Death and Judgement (23 page)

She looked up as he came in, smiled without opening her mouth, removed her glasses and placed them on the papers in front of her, but said nothing. The colour of her eyes, he noticed,, was so exactly that of her suit that it could not have been coincidental. Looking at her, Brunetti found himself thinking of the description

Figaro gives
of the woman with whom Count Almaviva is in love: li
ght hair, rosy cheeks, eyes that speak.

'Si
?' she asked.

‘
Signora Ceroni
?'

‘
Yes.'

‘I’ve
brought you your glasses,
’
Brun
etti said, taking them from his pocket but not looking away from her.

Her face filled with instant pleasure that made her even lovelier. 'Oh, wonderful,' she said and got to her feet. "Wherever did you find them?
’
Brune
tti heard a slight accent, perha
ps Slavic, certainly Eastern European.

Without saying anything, he passed them across the desk to her. She accepted the leather case and set it on top of the desk without looking inside.

'Aren't you going to check that they're yours?
’
he asked.

'No, I recognize the case,' she said. Then, smiling again, 'But how did you know they were mine?
’

‘
We called
the
opticians in the city.'

‘
We?' she asked. But then she remembered her manners and said, 'But please, sit down. I'm afraid I'm being very impolite.
’

'Thank you,' Brunetti said and sat in one of the three chairs that stood in front of her desk.

‘I
'm sorry
’
she said, 'but Roberta didn't tell me your name.
’

'Brunetti, Guido Brun
etti.
’

Thank you, Signor Brun
etti, for going to all of this trouble. You certainly could have called m
e, and I would have been very gla
d to go and pick them up.

There's no need for you to have come all the way across the city to give them to me.'

'Across the city?' Brunetti repeated.

His question surprised her, but for only a moment. She dismissed it, and her own surprise at it, with a wave of her hand, 'Just an expression. The agency is sort of out of the way over here.
’

‘
Yes, of course,' he said.

‘I
don't know how to thank you.'

'You could tell me where you lost them.'

She smiled again. 'Why, if I knew where I lost them, then they wouldn't have been lost, would they?'

Brunetti said nothing.

She gazed across the desk at him, but he said nothing. She looked down at the glasses case and pulled it towards her. She took the glasses out and, just as had Brunetti in the restaurant, wiggled one earpiece, then pulled them both sharply to the sides; again, the glasses bent but did not break.

'Remarkable, isn't it?' she asked without looking at him.

Brunetti remained silent

In the same entirely casual voice, she said, 'I didn't want to get involved.'

'With us?' Bruhetti asked, assuming that if she knew that he had to cross the city to get to her, then she knew where he had come from.

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'He was a married man.'

‘
In a few years, well be in me twenty-first century, signora.
’

"What do you mean?
’
she asked, looking up at him in real confusion.

That married or not married hardly means much anymore.
’

'It did to his wife,' she said fiercely. She folded the
glasses and slipped
them back into
the leather case.

'Not even when he was f
ound dead?'

'Especially not then. I didn't want there to be any suspicion that I had anything to do with it
’

'Did you?'

'Com
mi
ssario Brunetti,
’
she said,
man
a
ging
to surprise him by the use of his
titl
e, 'it took me five years to become a citizen of this country and, even now
, I have no doubt that my citizens
hip could very easily be taken away from me at
the
first moment I came to the attention of
the
authorities. Became of that, I want to do nothing that will bring me to their attention.
’

"You're receiving our attention now.
’

She pursed her li
ps in involuntary vexation. 'I had hoped to avoid it
’

'Yet you knew you had left the glasses there?
’

'I knew I lost them that day; but I hoped it was somewhere else.
’

‘
Were you having an affair with him?'

He watched her weigh
this
, and then she nodded.

'How long had it gone on?'

Three years.
’

‘
Did you have any intention of changing things?'
‘I’m
afraid I don't understand your question.
’

'Did you have hopes of marrying him?' 'No. The situation suited me as it was.' 'And what was that situation?' 'We saw one another every few weeks.
’
'And did what?
’

She looked up at him sharply. 'Again, I don't understand your question.'

'What did you do when you saw him?' 'What is it lovers usually do, Dottor Brunetti?' 'They make love.'

'Very good, dottore. Yes, they make love, which is what we did.' Brunetti sensed that she was angry, but it didn't seem to him that her anger was directed at, or caused by, his questions. 'Where?' he asked.

‘I
beg your pardon.'

'Where did you make love?'

Her li
ps tightened and her answer squeezed from between
them
. 'In bed.'

'Where?'

Silence.

'Where was the bed? Here in Venice or in Padua?'

‘I
n both places.'

‘I
n an apartment or a hotel?'

Before she could answer, the phone on her desk gave a discreet buzz, and she answered it
.
She listened for a moment said, 'I'll give you a call this afternoon,' and hung up. The break in the rhythm of the questions had been minimal, but it had been enough to allow her to regain her composure.

‘I
'm sorry, C
ommissario, would you repeat your last question?
’
she asked.

He repeated it, knowing th
at the interruption provided b
y
the
phone call had given her enough time to think about the answer she'd given. But he wanted to hear her change it,
‘
I asked you where you made love.'

'Here in my apartment:

'And in Padua?'

She feigned confusion. 'What?'

'In Puma, where did you meet?
’

She gave him a small smile. 'I'm afraid I misunderstood your question. We usually met here.
’

'And how frequently were you able to see one another?'

Her manner warm
ed, as it always did just before people began to fie. 'Actually, there really wasn't very much of an affair left, but we Eked one another and were still good friends. So we saw one another for dinner every so often, either here or in Padua.'

'Do you remember the last time you were together here in Venice?'

She turned aside and considered how to answer his question. 'Why, no, I don't. I think it must have been some time during the summer.'

'Are you married, signora?' he asked

'I'm divorced,
’
she answered.

'Do you five alone?'

She nodded

'How did you learn of Signor Favero's death?'

'I read it in the paper, the morning after it happened.'

'And didn't call us?'

'No.'

'Even though you'd seen him the night before?'

'Especially because of that. As I explained a moment ago, I have no reason to put my trust in the authorities.
’

In his worst moments, Brunetti suspected that no one did, but that was perhaps an opinion best not revealed to Signora Ceroni.

"Where do you come from originally, signora?'

'Yugoslavia. From Mostar.'

'And how long ago did you come to Italy?
’

'Nine years.
’

'Why did you come?
’

‘I
came originally as a tourist, but then I found work and decided to stay.' 'In Venice?
’
'Yes.
’

'What sort of work did you do?
’
he asked, though he knew that this information would be available somewhere in the records of the Ufficio Stranieri.

'At first, I worked in a bar, but then I got a job in a travel agency. I knew several languages, and so it was easy for me to find work.
’

'And now this?' he asked, waving his hand to encompass the
small office in which they sat
is it yours?
’

‘Y
es.
’

'How long have you owned it?
’

'Three years. It took me more than four yean to save enough money to give a deposit to the old owners. But now it's mine. That's another reason I didn't want any trouble.'

'Even if you have nothing to hide?'

'If I might be frank, C
ommissario, it has never been my experience that agencies of the state pay much attention to whether people have things to hide or not, Quite the contrary, in fact. And because I know nothing about the details of Signor Favero's death, I made the judgement that there was no information I could provide to the police, and so I did not call you.
’

'What did you talk about at dinner that night?'

She paused and looked aside, thinking back to the evening. 'What friends talk about. His business. Mine. His children.'

'His wife?'

Again, she brought her lips together in evident disapproval. 'No, we did not discuss his wife. Neither of us thought that in good taste.'

'What else did you talk about?'

'Nothing that I can remember. He talked about buying a new car and didn't know what kind to get, but I couldn't help him there.'

'Because you don't drive?'

'No, there's no need for it here, is there?
’
she asked with a smile. 'And I know nothing about cars. Like most women.'

Brunetti wondered why she made this obvious appeal to his male sense of superiority; it seemed out of character in a woman who so easily established her own equality with a man.

'The waiter in the restaurant where you had dinner said that he showed you some papers during dinner.'

'Ah, yes. That's when I took out the glasses. I need them for reading.'

'What were the papers?'

She paused, either in memory or invention, it was the prospectus for a company he wanted me to invest in. Because the agency is making a profit, he wanted me to start to use the money I made - "put it to work" - those were his words. But I wasn't interested.
’

'Do you remember what sort of company it was?
’

'No, I'm afraid I don't. I don't pay much attention to that sort of thing.' Brunetti doubted this, is it important?' she asked.

'We found quite a number of files in the trunk of his car,' Brunetti lied, 'and we'd like to get some idea of whether any of them have special importance.'

He watched as she started to ask about the papers and then changed her mind.

'Can you remember anything particular about that evening? Did he seem troubled or upset about anything?' It occurred to Brunetti that almost anyone would find it strange that it had taken him so long to get around to this question.

'He was more quiet than usual, but that could have been because he was working so much. He said a number of times that he was very busy.'

'Did he mention anything in particular?'

'No.'

'And after dinner, where did you go?' 'He drove me to the railway station, and I came back to Venice.' 'Which train?'