On Saturday 26 th April 1986, at 6.04 in the morning, I parked my car near the City Wall. The sky was getting lighter, even if the sun was still way out of sight. An incorporeal fog danced upon the freshly cut grass left behind to dry at the bottom of the Wall. It was meant to stay a couple more days at least, before seasoned handymen with the City Council logo on their stained uniforms came around with their bags and163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ8skJwKzRa
pitchforks and tractors to collect it.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXcFOmG55Kb
At least it doesn’t smell.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZmd71nBZT
Still, I wouldn’t sit on it for a nice picnic.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE96IccEVSC
Via Pomposa was quiet, but it wouldn’t be for long. The air was still crispy from the night, but spring lure and warmth enveloped the city, promising a hot, humid day. More than one family would have soon been packing towels and flip-flops and buckets and spades and head to the Seven Lidos. I didn’t mind the heat; I was happy to trade my rainy summers in London for 90% humidity and mosquitos as big as hummingbirds any time.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAOncKigt9H
Even if I still felt alien in the city I was born and where I lived until I was 8, I grew to love Ferrara, the capital city of a territory that lived off of farming and fishing and a meagre beach tourism during the summer. It was a different universe, compared to London: people left their door unlocked, because everybody knew everybody else, in the summer women sat outside on the streets, gossiping about this or that person, in the winter paraded their furs and sheepskin jackets across the city centre’s shopping streets, helped each other to get jobs or look after kids, went to church because it was the right thing, but mostly kept themselves to themselves, got up early, went to bed early and joined forces against anyone who wasn’t at least part of the province.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaWDMTt6rQ
Me included.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUs09rj5Gmg
But it wasn’t their fault. Ferrara had a long, not always glamorous, past: originally it was a swamp, and keeping the territory dry has always been a hard and not remunerative job, that along with cold, humid and foggy winters and dry summers where the heat was scorching, toughened up the inhabitants to their core. In between the Wars, during the Mussolini regime, Ferrara was one of the main centres of fascist power – two of the four quadrumvir that led the March on Rome, the event that officially put Mussolini in power, were from Ferrara, and despite the fact it was an old story, there were still too many people who had lived through it to let the others forget. At the end of the War, the Socialist and the agricultural party took over, pushing the territory in the opposite direction, but ending up making an even bigger mess. Eventually, working in agriculture became just hard and not profitable anymore, unemployment reached sky-high levels, factories never developed and people moved somewhere else. Whoever remained had to face adversities and resentment and saw others thrive where all they had was fog, mosquitos and hard existences.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZEZ57QVHr0
But with all its adversities and hardships, the countryside was magic, a vast plane that filled up every available interstice that wasn’t the city, a village or even a small ensemble of houses in the middle of nowhere that once homed the peasants and their families. As a child, my grandma used to live in one of them. And it was an all-year-round show. It started in autumn, when the trees went on fire and the land was squeezing out its last products before a well-deserved sleep. The earth became still and grey by All Saints, on November 1st , soon it began to be covered in fog, at times thin and wet, like a drizzle, other times so thick that you couldn’t see a person on the other side of the road. It was cold in winter, colder than London, but humid to the point that you always had the feeling of walking around in wet clothes. Then spring came, gradually, a bit here, a bit there. One nice, sunny day, followed by a foggy night, a mild, cloudy afternoon followed by a rainy day, the first gems on the trees, the first tractors in the fields, the occasional Saturday afternoon at the Lidi if it was sunny. And finally summer exploded once again, and the magic reached its peak. One day you slept with the blanket, the following day with the windows wide open and not even a sheet, the trees were in full bloom and the air smelled of flowers and soil and garlic and onions and the first strawberries and loquats, the heat hit you with no warning, days became long, nights short and conceited, letting you toss in bed endlessly because it was too hot. The only hope for a break from the impossible temperatures came from trips to the Seven Lidos, even if what the locals called sea was the mouth of the Pò River, which poured kilometres and kilometres of mud and tree branches and leaves and rubbish a few metres from those same families that were going to pack towels and flip-flops and buckets and spades in a few hours.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJXKZ7k54U
Who are you kidding? You’d probably be on the way too in a few hours if it163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLbzAH5y7i
weren’t for this.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZepyfW2Xk
Right. Focus. I rubbed my face and passed my fingers in between my already messy hair, making it even messier. It had looked good the night before when I entered the Kontiki dance hall, but then I lost track of it after the third Blue Lagoon the barman served me and I hit the floor dancing on the notes of ‘Notorious’. The rest163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL16Rln1PT5
was blurred. I remembered a nice guy with brown hair who offered me a cigarette, I163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9OupNyWHjE
think we even made out in his car – or was it mine? – then I drove home and fell asleep face first on the carpet in the living room. The phone woke me up a few hours163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcj2hIudPRT
later, and still dressed like the night before, a deathly taste at the back of my throat and a pounding headache I drove my car to the bottom of the City Walls, checking my badly smeared make-up in my car rear-view mirror at every red traffic light, trying my best to fix it but eventually deciding that sunglasses were my best option. So, I pushed them up my nose and thanked the heavens for the dimmed light they163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVn8S5PqYOw
provided.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnKXfKXJRLu
I spotted the scene immediately. Impossible to miss the two starched sentries in the middle of the freshly cut grass, stiff as two blue bricks, and just as much compatible with the surroundings.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxeBH33Wqq
“Go, go. Nothing to see here” they repeated to the few passers-by. They163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2V40ncgOol
reminded me of Sweetchuck and Zed from Police Academy.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtEmdkcDasL
“Morning” I muttered, passing them by. They replied with a simple nod. I didn’t care for formalities, I preferred to avoid them when not strictly necessary, but once again I couldn’t suppress the pang of irritation that hit the bottom of my stomach. If their Inspector were a man, they would have bent over backwards to salute him.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfFhD4E0c00
Sergio Reali, my deputy, was talking to a woman. She was visibly shaking and her dog, a medium-sized mongrel, was barking loudly and jumping all around her, in a futile attempt to reclaim her attention and go back to his walk.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlioxrKW39z
Poor thing, disturbed in one of the few pleasures his simple life has to offer.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA61qMAiFxd
I had been working with Sergio since I started in Ferrara, two years prior, and our chemistry was off the charts since day one. But just as colleagues. And not because Sergio was married with two kids, or because he was three years younger than me. I thought about it a few times, in a theoretical and interrogative way, but kissing him had the same appeal as licking asphalt in August. It might have been someone’s thing, and in that case who was I to judge, but it wasn’t mine. He was a friend, and a brother in arms, and there were times where these two things mattered more than any love affair or sexual pleasure.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KUB6q0fw5
Definitely it will last longer.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbLuJh9uUrh
I walked the short distance that separated me from him and the dog lady, ready to rescue him.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzksYEm6vsS
“Inspector Linda Bonora, good morning” I introduced myself. I purposely avoided to add Lilith, my stupid middle name, to the mix. It always made me feel pretentious and fake, but it was crucial for my mother to agree to an Italian name. It also contributed to how I was feeling: I have been torn between Evelina, the tomboy who loved to run in the garden and climb trees and play with remote-control cars, and Lilith, the fairy-tale princess that took ballet and piano classes and went around dressed in pink frills and laces, since a very young age. Moving between two different countries didn’t help either, and for a very long time I didn’t know who to be. Until a few years ago, when I melted the two together, and Linda was born, this entity who played piano when she was nervous, batted in the boys’ team, spotted the occasional red or yellow top in her wardrobe and was not a person who left her house without make-up and her hair done.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLrUWM6WGZh
Unless it’s an emergency, like this morning.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWvL1ozT8Dz
“Does it look like a good morning to you?” the woman sniffled. “I came out with Poldo, here” she pointed at the mongrel with the tip of her chin, which continued his unnoticed crusade of barking and jumping “for a quick walk before waking up my husband and go to Spina, and look! Look!” she shrieked, pointing at the body under163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKppxsP0e9g
the white sheet. “Can you believe it? A tragedy, plain and simple! I am in shock! It will take me a long time to recover from the trauma.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwS27zcs4ES
I did my best to master my expression, noticing the side glances that that bastard of Sergio was sending my way, but I avoided them inspecting carefully the morning dew that covered my shoes.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTx3zCVSbih
“I am sure you are, Madam, and I am really sorry you have to go through this ordeal. But my deputy here, Reali, is an extremely capable agent and he will make it as painless as he can. Right, Sergio?” I slapped him on the shoulder, ignored the boorish comment that left his lips in a whisper and moved away in three rapid steps, leaving the woman still raging about how disgusting it was and what a terrible experience she was going through. Typical Italian propensity for drama.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiH0WyDnYyB
The white sheets the government equipped us with were big. Just in case. In the ‘70s there were too many bodies, barely covered, that scandalised public opinion and the prude middle-class. But that sheet seemed even bigger, the bumps and lows underneath it concentrated in a small section right in the middle, almost flat to the ground, as if it was a mistake. It made me wonder if the phone call I got at an inhuman hour of the morning was just a prank because I did something to upset my superiors, and that was their way to get back at me. With a terrible and very questionable prank. It had to be. Because the alternative was that the body belonged to a child.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2qCYgoXye
I never had problems with dead people – death is part of life – but I didn’t like it when they were young. When it came to kids – and luckily it only happened four times in my career – I joined the crime scene at the very last minute, trying to take in as much as I could in the least amount of time. There is already a sense of wrongness in violent deaths, that becomes amplified when it comes to anyone below the age of 25 and it just becomes a capital sin if the person is underage.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡekBYuLuTeR
I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and knelt, the fingers of my left hand brushing the wet grass.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRKOS5hggAy
Feel the wetness against your skin.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvrzzHEbkfo
It was a simple trick to ground myself, to be in the present instead of spiralling out of control and looking stupid in front of my subordinates who already had serious difficulties considering me a human being.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7oyAK00PXL
I lifted the corner of the sheet and saw long, brown, wavy locks.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeD027Q4rtc
Which of your fingers are touching the grass?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQ3G6tQfVX
She had olive skin-tone.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSUfa5KZdM
Is the grass you’re touching soft or hard?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoR5F4PW3G
She had blue nail polish.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXauabanUX1
Is the grass hot or cold?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9E5xWb9vX
Her eyes were light brown, open wide.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNA9xfUieR
Is the grass smooth or coarse?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsh4YhWJxDk
She had full lips slightly ajar, blades of freshly cut grass stuck to her bright red163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUawyh8b3cI
lipstick, her nose, her hair.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡucgPsV0FPi
Is it wet or dry?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAydjxnDVha
I closed my eyes and released the sheet, which fluttered back into place, recreating its small pattern of bumps and lows.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBeLekDSSEK
The fingers that touch the grass are my index and middle finger of my left163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSFeb899c6A
hand, and it was wet, cold, coarse and stubbly.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNGGFmHyQZ
A bout of nausea hit my throat, but I swallowed hard a couple of times and the feeling disappeared.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRiUAIYyJ0
She looks so young.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoo8oBqBAuk
Because she was young.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJXk7S9S3B
“What do we have?” asked a familiar voice behind me.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0CsA6Fu7bb
Doctor Fernando Landi, class 1934, graduated in 1962, a good two years ahead of his class, with more than twenty years of experience of dead people. He’s never been my biggest fan, but it wasn’t personal. He came from a generation where the highest achievement for a woman was buying a washing machine. For him, work with one in a position higher than secretary or switchboard operator was as normal as celebrating Christmas in July.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy9T3LaCRhn
“Dr Landi, good morning” I greeted him, getting back to a standing position. “Girl, young, I would say between 20 and 25. I am quite sure she fell, but if it was intentional or not is not for me to say.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4aWVEttyKt
Dr Landi waved his hand in a dismissive way.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecZ6gpS4b3
“I will never understand English people” he said, rummaging in his bag. “You are brilliant at masking your lack of spine for politeness. Try again.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8zvwE7jeHC
I had been working with Landi since I had arrived in Ferrara, fighting hard for every shred of respect I had gained. The reason why he tolerated me was because he liked to teach on any occasion, and when he taught, I learnt.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeA0dUgETSt
You’ve always been one of my best students, said a voice in my head. But it wasn’t Dr Landi’s; it was a painful one, a voice that I only heard in my nightmares.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30FTBABq6T
“Inspector? I am waiting” he said, pulling the sheet all the way back.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWVqIXyL38
“She is quite close to the walls, meaning she didn’t jump.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBsq4vgMH8j
“Why is that?” asked Dr Landi, fetching a thermometer from his bag.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9MYvkVB4y
“The trajectory. If someone is being pushed, they tend to land perpendicular to the starting point. If she jumped, even if she didn’t run-up, she should have landed at least a meter forward.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUwNq4OxF5
“What else?” he probed me, a corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBazEebDOig
I walked around the girl, doing my best to ignore the sense of wrongness. There was going to be plenty of time, later, alone in my house.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNJKTegkYY2
Feel the earth below your feet, is it soft or hard?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNNHgCw2ze
“Her nails.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZjPMNFjKZ
“What about them?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AjxdWhyP2
“The nail polish… it’s ruined. One nail is missing altogether. She struggled. But her clothes seem alright. A robbery? A scorned admirer?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2GAGMQBkL
“That’s your job. Mine is to find out how she died. It will take me a few days” he said, busying himself around the body. He had that glimmer in his eyes, the one of a curious child in front of a wrapped present. Once again, I wondered if he ever killed anyone just to see what happens in real times, instead of studying it on dusty books.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMUMgii2J0
At this point, getting any more information out of him was going to be like squeezing water out of a stone. I said my goodbyes and walked toward my car, Sergio still stuck with the woman. Poldo, instead, gave up his protests and was now sitting at her feet, with his snout in between his front paws. Sergio tried to catch my attention with some comical gestures of his head, but I hid my smile behind a cough and continued to walk.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyb0ZQiila
The two sentries still stood uptight like two bricks, but at least they did the job. A few joggers and more dog owners stopped in small clumps away from the crime scene. Ferrara City Walls surrounded the core of the city, in a 9km long belt. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it was a safety measure. Nowadays it lost its protective function against arrows and cannonballs and became a popular spot for joggers, dog walkers and teenage lovers at their first kisses. Not at 6.30 in the morning, though. At that time there only were joggers and dog walkers, and the occasional pensioner out for the fresh bread and newspaper run. And the bastards seemed to multiply by the minute, gathering in bigger groups to discuss what happened, stretching their necks so much I was worried they were going to snap.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMO6ANIkwv9
Dead people can be morbidly fascinating, especially in a tight-knit community where the installation of street lighting is a big deal and requires months of public163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUhyEyrmXy5
debate.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxGQoTndZF1
I called for reinforcement, before the two bricks lost their power of repulsion and bystanders decided that Dr Landi was too old and needed help to load the body on the hearse.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7kcMLwGmM
“Two cruisers are on their way, Ma’am. ETA three minutes.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFfMRhtIo0
“If they don’t stop for a coffee break” I muttered in the mic. I hung up and squeezed the bridge of my nose, trying to stop my frustration from going all the way up to my brain and contributing to the massive headache. All I could do, in the meantime, was to go and disperse the crowd myself.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ80ttxc6eSF
A blink of silver and a fast movement caught my attention. Hiding behind a tall durmast there was a girl. She looked like a child dressed in her mother’s clothes, with long wavy hair cascading from her shoulders, a Bardot top that exposed her shoulders and belly, a colourful long skirt and lines and lines of bracelets around each wrist. As soon as she noticed I was looking in her direction she fled, like silversides fishes do in the Adriatic, followed by the tinkle of her jewellery. I was about to go after her when a man, the bravest, or the most idiotic of the group, according to the point of view, stopped me.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJsXLV7iCoT
“I’m sorry, sgnurina” he said in a thick accent, making his best effort to not mix Italian and dialect and coming out with a scrunchy version of Sorry, miss. In time I163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBncDusUuL
got used to the dialect, but part of conversations still were lost in translation.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNB1CJFYdTq
“Yes.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW4Hupy6c2l
“What happened there?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoNqgLZsvGA
“We are in no position to release any information” I said to him. Then I turned to the rest of the crowd. “If you saw something you want to report to the authorities, please approach one of the agents now or come to the Station as soon as you can. Otherwise, I suggest you leave the premises. All of you.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNuCvjZWsb
More than one head turned on the other side, and a few people went as far as commenting that they weren’t going to take suggestions from a secretary.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImVSNPb0GP
“I am Chief Inspector Linda Bonora” I said, charging my voice with all the pain and resentment and anger I had. “Not a secretary. And if you have something else to163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vgcaK9F6i
say, you can say it to my face.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXHXepQwiL
At the words Chief Inspector, the crowd dissipated. Only to reform on the other side of the crossing, under the big ship that commemorated the Navy soldiers that fell during one war or another.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFUxIwv5hc4
I observed the whole transhumance with a careful eye: crowds can pick up details and moods that my ten years out of the country haven’t taught me how to. I was an exotic foreigner in London, I am the snotty bitch from another country here.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5UHNrjDt75
I took another look around, but the girl was gone. And the cruisers were nowhere near. Dr Landi was doing his things and Sergio was still busy with Poldo’s owner. I gestured him that I was going. His half smiled replaced the middle finger he really itched to flip at me but he couldn’t, given the situation. I turned the key in the ignition and the radio came alive too.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXD8kiChua
“…while Ghaddafi’s status remains to be verified. There are no football matches scheduled for today, all championships suspended ahead of the celebrations for Liberation Day. SPAL will play Fano team next weekend at the Paolo Mazza stadium, tickets are still available. The San Marino Formula One Grand Prix will start at 2pm, Ayrton Senna will be in pole position, followed by Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, the two Ferrari are starting in fifth and seventh position. That’s all for this hour, next radio-journal at eight.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFPbgbrw5mp
When the speaker finally stopped talking, Madonna began her tirade against lying men and how she hoped to live to tell all the secrets she learned. I made a mental note to go and watch the movie before the only cinema that showed it in the whole city and province pulled it for the low volume of ticket sales.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVS2n5utV7
It was at times like these I missed London and its buzz.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8oqVpcdLKB
Do you also miss the long sequence of balls and dinners and events your mother dragged you to?163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz3U96WmGDc
London was a great city, but, at times, it could be overrated. Ferrara was a bum, far from the splendour of a more cosmopolitan agglomerate like Bologna, but big enough to have a university and a couple of decent events during the year. It was the capital of a dilapidated territory, that stopped growing when the rest of Italy was bathing in the post-war economic boom and tried to catch up for the past 20-odd years with no success. Always chasing the others, always a couple of steps behind, always a minute too late. Maybe that’s the reason why it felt like home.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgb3twI0GU
The city was slowly awakening: bicycles, more dog walkers, the first kids, the last all-nighters. I reached the Station and manoeuvred the car into my personal parking space. Across the road the bar was open, with Lucia already busy behind the counter. She was a skinny lady probably over 50, but she looked at least 200 thanks to all the fags she started to smoke a few hours after she was born.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRSot6Mwec
“Morning inspector! Coffee?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hi1bOvAh7
“Please” I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head, planted my elbows on the counter and toyed with the sugar dispenser.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ0uC1GnoEQ
“How come you are up so early? And on a Saturday!” she asked in her raspy voice.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8kHWykk6m
“A new case.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2EXGSBge9m
“A bad one, looking at your face” she placed the espresso cup on the saucer in front of me. “Milk?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGbAfuBMu2Y
I nodded and she poured a drop, while I looked for my cigarettes.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCUT7nFtI0
“She was young” I said in a cloud of smoke. Lucia nodded her disappointment but didn’t comment any further. She knew when to ask more questions and when to listen, and that was why we hung out at her bar.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwPweF5a0XN
“Morning old ladies!” said the delivery boy, entering with two big trays wrapped in paper.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo72MDjP4S7
“Your father didn’t slap you enough while you were growing up. Give it here.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hx2pHJu8D
Lucia grabbed the two trays from his hands and while the boy took a long look at a not at all impressed me, she clipped him behind the ears.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfAjRejOtWe
“Don’t complain or I’ll tell Lucio!” she said, waving her index finger under his nose. He left as fast as he had entered, and I laughed.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Mi0XQluvH
“He’s a good boy” I said.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBte7xKeAB8
“He needs to be reminded some manners from time to time. Do you want a cornetto? They are still warm.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpZlNwJIFGz
Lucia offered me the whole tray, and after a careful examination, I picked an apricot jam croissant and wrapped it in a paper tissue.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSZvVQYhyX
“Put it on my tab, please, and save one for Sergio too. A bombolone with custard, please. The biggest you have.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Xg0d6PxaD
Lucia whistled.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WhRMwtD2d
“What do you have to make up for?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiUs1HAVyP7
“I left him with a potential witness, one of those stiff old ladies that wear pearls at 6 in the morning to walk the dog.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnl1KB7ofkP
“And you think a bombolone will do?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1bixrWIG3
“There is also the cappuccino.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY4nruITO8A
When I left the bar Lucia was still laughing.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnzqCNntPpM
I crossed the threshold of a red brick building: outside it looked just like the rest of the constructions along the road; inside, though, it was decorated with Renaissance frescoes and marble statues that dated back to the 16th century, when the Este dynasty was one of the most powerful in Italy. Being a Saturday morning, the only person there was the night sentry, ready for the change of the guard, and two constables, who almost stood at attention when they noticed my presence.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4EHA5f6Kz
At least them.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp9bZqFvBFz
I ignored everybody, not in the mood for formalities, and walked up the stairs briskly, my cornetto cooling down in my hand. I opened the last door on the left, that, as per a cruel joke, was in front of the toilets. More than once I wondered if that was only pure coincidence, as everyone seemed so keen to reassure me, even if I found out that the room had been used as an archive up to my arrival from Bologna, two years ago.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfb7aI0C2lO
“It’s the biggest room in the building” said the Commissioner, when he did the honours “and also the most richly decorated. It was used as dance hall back in time” he added, pompously.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ29vgXgSRts
“That’s nice” I said, not listening to the art lesson any longer.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3ObXnbuX6
Yes, it was big and richly decorated. And the light was amazing, since I had windows on three sides that captured morning, mid-day and sunset. But it was also a place where I laid pictures of dead people, had evidence and firearms and a lot of paperwork that detailed the most inhuman behaviours.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNaGymztioZ
There is also a sofa with two armchairs and a rug, that is a nice touch.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjW5nuiicd
Yes, a sofa where sometimes I receive guests and witnesses and sometimes I spend the night, if I am too spent to make it home.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdUQz2BfB8P
I took a deep breath and exhaled, closing the door behind me. The typewriter was hidden by its cover, my chair neatly pushed under the desk, my trench still on the coat rack. The only difference was that the pile of documents I signed the day before was gone. Sandra, my very efficient and very young secretary, had swept them before the end of her working day.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03Pf9SwTnn
They could be the same age.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2vrgAZI2sT
A churn twisted my stomach and I was grateful I only had a coffee. I sat my cornetto on the desk, still wrapped in its tissues, no longer hungry. Twenty-something was not an age to die. It was the age to go clubbing at night, go shopping with friends on a Saturday afternoon, maybe have a forever boyfriend that was going to last only until the next forever boyfriend entered the picture. But not an age to lie under a white sheet with Dr Landi probing your body in private places.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkVqDr2nXc
I opened the west-facing window, welcoming the fresh air in the humid room.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5LID5WBpw0
Looking out, on the left, I could glimpse at the Este Castle, that nowadays housed the Town Hall. It was deserted, all its employees celebrating the extra day off. I sat behind my desk and opened the last of three drawers on the right side, the only one I kept locked. Beside an envelope with a copy of my birth certificate and my passport, my beauty case with sanitary products, a change of underwear, a brush, make-up and hairpins, I kept my diary. It was a simple ruled A5 notebook, the type that primary school kids use to learn how to write letters and numbers. I usually bought them in bulk at the beginning of the school year, taking advantage of special offers and compiled them meticulously every day I was working on a case. I started when I became a constable; jotting questions, events and personal considerations on paper was cathartic. Nothing went missing, nothing was stupid. I could switch from Italian to English and back, mix the two languages, create new words that made sense only to me. I used a special substitution alphabet to write names, arrows to indicate that someone went or came to or from a place, crosses to say that something stopped or finished or was a dead end and, at times music notes or ballet poses’ names.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBCR77C7P7U
I took a pen from my overcrowded pen holder and opened my diary on a fresh page.
26 April 1986163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjD7jFfPnjY
Sunny, people -> the Lidi. St George’s funfair almost X. School 2, soon there will be < students. / uni still in session until late July. ?? uni student? She looks young / not high school young.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLyX55ehxW8
Local? Dark brown hair, natural olive-skin. ?? southern beau? ?? 2nd gen? Like me she could have been living around 4 a while.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhIPYjDJx7
X jump. Pushed. ? Her nails. The nail-polish was ruined. / she was well dressed. Her blouse was ironed. She wore nylon tights. It’s not summer yet, / girls are already baring their legs => made an effort in her appearance => X chipped manicure is wrong.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSxHrrfWp7e
X jacket. X bag. Theft? It might. The area is XXX. Whoever assaulted her got her bag, ??even her jacket, she defended herself -> the ruined polish, in the effort of getting her bag they pushed her while she was pulling, the bag handle snapped, ?? she tripped and she fell backwards, going off the wall.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD6Mv1YBjFJ
If so -> she would have landed on her back. So if
Someone knocked at my door, interrupting my concentration.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLwMQ2zMcbJ
“Come in” I barked, tossing the pen in the middle fold of my diary. Reali pushed his head in.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fRCDDNOgp
“Is it a good time?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVMGDBSFxZ
“As good as any.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NvyUDm3ya
I closed my diary and pointed at the two chairs in front of my desk. Reali sat and crossed his legs.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gLE6r7EjT
“Dr Landi will give you a call later today with the preliminary results, but he will need at least 72 hours for the rest and a minimum of two weeks for alcohol and drug reports. According to his preliminary tests, she died last night, or in the very early hours of the morning.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdDDbwY5QzB
“When the sky was dark and people were asleep.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQBcZ42isHV
“Exactly” nodded Sergio. “The closest residential building is across the road, a good 300 metres away from the scene anyway. I left a couple of agents for a door-to-door round of questions.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGS0SJjDou
“It’s a long shot, but it’s a good call. Anything else?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ84uiXLsxjQ
“Yes. The gypsy girl came back.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7x0guwWRg
“What gypsy girl?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjG1wv3WnY
“The one with long hair and bare feet.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI79LwoYs45
“Bardot top and as many bracelets as the Madonna statue inside the Cathedral?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDtNF2ICue
“That one” he confirmed Reali, looking for his cigarettes. He stopped as soon as he noticed my face. No one was allowed to smoke in my office.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJoAI9kDoY
“Why do you think she’s a gypsy?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnLHNftsKDq
“She’s a carny. They are all gypsy…” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. I looked at him ready to separate his body from his head and he apologised.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5RkIUvQSb
“Anyway. After you left, she came back. I managed to ask if she saw something, but163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhS6IXxRtZm
when she opened her mouth to reply, someone called her, and she ran away in a wave of curls. She has some pretty, strong long legs.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BwiEFSfij
And the possible gypsy roots are not important anymore.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsBzszQtEd
“What’s her name?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQZp8DvkVF
“Something like Dea.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQc7ybXHcC
“Dea. As in goddess?” Sergio shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll have a look later. You can go, thanks.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDhgav53fL
He got up and opened the door.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCz7QPn60F2
“Oh, Sergio. One more thing.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9V8d45kd18
“Chief?”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr0Dkuiaihu
“Breakfast is already paid for at Lucia’s.”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqXdR8IQmw
“I’ll need a bit more than breakfast to forgive you for leaving me with Mrs Sartori’s rambling for 45 fucking minutes.” said Sergio.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ1xSmuF3xl
“You know I am not gonna have sex with you” I said, opening my diary again.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHerawRpKHS
“At least a hand job!”163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0UUWyrtpGA
“Piss off, jerk” I said, aiming at his head with my pen, but hitting the door instead.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEnT6MpIkI
When he left, I tried to make sense of the ‘so if’ that concluded my last paragraph, but when I couldn’t recall that train of thought, I crossed it out and started a new paragraph.
The girl – she is a carny – <- after I left / someone called her, and ->. ? family member. ? a husband. BB l8r. S. says her name is Dea. ??? S. can be such a bigot.163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkjBq3k98w
* call Samia. It’s been a few days, she must be worried. Need to do the laundry. Another day and I won’t have any clean underwear left. ? go commando. I might consider it.
163Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfvZbwNYAQ
