The False Virgin (20 page)

Galuppi didn’t know what I was talking about, having not been a party to the details of Katie and my examination of Speranza Soranzo’s relationship with Brother Hugh. But of course
he knew of the monk’s existence after I had made reference to him as the domina’s possible lover. So, unsure whether he was being mocked, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

‘You mean the monk will be coming back with us, too?’

‘Oh, yes. He is an essential part of my plans for Domina Soranzo’s return to Venice.’

Galuppi shrugged in resignation. ‘Then I shall ready myself for the journey.’

He turned to leave, and I was tempted to confront him with my knowledge of his trip to Kamares, and his meeting with Stefano the oarsman. But I wanted to face them with that fact together. On
board ship and before we reached La Serenissima would be time enough. In fact, I was confident that, with all my suspects on board, all would be revealed before our return. If it wasn’t, I
would have failed in my mission for the Doge.

It was the following day before we got to sea. It took longer than I thought to move all the baggage across the island to the harbour, and then to load it. I noticed that
Captain Doria’s ship had left, and hoped that he would carry out my request to pull my money out of the two banks. I would be only a few days behind him, but those days might be all it took
for the banks to crash. We were also delayed by a row over the allocation of cabin space. The domina wanted her own quarters, and the best ones too. Galuppi, Katie and myself had to take second
best. In the end the captain of the ship reluctantly gave up his cabin, and everything was settled. But by then it was too late to set sail, so we spent an uncomfortable night on board waiting for
the morning. The oarsmen, including the debtor Stefano, had gone back ashore and spent the night in various taverns around the quayside. Their pulling on the oars in the morning had therefore been
sluggish at best. But at last Sifnos had disappeared over the horizon, and we were on our way towards the southern coast of Greece. Here we would rest and reprovision before heading north for La
Serenissima.

Two days into our homeward journey, I decided it was time to pull at a few threads and see what unravelled. The first person I came across on deck happened to be Bertuccio Galuppi. He was
staring out beyond the prow of the ship as if seeking the first sighting of Venice lagoon and its protective shingle bank. We had hardly spoken since getting on board, each of us avoiding the other
for whatever reason. Now, I would confront him with his suspicious meeting with Stefano. He was concentrating so much on the vista ahead that he didn’t hear me until I was right behind him.
Suddenly realising I was there, he turned to go, much as he had done for the past two days. I grasped his arm abruptly.

‘Don’t go, Messer Galuppi. There is something we must discuss.’

He looked down at my fist crushing the cloth of the arm of his fine jerkin, and tried to release himself from my grip. I was unmoved, and pulled him closer to my face.

‘You may think you are something special here, Galuppi, seeing as you are old family and all that rubbish. But I am the person the Doge confided in, and I will be reporting to him when we
return. And I may have to tell him about your rendezvous with a common oarsman in some low tavern, and the conspiracy that it no doubt points to. So you’d better listen to me.’

Galuppi did that sneer that is a part of the armoury of the upper classes. In fact, I was afraid he saw through my feeble reference to a conspiracy, and could tell I had no idea why the two men
had met.

‘Oh, so I must listen to you, must I, Zuliani? Well, let me tell you something. Your little task for the Doge was only a pretty charade to cover up the real reason we were on Sifnos. I was
charged with the task of getting rid of Niccolo Querini by any means available. So while you were stumbling around talking to the domina and that monk, I sought out a likely member of the crew to
assist me. The debtor Stefano was ideal. A man who would do anything for money. If you saw us together the other day, it was when I paid him off. He told me he had carried out his orders to the
letter. Now, let go of my arm.’

Stunned by his admission, I did so, and he pushed past me. He was making for the cabins at the stern, but stopped for a parting shot.

‘And don’t think of running to the authorities with this. It was all done at the Doge’s behest, so no one will care to listen to you.’

With that final warning, he went through the door to the cabins, and I was left clutching thin air just as a wave broke over the bow. I would have been swept off my feet and perhaps over the
side, had not a firm hand taken hold of me as I tumbled. Down on one knee and staring over the rail at the worsening grey sea, I blurted out my thanks.

‘I thank you, sir, for your life-saving timeliness.’

I heard Katie’s bell-like laugh, and realised the steely grip had been that of my own granddaughter.

‘Your eyesight is fading, Grandpa, if you think I am a man. I think I am more offended even than when you grabbed my tits at our first meeting.’

A passing sailor, sent to trim the sails, gave me a strange look on hearing Katie’s comment. Embarrassed, I hustled her back towards our cabin. I think I have mentioned our first
encounter, when Katie had dressed as a boy and was stalking me. I had lurked in wait, and grabbed her roughly round the chest, not expecting a womanly figure to appear under my hands. But the
sailor was not to know that.

‘You should not say things like that in front of others. That man will think I am some sort of incestuous pervert.’

Katie laughed. ‘He is probably jealous of your intimate knowledge of my luscious body.’

‘There you go again, Katie. Please stop it.’

She could see I was really embarrassed, and put her solemn face on.

‘Sorry, Grandpa.’

The truth of the matter was that I just didn’t get this parent business. I wanted to be a good example to my granddaughter. But whatever I did, it soon degenerated into the usual fun and
games, it seemed. However, Katie did have something serious to tell me.

‘I have just been talking to Speranza, as you requested.’

‘Did you see the crucifix around her neck?’

A few days ago, I had noticed the leather thong around Speranza’s neck that disappeared under the front of her dress, and was curious what it held.

Katie frowned. ‘No. I went to touch the thong as I asked her, and she quickly put her hand over her chest to protect it. She said it was a family heirloom and personal to her.’ Her
eyes lit up. ‘You don’t think it is the saint’s missing finger, do you?’

I shrugged noncommittally. ‘Maybe. Now, tell me. Is she all right? Her wounds, are they healing?’

‘No, the wounds are open and they are bleeding again. I can’t figure it out, unless they are truly stigmata.’ She said this in such a way that I knew she didn’t believe
in the phenomenon any more than I did. ‘But that isn’t what I want to talk to you about. You see, while I was looking at her hands, she said something to me.’

‘What was it?’

‘She looked at me, all innocently in that virginal way she has now, and said she thought that Brother Hugh had killed Niccolo in order to ensure her husband did not lead her away from St
Beornwyn. She sounded quite sure of it.’

I pulled a face. ‘That gives us two murderers in the space of a few moments.’

I explained to the puzzled girl the result of my confrontation with Galuppi. She was as surprised as I was at what he had said.

‘Galuppi involved in a murder plot? With direct orders from the Doge? I don’t believe it.’

‘What’s so unbelievable? That stiff, strait-laced Bertuccio Galuppi could arrange the murder of a man, if it suited the Republic? Or that the Doge – our noble hero of the
Aegean – could order it done in the first place, if it fitted in with his own personal situation?’

Katie stamped her foot in frustration. ‘Damn it, Grandpa, why are you always so good at seeing through all the sham?’

‘Because I have lived a long life surrounded by hypocrites.’ I gave her a rueful smile. ‘I fear it is something you will learn too, if you stick around your grandfather. In the
meantime, I need you to tutor me about aspects I find much more difficult to comprehend.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Families and marriage. Now there are two things that completely fox me.’

As well as Katie teaching me what went on between men and women inside families – a story with which I was completely unfamiliar – I had another task to perform.
This occasioned delving deep into the bowels of the ship where the pitching and yawing was more stomach-churning than on deck, and the odours were of men’s sweat and bodily excretions. But it
was worth it. Once I had found out what I had all along believed, I was ready to confront the killer of Niccolo Querini. I was glad to get back on deck and breathing in the clean, fresh air coming
off the Adriatic, even if it was whipping up to gale force and throwing a stinging spray into my face. Being thrown from side to side, I reeled back to my cabin, and planned my next step. I hoped
it would finally serve to unpick all those threads I had been teasing away at for the last few days.

The seas eventually eased, and I sent a message to the people concerned to meet me on the rear deck. I did it through Katie, because none of them would refuse a pretty girl. I didn’t tell
her that, though – she would have slugged me. I stood on the deck with my back to the setting sun, so that when the others looked at me they would have to squint. Bertuccio Galuppi was the
first to arrive.

‘What’s all this about, Zuliani? Hasn’t everything been settled to your satisfaction already?’

‘We shall see, Messer Galuppi. I just thought we should get our story straight before we reach Venice.’

‘What is there to get wrong? I told you . . .’

He paused because the next person to come onto the rear deck was the oarsman Stefano. Galuppi stared at me angrily, and then waved a dismissive hand at the man.

‘What are you doing here? Get below where you should be. You stink.’

In fact, Stefano had taken some care to wash the sweat of below-decks off his body. His hair was wet and droplets of water glistened on his face and arms. I guessed he had scooped up a bucket of
sea water and poured it over himself before climbing to the upper reaches of the ship. Still, he hung his head and was about to turn away, when I stopped him.

‘I requested his presence, Messer Galuppi, by the same fair messenger who gave you your summons. I got permission from the ship’s captain first, naturally. We don’t want the
ship going round in circles because one of the oarsmen is not pulling his weight. But seeing as his evidence is somewhat compromising, perhaps we can have him speak now, and then I can dispense
with his services before the domina comes on deck.’

Galuppi tried to give me an intimidating stare, but the sun behind me simply made him squint like some poor idiot. He mustered as much authority in his voice as he could.

‘If we are talking about Querini’s death, you know we have talked over this man’s evidence. And it does not need to go beyond the three of us.’

I put on as cynical a voice as I was able. ‘Oh, you are referring to Stefano’s assertion that
he
killed Niccolo Querini?’

Stefano winced, and looked over his shoulder to see if anyone else had heard me. Galuppi too was disconcerted by my clear statement.

‘Keep your voice down, man.’

I pressed on regardless. ‘He told you this in the tavern over a few goblets of Xinomavro, no doubt. And you believed him.’

A look of uncertainty came over Galuppi’s face.

‘What do you mean – believed him?’ He turned to the red-faced Stefano. ‘What does he mean?’

Before Stefano could speak, I intervened, looking Galuppi straight in the eye.

‘You told me that you plotted with this man to murder Niccolo Querini.’

Galuppi foamed at the mouth at my accusation.

‘You know at whose instruction it was.’

‘I know who you
said
it was, and you might have even believed it. Though I think you read more into the words of . . . this person of note . . . than were there in the first
place. But that is neither here nor there. What is clear is that what Stefano told you was untrue.’

Galuppi rounded on the embarrassed oarsman, who flinched and shook his head.

‘I only told you what you wanted to hear, messer. And I figured that, if Querini was dead, I might as well claim it was me did it, so you would pay me.’

I smiled beatifically. ‘So you see, Galuppi, you have nothing to tell the Doge after all.’

Galuppi wasn’t giving up, however.

‘The man is lying now. You have persuaded him to lie to thwart me. Of course he did away with Querini.’

I shook my head as though chiding a troublesome youth. ‘Not so. You see, I went down to the oar deck to talk to Stefano earlier. I asked to see his knife. It was a wide-bladed dagger, and
quite short in length. It is a slashing knife, not an assassin’s blade. Nothing like the murder weapon at all. And when I professed to admire his killing skills, and asked him to tell me how
he did it, he told me a pack of lies about stabbing Querini in the gut three times and twisting his knife so.’ I made a twisting motion with my hand held in a fist as if thrusting with a
dagger.

‘Needless to say, there were no such marks on Querini’s body.’

Galuppi growled and demanded his money back of Stefano. He would have struck the man if I hadn’t stopped him.

‘No. You have been taken for a fool, and the loss of money will serve to teach you a lesson. Stefano, you can go.’

Mumbling his thanks, the oarsman returned to his nether world, and left us gentlemen to ours. There were a few moments of awkward silence between Galuppi and myself, but then the others arrived.
Katie was leading, and Domina Speranza was relying on the sturdy arm of Brother Hugh to prevent her from falling as the ship rolled in the rough seas.

‘I hope you will make this brief, Zuliani. I would rather lie on my bed than try to stand upright in such weather.’