crazy bats if he ever saw one. Cat food as a snack! What else would they tell him?
He had to handle them all on his own. He frowned. Where was Piedro anyway? He shouldn't be doing the interviews by himself. Stefano whipped out his cell phone and called his subordinate. "Piedro. Where are you?" This time, he didn't try to veil the threat in his voice.
"I missed the train in Pisa and had to wait for over an hour because the next train was delayed, but I'm only ten minutes away from the office now." Piedro puffed into the phone as if he was running.
"Don't go to the office. Come to Via delle Pinzochere 10 directly."
"Where?"
"To the house where the old man died."
"Oh, all right."
Stefano heard the suppressed sigh in Piedro's voice. "Get something to eat on the way. It'll be a long evening."
"Okay." Piedro sounded sullen now.
Garini hung up and shook his head. How a man as wily as Signor Cervi ended up with a son like Piedro will always remain a mystery to me.
The door opened and Benedetta came in. "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Yes." Stefano made a move with his hand. "Please take a seat." He took out his recorder. "Do you agree to my recording this conversation?"
"Of course." Benedetta had applied new lipstick and smiled at him. "We all wish to find father's murderer."
Stefano explained what he wanted to know and watched her reaction.
Benedetta cocked her head to one side and pursed her lips. "Let's see. Uncle Nico said so many things I didn't pay attention anymore." She cocked her head to the other side.
Stefano started to feel as if he was in a theater show.
"No, I can't recall anything." Benedetta shrugged. "It was such nonsense; I never bothered to remember."
"How about the other family members? He suggested quite a few different things from the past, didn't he?"
"Well." Benedetta shrugged. "I think he once said that Aunt Maria had a drinking problem and compensated for it by eating garlic."
Jesus. "Did you believe him?"
Benedetta made a wary move with her hands. "Of course not. Even if he was my father, he was an old man and delighted in mischief. You couldn't take anything seriously, no matter what he said."
"I see." Stefano looked at her. I don't believe a word. "Where were you on your daughter's wedding day between eleven and two?"
Benedetta looked affronted. "Well, I was at Emma's wedding, of course."
"The ceremony only started at one."
"Yes." Benedetta drew herself up. "But, unlike Emma, I arrived early." Her red mouth twisted. "Very early. Emma was quite nervous and had asked us all to leave her alone."
He frowned. "All but her cousin Carlina, that is." Maybe they killed him together.
"Of course." Benedetta shrugged. "Carlina and Emma . . . " She shook her head. "They're inseparable, in spite of the age difference." She pressed her mouth together as if she did not approve of that friendship.
"How many years separate them?"
"Nine years." Benedetta shook her head again. "Carlina always helped Emma."
"Is that a bad thing?"
The red lips pursed. "She helped her to get into mischief more than once."
Stefano didn't take his gaze off Benedetta. She seemed like an overprotective mother. Still, he made a mental note to find out more about this mischief. "Thank you. Please ask Teodoro to come to me now."
Benedetta got up. "It wasn't anybody from the family, Stefano, believe me. You're wasting your time here. Better start looking further away."
He inclined his head. No way.
Benedetta collided with Piedro in the door.
"Ah, my long lost assistant." Stefano nodded. "Please take out your notebook and note everything that is being said, Piedro."
Piedro nodded and chose his old seat on the footstool.
Teodoro Mantoni skipped into the room as if he had been through a rejuvenating bath. "Carlina already told me what you need to know. I am to give you an account of the bad past stories."
Garini nodded. "That's right." I wonder if you will.
Uncle Teo sat down and lifted his thumb. "Number one: Nico told Fabbiola that Carlina wasn't her father's child." He looked up and stared at the Commissario out of rheumy eyes. "Utter nonsense, of course. The child is a true Mantoni."
She will always be a true Mantoni because of her mother, no matter who her father w
as. Stefano made sure his face didn't show his thoughts.
Uncle Teo lifted his index finger. "Number two: He told Carlina she had rejected a prince and would end up marrying a garbage man."
Stefano bent forward. "A what?"
"A garbage man."
"Not a butcher?"
"A butcher?" Uncle Teo blinked. "I said nothing whatsoever about a butcher. Do you have problems with your ears, young man?"
"No." Stefano said with a small smile. "Not at all." The little witch.
Uncle Teo lifted his middle finger. "Number three: He told Benedetta she had killed her husband by nagging him into his grave."
And she doesn't recall that? Fat chance. Stefano narrowed his eyes. "How did he die?"
"He died of a gastric ulcer seven years ago." Uncle Teo shook his head. "The young men today aren't what they used to be. No stamina, if you understand what I mean."
Stamina to live with the Mantoni women? Stefano suppressed a desire to laugh and nodded with a grave expression.
Uncle Teo came to his ring finger. "Number four: He said Annalisa had cheated on her final exams in school."
Stefano looked at the old man in front of him. "Had she?"
Uncle Teo waggled his head. "She was very good friends with the young teacher. That's all I know."
Whoa. Stefano swallowed.
Uncle Teo's small finger came up. "Number five: He said Ernesto always comes home in the middle of the night by way of the balcony." He contemplated his small finger as if he had never seen it before. "I'm glad Nico didn't say that in front of Benedetta."
"Is it true?"
"Of course." Uncle Teo nodded so hard, his wisps of white hair started to shake. "I did it myself when I was his age. It's not a sin, young man."
"Of course not." Stefano glanced at Piedro. I hope you manage to note all this without mistakes.
Uncle Teo dropped his right hand into his lap and started on his left. "Number six: Nico said I had an affair with Signorina Electra." He chuckled and seemed to sink into reminiscences.
Stefano waited. The nearly bald crown of the head in front of him sunk deeper, the dark age spots visible on the pink scalp shining through the tufts of white hair. "Signor Mantoni?"
The old man roused himself. "Where was I? Oh, yes. Electra. Well, I had a--" he stopped and stared at Garini from underneath his bushy eyebrows. "Are you related to her?"
Delayed Death (Temptation in Florence Book 1) Page 10
