Broken Chord (31 page)

Early next morning Bruno received a phone call after which he went to meet Dragonetti at the hospital. He parked the car in the visitor’s car park and walked over to the exit where his boss was waiting for him impatiently.

“What’s going on? Why are we here?” asked Bruno.

“You’ll see.” They got into the lift and rode it to the top floor.

“Who are we going to see?”

“Marianna.”

“She’s here? Has she had an accident?”

“No, her fiancé died and she’s had some kind of breakdown.”

“Then why do you want to see her?”

“Because she can give me vital information.”

“They’ll never let you near her.”

“They will. I’ve spoken to her therapist.”

They got out of the lift.

The doctor saw them and moved forward anxiously. “She’s awake. Her therapist says you can see her, but not for long and you mustn’t upset her. He wants to be present.”

“That’s fine by me.”

“She’s quite confused, you know. She doesn’t understand anything. Her therapist told me she’s gone back to thinking Roberto’s alive. She asked when he was coming to see her. It must be too painful for her to accept the truth.”

“Why does she think she’s here?”

“As far as I know, she didn’t ask.”

They went into the room. Marianna greeted them with a sleepy smile.

“Have you come to see me?” she spoke very slowly and softly.

A man, who had been sitting beside the bed holding Marianna’s hand, rose and introduced himself as her therapist. Jacopo Dragonetti took his chair, sat down by the bed and took her hand in his. “Yes. I’ve come to talk to you.”

“I’ve only got a small cut.”

“How did that happen?”

“It was Teo. I had the knife and he grabbed me, but it doesn’t hurt. I don’t feel very ill, you know.”

“No, I don’t expect you do, but you’re tired, right?”

“Yes, I am, very. How did you know?” she sounded surprised.

“Marianna, I know it’s been hard for you, holding on, trying to come to terms with your mother’s murder and then Lapo’s.”

“Yes,” she whispered and closed her eyes. There was a lengthy silence. Jacopo looked at the psychiatrist who mouthed, “She’s sedated.”

“Marianna. Why don’t you let it go now? Tell me about it and you’ll feel much better.” She opened her eyes and looked at him, her eyes heavy with the drugs.

Jacopo was aware of the doctor again, who had now taken a step towards them.

“Will it really feel better?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, some things are too heavy to carry around. You’ve had an awful lot to bear and you’ve done very well, but it’s time to let everything go.”

“You know, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if you already know…”

“You have to tell me yourself.”

“Is that part of the therapy?” she looked over at the doctor who nodded.

“Tell me.”

She closed her eyes while she said, “I saw Lapo, he had a knife.

He was covered in blood.”

There was a complete silence broken only by Bruno’s sharp intake of breath.

“Do you know why?”

She opened her eyes again and said in a puzzled tone, “I think he killed Mamma but you see, he can’t have done because I did, or perhaps that was the dream.”

“What was the dream, Marianna?”

“That’s the funny thing, you see, I dreamt I went down to the kitchen and got a knife and I plunged it into her chest, right into her black heart. Then I had to get clean. I had to. I had a shower and I kept thinking they’ll all see the blood. But then I thought it had all been a dream. I couldn’t have really killed Mamma, so I went back to see and the strangest thing happened… I saw Lapo coming out of Mamma’s room and he was covered in blood. You see, he had the knife in his hand. So then I thought that maybe I had wanted to kill Mamma, very much, but he’d done it for me. So I went back to see what he’d done.” She was gabbling now.

“You went into her room?”

“I had to know. It was terrible. He was so cruel. You see he really hated her.” She looked at Jacopo to make sure he’d understood.

“I know he did.”

“We all did.”

“You stabbed her in your dream?”

“That’s what’s so weird. She was asleep and I just put the knife into her chest, it was so easy. She deserved it. I had to do it, I had to punish her. You do understand?”

She looked directly at him.

He nodded, not wanting to speak and break into her flow of words.

“But it must have been Lapo. I thought that I couldn’t have done it, if he’d done it, but there was the blood… on my clothes, so then I wasn’t really sure anymore.”

“What did you do then?”

“I had to get everything clean, you see the blood was… all over
my clothes, everywhere. I had to throw them away but I couldn’t go out because they’d see me.”

“Who?”

“The others. I had to wait.”

“You took the car. Do you remember?”

“When I woke up in the morning, I thought it was all a bad dream. You know how sometimes dreams seem so real, but they’re not? I still don’t know. Was it a dream?

“No.”

“No, that’s right. You came and told us about Mamma, and I knew that it had really happened but I still couldn’t believe it. You see I still didn’t know whether it was a dream, you know, that I’d seen Lapo, or if he’d really done it and then perhaps I’d dreamt that I’d killed Mamma. Was that what happened, or did I do it and dream about Lapo? It was all so confusing. It’s so confusing. There was so much blood and I had blood on my clothes and so did Lapo and I couldn’t understand…” She was talking fast, and her breathing was rapid. The doctor moved forwards and whispered, “I think that’s enough for now. Surely you’ve got what you wanted.”

“I need just a few more minutes.” He turned towards Marianna, “What happened with Teo, yesterday? Do you remember you were cutting the lemons?”

“Yes, I was making him some juice, but he grabbed me and he frightened me. He cut me.”

“I know. Why were you frightened?”

“He frightens me. Everybody does. People hurt you. Lapo hurt me.”

“Tell me about Lapo.”

“He’s always been cruel. He hurt me, so badly. It was iniquity. You know what iniquity is, don’t you? It’s a sin, a terrible sin, a violation. He violated me and he killed Mamma. I hated him.”

“So you killed him.”

He was aware of the therapist moving towards him. Drago stopped him with a glance. Marianna carried on talking in a dreamy voice. “Iniquity. That’s a very old sin. I thought that was
a dream too, but then you came and you told me it was true about Lapo. He was my brother you know, but he didn’t love me.”

“Didn’t he?”

“No, and Mamma didn’t love me. She tried to kill Roberto, did you know that? But everything’s fine now. Roberto loves me and I love him. We’re going to be married.”

“And Teo?”

“He wants to send me away. He hurt me.”

“It was an accident, wasn’t it? He was hurt too.”

“I told him to leave me alone and he wouldn’t so I cut him… Mamma was covered in blood but I didn’t do all that. It was Lapo. When he came out of her room he saw me, he looked right at me, and he had the knife in his hand, so it had to be him, didn’t it?”

“Marianna, I’m going now. Thank you for talking to me.”

“I’m so tired. I must rest now. Roberto will be here soon.” She lay down and closed her eyes. Jacopo looked down at her, a beautiful statue, totally damaged and flawed, who had found murder the only solution.

In the corridor, Bruno asked, “How did you know?”

“I could see she was having a really hard time coming to terms with reality. When I found out that Roberto had never regained consciousness and had never spoken to her and that all her plans were in her head, I realized how ill she was. I knew that if she’d killed her mother she would have had to take her clothes and dispose of them. I knew that both Isabella and Marta were lying awake, listening for the return of Tebaldo and Lapo respectively. I asked them if they’d heard anything else that night and both had heard a car. Marta was so puzzled she got up and looked up the stairwell to see who it was. She saw Marianna coming in, but because the girl is under age and doesn’t have a driving license but drives anyway, Marta decided not to tell on her, so as not to get her into trouble. The murder put all that out of her mind. She really thought Marianna had nothing to do with the murder.”

“You told me some time ago that you thought you knew who did it but you had no proof. Were you talking about Marianna?”

“Yes. She had opportunity and means, and was quite emotionless about her mother’s death, but I didn’t know what her motive could be. When Piero told me that he thought Ursula had tried to kill Roberto, I wondered whether Marianna had thought so too. That was her motive.”

“What will happen to her?”

“She’s not fit to stand trial. I very much doubt she’ll ever be fit for normal life again.”

“Poor little rich girl.”

“Yes, she is.”

“So Lapo came back by chance?” asked Bruno.

“Yes. I think so. When he came in, he saw his sister coming out of their mother’s room with blood on her clothes. He went in to see what she’d done. I’m not sure, but I think he mutilated the body to put us off her track. I really think he did it to protect her. He got rid of the knife and opened the shutters to deflect suspicion from the family.”

“He was trying to make it look as though a madman had got in from outside.”

“I think so.”

“Then Marianna killed him.”

“She was very sick by then and he did violate her in some way.”

“What a terrible story.”

“Let’s get back and sort out Claudio Rossi.”

“Another victim of circumstances?”

“No, not Ozzie. He knew what he was doing. He made choices. We all make choices all the time and his were flawed. He’s a responsible adult and he’ll pay the price, not that it will be a very heavy one. It’s officially a first offence. He’ll probably get a suspended sentence and be sent off to rehab.”

“Let’s hope he’s learned something from all this.”

They drove back to the Villa for the last time. Drago needed to see Isabella, Marta and Piero. He wanted them to hear it from him.

Marta opened the door. He was surprised to see her up. He saw from her face that she knew. Piero put his arm round her.

“That poor girl,” she murmured.

“She won’t stand trial.”

“So it’s over?” said Piero.

“Yes. Where’s Isabella?”

“I’ll go and get her.” Piero left, leaving Marta standing there alone. Dragonetti said, “Shall we go and sit down, Signora?”

Like a robot she moved ahead of him into the sitting room and sank onto a chair. Suddenly she said, “She killed my lovely boy.”

“Yes. Marta, Marianna is ill. She’s not responsible for her actions.”

Marta rocked herself gently. “No one understood that boy. I loved him so much.”

Dragonetti was moved. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure he knew.”

Isabella came in. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes. I wanted to tell you. We now know who killed Ursula and Lapo.”

Isabella paled. “You’re not saying, you can’t be saying, it was…” she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“No, Isabella, it wasn’t Tebaldo. It was Marianna.”

“Oh my God! Why? Just because Ursula wouldn’t let her see that boy, what’s his name?”

“Roberto. Roberto was the victim of a hit and run accident. Ursula was out that night and the car was damaged.”

“Are you saying Ursula tried to kill him!” she was shocked.

“Yes, and Marianna must have worked it out. That’s why she killed her mother.”

“I can’t believe she mutilated her like that.”

“She didn’t. That was Lapo. He saw what she’d done and went in to clear up after her. He got rid of the knife and opened the shutters, but before that I think he decided to mutilate his mother’s corpse to make it look like the work of a psychopath, someone outside the family.”

“And you think Marianna killed Lapo, too?”

“Yes. There were things between them that you don’t want to know.”

“Teo knows all this?”

“Yes. I met him as arranged at the
Procura
before I came here. I told him she’d confessed, if confession is the word. Legally what she has said is worthless. She’s completely out of touch with reality. She now believes that Roberto is alive.”

“Oh God! It’s unbearable. Thank you for coming to tell me.”

Dragonetti bowed rather formally and they left the room. Bruno had remained silent the whole time. Now he said, “My God, what a legacy.”

“Come on let’s get back to the real world.”

He opened the car door, got in and took a last look at the villa. It was quite beautiful, plants softly clothed it and the sun shone on the gleaming door. It emanated a sense of timeless peace.

He drove away. Images from Strauss’s opera Elektra flashed into his mind. The horror of murder so well represented by the dissonant music and the stage covered in earth, the bodies falling into the open grave, and rising up from it, the madness of Elektra which results in her own death. He felt sick and couldn’t wait to get home, back to sanity, back to Vanessa. He wouldn’t feel right again until he had seen her and she had in some way helped him return to the real world, not this sick warped one. Ursula von Bachmann was a monster, an egocentric, powerful woman, who took what she wanted from life, no matter what the cost, and gave back nothing. She generated monsters, who struggled to survive in an artificial world which gave them everything, except what they most needed. Love. And that was why she’d died the way she’d died.

He was hardly aware of the drive home. He turned the car into the garage and parked it. A few steps and he was in his peaceful courtyard, the noise of the outer world faded and a small ginger kitten ran to greet him. He could have crushed it with his foot, but it didn’t know that. It trusted him. He bent and picked it up. “Rossini, I do believe you’re finally putting on weight, “he remarked. He ran up the stairs and called out, “Vanessa, it’s me. I’m home.”