The Lost Twin. Federico Betti
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inspector to her sister-in-law.
“Nice to meet you”, said Zamagni.
“Good morning”, replied back the mother of hemiplegic boy. “What’s the matter with you coming in this hour?”
“He’s a trustworthy person whom I know for a long time and just thought he’d come here and have a quick look at the apartment, in the attempt to realize what had happened here”, explained Carla Mezzogori pointing to Stefano Zamagni, “I should have been at work, instead preferred to take one day off in order to be here with him. It seemed right to do so.”
“Frankly speaking, I’m quite shocked by what just happened here”, returned Marisa Lavezzoli, “Perhaps it would be better if I stay alone for some time.”
“I don’t mean to bother you, madam”, the inspector tried to calm her down, seeing her upset, “It will take you only few minutes. Carla has told me roughly the general situation and I just wanted to have a look at the apartment. I have no idea who’s gonna take on the responsibility of this case, as it’s not my job to tell it, but what I can suggest is that you make a report to the police authorities describing in detail what has happened.”
During all the time Zamagni spent talking to the mother of the victim and her sister-in-law, he was also looking around the place, noticing that the apartment was poorly furnished with the minimal stuff at a very low cost.
“Where was the dead body taken to? Did they take it away for the autopsy?”, then he asked the mother.
The woman nodded.
“Tell me a little bit more. What did you say to the persons who came to pick up the body of your son? When did you call them?”
“I went out for a while to buy some groceries, as I always used to do, then once back home, I found my son laid down on the floor”, the woman began to explain, “I had left a window open to allow some air inside the room, without thinking at all of somebody who could enter forcefully in attempt of robbery. Unfortunately, I found my son alone and probably a fight could have occurred between them. When Carla, my sister-in-law showed up, the incident had happened a short while ago, and after she left away, I called the ambulance saying that I found my son dead upon my return home. Unfortunately I was quite shocked and wasn’t aware of what had happened, therefore I merely declared the above without going into details such as the open window and all the rest that I just mentioned right now. The fight and robbery attempt are only my delirious thoughts, probably because of my instability from this tragic incident.”
“Fine, now I think I have a rough idea of what had happened here”, nodded Zamagni, “However, I’d better get back to work now. I said before to the captain that I would leave shortly for something urgent, while now, I absolutely need to go back and continue what I was doing, otherwise he’s gonna be angry with me.”
The inspector said goodbye to Marisa Lavezzoli and left her apartment together with Carla Mezzogori.
“What do you intend to do next?”, she asked, while both were going down the stairs.
“I don’t know”, answered Zamagni, “I have no idea right now what is the best thing to do. In particular, your sister-in-law mentioned the open window, as an eventual attempt of robbery, but all this has been happened in such a short time? Furthermore, is it possible to measure more accurately the length of time passed from her leaving till she came back home? I wanna say that whoever is going for a robbery attempt should have the material possibility to make it happen, should have the sufficient time to come in, commit the act of robbery and then run away. If then, he comes across an unpredictable situation, of course that the robbery is not supposed to happen quickly. I wouldn’t wish the robbery attempt to be an assumption simply arisen by the “delirious thoughts” of your sister-in-law due to the shock she just experienced. In fact, the open window could be just a detail that misleads us in our inquiry on what had really happened. Are you sure that your nephew hasn’t fallen down accidentally? In this case, the solution would be only with such a statement “nothing was found”. A natural death or something of this kind, and that’s all.”
“As far as I know Marco, I strongly believe he hasn’t moved out the room. At least, in normal circumstances. I think something more or less unexpected has happened indeed”, returned Carla Mezzogori.
“I see”, said the inspector after all, “In any case, we need to wait for the results of autopsy.”
“All right!”, she nodded.
“Excuse me now, Carla, but I absolutely need to get back to my pending jobs. I should begin with the verification of some important documents and after all, I wouldn’t want the captain getting angry with me as I’ve been out for long hours. I promised him to get the job done very soon and still need to begin with it.”
“Don’t worry”, she reassured him, “Go back to your uncompleted jobs. Thanks for your particular attention and interest you’ve shown so far.”
“It has been my pleasure”, returned Zamagni, “For anything you may have, please don’t hesitate to tell me. The worst that may happen is that I couldn’t have enough time, but nevertheless, in one way or another everything will be solved.”
“Thank you.”
“Not at all.”
Both said goodbye to each other, and then the inspector got back to work and the lady went home.
Once back to his work desk, Zamagni found the same huge piles of paperwork waiting for him, the same ones since he left office for going to Carla Mezzogori, then sat down, and after a while started to review the documents related to Daniele Santopietro’s case.
After about one hour yielding no positive result, in which he wasn’t able to find the connection between Atropos Association, that voice on the phone and Santopietro, the inspector took back the letter sent to him before, but coming to no conclusion at all.
He wasn’t finding any connection that could probably help him get a possible solution, therefore he put the letter aside, stood up and went to buy some drinks at the vending machines in the hallway.
While drinking some lemon ice tea in can, he saw his colleague Finocchi coming right there.
“Hi Stefano.”
“Hi Marco”, said the inspector, greeting back to him.
“How’s going on?”, asked the agent, “Did you take up work again after the case you’ve handled with Atropos Association?”
“Pretty much”, answered Zamagni, “I meant that I got plenty of rest since the completion of that case, and now I’m still trying to gather some data available in order to find out the connection between Santopietro, the voice of that man over the phone and the letter I’ve received, but didn’t find any clue for the moment. Probably my reference view is not the right one.”
“Yes, it could be so”, nodded the agent, “Let’s get together and review all the details. Perhaps we can find out something helpful for our further inquiry.”
“All right.”
“If you can wait me for a moment, I’ll go and take a drink just for refreshment.”
“Of course”, said Zamagni, “May I offer it to you?”
“Ah, no... I already owe a pizza to you, next time I have to pay it out, therefore don’t even think to offer me anything to eat, otherwise we’ll never be equal”, returned Marco Finocchi.
“Nevermind.”
“Well, how did you spend those few days of vacation?”, then asked the inspector.
“Nothing special. Just relaxed. What about you, any interesting thing you’ve done?”
“Either me, nothing special, except for an evening party out with my friends, drinking with them.”
Zamagni nodded.
“Shall we leave?”,