Charmer's Death (Temptation in Florence Book 2) (8 page)

“
I'll come with you, too.” Benedetta dropped the dirty plates in the sink with a clatter and turned. “Annalisa will need her mother.”

“
And me.” Fabbiola got up and fixed her trusted cushion underneath one arm, preparing for battle. “The cards told me to stick to my loved ones today.”

Carlina couldn't quite suppress a nervous giggle.

Stefano threw her an exasperated glance and got up. Then he looked at Fabbiola. “I think you, Mrs. Mantoni-Ashley, should stay in the house and become the center of operations.”

Fabbiola straightened her back and gave him a regal nod.

Carlina lifted her eyebrows.
How clever he is.

He turned to Benedetta. “And you, Mrs. Mantoni-Santorini, should prepare a warm soup for Annalisa. She will need it as soon as she comes back.”

Benedetta looked thoughtful. “I guess she will.”

“
Maybe I should go with you,” Emma said. “I'm Annalisa's eldest sister, after all.”

Garini shook his head. “If Annalisa wants to get in touch with you, she'll try your apartment.”

“That makes sense.” Lucio got up and pulled Emma with him. “Let's go downstairs.”

“
Where will you go?” Uncle Teo frowned at Garini while Lucio and Emma left the kitchen. “I believe you shouldn't take Carlina with you, this late at night.”

Carlina clenched her teeth. “Uncle Teo, I'm old enough to look after myself.”

“I'll return her safely.” Garini took Carlina's arm and propelled her to the door. “We'll be in touch.”

“
You're a great manipulator.” Carlina said as soon as the door of the apartment had shut behind her.

“
I doubt it'll last long. Let's get out of here before they recover and join us.”

“
I'll quickly run upstairs to get a thicker jacket. I'll be back in a second.”

Carlina ran to her apartment, taking two steps at a time. Where could Annalisa be? Ernesto wasn't far off the mark. Annalisa had many superficial friends, but who would she turn to when in trouble? Had she turned to anybody? Maybe she was walking through the city, alone, confused, drenched by the cold rain?
Hardly that.
Carlina shook her head.
Don't become melodramatic. Annalisa is not that kind of girl.
She opened the door of her apartment and went to her wardrobe without turning on the light. She knew the way, and a bright beam from the stairs spilled into her apartment. She stretched out her hand to take the warm coat off the hanger, when, from the corner of her eye, she saw something move. A dark figure unfolded from the sofa and advanced in her direction.

Carlina screamed.

“
Shhh, Carlina.”

The whisper stopped her mid-scream.

“It's only me.”

“
Annalisa!” Carline took her cousin by the shoulders and shook her. “How are you? Why are you hiding here? Everybody is so worried!” Her knees trembled from the shock.

Annalisa stared at her with wide open eyes, as if she had never seen her cousin before. “Trevor is dead.”

Carlina's eyes filled with tears. “Yes.” She pulled her cousin into her arms and hugged her tight, but Annalisa stood stiff and unyielding. Carlina frowned. What had happened to her cousin?

“
Did you kill him?” Annalisa's voice sounded hoarse.

Carlina's arms dropped, and she took one step back. “What?”
I must have misunderstood.

Annalisa crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You said you would kill him.”

“What?” This time, Carlina almost shouted it. “I said what? Have you gone crazy?”

Annalisa shook her head. “No. You said so. I remember exactly.”

“Never! I never said I would kill Trevor.” Carlina stared at her cousin. It was too damn dark to see. She switched on the light without taking her gaze off Annalisa. Had she gone crazy? Had the shock transformed her, given her the idea that she had to revenge Trevor's death?

The bright light blinded her for an instant. She narrowed her eyes and checked with a quick gaze that Annalisa had no weapon.

Nothing.

Unless Annalisa decided to strangle her with her bare hands, she was safe. “Annalisa, listen.” She bent forward. “I liked Trevor. I didn't harm him. I never said I would kill him.”

“Yes, you did.” Annalisa pressed her pretty lips together. “At the restaurant. You said you wished we had never met.”

“
That doesn't mean I wanted to kill him!”

“
But when I said you might just as well wish I was dead, you said you wished he was dead. My Trevor. Dead.” Her voice trembled.

“
Oh, that.” Relief washed over Carlina. “Yes, I may have said that, but I never meant I would kill him. Of course I didn't! Come on, you must know that.”

“
You didn't like me being with him. You said so.” Annalisa looked at her cousin with mistrust.

“
Of course I said so! I would be a funny cousin if I liked you falling in love with a fifty-something who has a different lover every Christmas.”

Annalisa pressed her hands over her ears. “Don't talk like that! I don't want you to say such things about him. He was a Saint!”

“Hardly.” Carlina's voice was dry. A thought zigzagged through her brain. “Was Trevor religious?”

Annalisa shrugged, her mouth in a pout. “I don't know. He wanted me to go to church on Sunday, to listen to a concert, but we overslept.” Tears can down her face. “Oh, Carlina, we had so much fun. I can't believe he's dead.” She covered her face with her hands and started to sob.

Carlina stood in front of Annalisa with hanging arms. She didn't dare to hug her again, besides, how could she hug her, minutes after her cousin had asked her in all sincerity if she had killed her lover? She shook her head. How little they knew each other. “Annalisa?”

“
What?”

“
What did you do today during lunch time?”

Annalisa lifted her tear-stained face. “Are you asking me if I have an alibi? I didn't kill him! How dare you ask me that?”

Carlina swallowed. “You'll have to answer anyway. Garini is here.”

“
What?” Annalisa stared at her. “Garini? That computer-like policeman without feelings? I hate him!”

“
It doesn't matter what you think of him,” Carlina realized her voice had taken on a hard edge. “But tell me something else. Do you still have the nylons I gave to you yesterday?” Had it only been yesterday? It seemed like a year.

“
What?” Annalisa looked as if she had never heard of nylons. “What nylons?”

Carlina lowered her voice. “The run-proof nylons.”

“I . . . yeah, I'm wearing them.”

Carlina bent forward and checked the nylons her cousin was wearing beneath her short skirt. Her throat went dry. “Those are not the nylons I gave to you.”

Annalisa opened her eyes wide. “What do you mean? Of course they are.” She frowned. “Don't tell me you can distinguish different types of nylons at a distance of one meter.”

“
I can if they have the wrong color.” Carlina said. “The nylons I gave to you were black. These are brown.”

Annalisa made an impatient move with her hand. “How can you harp on about nylons the very day Trevor died? You're so unfeeling, Carlina.”

“Because . . .” Carlina closed her mouth with a snap. Maybe it was better not to tell Annalisa. Garini would be furious if she gave confidential information to a suspect. If it was confidential. He hadn't actually said so, had he? No, better not say anything. “You put them into your handbag, didn't you? And you stayed the night with Trevor, is that right? Then you should still have them inside your handbag.” She looked around the room. “Where is it?”

“
I don't believe this.” Annalisa's voice rose to a hysteric pitch. “Why are you obsessing about my nylons?”

Garini's voice came from the open door. “Because Trevor Accanto was strangled with a pair of run-proof nylons.”

They both whipped around.

“
What?” Annalisa lifted both hands as if to ward off a blow. She closed her eyes and swayed.

Carlina jumped forward and steadied her.

“The tendency to faint at bad news seems to run in the family.” Garini's voice was dry. “Please tell me where you spent your day, Signorina Santorini.”

Annalisa opened her eyes. “I won't tell you! I want an attorney!”

“That's fine.” Garini sounded relaxed. “If you wish, I can invite you to the police station where we can wait for your attorney together. Do you think you can convince him to come within the next half hour or will we have to wait longer?”

Annalisa hid her face in Carlina's shoulder. “I don't want to talk to him!”

Carlina bit her lips. “You have nothing to hide,” she said. “Just tell him the truth.”

Her lovely cousin lifted her head. “He wants to frame me. I know he hates me!”

“Stop that!” Carlina shook her cousin. “He's a professional. He has to ask these questions, and you have to answer. Feelings don't enter the game.”
Certainly not with Garini. I've never known a man who has himself so well in hand, more's the pity.

“
Annalisa!” Benedetta charged through the door, closely followed by Fabbiola, Uncle Teo, and Ernesto. “I heard your voice!”

Carlina released Annalisa.

Benedetta hugged her daughter, but as she was a head smaller than Annalisa, she only managed to put her arms around her waist. “Are you all right? Where have you been? Come downstairs! I'll make hot soup for you, that'll make you feel better.”

“
I laid the cards for you, my dear, right after I heard the terrible news.” Fabbiola put an arm around Annalisa's free shoulder. Together, the three now looked like a misshaped bug with too many arms and legs. “The cards spell happiness for you, very soon. A dark stretch for some time, but nothing to worry about.”

Carlina bit her lips to stop smiling. How like her mother to call a murder “nothing to worry about”, just to make them feel better.

“I can't believe you find that funny.” Garini said in a low voice.

He was getting way too used to reading her face.

Ernesto was watching his sister with detached interest. “Did you kill him, Annalisa?”

Annalisa turned on him with a hiss. “Of course I didn't! How dare you say that? I loved him! He was the love of my life, my--”

“I'm sorry to interrupt,” Garini said. “But I still need to hear your answer to my question, Signorina Santorini. Where did you spend the day?”

Annalisa shot him a dark look. “I was shopping.”

“Where?”

“
In . . . in the city. Do you want to know every shop I saw?”

“
Yes.” His face was imperturbable. “I also wish to know when you started, when you stopped, and where you had lunch.”

“
Maybe she can make a list and give it to you tomorrow.” Uncle Teo's voice was deep and calm. It had a soothing effect.

“
Yes. That's a good idea!” Benedetta gave Stefano a hard look. “My daughter is exhausted. She needs to rest now.”

He acknowledged her words with a brief nod. “Give the list tomorrow morning to Carlina before she goes to Temptation. I'll see her during the day.”

Carlina gave him a quick look. She was going to see Stefano tomorrow? It was the first time she'd heard of it. What did he mean?

He was looking at Annalisa. “One other question before you go, Signorina Santorini.”

“What?”

“
Where is your handbag?”

“
It's there.” Ernesto pointed at Carlina's sofa. “Underneath the cushion with the leopard print.”

With one swift move, Garini was by the sofa. “Do I have your permission to search your bag?” he said.

Annalisa rolled her eyes. “Oh, hell, you're getting on my nerves.”

Benedetta shook her head, scandalized by her daughter's manners. “Annalisa!”

“Yes or no?” Garini said.

“
Yes, for heaven's sake!”

He held it out to her. “Please take out everything.”

Annalisa grabbed her bag and dumped the contents onto the low table in front of the sofa. “There.”

A bunch of keys fell with a clatter onto the wooden top, followed by an address book, a patent leather planner, a makeup bag, a jewelry box, a lipstick, a pink purse, and when she gave the bag a final shake, a powder compact rolled out of the bag, opened and spread a thin film of powder over the whole heap.

“No nylons,” Garini said.

Annalisa shrugged. “So I took them out. I can't recall, really, I can't.”

“Annalisa.” Carlina put her hand onto her cousin's arm. “It's important. Try to think. Where have you seen them last?”

She pursed her mouth. “I don't know.”

“Think.” Carlina bent forward. “Can you remember unpacking them?”

Annalisa frowned. “Yes. I wanted to put them on, but then Trevor--,” her voice trembled. “He wanted me to wear this skirt, and it's brown, so I took them off again, and then . . .”

“Yes?”

“
I can't recall. I dropped them somewhere, I believe.”

“
So they should still be at the hotel?”

Annalisa shrugged. “Yes.”

Carlina swallowed. “We can check that out.”

Garini lifted his eyebrows. “We?” he said under his breath.

Carlina could feel her face going hot.

“
In fact, I have already checked the hotel.” Garini pulled two tights from his pocket. “Can you tell me anything about these nylons?”

Annalisa and Carlina both gave him a startled look.

“Nylons all look the same.” Annalisa shrugged. “How on earth should I know if these belong to me or not?”

Carlina took the nylons and stretched them between her fingers, then checked the labels. “They were not sold by me.” Her voice was quiet. “It's another brand.”

Garini fixed Annalisa with his light eyes. “These were the only nylons we found in the hotel room. Are you sure you can't give me any idea about the whereabouts of the pair which Carlina gave to you as a gift?”

Annalisa crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Heavens, if you absolutely want to know, I guess they got torn, and I threw them away.”

“However, these nylons don't have runs. How come they were torn so quickly?” His voice was calm.

The Mantoni Clan held its breath. For once, the silence was absolute.

Carlina looked from one to the other, perturbed. Where was this leading?

Annalisa lifted her shoulders as if she was freezing and hugged herself. “I dare say you don't know anything about it, Commissario,” she gave him a dark look, “but in certain situations, panties are only in the way, and it may just be that Trevor removed them a bit too impatiently.”

Carlina gave her cousin a warning look.
Don't try to provoke him!

Garini didn't twitch a muscle. “I see. I'll note your statement in the report, and you can sign it tomorrow.”

Benedetta blinked and roused herself as if she had woken from sleep. “Enough talking,” she pulled her daughter to the door. “Annalisa needs to rest. Buona notte, Commissario.”

The gang trooped out of the room.

Garini turned and looked at Carlina.

She couldn't read the impression on his face. “That remark about fainting being in the family was pretty nasty.” Carlina hunched her shoulders.

“If she had fainted for real, I wouldn't have said anything,” he said.