Chapter One The small office was in darkness, except where the red night lamp stood by the telephone on the desk, and the white kid gloves lying on top of a sheaf of papers within the patch of light were flushed pink. A black uniform jacket was hung over the back of a swivel chair and a matching military greatcoat, lined with red, was buttoned neatly on to a hanger behind the door, alongside a well-brushed hat. There was just room in the office for a camp bed along one white-painted wall, and on the camp bed, his legs carefully placed so as not to crease the red stripe down his trousers, lay Carabiniere Bacci. He was doing night duty. The features of his Florentine face were serene. He was asleep. He was very young and he slept deeply, with a copy of the Codice di Procedura Penale open on his chest and a handbook of military tactics on the floor beside him. His idea had been to stay awake all night and study, but the closeness of the little office, the softness of the red light, and the silence had combined to close his brown eyes, though he thought in his dream that he was still reading. The telephone shrilled loudly and insistently in its pool of light. Carabiniere Bacci had leapt to his feet before he was awake and saluted before he was on his feet. When he realized what the noise was, he grabbed the receiver quickly before it could wake the Marshal. A small, distressed voice said: `Marshal Guarnaccia, Marshal ... you'd better come round here right away, it's the Englishman, he--' `Just a moment.' Carabiniere Bacci felt about for the main light switch and picked up a pencil. `Marshal?' `This is not Marshal Guarnaccia, this is Carabiniere Bacci speaking, who's that?' There was a pause, then the voice continued obediently, `Cipolla, Gianpaolo Maria.' `And the address?' `My address?' The voice was so weak that Carabiniere Bacci wondered if he were speaking to a man or a boy. `Your address and the address you're speaking from if they're different.' `Via Romana eighty-three red, that's my address.' `And you're speaking from?' `Via Maggio fifty-eight.' `And there's been a crime committed there?' `Yes, it's the Englishman ... Is the Marshal not there? My sister lives next door to the Marshal, with her husband being a gardener in the Boboli, so I know him--and the Marshal ...' `Might I ask you,' said Carabiniere Bacci with all the cold dignity of his two months' practical experience, `just what you're doing in Via Maggio in the middle of the night if you live down Via Romana?' Another pause. Then the small voice said, `But ... it's morning ... I work here.' `I see. Well. Stay where you are and I'll be over there in five minutes.' Carabiniere Bacci pulled on his jacket and greatcoat and adjusted his hat and kid gloves carefully. It distressed him not to wash and shave but the matter might be urgent ... he hesitated, looking towards the door that led to the Marshal's living quarters and then back at the door where his coat had hung and where a Beretta nine was now visible, hung up with its white leather holster and webbing. The Marshal was sweating in bed with the onset of `flu, which was why Carabiniere Bacci had insisted on sleeping in the office instead of going upstairs to bed--quite unnecessarily, in the Marshal's opinion--but Carabiniere Bacci was known as the `perfect student'. Quietly he took down the gun, checked it and strapped it on with an eye on the inner door. He ought to wake the Marshal, perhaps, or phone through to Borgo Ognissanti in case he needed help ... but if he phoned Headquarters they would surely tell him to stay where he was and they'd send an Officer ... Carabiniere Bacci had never in his life been near the scene of a crime ... still ... he was drumming softly with his gloved fingers on the desk. The Marshal had said that if anything important came up--it might not be anything at all, of course--nothing ever did happen at Stazione Pitti ... Carabiniere Bacci did not like the Marshal. In the first place because he was Sicilian and he suspected him of being, if not actually Mafia, at least mafioso , and he knew that the Marshal knew of his suspicion and even encouraged it. He seemed to think it was funny. He disliked the Marshal in the second place because he was too large and fat and had an embarrassing eye complaint--embarrassing to Carabiniere Bacci--that caused him to weep copiously during the hours of sunlight. And since he continually mourned the absence of his wife and children who were at home in Syracuse, his rolling tears often seemed distressingly real--distressing to Carabiniere Bacci. The Marshal himself would fish unperturbedly for the dark glasses that were always in one of his voluminous pockets and explain to anyone and everyone, `It's all right, just a complaint I have. It's the sunshine starts it off.' He thought he wouldn't wake the Marshal. Via Maggio was only two steps away. He could be there and back in ten minutes and then wake him if it seemed necessary. He stepped outside and locked the office door. The caller had been right--it was morning, just about. A sluggish, damp December dawn. Thick yellow fog rose off the river and seeped along the narrow streets to deaden Carabiniere Bacci's footsteps as he came out under the dark, stone archway and crossed the sloping forecourt of the Pitti palace. The few ghostly cars that had been left there all night were misted with fine droplets of moisture. He crossed the silent piazza and cut through an alley that slit the high buildings dividing Piazza Pitti from Via Maggio. He was shivering inside his heavy greatcoat, aware of the whole city sleeping behind closed shutters. The streetlights were still on, but since the narrow passage had only one iron lamp at each end, Carabiniere Bacci had to tread carefully, squeezing past the inevitable line of illegally parked mopeds, his nose discreetly lifted against the stench of drains that hung in the dawn fog and that would not be dispersed until the rush-hour traffic drove it off and replaced it with exhaust fumes. Halfway along the alley, at its gloomiest point, he stumbled on to a Coca-Cola can that rolled away along the uneven flags, rattling his nerves. When he came out in Via Maggio he stopped, wondering which way to go. To his right, the street of tall Renaissance palaces went along to the river and the Santa Trinita bridge, invisible now in the fog; to his left, a shorter stretch of the street led to a tiny triangular piazza where it met the road coming from the Pitti. Consulting both the red and black numbering systems carefully, Carabiniere Bacci turned left towards the little piazza and crossed over ... 52 ... 106 red ... 108 red ... the faint old red numbers were barely visible in the grey half-light but the large black ones stood out clearly on their white plates and it was a black one he was looking for ... 54 ... 110 red ... 56 ... 58. There was an indecipherable coat of arms carved in stone at first-floor level. The gigantic, iron-studded doors reached up to the coat of arms, and the shutters on all three upper floors were closed. No thread of light was showing to indicate which floor the call had come from and Carabiniere Bacci realized now that he had forgotten to ask what name to look for. There was a bank housed in the ground floor of the building and a shop with its metal shutter down. The shop marked the end of Via Maggio and faced the little piazza. It was the shop which eventually reminded him--an Englishman--he'd read it somewhere ... `A nation of shopkeepers' ... he ran a white-gloved finger delicately down the polished brass bellplate, peering closely at the list of names ... Frediani ... Cipriani ... Cesarini ... no ... A. Langley-Smythe, that would be it on the ground-floor right--but surely not the ground floor? The nameplate on the bell opposite was blank, must be a porter's lodge. Up on the top floor left was another English name: `Miss E. White,' with, in brackets, `Landor'. But the caller had certainly said a man. He rang the ground-floor bell, No answer. He rang again, bending to put his ear to the speaker. Nothing. It could be a hoax ... or even a trap of some sort, it often happened ... he'd heard stories ... he was getting a little nervous. It could be some Sicilian who had it in for the Marshal ... or terrorrists ? `Nothing ever happens at Stazione Pitti,' he repeated to himself quietly, and then he heard footsteps. They seemed near but they couldn't be coming from inside the building, nothing could be heard beyond those doors. The footsteps were coming round the corner beyond the shop, slow, heavy steps. A dark figure emerged from the fog; it was the private night guard on his round. `Open up for me,' demanded Carabiniere Bacci when the guard reached him. `There's something wrong in here .' `Nothing wrong when I last passed,' said the guard phlegmatically, pushing back his cap. He selected a key from the rattling bunch in his hand, unlocked one of the great doors and leaned on it with his shoulder enough to open it a couple of feet. He tossed in the white ticket that proved to the residents that he had done his round, then stood back. His radio coughed suddenly into life and just as suddenly silenced itself with a whistle. `And is that all you did on your last round?' asked Carabiniere Bacci severely. `No. I went up in the lift and checked every door. You'll find a ticket in every one if you're going in there. But since you're here I'll leave you to it this time.' `You could come in on your next round ... I might want you to take a message ...' Carabiniere Bacci wished again that he'd had time to shave. He felt less confident than when he'd first stepped out of the office. `I'm off home,' said the guard. `My last round. Bank guard should be here at eight.' He walked on with deliberate steps, selected another key and vanished into the next big doorway. Well, the bank guard, when he came, was sure to be an ex-carabiniere and more helpful. Carabiniere Bacci pushed at the studded oak with his shoulder until the door opened enough to admit him. A wide, stone-flagged passage, ill-lit by a tiny nightlight, led to a pair of high, wooden carriage gates which would presumably open on to the central courtyard of the building. Carabiniere Bacci felt for a switch and turned on a marginally stronger bulb hanging in a spiked iron lantern before the gates. To his right was the staff entrance to the bank, to his left a disused porter's lodge with the inquiry window boarded up. Walking slowly and loudly on the flagged floor, he reached the locked gates and followed a smaller passage round to the left where a wide stone staircase led to the upper floors. At the bottom of the staircase, on the left, were the tenants' letter-boxes, on the right, a lift and a door which looked as if it might lead to a storeroom. A crack of yellow light was showing round this door. The name on the bell was A. Langley-Smythe. Carabiniere Bacci's loud footfall stopped. With one gloved finger he pushed gently on the door until it swung open. A parchment lamp was lit on a dusty, littered desk. Beyond it the room was gloomy and he didn't see A. Langley-Smythe at first. He did see, sitting by the lamp in an upright chair as if he were on guard, a tiny, ashen-faced man with a brush of spiky hair and a black cotton overall. `So why the devil didn't you wake me up? Oh, did you? Well, you thought wrong--you took what? Carabiniere Bacci, I will personally ... Have you touched anything? For God's sake, don't touch anything! -- Who? what's he doing there ... Just a minute, I've got to get a ... atchoo! He doesn't just look in a state of shock, he is in a state of shock. His wife's on her deathbed, may even have died last night; his sister's down at Via Romana so what's he doing--Look, just keep him there till I arrive, I'll have to phone through to Borgo Ognissanti first--and don't touch anything ... Oh Lord ...' He rang Headquarters. Marshal Guarnaccia struggled slowly into his uniform, sneezing almost continuously. He felt sick and dizzy and his whole body burned and ached. He found some aspirin in the bathroom and took half a dozen of them with four tumblers of mineral water that left his throat as hot and dry as when he started. Tomorrow he should be going home for Christmas; he couldn't be ill, he couldn't spend Christmas alone and sick in his quarters in Florence, when every other Sicilian in the city was elbowing his way on to one of the overflowing southbound trains, laden with lumpy parcels and suitcases tied up with string. He sneezed again loudly and stepped out under the archway, feeling light-headed as the cold dampness enveloped his feverish face. A watery sun was just breaking through the morning fog and Marshal Guarnaccia began to weep. Sighing, he delved into his coat pocket and put on a pair of dark glasses. The Englishman's flat, when the Marshal reached it, was as busy as a railway station. There were more than a dozen people inside and two porters from the Medico-Legal Institute were leaning in the doorway arguing heatedly with the Brigadier on guard. `I can't digest it and that's that ...' `It's the temperature of the oil that counts, if you tried it the way my mother makes it ...' `As far as I'm concerned a good beefsteak ...' The Marshal pushed past them with a nod. `Jesus, Mary and Joseph,' he said softly, once inside. He wasn't looking at the body of A. Langley-Smythe which, anyway, was hidden from his view by two photographers, the Substitute Prosecutor and Professor Forli from the Medico-Legal Institute, he was looking out into the courtyard at the pathetic figure of the little cleaner in his skimpy black overall. A french window had, in some recent decade, been let into the thick stone wall, and the cleaner was out there picking up bits of rubbish from the mossy flags around big terra-cotta plantpots and putting them in a polythene bag. His face had a greenish pallor. `He looked as though he might faint if he waited in here any longer,' explained Carabiniere Bacci, who had not been far from fainting himself during the time he had been alone with the body. `Apparently, he cleans the courtyard once a month as well as the stairs and entrance which he does every week. I thought it might take his mind off things since he had to wait ... and as you said his wife was ill ...' `She's dead,' murmured the Marshal, his great eyes fixed on the stooping figure outside. He had taken the time to call next door on his way out and the gardener had opened up, his eyes red, his face dark with beard. He had been preparing breakfast for the children, as his wife was still down at Via Romana. The group round the body was breaking up. The Captain from Headquarters who was in charge of the case came out of the bedroom, where his technicians were working, and regarded the Substitute Prosecutor with a raised eyebrow. The other turned his own eyes heavenward. There was no need to say it. That this had to happen so near the holidays ... `And no chance of its being a suicide,' sighed the S.P. `Hardly. Shot in the back and no weapon found.' `Well, do what you can ...' Do what you can to clear it up by Christmas. The S.P. shook hands with the Captain and with Professor Forli who was also ready to leave and was closing his bag. The Marshal turned and looked at him hopefully: `D'you think you could--' `Nothing,' said the Professor automatically. `Not until after the autopsy--other than what you can see for yourself. And then a lot will depend on our knowing what time he last ate ... Let's hope he eats in a restaurant--it seems likely, he was obviously a bachelor.' The Professor, an elegant, grey-haired man, glanced at the prevailing squalor around him with evident distaste. `Actually,' said the Marshal humbly, `that's all a bit beyond my scope,' and he sat down heavily on a dusty antique chair and mopped his brow. `I was going to ask you if you could give me anything for this fever.' `'Flu?' `I suppose so.' `What have you been taking?' `Just aspirin.' The Professor felt his pulse, `You ought to be in bed.' `I know.' The Marshal's glance went involuntarily to Carabiniere Bacci, rising and falling gently on his well-polished heels by the french windows and slapping himself nervously with his kid gloves. `I see.' The Professor had followed his glance. `And I've a Brigadier off sick and my only other boy's already on his way home.' It was the same everywhere at holiday times, the inexorable trickle southwards, as steady and as inevitable as sand running through an egg-timer, leaving museums, hospitals, banks and police stations severely understaffed. `We're in the same boat,' sympathized the Professor. `I'll prescribe an antibiotic--but I warn you, you'd better take it easy. Let the lad do your running about and leave this business to the Captain.' `You needn't worry about that. Stolen handbags are about our limit at Pitti; he won't want me. I'm just keeping an eye on this boy. The sooner he's safely back in Officer School the better. They seem to come younger every year. I must be getting old.' `Well, try and get some rest, anyway, and drink plenty of fluids.' Both of them noticed at the same time the almost empty whisky bottle standing by the parchment lamp. `Not that stuff.' `I've never tasted it.' The Marshal drank half a litre of red every day with his evening meal, never more nor less, and a drop of vinsanto on Sundays. `And no wine, either, while you're on this.' The Professor was reading the Marshal's mind as he wrote. He passed him the prescription and gave a pat to the enormous shoulder. `Bear up.' `Captain ...?' One of the technicians was crouching in a corner of the room, examining some object there. The Captain went over to look. A blue and white majolica bust, the head of an angel. The technician was gently brushing away some dust to reveal a piece of string encircling the neck. `Oh no ...' said the Captain softly. He didn't relish the complications this was going to cause. `'Fraid so, sir ...' He pulled on the string and brought its lead seal into view. The Captain stood up. `Get someone over from Pitti, will you? Try Doctor Biondini, the director of the Palatine gallery, he should be there at this time. He'll probably be able to tell you something immediately, but if not, ring me at my office as soon as you hear ...' When the Captain had gone back to the bedroom, Carabiniere Bacci went over to the crouching figure and asked timidly: `What's happened?' He looked at the small lead seal. `What does it mean?' `Trouble,' said the technician. `Rome ...' As if the two were synonymous. ` Can I have the lights over here ? Try and keep out of the way, lad, will you ...' `Can we shift him yet?' The porters had been hanging about for over an hour and a half. The floor outside the flat was littered with cigarette ends and their conversation was becoming desultory. `With the fillet on it, mind you, and rare. Nothing with it except maybe a dish of shallots done in plenty of butter, sweet and sour.' `Onions make me ill, I never touch them.' `You can take him,' said the Professor, hurrying out to catch up with the Substitute Prosecutor and invite him to breakfast in a bar. The porters began to manœuvre the considerable bulk of A. Langley-Smythe on to their stretcher, and the Marshal noticed that he was wearing trousers under his dressing-gown and that there was not a lot of blood, although a small patch of it had trickled on to the corner of a Persian carpet that lay before the fireplace. The porters left with their burden, their loud voices echoing in the stone passageway. The Captain and his men were closeted in the bedroom again, where they seemed to have found something of interest. The Marshal and Carabiniere Bacci were left alone in the living-room. `Carabiniere Bacci.' `Yes, sir?' The Marshal's eyes were closed, his large, damp hands placed squarely on his knees as if to keep himself steady, `I want you to do one thing immediately. Do it properly and do it quickly.' `Yes sir.' Carabiniere Bacci clicked to attention on the stone floor. Flinching slightly, the Marshal handed him the prescription and said: `Go out into the piazza, to the chemist next to the stationer's, and get this filled.' `Yes, sir.' Carabiniere Bacci drew on his gloves, took the prescription delicately between two fingers and strode elegantly towards the door. `And be quick about it!' `Yessir!' The Marshal sat where he was, his large watery eyes open now but expressionless, taking in everything around him. The room was overfurnished, in a strangely haphazard fashion, and dusty rather than dirty, the sort of claustrophobic dustiness of attics and junkrooms. The furniture was a motley collection of styles and periods, all of it very antique and much of it too large even in such a high, spacious room as this one. There were some oil paintings that hadn't been hung, just propped against the walls on top of the furniture. The only pieces that looked settled there were the desk and the worn leather chairs before and behind it, on one of which the Marshal was now sitting, and an enormous old armchair, upholstered in faded red velvet. The velvet cushions were squashed into somebody's habitual sitting position and an English newspaper was half pushed down the side of the seat. The chair was by the stone fireplace where the remains of a wood fire lay cold in the grate. The hearth was littered with cigarette ends. The Marshal was tempted to sink his aching limbs into the velvet cushions but the imprint of the Englishman's body was too evident. He sighed and went on looking around him. `Very nice,' he said softly, regarding the marble statuary on either side of the fireplace. The two figures, their deep folds heavily accented by dust, looked Roman but they might have been Florentine copies. Very nice, even so. A rich man, then, but living on the ground floor ... he stared out again at the empty courtyard, his great bulk as still and his great eyes as sightless as those of the marble figures. (Continues...) Excerpted from Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb. Copyright (c) 1999 by Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
