by Donna Leon
‘On the Zattere, with a view across to the Giudecca,’ Vianello said, naming one of the most desirable areas in the city. Then he added, ‘I’d say it’s six rooms, the apartment, though I saw only the entrance hall.’
‘Two hundred and twenty thousand lire?’ Brunetti asked, thinking that this was what Raffi had paid for a pair of Timberlands a month ago.
‘Yes, sir,’ Vianello said.
‘Why don’t you ask the professor and his wife to come in, then, Sergeant? By the way, what is the professor a professor of?’
‘I don’t think of anything, sir.’
‘I see,’ Brunetti said and screwed the cap back on to his pen.
Vianello went over to the door and opened it, then stepped back to allow Professore and Signora Ratti to come into the office.
Professore Ratti might have been in his early fifties, but he was keeping that fact at bay to the best of his ability. He was aided in the attempt by the ministrations of a barber who cut his hair so close to the scalp that the grey would be mistaken for blond. A Gianni Versace suit in dove-grey silk added to the youthful look, as did the burgundy silk shirt which he wore open at the throat. His shoes, which he wore without socks, were the same colour as the shirt, made of woven leather that could have come only from Bottega Veneta. Someone once must have warned him about the tendency of the skin under his chin to wattle, for he wore a knotted white silk cravat and held his chin artificially high, as if compensating for a careless optician who had put the lenses in his bifocals in the wrong places.
If the professor was fighting a holding action against his age, his wife was engaged in open combat. Her hair bore an uncanny resemblance to the colour of her husband’s shirt, and her face had the tautness that came only from the vibrancy of youth or the skill of surgeons. Blade-thin, she wore a white linen suit with a jacket left open to display an emerald-green silk shirt. Seeing them, Brunetti wondered how they managed to walk around in this heat and still look fresh and cool. The coolest part of them was their eyes.
‘You wanted to speak to me, Professore?’ Brunetti asked, rising from his chair but making no attempt to shake hands.
‘Yes, I did,’ Ratti said, motioning to his wife to sit in the chair in front of Brunetti’s desk and then going, unasked, to pull a second from where it stood against the wall. When they were both comfortable, he continued, ‘I’ve come to tell you how much I dislike having the police invade the privacy of my home. Even more, I want to complain about the insinuations that have been made.’ Ratti, like so many Milanesi, elided all of the R’s in his speech, a sound which Brunetti could not help associating with actresses of the more pneumatic variety.
‘And what insinuations are those, Professore?’ Brunetti asked, resuming his seat and signalling to Vianello to stay where he was, just inside the door.
‘That there is some irregularity pertaining to my tenancy.’
Brunetti glanced across at Vianello and saw the sergeant raise his eyes towards the ceiling. Not only the Milano accent but now big words to go with it.
‘What makes you believe this insinuation has been made, Professore?’ Brunetti asked.
‘Well, why else would your police push their way into my apartment and demand that I produce rent receipts?’ As the professor spoke, his wife was busy running her eyes around the office.
‘ “Push”, Professore?’ Brunetti asked in a conversational voice. ‘ “Demand”?’ Then, to Vianello, ‘Sergeant, how did you gain access to the property to which the professor has…’ he paused, ‘tenancy?’
‘The maid let me in, sir.’
‘And what did you tell the maid who let you in, Sergeant?’
‘That I wanted to speak to Professore Ratti.’
‘I see,’ Brunetti said and turned his attention back to Ratti. ‘And how was the “demand” made, Professore?’
‘Your sergeant asked to see my rent receipts, as if I’d keep such things around.’
‘You are not in the habit of keeping receipts, Professore?’
Ratti waved a hand, and his wife gave Brunetti a look of studied surprise, as if to suggest what an enormous waste of time it would be to keep a record of a sum so small.
‘And what would you do if the owner of the apartment were ever to claim that you had not paid the rent? What proof would you offer?’ Brunetti asked.
This time, Ratti’s gesture was meant to dismiss the possibility of that ever happening, while his wife’s look was meant to suggest that no one would ever think of questioning her husband’s word.
‘Could you tell me just how you pay your rent, Professore?’
‘I don’t see how that is any business of the police,’ Ratti said belligerently. ‘I’m not used to being treated like this.’
‘Like what, Professore?’ Brunetti asked with real curiosity.
‘Like a suspect.’
‘Have you been treated like a suspect before, by other police, that would make you familiar with what it feels like?’
Ratti half rose in his seat and glanced over at his wife. ‘I don’t have to put up with this. A friend of mine is a city councillor.’ She made a slight gesture with her hand, and he slowly sat back down.
‘Could you tell me how you pay your rent, Professore Ratti?’
Ratti looked directly at Brunetti. ‘I deposit the rent at the Banca di Verona.’
‘At San Bartolomeo?’
‘Yes.’
‘And how much is that rent, Professore?’
‘It’s nothing,’ the professor said, dismissing the sum.
‘Is two hundred and twenty thousand lire the sum?’
‘Yes.’
Brunetti nodded. ‘And the apartment, how many square metres is it?’
Signora Ratti interrupted here, as if driven past her power to put up with such idiocy. ‘We have no idea of that. It’s adequate for our needs.’
Brunetti pulled the list of the apartments held in trust by the Lega towards him and flipped to the third page, then ran his finger down the list until he came to Ratti’s name. ‘Three hundred and twelve square metres, I think. And six rooms. Yes, I suppose that would be adequate for most needs.’
Signora Ratti was on him in a flash. ‘And what is that supposed to mean?’
Brunetti turned a level glance on her. ‘Just what I said, Signora, and no more. That six rooms ought to be adequate for two – there are only two of you, aren’t there?’
‘And the maid,’ she answered.
‘Three, then,’ Brunetti agreed. ‘Still adequate.’ He turned away from her, face unchanged, and returned his attention to her husband. ‘How was it that you came to be given one of the apartments of the Lega, Professore?’
‘It was very simple,’ Ratti began, but it seemed to Brunetti that he had begun to bluster. ‘I applied for it in the normal fashion, and I was given it.’
‘To whom did you apply?’
‘To the Lega della Moralità, of course.’
‘And how did you happen to learn that the Lega had apartments which it rented?’
‘It’s common knowledge here in the city, isn’t it, Commissario?’
‘If it is not now, then it soon will be, Professore.’
Neither of the Rattis said anything to this, but Signora Ratti glanced quickly at her husband and then back at Brunetti.
‘Do you remember anyone in particular who told you about the apartments?’
Both of them answered instantly, ‘No.’
Brunetti allowed himself the bleakest of smiles. ‘You seem very sure of that.’ He made a meaningless squiggle against their name on the list. ‘And did you have an interview in order to obtain this apartment?’
‘No,’ Ratti said. ‘We filled out the paperwork and sent it in. And then we were told that we had been selected.’
‘Did you receive a letter, or perhaps a phone call?’
‘It’s been so long ago. I don’t remember,’ Ratti said. He turned to his wife for confirmation, and she shook her head.
&nbs
p; ‘And you’ve been in this apartment for two years now?’
Ratti nodded.
‘And you haven’t saved any of the receipts for the rent you’ve paid?’
This time his wife shook her head.
‘Tell me, Professore, how much time do you spend in the apartment each year?’
He thought about this for a moment. ‘We come for Carnevale.’
His wife finished his sentence with a firm, ‘Of course.’
Her husband continued. ‘Then we come for September, and sometimes for Christmas.’
His wife broke in here and added, ‘We come for the odd weekend during the rest of the year, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Brunetti repeated. ‘And the maid?’
‘We bring her with us from Milano.’
‘Of course,’ Brunetti nodded and added another squiggle to the paper in front of him.
‘May I ask you, Professore, if you are familiar with the purposes of the Lega? With its goals?’
‘I know that it aims at moral improvement,’ the professor answered in a tone that declared there could never be too much of that.
‘Ah, yes,’ Brunetti said, then asked, ‘But beyond that, to its purpose in renting apartments?’
This time, it was Ratti who glanced at his wife. ‘I think their purpose was to attempt to give the apartments to those they considered worthy of them.’
Brunetti continued, ‘Knowing this, Professore, did it at any time seem strange to you that the Lega, which is a Venetian organization, had given one of the apartments it controls to a person from Milano, a person who would, moreover, make use of the apartment only a few months of the year?’ When Ratti said nothing, Brunetti urged him, ‘Surely, you know how difficult it is to find an apartment in this city?’
Signora Ratti chose to answer this. ‘I suppose we believed that they wanted to give an apartment like this to people who would know how to appreciate it and care for it.’
‘By that are you suggesting that you would be better able to care for a large and desirable apartment than would, for example, the family of a carpenter from Cannaregio?’
‘I think that goes without saying,’ she answered.
‘And who, if I might ask, pays for repairs to the apartment?’ Brunetti asked.
Signora Ratti smiled and answered, ‘So far, there has been no need to make any repairs.’
‘But surely there must be a clause in your contract – if you were given a contract – which makes clear who is responsible for repairs.’
‘They are,’ Ratti answered.
‘The Lega?’ Brunetti asked.
‘Yes.’
‘So then maintenance is not the responsibility of the people who rent?’
‘No.’
‘And you are there for – ‘ Brunetti began and then glanced down at the paper in front of him, as though he had the number written there,’ – for about two months a year?’ When Ratti said nothing, Brunetti asked, ‘Is that correct, Professore?’
His question was rewarded with a grudging, ‘Yes.’
In a gesture he made consciously identical to the one used by the priest who taught catechism to his grammar-school class, Brunetti folded his hands neatly in front of him, just short of the bottom of the sheet of paper on his desk, and said, ‘I think it is time to begin making choices, Professore.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Then perhaps I can explain it to you. The first choice is that I have you repeat this conversation and your answers to my questions into a tape recorder or that we have a secretary come in and take it down in shorthand. Either way, I would ask you to sign a copy of that statement, ask both of you to sign it, since you are telling me the same thing.’ Brunetti paused long enough for that to register. ‘Or you could, and I suggest this is by far the wiser course, begin to tell me the truth.’ Both feigned surprise, Signora Ratti going so far as to add outrage.
‘In either case,’ Brunetti added calmly, ‘the least that will happen to you is that you will lose the apartment, though that might take some time to happen. But you will lose it; that is little, but it is certain.’ He found it interesting that neither demanded that he explain what he was talking about.
‘It is clear that many of these apartments have been rented illegally and that someone associated with the Lega has been collecting rents illegally for years.’ When Professore Ratti began to object, Brunetti raised a hand for an instant, then quickly folded his fingers back together. ‘Were it only a case of fraud, then perhaps you would be better advised to continue to maintain that you know nothing about all of this. But, unfortunately, it is far more than a case of fraud.’ He paused here. He’d have it out of them, by God.
‘What is it a case of?’ Ratti asked, speaking more softly than he had since he entered Brunetti’s office.
‘It is a case of murder. Three murders, one of them a member of the police. I tell you this so that you will begin to realize that we are not going to let this go. One of our own has been killed, and we are going to find out who did that. And punish them.’ He paused a moment to let that sink in.
‘If you persist in maintaining your current story about the apartment, then you will eventually become involved in a prosecution for murder.’
‘We know nothing about murder,’ Signora Ratti said, voice sharp.
‘You do now, Signora. Whoever is at the back of this plan to rent the apartments is also responsible for the three murders. By refusing to help us discover who is responsible for renting you your apartment and collecting your rent each month, you are also obstructing a murder investigation. The penalty for that, I need not remind you, is far more severe than for being evasive in a case involving fraud. And I add, but quite at the personal level, that I will do everything in my power to see that it is imposed upon you if you continue to refuse to help us.’
Ratti got to his feet. ‘I’d like some time to speak to my wife. In private.’
‘No,’ Brunetti said, raising his voice for the first time.
‘I have that right,’ Ratti demanded.
‘You have the right to speak to your lawyer, Signor Ratti, and I will gladly allow you to do that. But you and your wife will decide that other matter now, in front of me.’ He was way beyond his legal rights, and he knew it; his only hope was that the Rattis did not.
They looked at one another for so long that Brunetti lost hope. But then she nodded her burgundy head and they both sat back down in their chairs.
‘All right,’ Ratti said, ‘but I want to make it clear that we know nothing about this murder.’
‘Murders,’ Brunetti said and saw that Ratti was shaken by the correction.
‘Three years ago,’ Ratti began, ‘a friend of ours in Milano told us he knew someone he thought could help us find an apartment in Venice. We had been looking for about six months, but it was very difficult to find anything, especially at that distance.’ Brunetti wondered if he was going to have to listen to a series of complaints. Ratti, perhaps sensing Brunetti’s impatience, continued, ‘He gave us a phone number we could call, a number here in Venice. We called and explained what we wanted, and the person on the other end asked us what sort of apartment we had in mind and how much we wanted to pay.’ Ratti paused, or did he stop?
‘Yes?’ Brunetti urged, his voice just the same as that priest’s had been when the children had some question or uncertainty about the catechism.
‘I told him what I had in mind, and he said he’d call me back in a few days. He did, and said he had three apartments to show us, if we could come to Venice that weekend. When we came, he showed us this apartment and two others.’
‘Was he the same man who answered the phone when you called?’
‘I don’t know. But it was certainly the same man who called us back.’
‘Do you know who the man was? Or is?’
‘It’s the man we pay the rent to, but I don’t know his name.’
‘And how do you do that?’
‘He calls us in the last week of the month and tells us where to meet him. It’s usually a bar, though sometimes, during the summer, it’s outside.’
‘Where, here in Venice or in Milano?’
His wife interrupted. ‘He seems to know where we are. He calls us here if we’re in Venice or Milano if we’re there.’
‘And then what do you do?’
Ratti answered this time. ‘I meet him and I give him the money.’
‘How much?’
‘Two and a half million lire.’
‘A month?’
‘Yes, though sometimes I give him a few months in advance.’
‘Do you know who this man is?’ Brunetti asked.
‘No, but I’ve seen him on the street here a few times.’
Brunetti realized there would be time to get a description later and let that pass. ‘And what about the Lega? How are they involved?’
‘When we told this man that we were interested in the apartment, he suggested a price, but we bargained him down to two and a half million.’ Ratti said this with ill-disguised self-satisfaction.
‘And the Lega?’ Brunetti asked.
‘He told us that we would receive application forms from the Lega and that we were to fill them out and return them, and that we would be able to move into the apartment within two weeks of that.’
Signora Ratti broke in here. ‘He also told us not to tell anyone about how we had got the apartment.’
‘Has anyone asked you?’
‘Some friends of ours in Milano,’ she answered, ‘but we told them we found it through a rental agency.’
‘And the person who gave you the number – do you know how he got it?’
‘He told us someone had given it to him at a party.’
‘Do you remember the month and year when you made that original call?’ Brunetti asked.
