by David Hewson
He remembered the fond way Joanne Van Doren had talked about her. There was no easy way to explain this. It had to be seen, in the caring, worried expressions of the women at the cat sanctuary, in the faces of the church wardens in Aracoeli, watching from the shadows as she bent over the organ there, trapped in the mechanisms of the gigantic instrument, eyes streaming, intent on playing the piece her father had loved, one that was both haunting and resonant.
‘She has this . . . aura. I don’t know how to put it. There’s a personal magnetism you don’t expect to see in someone of that age. Or anyone really. She’s special. People love her.’
‘She’s an attractive teenager, Nic,’ Peroni said. ‘Intelligent, likeable, considerate. You don’t get that so often. It doesn’t mean she’s not trying to work out who she is, just like any other kid. There’s nothing unusual there, not really.’
Costa shook his head.
‘I disagree. She’s worried. Frightened, maybe. Hiding something. I thought that when I saw her in the street the night her father died. It’s as if she wants to talk but can’t. Whether it’s because she’s afraid, ashamed, or maybe just hasn’t found the right person to tell . . .’
The three men fell silent over their food and drink. Costa wondered what the finocchiona tasted like. The smell . . . He grabbed a slice of pungent seasoned pecorino and pushed the thought aside.
‘So here we are,’ Falcone grumbled. ‘The three of us wondering what to do. I hate August. I don’t have the manpower for some complicated investigation even if I had the evidence to justify one. Half the people who are any good are on holiday.’ He glared at Costa. ‘Including you.’
‘What’s the rush?’ Peroni asked. ‘No one’s going anywhere. Give us a week or so and we’ll be back to normal.’
Falcone sighed and said, ‘We could be looking at murder.’
‘Could we?’ Costa asked. This point had been bothering him for the last hour. ‘We’ve no evidence that Malise Gabriel’s death wasn’t an accident. The only reason we have doubts is because of the way we’re interpreting how his family are behaving. I see the look in Mina’s face and think there’s something wrong. What could be evidence disappears for no good reason. It’s intriguing. Infuriating. But it doesn’t add up to anything circumstantial, let alone substantive.’
‘Here’s something,’ Peroni chipped in. ‘That American woman looked much more worried than the real widow. Cecilia Gabriel seems as hard as nails. I couldn’t wait to be out of there, and she didn’t hit me.’
Falcone muttered something inaudible then added, ‘All the more reason why I should be doing more than I am.’ He glared at Peroni. ‘Shouldn’t I?’
‘Doing what? We’re trying to prise open the lid on one of the most private things anyone owns. Their family. Cecilia Gabriel and her daughter don’t seem keen to help. The son’s nowhere to be found. This isn’t going to be quick or easy. Besides, do we have a choice? We could be in trouble already.’
‘Facts,’ Falcone protested. ‘On the evidence we’ve been given Malise Gabriel was alone in the house with his daughter. Logically, circumstantially, he had sex with her, not that we have any firm proof. Even if she agreed to a physical examination . . .’
Costa shook his head and said, ‘She won’t do that. Not now. Why would she? She isn’t making a complaint.’
‘I’m going to have to ask for one, aren’t I? If she’s innocent, where’s the problem?’
Peroni caught Costa’s eye and said, ‘The problem is she’d have to go into a room with a complete stranger and let herself be prodded and poked as if she were a rape victim. Allowing you to do that is as good as an admission that something untoward happened, isn’t it? Nic’s right. She won’t agree.’
‘It could clear her!’ Falcone pointed out. ‘And her father.’
Costa thought of the words she’d used outside the Palazzetto Santacroce.
‘Mina identifies with Beatrice Cenci. If you ask her to go through an examination she’ll equate that with some kind of torture, of duress. Understandably, perhaps. Beatrice never confessed to a thing, even when she was hung up from the ceiling until her shoulders were dislocated. If Mina sees herself as a modern-day Beatrice she’ll ignore every question you throw at her as a matter of principle.’
Falcone scowled.
‘Why? Her father appears to have been murdered. He had sex before he died. There were scratch marks on his back. If we could examine her nails . . .’ Costa and Peroni were shaking their heads in unison. ‘There was blood on the radiator by the wall. A sign of violence, possibly. Perhaps the brother chanced on them and lost his temper. Perhaps it was planned in advance.’
He put his glass on the table and murmured a low curse. Then he glanced at Costa, as if seeking support.
‘If I pull in Mina Gabriel tomorrow, with or without her mother, and put her through an aggressive interrogation – no physical examination, just questioning – do you think she might break?’
‘No,’ Costa said immediately. ‘She’s very smart and very cool. When she wants to talk, she’ll talk. Not before. Nothing’s going to change that. Not unless you can break her story somehow. You’re also forgetting that she spent most of that Friday night in the room she used for music. Practising, wearing a set of headphones. She only saw her father briefly, later in the evening. That was how she knew he was there.’
Falcone looked interested and said, ‘So?’
‘So if you’re practising music, very intricate and difficult music, with headphones on . . . surely anything could have happened outside the door of her room. Someone else could have walked in and gone to bed with Malise Gabriel, then left without Mina noticing.’
‘Please,’ Falcone told him. ‘You know nothing of affairs. No one would do such a thing if there was a family member in the next room. Headphones or no headphones. It’s ridiculous.’
‘They would if the girl knew the affair was going on,’ Peroni said slyly. ‘If it was their secret. Daddy’s friend’s coming round. Best not disturb us.’
‘Well, there’s one more reason to bring her in.’ Falcone glanced at his watch then drained his glass. ‘Unless the girl tells us something I see only two ways forward. Forensic can come up with something concrete from outside the house. Or we can find the brother. I’m sick of waiting on narcotics. We can at least try to locate Robert Gabriel ourselves. Agreed?’
Costa shrugged.
‘It’s not for me to agree or disagree. It’s your case.’
Falcone’s acute grey eyes flashed with displeasure.
‘Oh no. You’re involved already. You spent the whole day with Mina Gabriel. She trusts you. We can use that. It may be one of the few advantages we have.’
‘I’m on holiday, Leo.’
‘I know. But you can do what you’re doing now. Hanging around. Talking to her. If she trusts you that could help us.’
Peroni grabbed some more cold meat with a wordless grumble.
‘Is that wise?’ Costa asked. ‘Doesn’t the question of entrapment bother you?’
‘Not in the slightest. She needs a friend. It seems to me she has one.’
He half-expected this. Costa knew the direction the man’s mind took when opportunities were scarce.
Falcone tapped Peroni on the knee.
‘Also I like your idea. Let’s wait until we’ve something solid. Then, when we’re ready, we’ll bring in the girl and her mother. Who knows? Maybe the son too.’
Peroni blinked and said, ‘You liked my idea? You’re following my advice?’
‘I always listen. Give me credit for that. Besides.’ Falcone’s face fell serious for a moment. ‘If we go nowhere near them for a day or two perhaps they’ll think they’ve got away with it.’
‘Whatever it is,’ Costa added. ‘Anything else?’
Falcone smiled and held up his wine glass. He looked satisfied finally, if not exactly happy.
‘One more round of drinks, Nic. Then I’m going home. Best make it quick. The pr
ice goes up at seven.’
TWO
Costa bought them another glass and stuck to water. Then, when they left, he picked up the Vespa from outside the Palazzetto Santacroce and rode round to the narrow lane of Governo Vecchio. It ran from the old talking statue of Pasquino near the Piazza Navona towards the river, a cramped, cobbled route that was once one of the pilgrim streets to the Vatican. Falcone had owned an apartment here, close to the famous wine bar Cul de Sac, before moving to a quieter place in Monti. Near Navona it was busy with tourists and Romans alike. As it progressed towards the Ponte Sant’Angelo, where Beatrice Cenci had been executed, it became quieter and more local, one more shady, constricted alley among many. Governo Vecchio was a convenient place to live, and pricey too. Agata’s new private college seemed very generous.
Her address turned out to be a single bright red door on the corner that led to one of his favourite churches in Rome, the baroque little temple of Santa Maria della Pace, a classical jewel in the midst of the area’s sprawl of palaces and apartment buildings. There was a florist’s opposite. Costa caught the woman as she was locking up and managed to buy her last few flowers: a rather limp-looking selection of tulips. He stood on Agata’s doorstep, bouquet in one hand, crash helmet in the other, ruffling his hair to try to look a little more presentable after the long, eventful day.
It took a good minute for her to answer and when she did he’d no idea what to say. So he just stood there, extending the flowers, smiling awkwardly. Agata was wearing a short and sleeveless black cocktail dress. Her hair was newly fashioned in a way that, to his eyes, looked a little too serious and old. She was struggling to fasten a rather heavy pearl necklace round her dusky throat and there was a look in her intelligent eyes that he couldn’t quite interpret except, perhaps, as embarrassment. The apartment, from what he could see through the half-open door, looked beautiful: modern furniture, large art prints on the wall, an airy individual residence hidden behind the thick walls of a building that probably went back to the seventeenth century or earlier. She didn’t make a move to let him in.
Costa thrust the flowers out a little more, and realized as he did so how sorry some of them looked.
‘I asked you to call first,’ she said.
‘Busy day.’
‘Busy? Doing what? You’re on holiday, aren’t you?’
There was something in the way she spoke, a tone that was almost accusing. He didn’t understand.
‘All sorts.’
Her attention had gone beyond the flowers to the tatty Vespa on its stand on the cobblestones.
‘That’s your scooter, is it? The one Leo told me about?’
‘That’s her,’ he said proudly. ‘Look. You’re living just up the street from one of the best pizza places in Rome. Da Baffetto. We don’t need the scooter. You have to queue usually but . . .’ He pulled out his police ID card. ‘Sometimes I have ways.’
She sighed then turned round. He got the message, tucked the bad bouquet under his arm, then gripped the clasp of the pearl necklace and closed it against the warm dark skin of her neck. It was the first time he’d performed this simple act since his wife had died and the closeness of it, the pointless intimacy, made him feel wistful and a little sad.
A tall, muscular man, bald, intellectual-looking, with fashionably heavy black plastic glasses and a haughty pale face, came into view from behind her.
‘Agata won’t be eating pizza tonight,’ he announced in a clipped Milanese accent.
Costa looked at him, trying to understand. The newcomer was about forty-five, handsome in an arrogant, patrician way. He wore a silvery grey suit, silk perhaps, very expensive, and eyed the little Vespa as if it were poisonous. Still looking at the scooter he pulled out a set of car keys and pushed a button. There was a grey Alfa Romeo saloon parked thoughtlessly along the road. It made a loud beep then the lights flashed and the doors clicked.
‘I’ll drive us to Testaccio,’ he announced, then placed a proprietorial arm around Agata’s shoulder. ‘The table is booked for eight thirty at Checchino’s. We shouldn’t be late.’
‘Checchino’s?’ Costa knew the place, a little. One of Rome’s most pricey restaurants, not that its speciality – offal – was something he’d touch. ‘Nice if you like that kind of thing.’
‘She will,’ the man interjected with a sardonic smile before almost pushing her out of the apartment.
‘Bruno’s my new boss,’ Agata said as she turned and locked the door, embarrassed in a way that made Costa feel deeply guilty. ‘We’ve got to talk about work. I’m sorry. If you’d called . . . If I’d guessed you were at a loose end. I never knew. From seeing you today . . .’
‘No problem,’ he cut in with a smile, then wondered what she was about to say. ‘You saw me?’
She didn’t answer and the man had got her out of the apartment so quickly there was no chance to ask again.
As Bruno bustled her off she turned and made the gesture of a phone, surreptitiously as if she didn’t want him to notice. Costa clung to the bunch of flowers and nodded, still smiling.
‘Of course,’ he said to himself as she climbed into the shiny Alfa. Its powerful engine roared with rather more noise and vigour than was necessary. Then Bruno drove briskly away along the narrow, congested street.
An elderly woman in a cotton dress, an ancient checked apron and saggy stockings was sweeping up outside the tiny pasta shop next to the florist’s. Costa walked over and said, ‘Signora?’
She looked at him in a knowing way that suggested she’d followed every moment of this little encounter.
‘Some flowers,’ Costa said, offering her the bouquet.
Her lined face brightened.
‘You’re a kind young man. A lady appreciates that. Grazie.’
‘Prego.’
‘One word of advice,’ she added, waving a finger.
His heart fell. Romans, even complete strangers, had a way of telling you frankly what they thought, however unwelcome the message.
‘Yes?’
‘Kindness is all well and good. But remember that saying? All’s fair in love and war?’
‘I never really understood it,’ Costa admitted.
She patted his arm as she took the bouquet and said, ‘It shows.’
He shrugged then went and sat on the Vespa, watching the people come and go down the Via Governo Vecchio. Young and old. Couples and families. Queuing patiently for Baffetto’s cheap and excellent pizzas as they did every night, even in the rain. Ordinary men and women, the kind he liked, the kind he wanted to work for, to protect, wandering around on a lazy late-August evening, seemingly without a care in the world. Very few of them, he noticed, were alone.
It was stupid to turn up like that. Selfish to think she would be waiting there, for him alone. Agata Graziano was a beautiful, intelligent young woman discovering a new life in a city where she’d grown up behind the enclosing walls of a convent. An attachment to a solitary cop fumbling through the years, one so lacking in direction that he thought rebuilding an ancient Vespa was a worthwhile venture for a man turned thirty – this was surely the last thing she needed.
Costa looked at his watch. He’d be home in twenty-five minutes, back behind the walls of the farmhouse where he grew up. Somewhere that wasn’t a part of the city, didn’t belong to its ungainly mass of awkward humanity. The place was a kind of escape. A sanctuary. Somewhere to hide. He didn’t mind that at times.
‘Home,’ he said to himself, and, without thinking, popped the scooter kick-start four times in a row then, to compound matters, absent-mindedly jerked on the throttle.
The two-stroke engine coughed once, sputtered, choked and died.
Flooded. That meant waiting an hour or so. Or taking out the spark plug and fiddling with the carburettor, which involved tools he hadn’t brought along.
The old woman was still watching him, holding the bouquet, shaking her head.
At that moment his phone buzzed; he felt grateful and stared at t
he screen. He’d given his number to Mina Gabriel in case she needed it. Now she’d sent a message. It read, ‘Do you believe what that horrid man said? Do you think I’m guilty of something?’
He sighed, gave up entirely on the Vespa and phoned her back. From the sound of her voice she’d been crying.
‘Mina? It’s Nic. Are you all right?’
She mumbled a simple, tetchy ‘Yes.’ Then nothing.
‘Listen to me. Don’t read too much into what happened this afternoon. Leo’s a good man. He’s my friend. He wants to help. We all do.’
‘Help?’
He tried to imagine her, alone in the tower Peroni had told him about.
‘Help,’ he repeated. ‘What can I do?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Tell me, Mina!’
‘Can’t.’ He thought he heard a noise, then understood what it was. She was closing a door, perhaps to her bedroom. Trying to make sure she wasn’t heard. Then she whispered, ‘Don’t believe what anyone says about me, Nic. It’s not true.’
‘No one’s saying anything . . .’
‘I am not some monster!’
‘I know that.’
‘No, you don’t.’
The petulant tone of a child again. There was another sound. A louder female voice. Her mother, he thought immediately. Shouting. Angry. Words he couldn’t quite understand, though he knew what they meant. Then a shriek of pain accompanied by what sounded like a physical blow, and the line went dead.
Families. He thought of Peroni and his love of everything to do with that word. Of Falcone and how the very mention of such a secret, insular closeness could place a dark cloud in the eyes of one of the most decent men he knew. These tight, sometimes cloying ties encompassed the best of humanity and, on occasion, masked the worst of it.
‘I am not some monster,’ Costa repeated to himself and wondered: who is? Who would ever admit to that fact? The most vicious and brutal criminals he’d met never saw themselves in that light either, not quite. They felt justified in their actions, possessed of some moral compass, and if the rest of the world failed to understand, then so what? Lives were made, not inherited or handed down. Usually.
