for God’s sake! I’m so sorry”, said Zamagni to the lady after hesitating for an instant and stopping her seemingly in mid-flow. “Any clue on the cause of death? Probably he might have fallen down for some reason? Or you think it’s about an attempt of robbery?”
Even the inspector Zamagni didn’t really know how to deal with the situation that suddenly has come upon him.
“Seeing that the window was open, one assumption, though not reliable enough, is the robbery attempt. My sister-in-law will check if she misses something in her apartment, and I guess she has just did it last night or will do it today. She confessed to me that first of all, she would need to get over the shock occurred to her all of a sudden.”
“I got it”, replied Zamagni.
“If there has been a robbery attempt, for sure the perpetrator will be accused for murder. Isn’t it so?”, asked Carla Mezzogori.
“Yes, sure, if it comes out that such assumption is true”, returned the inspector, without taking any position.
“Would you be willing, I mean you and your colleagues, to go there and make an inspection onsite?”
“Frankly speaking, I am a little busy with some other tasks, but however, I will do a favor to you, as my friend, and will go right now to see the situation over there”, nodded Zamagni with a gesture of approval, “It is truly important that nobody should spoil anything in the apartment, although my impression is that the crime scene has been already stepped in, though unintentionally.”
“Yeah, probably”, said the woman, “I’m afraid that my sister-in-law has touched any object or thing in the apartment.”
“That’s clear. In such a situation, I believe it will be very difficult for anyone who will be in charge of this case, to succeed in capturing the perpetrator.”
“I have no idea what you’re gonna decide to do next, however thanks for your attention and involvement.”
“I will do my best, but I can ensure you nothing”, was the answer of Zamagni who, after hanging up the phone, went to inform captain Luzzi for his absence in office due to a sudden incident happened.
III
Once arrived in via delle Rimembranze and exactly at the place Carla had indicated, Zamagni saw her waiting for him, and after a while, both of them went upstairs to the apartment of Marisa Lavezzoli in which Carla introduced the police 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
