A Noble Radiance (12 page)

'For what?' Patta
asked rhetorically and looked down at the page again. "Tor conspicuous
bravery in the pursuit of a fleeing criminal'',
he read with the
emphasis of sarcasm. 'You want to promote him because he chased after someone
in his boat?' Patta paused and when Brunetti failed to answer, he added,
sarcasm even more pronounced, 'And they didn't even catch the men they were
chasing, did they?'

Brunetti paused a few
seconds before he answered, and when he did, his voice was as calm as Patta's
had not been. 'No, sir, not because Bonsuan chased after someone in his boat.
But because he stopped the boat while he was under fire from the men in the
other boat and went into the water to rescue another officer who had been shot
and had fallen into the water.'

'It wasn't a serious
wound,' Patta said.

I'm not sure Officer
Bonsuan paused to reflect upon that, sir, when he saw the other man in the
water.'

'Well, it's
impossible. We can't promote someone who is only a pilot.' Brunetti said
nothing.

'As to Vianello,
perhaps we can allow that,' Patta conceded with a singular lack of enthusiasm.
Vianello had been in Standa early one Saturday afternoon when a man armed with
a knife came in, waved the cashier away from her place, and began to pull money
from the cash register nearest the door. The sergeant who had gone into the
store to buy a pair of sunglasses, ducked down behind the counter and, when the
man made towards the door, tackled him, disarmed him, and arrested him.

'And don't even talk
about Pucetti,' Patta said angrily. Six weeks ago, Pucetti, a dedicated
cyclist, had been in the mountains north of Vicenza when he'd almost been run
off the road by a car driven by what turned out to be a drunken man. A few
minutes later, he'd come upon the same car, crashed into a tree at the side of
the road and already in flames. He'd dragged the driver from the car, burning
his hands seriously in the process. ‘It happened out of our jurisdiction, so
there can be no thought of a commendation,' Patta added by way of
clarification.

He flipped the folder
to the side and looked up at Brunetti. 'But that's not why I want to see you,
Brunetti,' he said.

If it was his other
recommendations that Patta had been reading, then Brunetti knew what was
coming.

'You've not only
failed to recommend Lieutenant Scarpa for promotion, but you've suggested that
he be transferred,' Patta said, barely containing his rage. Patta had brought
the Lieutenant with him when he was transferred to Venice some years before;
since then, the Lieutenant had served as the Vice-Questore's assistant, and
spy.

"That's
correct.'

‘I can't allow that.'

'Can't allow what,
Vice-Questore? That the Lieutenant be transferred or that I suggest it?'
'Either. Both’

Brunetti remained
silent waiting to see how far Patta would go in defence of his creature.

'You know that I have
the authority to refuse to pass on these recommendations?' Patta asked and then
added, 'all of them’

'Yes, I know that’

Then, before I make
my own recommendations to the Questore, I suggest you retract the remarks
you've made about the lieutenant’ When Brunetti said nothing, Patta asked, 'Did
you hear me, Commissario?'

'Yes.'

'And?'

'There is little that
will make me change my opinion of the Lieutenant and nothing that will make me
change my recommendation.'

'You know nothing
will come of your recommendation, don't you?' Patta asked, pushing the folder
to the side, freeing himself from the risk of contamination.

'But it will be in
his file,' Brunetti said, even though he knew how easily things could be made
to disappear from files.

‘I don't see what
purpose that will serve’

'I like history. I
like things to be recorded’

'So far as Lieutenant
Scarpa is concerned, the only thing to be recorded is that he is an excellent
officer and a man worthy of my trust’

'Then perhaps you can
record that, sir, and I’ll record my own judgement. And then, as always happens
when history is read, future readers will determine which of us was correct.'

‘I don't know what
you're talking about, Brunetti, about future readers of history or things needing
to be recorded. What we need is mutual support and trust’

Brunetti said nothing
to this, not wanting to encourage Patta in his usual platitudes about the
pursuit of justice and the enforcement of the law, which two things Patta saw
as identical. The Vice-Questore, however, needed no encouragement and devoted a
few minutes to this particular theme, while Brunetti wondered what questions to
ask of Maurizio Lorenzoni. Regardless of the outcome of the autopsy, he wanted
to continue to take a closer look at the kidnapping; the nephew, the golden boy
of the family, seemed a good place to try next.

Patta's raised voice
cut into his reverie. 'If I'm boring you, Dottor Brunetti, just tell me and you
can leave.'

Brunetti got suddenly
to his feet, smiled but did not speak, and left Patta's office.

10

When he got back to
his office, the first thing Brunetti did was open his window and spend a moment
looking down at the place where Bonsuan's boat was usually moored, and only
after that did he go to his desk and open the autopsy report. Over the years, he
had become accustomed to the idiosyncratic style of these reports. The terminology
was all medical, naming bones, organs, and pieces of connecting tissue; the
grammar was almost exclusively subjunctive and conditional: If we were dealing
with the body of a person in good health', 'Had the body not been moved'. If I
were asked to give an estimate.'

Young, male, probably
in his early twenties, evidence of orthodontal work. Estimated height 180
centimetres, weight probably not more than sixty kilos. The cause of death was
most likely a bullet to the brain: attached was a photo of the hole in the
skull, its lethal roundness in no way diminished by its smallness. A scratch on
the inner surface of the left eye socket might have been left by the exit of
the bullet.

Here Brunetti paused
and reflected upon the eternal caution of pathologists. A person could be found
with a dagger through the heart, and the report would read, 'The cause of death
appears to be
...'
He regretted that someone other than Ettore Rizzardi, the
medico legale
of
Venice, had done the autopsy: after years of working with him, Brunetti could
usually get Rizzardi to commit himself beyond the bland, speculative language
of the reports he wrote, had once or twice even lured the pathologist into
speculating on the possibility that the cause of death might be different from
that suggested by the autopsy.

Because the tractor
had disturbed some bones and broken others, there was no way of determining
whether the ring that was found with the body had been worn by the deceased.
The first officers on the scene had found it but had not marked its exact
location before giving it to the
medico
legale,
so it was impossible
to tell where it had lain in relation to the body, which had itself been
further disturbed by their arrival.

As well as a pair of
black leather shoes, size 42, and dark cotton socks, the man had been wearing
only blue wool slacks and a white cotton shirt when he was buried. Brunetti
recalled the police report which stated that Lorenzoni had been wearing a blue
suit when he disappeared. Because there had been heavy rains in the province of
Belluno the previous autumn and winter and because the field lay at the base of
two hills and hence tended to retain water, the decomposition of both fabric
and flesh had been faster than normal.

Toxicological
examinations were being performed on the organs and would be ready within a
week, as would the results of some further tests that were to be performed on
the bones. Though the fragments of lung tissue were too badly deteriorated to
make the conclusion reliable, there was evidence he had been a heavy smoker.
Brunetti thought of what Roberto's girlfriend had said, and despaired of the
usefulness of autopsies. A complete set of dental X-rays were contained in a
transparent plastic folder.

'The dentist, then,'
Brunetti said aloud and reached for the phone. While he waited for an outside
line, he flipped open his copy of the Lorenzoni file and found Count Ludovico's
phone number.

'Pronto’
a male voice answered on the third ring.

'Conte Lorenzoni?'
Brunetti asked.

'Signor Lorenzoni,'
the voice corrected, giving no indication of whether this was the nephew or the
Count asserting solidarity with democracy.

'Signor Maurizio
Lorenzoni?' Brunetti asked.

'Yes.' Nothing more.

'This is Commissario
Guido Brunetti. I'd like to speak to you or your uncle, if possible, sometime
this afternoon.'

'What is this in
relation to, Commissario?'

'Roberto, your cousin
Roberto.'

After a long pause,
he asked, Have you found him?'

'A body has been
found in the province of Belluno.' 'Belluno?' 'Yes’

Is it Roberto?'

1 don't know, Signor
Lorenzoni. It could be: if s the body of a young man about twenty, about 180
centimetres tall
...'

'That description
would fit half the young men in Italy,' Lorenzoni said:

'A ring with the
Lorenzoni crest was found with him’Brunetti added.

'What?'

'A signet ring with
the family crest was found with him.'

'Who identified it?'

'The
medico legale’

'Is he
sure?'Lorenzoni asked.

'Yes. Unless the
crest has been changed recently’ Brunetti added in a level voice.

Lorenzoni's question
came after another long pause.'Where was this?'

'In a place called
Col di Cugnan, not far from Belluno.'

The next pause was
longer. Then Lorenzoni asked, in a far softer voice, 'Can we see him?'

Had the voice not
softened, Brunetti would have answered that there wasn't much to see; instead,
he said, 'I'm afraid the identification will have to be done by other means.',

'What does that
mean?'

"The body that
was found has been in the ground for some time, and so there has been
considerable decomposition.'

'Decomposition?'

It would help us if
we could get in touch with his dentist. There's evidence that there was
considerable orthodontal work.'

'Oh Dio’
the young man whispered, and then said, 'Roberto wore
braces for years.'

'Can you give me the
name of the dentist?'

'Francesco Urbani.
His office is in Campo San Stefano. He's the same dentist we all go to.'

Brunetti made a note
of the name and address. 'Thank you, Signor Lorenzoni.'

'When will you know?
Should I tell my uncle?' And after a pause, he added, but it wasn't a question,
'And my aunt.'

Brunetti picked up
the white-bordered dental X-rays. He could send Vianello to Doctor Urbani with
them this afternoon. 1 should be able to give you some information today. I'd
like to speak to your uncle, and your aunt, if that's possible. This evening?'

‘Yes, yes,' he
answered distractedly. 'Commissario, is there a chance that this isn't Roberto?'

That chance, if it
ever existed, seemed to be growing smaller with each added piece of
information. ‘I don't think if s very likely, but you might want to wait until
we've spoken to the dentist before you tell your uncle.'

‘I don't know how I
can tell him,' Lorenzoni said. 'And my aunt, my aunt.'

Whatever the dentist
said would only confirm what Brunetti's instincts knew was true. He decided he
would speak to the Lorenzonis, all of them, and do it soon. ‘I’ll come and
speak to them if you'd like me to.'