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 and109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5NKn3y7usc
pitchforks and tractors to collect it.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ05WMt91BQa
At least it doesn’t smell.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Th0ZEZx8m
Still, I wouldn’t sit on it for a nice picnic.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBkdWkzwr3E
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHccFyron7
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3mwkzHf87
Me included.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP3WDrjIDsA
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdam1l22VE
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmIsPz63p7q
Who are you kidding? You’d probably be on the way too in a few hours if it109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChTtA4n1i7
weren’t for this.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fN6qoMZCh
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 rest109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKbs3mb7syq
was blurred. I remembered a nice guy with brown hair who offered me a cigarette, I109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ERfJ3yJHO
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 hours109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwebqzYwXEi
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 they109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtPpppbQAB
provided.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2s4SCla8Pz
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyD3HT3iZbF
“Go, go. Nothing to see here” they repeated to the few passers-by. They109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpAPSuGwPG
reminded me of Sweetchuck and Zed from Police Academy.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXL5UHxnuj
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsWZ7txq0E
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLwm38ELQBu
Poor thing, disturbed in one of the few pleasures his simple life has to offer.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWtXWompfZY
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpPQzaAf4al
Definitely it will last longer.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrELUOSCMkj
I walked the short distance that separated me from him and the dog lady, ready to rescue him.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo0v9f6d0xP
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9oIAOOL6Jy
Unless it’s an emergency, like this morning.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyOUrTKxFF
“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 under109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfgKw2DYgQ
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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXhS4pANSz
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb1TCo6mkpc
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgzotdrKPUM
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1E02K8hdW
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeVr4epaCvn
I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and knelt, the fingers of my left hand brushing the wet grass.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7w4qp5spSu
Feel the wetness against your skin.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvR8EDooNOR
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQFnG9FrMD
I lifted the corner of the sheet and saw long, brown, wavy locks.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3boHEMn82
Which of your fingers are touching the grass?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2jIJIPXMnY
She had olive skin-tone.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWqL3QeEemg
Is the grass you’re touching soft or hard?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGVAox4R9X
She had blue nail polish.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDrGNkt4YUB
Is the grass hot or cold?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphEO1iQVId
Her eyes were light brown, open wide.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDVj5gZ2sHF
Is the grass smooth or coarse?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdtPEmDTr8Z
She had full lips slightly ajar, blades of freshly cut grass stuck to her bright red109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡex8JWoETFt
lipstick, her nose, her hair.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEPDQn1gU9
Is it wet or dry?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWsS40JBmU
I closed my eyes and released the sheet, which fluttered back into place, recreating its small pattern of bumps and lows.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4M5botKSMT
The fingers that touch the grass are my index and middle finger of my left109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQEFJAzXMai
hand, and it was wet, cold, coarse and stubbly.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRF2qMVJtaj
A bout of nausea hit my throat, but I swallowed hard a couple of times and the feeling disappeared.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsJEceXTfcK
She looks so young.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vSXS2us7x
Because she was young.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBZB5w57qZ
“What do we have?” asked a familiar voice behind me.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVUZwfwp6z
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOGI6K5CARk
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdwFQJAcOW
Dr Landi waved his hand in a dismissive way.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlUbI4hopNv
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOr3K3Lc8OE
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9lCYO2P1ni
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsF052SWbg
“Inspector? I am waiting” he said, pulling the sheet all the way back.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIrSWvYvIa6
“She is quite close to the walls, meaning she didn’t jump.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsi8KYapEad
“Why is that?” asked Dr Landi, fetching a thermometer from his bag.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYFTe56JLt
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Cx39hEK70
“What else?” he probed me, a corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHYV4rBkI5W
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpLYGJeWBtU
Feel the earth below your feet, is it soft or hard?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFg3GDvv4ew
“Her nails.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgeL1Y2jmBy
“What about them?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKmaZSBr4vw
“The nail polish… it’s ruined. One nail is missing altogether. She struggled. But her clothes seem alright. A robbery? A scorned admirer?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQDnDxgrr4q
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmdRYlmqPUQ
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7MWNUmcgTK
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHm2GxKpdmr
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 public109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYIaHUAJsC
debate.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8H9P0UqiUF
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ24AsIJLxXN
“Two cruisers are on their way, Ma’am. ETA three minutes.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRadua3Bmoz
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeW8AJAKNYD
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡupsQROp3dO
“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 I109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BbwIJvivc
got used to the dialect, but part of conversations still were lost in translation.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhvOg1K0N5
“Yes.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNBqCfjhdA
“What happened there?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5KEdAt4rz4
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRPwLqQSmr
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICa6PQ5X82
“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 to109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaiqfku8pqK
say, you can say it to my face.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv6QZ7yZVep
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGGWRPSYcZ
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagbAsY0d0D
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1P29eJq351
“…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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuS9gitNqSM
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuySZcNoxMA
It was at times like these I missed London and its buzz.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvCYbBRD6Z
Do you also miss the long sequence of balls and dinners and events your mother dragged you to?109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjCRPsFchH
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlBVavZhCyb
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmXVjtjdnpD
“Morning inspector! Coffee?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeYiu0724Q
“Please” I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head, planted my elbows on the counter and toyed with the sugar dispenser.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBNlspVIrx
“How come you are up so early? And on a Saturday!” she asked in her raspy voice.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv17czAmE1o
“A new case.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGNfIqVkIR
“A bad one, looking at your face” she placed the espresso cup on the saucer in front of me. “Milk?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiaOp8ELdks
I nodded and she poured a drop, while I looked for my cigarettes.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92dFCt26JY
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hYHzeJbku
“Morning old ladies!” said the delivery boy, entering with two big trays wrapped in paper.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBRbyPV94SK
“Your father didn’t slap you enough while you were growing up. Give it here.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXjqdo0zLC
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRoDFkhfAUA
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JSwdqiqMD
“He’s a good boy” I said.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhs3jalXFTF
“He needs to be reminded some manners from time to time. Do you want a cornetto? They are still warm.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQk9R3mFw9i
Lucia offered me the whole tray, and after a careful examination, I picked an apricot jam croissant and wrapped it in a paper tissue.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6wI4CtK3Z
“Put it on my tab, please, and save one for Sergio too. A bombolone with custard, please. The biggest you have.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlplh2rs5dz
Lucia whistled.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJenZ99uofu
“What do you have to make up for?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBLG6g6xXPy
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0qKE7R7pN
“And you think a bombolone will do?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf5RWDcb0PA
“There is also the cappuccino.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIPm2YM0aP
When I left the bar Lucia was still laughing.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JxPCft8ja
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRefZdEKDVr
At least them.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ04Qysq7tn
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6KGc40JsP
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlIWmy4dxYM
“That’s nice” I said, not listening to the art lesson any longer.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQbPiSr4pR
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3B8STTFgDv
There is also a sofa with two armchairs and a rug, that is a nice touch.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3W5lFAVrb
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJhMOojptY
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Sw2QhwIl2
They could be the same age.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwmolKf83j
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3LXMSP9eLd
I opened the west-facing window, welcoming the fresh air in the humid room.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLPfAbBP6G
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOboS1bxzwW
I took a pen from my overcrowded pen holder and opened my diary on a fresh page.
26 April 1986109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMwXSKH9n8
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnrRbJpPNcs
Local? Dark brown hair, natural olive-skin. ?? southern beau? ?? 2nd gen? Like me she could have been living around 4 a while.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡklJjczzbDD
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRUfQb0OFnq
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83n70OHQPI
If so -> she would have landed on her back. So if
Someone knocked at my door, interrupting my concentration.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP6wXoxOLZi
“Come in” I barked, tossing the pen in the middle fold of my diary. Reali pushed his head in.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeUetUWKM2
“Is it a good time?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5mBfEtzxqN
“As good as any.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHRxm8zzeI
I closed my diary and pointed at the two chairs in front of my desk. Reali sat and crossed his legs.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhU6m4A569B
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxjce5veXiy
“When the sky was dark and people were asleep.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡON0oUPk6Vs
“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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHyMmx0yQyy
“It’s a long shot, but it’s a good call. Anything else?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ82YlKSlbAx
“Yes. The gypsy girl came back.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqf1Udu6BuO
“What gypsy girl?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxj1LR7abC
“The one with long hair and bare feet.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHNVHry97z4
“Bardot top and as many bracelets as the Madonna statue inside the Cathedral?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrUmYpkA3Ed
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTy8a7FDoOZ
“Why do you think she’s a gypsy?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyROYwV496I
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHvCsXFuAw
“Anyway. After you left, she came back. I managed to ask if she saw something, but109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡERE2tG6qDj
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.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleAlbnZ1uE
And the possible gypsy roots are not important anymore.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFpHMBcquF4
“What’s her name?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOFLAqJtYX
“Something like Dea.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtpqYGdD6RQ
“Dea. As in goddess?” Sergio shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll have a look later. You can go, thanks.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcD3pLLQZDc
He got up and opened the door.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjVqNOpz7F
“Oh, Sergio. One more thing.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpI9HygEUcR
“Chief?”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmCmqbwylWh
“Breakfast is already paid for at Lucia’s.”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2txDQH5QV0
“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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKO5m8C1KsF
“You know I am not gonna have sex with you” I said, opening my diary again.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjScjsdxd9H
“At least a hand job!”109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmhAkumZD5c
“Piss off, jerk” I said, aiming at his head with my pen, but hitting the door instead.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPhFMCj90mu
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.109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9uP2H2iLE
* 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.
109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL3yNMNKLnq
