“The boy’s aunt has called the police, probably after the family has been informed on the results of autopsy, and has explicitly demanded you to deal with the investigation of this case.”
The inspector remained silent for a couple of seconds, and then nodded.
“Ok, as you wish.”
“Have you become famous now?”, the agent Finocchi asked Zamagni.
“I don’t think so, but I know personally the boy’s aunt. It was just to do her a favor as she‘s my acquaintance by chance. ”
The agent nodded.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”, the captain said to them, as if he was feeling around the pressure that needed to be taken away.
“Let’s go right now”, said Zamagni, and Marco followed him while both of them went down the street.
“Now, it would be the right moment to talk to me and tell me some more things.”
“I’m gonna tell it to you on the way to San Lazzaro of Savena.”
“But what are we supposed to do right there? Do you need to pass by your house at first?”
“No. That’s the place where the murder did occur.”
IV
“Could you let me know on what I’m supposed to do right there?”, asked the agent Finocchi, sat down on the passenger seat while coming close to San Lazzaro of Savena.
“All happened just by chance”, began to speak the inspector Zamagni, driving the car in the attempt to escape from the heavy traffic on the road, “I know shortly Carla Mezzogori, the aunt of hemiplegic boy who remained dead from the murder. She asked me a favor to go and see the apartment where her sister-in-law actually lives. It was very obvious that the boy, given his physical disability, was living together with the mother.”
Marco Finocchi nodded, and then let the inspector to go on with the whole story.
“His mother declared that she went out for a while in the evening of the same day the boy was found dead. She still says of going out to buy some stuff as always, and once back home, she found her son laid down on the floor, with no sign of being still alive.”
“But who could have wanted him dead?”, Finocchi asked such a question to himself and to the inspector as well. “I mean... he was an innocent boy, I guess. I think he hasn’t been harmful to anybody. One of the reasons occurring to my mind right now, is the vengeance for an offence the boy has committed before.”
The agent remained silent for an instant, and then got back to reasoning.
“But how can we? Perhaps it has to do more or less with a sort of dispute?”
“I couldn’t really make a guess in this regard”, said Zamagni, “If it was about a sort of dispute, who would be the other person the boy has been disputing with? There wasn’t anyone else inside the apartment, is that right?”
“Yeah, exactly”, nodded Finocchi, “It seems nobody, so far.”
“Another assumption is that of a petty thief who enters the apartment forcefully seeing the window left open, comes across with the boy over there, then suddenly a fight occurs between them while the boy is disadvantaged because of his general physical disability.”
“Based on this version, to my opinion there’s a problem in terms of time, which means that, everything is supposed to happen very quickly”, said the agent.
“For now, we can only make guesses”, returned Zamagni, “Until now there are very few facts on which we can give any opinion.”
“What did mother say when you visited her with the sister-in-law?”
“Nothing useful. She merely said of being very shocked and failing to think or speak about it.”
“Yeah”, nodded Finocchi, “Now eventually, since some time has already passed, she could do better, and be able to tell us further information. Perhaps she’s been very confused in her mind due to the trauma caused by the son’s death and can’t help thinking of what had happened to her.”
“Ok then, we’re going to make a try once more”, proposed the inspector, “Let’s hope things will go better than the last time... We arrived.”
After they parked the car along the road, both of them moved towards the apartment where the woman was living, ringed the bell and once introduced themselves, went upstairs to the apartment at the first floor.
“Hello, madam”, said Zamagni, “We already know each other quite well, while the person next to me is one of our colleagues. Please, let me introduce you with the agent Marco Finocchi.”
“Good morning”, returned Marisa Lavezzoli, “I guess you’re here again for the investigation on my son’s death, isn’t it so?”
“Yes, exactly”, admitted the inspector, “We’d want to talk a little bit on what had happened to your son.”
“But I’ve already told you”, the mother of hemiplegic boy tried to cut it short.
“I know, madam. Please excuse us, but we’re in charge to shed light on this case”, said Zamagni, in attempt to avoid any sort of dispute with her.
“You may perfectly understand that we’re here with the only scope of finding out who is the murderer of your son”, added Finocchi, “We’ve been acknowledged on the autopsy report, results of which reveal that it’s been a murder.”
“We’d want to catch him and do justice to your son”, said Zamagni.
The lady remained silent for an instant, without opening her mouth, and then said only a few words: “I don’t know if I can help you to do your job. I am still shocked because of what had happened to me.”
“We perfectly understand how you feel”, returned the inspector very empathetically, “and we’ll make sure the situation appears as easy as possible to you. We’re only doing our job, intending to do all that is possible, for bringing the murderer to justice. To make it happen, we also need for your help and for everything else you might know, which would make our job easier.”
The woman still kept silent.
“We cannot exclude a priori any version, but basically, the robbery attempt is less likely to happen due to lack of time”, said Zamagni.
“Have you ever thought that possibly the time has been well planned by the robber, who instead had studied all the timings in detail?”, Marisa Lavezzoli asked both of them, “That is, everytime I go for shopping, I use to do it pretty much at the same timings, hence the thief might have noticed that and then tried to enter the apartment forcefully.”
“It’s likely to happen what you’re saying now”, admitted the inspector, “even though doubts remain in this respect. However, we’re still at the initial phase of our inquiry. For the moment, it would be enough for us to gather as much data as possible.”
“Now
