Death in Tuscany

by Michele Giuttari

  'From your reconstruction, Signor Lupo, there would appear to be a strong possibility that Ugo Palladiani was involved in circumstances which led to the death of this unknown girl—'

  'Call her Stella,' Anna Giulietti interrupted. 'That's what we've been calling her for the sake of convenience.'

  All right,' the captain resumed. 'What I'd like to understand, though, is how strong this possibility really is. In other words, has Palladiani's guilt been proved or demonstrated, or is the evidence just circumstantial?'

  'We know that paedophile activities took place in his factory,' Anna Giulietti said. 'We also found items of clothing that very probably belonged to the victim there.'

  'But Ugo Palladiani abandoned the factory years ago,' Fulvi insisted, 'and he was involved in another business entirely. How can we be sure he didn't rent it to someone - or even lend it, which would be even more difficult to demonstrate because there wouldn't be any paperwork?'

  'What about the cufflink with the letter P?' Lupo asked.

  'I admit it may be a significant coincidence, but for it to be considered proof that Palladiani was present at the spot where the girl was found, we'd need to demonstrate it was his . . . There are a lot of surnames that begin with the letter P. We'd have to find the other one of the pair among his things, or something else that indicates that he used that symbol, but we haven't found anything like that. On the contrary, the idea we've built up of him suggests he preferred a totally different style, to be honest... A more modern, casual, youthful style. Nothing baroque like that ..."

  Noticing that Lupo seemed quite impressed with this argument, Ferrara hastened to refute it.

  'We're checking everything we can. My men have a warrant from Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti to search Palladiani's apartment, office, car and yacht. We'll see what emerges from that. Obviously, by itself the cufflink isn't much of a lead. I brushed it aside myself at first, but when you put it together with what we discovered in the factory . . . Though I have to admit, Captain, your idea that he might have lent the factory to someone else is a good one. We certainly can't rule it out, if we want the investigation to be consistent and exhaustive, as all investigations should be. Fortunately the warehouse was abandoned in a great hurry and Forensics have found a large number of fingerprints. In fact, I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask Deputy Prosecutor Lupo for a copy of the fingerprints taken during the autopsy on Palladiani. That should help us to prove whether or not he was in the factory that night.'

  'No problem,' Lupo said. Any other questions?' he asked the captain.

  'Not for the moment. But I'd just like to make one thing clear, because I don't want you to misunderstand my position. I'm not trying to say that what you discovered in the factory is unimportant, or that your theory about the cufflink isn't an attractive one. But to be absolutely honest, as evidence they do seem to me a lot weaker than the evidence we've already gathered, which points us in a different direction entirely. Not to mention the fact that, in the last analysis, the two crimes could be completely unrelated. The man might have killed the girl that night and then himself been killed for other reasons, without there necessarily being a connection. That's why I consider it my duty to continue along the same track as I have been. Naturally, if you find any actual evidence in the course of your investigation which you think might help mine, I'd welcome any suggestions, but for now I can't see that any such evidence exists.'

  Lupo took note of the captain's clearly expressed position and turned to Ferrara. 'Chief Superintendent?'

  'If I can go back to the beginning,' Ferrara responded, 'Captain Fulvi told me that Ugo Palladiani was definitely murdered, and the newspapers confirmed it. May I know why he was so sure?'

  'Would you like to answer that, Captain?'

  'Do I have to?'

  Lupo kept his patience. 'Listen, Captain,' he said good-naturedly. 'I've known Chief Superintendent Ferrara in other professional situations, and I can guarantee that he is a first-class detective. I have no hesitation in saying it in front of him. I realise that he is emotionally involved in this case, and I respect his distress and his strong sense of friendship, but I'm absolutely certain that this hasn't had, isn't having, and won't have the slightest influence on his work. I don't even have to ask him first when I say that if Massimo Verga turns out to be guilty he himself would be the first to want to bring him to justice.

  'I started this meeting hoping that you could collaborate, but I have no intention of forcing you to do so. It's up to you to decide.'

  Captain Fulvi said nothing. The character testimony may not have meant anything to him, but the reference to friendship seemed to have struck the right note.

  'I'm sorry,' he said at last. 'Believe me, Chief Superintendent, I'm sorry about your friend. But he is a prime suspect. Ugo Palladiani didn't die by falling down the stairs. According to the autopsy, there were two previous factors which contributed to his death: internal lesions not consistent with those of a fall, and the consumption of narcotics in a quantity much higher than the average limit of tolerability.'

  An overdose?' Ferrara said, glancing at Anna.

  'Yes,' the captain confirmed.

  'Like Stella . . .' Anna said, slightly regretfully. 'It could be a mere coincidence, but I must point out how damaging the consequences of a conflict between the police and the Carabinieri would be ..."

  Convinced that he was on the side of reason, Captain Fulvi ignored her remark and gave Ferrara an openly reproachful look.

  'So Palladiani was hit before he fell, or was pushed, down the stairs?' Ferrara asked, lightly, as if downplaying it. 'Exactly,' Lupo confirmed.

  'The state of the room where Palladiani had been sleeping suggested that a fight may have taken place there,' the captain added.

  Any fingerprints?' Anna Giulietti asked.

  'Lots. Unfortunately we can't attribute them with certainty to Massimo Verga because we don't have any prints to compare them with. They weren't taken when he was arrested in 1970. But they will certainly be a determining factor when we find him and Simonetta Palladiani .... if we ever find them.'

  'Of course,' Ferrara admitted with a pang in his heart. Although seeing that Massimo was Simonetta Palladiani's guest, it can't be ruled out that he might have left his prints at some other time, can it?'

  'Signor Verga had his room in the guest apartment. But it's possible that before renting it he may have slept in that bedroom, you're right about that. The totality of the evidence will be what decides . . . and his confession, of course, when he makes it - as I'm sure he will.'

  'That's as maybe,' Ferrara said. 'One thing, though. You're surmising that the motive was jealousy. In that case, wouldn't it be more logical for the murder to have happened in the guest apartment, perhaps after the two lovers were surprised by the husband?'

  'That can't be ruled out either. The guest apartment was also in a state of disorder. According to the housekeeper's statement, Massimo Verga is a meticulously tidy man.'

  'I can vouch for that,' Ferrara said, now with a new source of worry: what had happened in that apartment? 'But aren't two untidy rooms a bit too much? The fight should have happened in one or the other.'

  As far as the captain and his men have been able to reconstruct it,' Lupo said, 'this might have been the sequence of events. Ugo Palladiani, perhaps in a drugged state, surprises the lovers in the guest apartment and a quarrel ensues, in the course of which he is killed. The body is carried into the house to simulate a fall down the stairs and explain away the bruises, and his room is turned upside down to give the impression that his behaviour had become uncontrollable because of the drugs leading to some kind of fainting fit, hence the fatal accident. Alternatively, he wasn't dead, but only fainted during the fight, and the drugs were injected afterwards. It doesn't make much difference.'

  'It's plausible,' Anna Giulietti admitted.

  Yes, it was, Ferrara thought. Except that it was impossible because Massimo couldn't have done i
t. And Ugo Palladiani's possible paedophile activities and the Mafia connection to Simonetta's quarries were further factors which muddied the clarity of this simple domestic theory.

  He was tempted to bring up the Mafia connection, but he held back. It would have been an admission that he had been taking an active interest in the investigation, and the captain certainly wouldn't have liked that. And besides, if even Lupo, who knew about it, hadn't seen fit to mention it, it wasn't up to him to take the initiative. For the same reason, since Anna Giulietti had not mentioned the Masonic connection, he kept quiet about that, too.

  'I agree,' he conceded finally. 'Of course if we can confirm that Palladiani was a paedophile, that might significantly alter the picture, but for the moment this is probably the most sensible lead to follow. We'll try to speed up the checks we have in progress, and we'll also lend a hand in searching for the two people who've gone missing, if that's all right with you.'

  The captain shrugged. 'The more the merrier. Though by now . . .'

  'What do you mean?'

  'They've had plenty of time to escape abroad. We put out the detention order all over Italy days ago, and so far we've had no luck. We've checked departures from every port and airport in the period since August fifth and their names haven't come up. But if they crossed the border by car and then took a plane from some other European country, it won't be easy to trace them. Anyway, we've already alerted Interpol.'

  Are their cars missing?'

  'Her car. A black BMW X5.'

  Another point in favour of the captain's theory, Ferrara thought sadly, and it was clear from Anna Giulietti's face that she was thinking the same thing.

  'Well, if there are no other questions or suggestions, I think we can bring this meeting to a close. We'll continue to

  concentrate on the line of inquiry that Captain Fulvi has been following. The captain will continue and if possible increase his efforts. But we also have to take a closer look at other aspects of the case. One of them is the coincidence of the factory and the cufflink with the letter P. Another is the fact that both murders involved drug overdoses. My experience tells me there are no coincidences in criminal cases. We also need to confirm whether or not Ugo Palladiani was a paedophile. I'll leave that to Chief Superintendent Ferrara and his men.

  'We've also agreed that the Carabinieri in Lucca and the Florence Squadra Mobile should combine forces in searching for the killer or killers of Ugo Palladiani. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Deputy Prosecutor Giulietti, if you don't mind staying behind for a moment, we have a few technicalities to sort out. It won't take long.'

  'Of course. Will you wait for me, Chief Superintendent?'

  'No problem. I'll be outside in the car park.'

  'Make sure you stay in the shade,' Lupo said. The heat, that August, was still relentless.

  Ferrara and Captain Fulvi left the Prosecutor's Department together, and said goodbye once they were outside. It might only have been an impression, but it seemed to Ferrara that the captain shook his hand with a small degree of warmth.

  27

  Florence - Lucca 15 August 2001

  To: Head of the State Police Ministry of the Interior Via del Viminale Rome

  Re: combined investigations according to article 317, code of criminal procedure, concerning case no. 1307/01 of the Public Prosecutor of Florence, the homicide of a young immigrant girl, identity currently unknown, and case no. 589/01 of the Public Prosecutor of Lucca, the homicide of Ugo Palladiani.

  (By mail) '

  With regard to the above investigations, certain evidence has come to light which in order to be developed further requires active cooperation between the Carabinieri and the State Police in Florence. Of particular importance is the collaboration of Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, who because of his widely recognised abilities and experience must be considered an indispensable element of the investigation.

  In addition, these public prosecutors have conferred on Chief Superintendent Ferrara specific duties in the investigation which need to be urgently fulfilled.

  As you have ordered the suspension from duty of the above-mentioned officer for a period of a month, which could fatally compromise the outcome of the investigations in progress, we request that this decision be reconsidered, or at least that its execution be suspended until the conclusion of the investigations.

  With gratitude and best regards

  Deputy Prosecutor Armando Lupo

  Deputy Prosecutor Anna Giulietti

  'I don't know how you did it, but thank you,' Ferrara said, handing the draft back to Anna.

  'I didn't do anything. Lupo did it all. I wasn't sure if it was out of sympathy for you or because of some code of honour among Sicilians . . . Anyway, as early as possible tomorrow morning, this letter will be delivered to the Head of the State Police in Rome.'

  'Code of honour isn't the right expression.'

  'Whatever. But, if it's of any interest, he told me he wasn't so convinced by Fulvi's theory any more, even though he considers him a good detective, and that he'd feel much happier knowing you were on board.'

  They were sitting at a table in a bar in the Piazza Napoleone in Lucca. Ferrara had suggested they have lunch together but neither of them had much appetite, so they just ordered raisin cakes and cappuccinos.

  'But you're not convinced?'

  'I don't know. You have to admit that objectively the captain's theory is a reasonable one, and has the advantages of economy and simplicity, which many theorists of science consider the basic requisites in assessing the validity of a theory'

  'Life isn't scientific and it certainly isn't simple.'

  'I agree, Michele, I was joking . . . but only up to a point. If you put to one side the fact that it's convenient for us to think that the two crimes are related, the idea that Palladiani may have been killed because he was a paedophile is pretty random, you have to admit. If we then discover he has nothing to do with all of that, and that other people were using his factory, we're in an even worse mess.'

  'So our captain convinced you, did he?'

  'He made a pertinent observation, Michele. You said so yourself. But that's not the point. The point is that we still don't know why he was killed!'

  'But we do know - or at least I know - that Massimo Verga didn't kill him! That's where the Carabinieri's case falls down, don't you realise that?'

  Anna Giulietti looked at him with sympathy. 'Tell me something sincerely. If Massimo wasn't your friend, would you accept that Fulvi's line of inquiry was the right one?'

  'Yes, you know perfectly well I would,' Ferrara admitted, with an almost imperceptible rush of anger. He didn't like having to admit, even to himself, that anyone was getting special treatment. If Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara hadn't had complete faith in him, everyone would have considered Massimo Verga a common criminal. Including him . . .

  'Of course. You would accept it, I would accept it ... So can you explain to me why the man in charge of the investigation shouldn't accept it? If that's not a code of honour, I don't know what is. And while we're about it, can you also explain to me why no one mentioned the Mafia connection, and yet when we said goodbye he told me to remind you not to neglect that lead?'

  Ferrara thought it over for a while. 'I wondered that too, and I thought maybe he didn't want to annoy Fulvi by admitting that I'd been working on the case when I shouldn't. But now I think there was another reason . . .'

  'What?'

  'I think Lupo's sending me a message. He probably doesn't care much about the factory and whatever went on there, and may not even believe it can help the investigation. But he really wants to look into this Mafia thing and he's right. Except that he doesn't want to involve Fulvi, for two reasons. One, because he's too young and inexperienced, and might compromise the investigation. And two, because he doesn't know the Mafia the way we know it. We've fought it, we know it's a dangerous animal. A young officer from the north could easily underestimate it. This is a seriou
s business, Anna!

  'I've had some research done and I've found out some pretty incredible things. Since 1993 there's been a sharp rise in the number of Sicilian companies operating in Tuscany. By 1999, there were six hundred and seventy-three, most of them with head offices in the province of Palermo. Do you know how many there were before 1993?'

  'How many?'

  'Sixty-two.'

  These were impressive figures, and Anna Giulietti took the leather-bound diary she carried everywhere from her briefcase and started making notes. 'How do you explain it?'

  'Let's be clear about one thing. Sicily doesn't automatically mean Mafia, and some of these companies may well be clean. But it's a fact that the Nineties were when the State hit organised crime in Sicily the hardest, making the area a lot less safe for them ... I remember this businessman in Sicily at the beginning of the Nineties, no criminal record but obvious Mafia connections, his name escapes me. He decided to turn State's evidence, and it emerged that he was a kind of 'Minister of Public Works' for the Mafia. He was always there in the shadows, making sure the Mafia got all the best contracts, especially for public works. That may have been when businesses with Mafia connections started to feel the heat and gradually emigrated to other parts of the country, including Tuscany'