Death in Autumn (10 page)

'You want me to come, too?'

'Yes . . . unless . . . You could try talking to Querci again.'

'He's still down in the cells?'

'Yes, and now we've got something on the grey-haired visitor he might talk.'

'I don't think so,' murmured the Marshal. 'Not yet. I think I'd better come with you, as you said. I could talk to Querci later if you think I should. We'd perhaps better clear up a few things first. . .'

The Marshal knew well enough that he would have to be the one to deal with Querci but he wasn't looking forward to it and he wasn't sure yet how to tackle it.

'I'll see to the boy,' he said, opening the door of the anteroom again. 'Are you hoping he'll identify his friend's body?'

'If that's who the dead boy is, yes. Either he or the grandmother. I'm going to have to broach the matter with her now and it's not going to be pleasant for her, though I must say she's a tough character.'

The woman was sitting exactly as he had left her and the lawyer was speaking to her quietly in German.

The Captain apologized again for his absence and sat down.

'Signora, I'm going to have to ask you to officially identify your daughter-in-law's body. If, when the magistrate gives permission, you want to remove her to Germany . . .'

'I see no need for that.'

'In that case, Avvocato Heer, perhaps you and I could discuss the arrangements for her burial here at some later date.'

'Certainly.'

'Thank you. Now, Signora, I'd like to know whether your son and daughter-in-law had a child.'

'They did.'

'A boy?'

'Yes.'

'And his name?'

'Christian. He was named after my son.'

'How old was he when his father died?'

'He had just turned two.'

'And his mother left shortly afterwards?'

'About two years later.'

'She didn't attempt to take the child with her?'

'She did, but naturally it was out of the question. She had no means of supporting him.'

'But surely the boy inherited from his father?'

'He will inherit at age twenty-five. In the meantime I am the trustee along with our family lawyer.'

'Why wasn't his own mother made trustee?'

'In the first place because she understood nothing of such matters and would have been incapable of taking necessary decisions regarding investments. In the second place because it was Vogel family money. It would hardly have been suitable to have it administered by an outsider.'

'You married into the Vogel family yourself, did you not?'

'Bringing with me a very considerable dowry. A large part of the property which my grandson will inherit originally belonged to my father.'

'If your daughter-in-law had persisted in her attempt to take the child away, could you have stopped her?'

'I rather think so. I would have had him made a ward of court on the grounds of his mother's immorality and the fact that she could ofFer him no alternative home or means of support.'

'Did you threaten to do that—openly, I mean?'

'I am not in the habit
of
threatening people. I made my intentions known, if that's what you mean.'

'And she gave up?'

'She abandoned the child rather than remaining where she was to bring him up in a respectable home.'

she was to bring him up in 'Were they very close?'

'In what way?'

'In the way that a child and his mother are normally close. Did she care for him herself up to the time she left?'

'To a limited extent. Naturally the child had a nurse.'

'Chosen by you?'

'The woman was already in my employ in another capacity and had proved an excellent nurse when my son was small.'

'After your daughter-in-law left did she have any further contact with the child?'

'None whatever.'

'Yet I understand she sent money to an account in a bank in Mainz each month. Was the money sent to you?'

'It was.'

'Was it a contribution to the child's upkeep?'

'Supposedly, though he had no need of it. Naturally, I never touched it. I transferred it to a savings account in my grandson's name.'

'Does he know about it?'

'I informed him of it
on
his eighteenth birthday.'

'Why was the money sent directly to the bank rather than to you personally?'

'At my request. I had no desire for any personal contact with my daughter-in-law.'

'You regard a cheque as a personal contact? Or were there letters, too?
¹

'In the first few years, yes.'

'You didn't answer them, apart from requesting her to send the cheque directly to your account?'

'The letters were not addressed to me but to my grandson.'

'Did he answer them when he was old enough?'

'He never saw them.'

'You considered you had the right to censor your grandson's mail?'

'My grandson was a small child. I considered myself responsible for his moral welfare since he had been left in my care.'

'And you felt his moral welfare would be endangered by receiving letters from his mother?'

'I did. And the manner of her death, not to mention the unexplained money which enabled her to live in a hotel, indicates that my fears were more than justified.'

The Captain watched Avvocato Heer carefully as he translated this last remark into Italian but the heavy face of the Swiss showed nothing but bland professional politeness. He decided against making any mention of his suspicions about blackmail but to stick to the subject of the boy.

'Does your grandson still live with you, Signora?'

'He does, though most of the time he is away at school in Frankfurt.'

'Is that where he is now?'

She hesitated for only a fraction of a second before saying, 'At the moment he's travelling.'

'In Europe?'

'I believe so. He sends me only the occasional postcard.'

'When did he leave Germany?'

'At the beginning of July.'

'Shouldn't he be back at school by now?'

'He should. Unfortunately he has inherited some of his mother's headstrong ways.'

'Do you think he may have come here to see his mother?'

'I have no reason to think so.'

'Not even the fact that your daughter-in-law ceased to send the regular cheques after July?'

'My bank manager deals with that. I was unaware of it.'

She was lying and not very successfully. There had to be a reason why she hadn't mentioned the boy until he had insisted.

'Has he ever been in trouble?'

'If you mean with the police, certainly not.'

'At school, then.'

She didn't answer immediately and there was a short discussion in German between her and the lawyer. Without understanding a word of it, the Captain was convinced that the lawyer had advised her to tell the truth on the grounds that it wouldn't be difficult to find out anyway.

'There was a problem at the college,' she said finally.

'Drugs?'

'Yes.'

'Did he run away?'

'I've already told you he is travelling.'

'Did he run away before the term ended? I can find out for myself,' he added to save the lawyer trouble, 'if you prefer it.'

'He left shortly before the end
of
term, yes. He had important examinations. Unfortunately, he's always been highly strung.'

'Apart from the problem of exams, was he unhappy?'

'My grandson has always had every comfort and every consideration. And if I may be allowed to mention it, I'm here to see that my daughter-in-law's affairs are properly settled and the family's interests protected, not to discuss my grandson.'

Which presumably meant that now Hilde Vogel was dead and had left some money behind her she had at last become part of the family.

'Is there a will?' the Captain asked Heer.

'Yes. She left everything to her son apart from a small legacy to a man named Querci. I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about him but I imagine we'll be able to trace him.'

'We know who he is,' was the Captain's only comment on that.

'And if the boy leaves no heir, or if, for example, he didn't outlive his mother, was any provision made for that?'

'I advised my client to make such a provision. Should the son have failed to outlive his mother, this man Querci was to inherit. The estate was not entailed and once the son inherited, any further decisions rested with him.'

'Wouldn't a will like that be contested in the case of Querci's inheriting?'

'It could be, by any close blood relative, but I understand that my client had none.'

'Have you explained the situation to the Signora here?'

'I have.'

'If the boy inherited and died without making a will, would she inherit from him?'

'Quite probably. As far as I know, there would be no other claimants.'

'Have you also discussed that with her?'

'We have discussed all possible contingencies, though that particular one was touched on only briefly.'

'I see. Avvocato Heer, I have reason to believe that Christian Vogel died here in Florence before his mother, possibly from an overdose of drugs, though I have no proof of that. Unfortunately, the state in which the body was found will make his identification extremely difficult and also distressing. I'd be grateful if you would accompany the Signora when we take her to the Medico-Legal Institute.'

'By all means.'

'Thank you. Might I ask if you knew your client's father, the owner of the villa near Greve?'

'Yes, I did. I acted for him when he bought the house. In fact, it was only through her inheriting the property that I came to have his daughter as a client.'

'He left a will?'

'No, he didn't. It was only on my insisting that he gave me her address as his next of kin. He was very careless about his affairs and, as far as I know, had no interest in his daughter.'

'What did he live on?'

'On the income from some shares which his daughter also inherited. It was very little and certainly not enough for the upkeep of a place the size of his. I imagine the place must have been neglected.'

'You never saw it?'

'No.'

'How often did you see him?'

'Very rarely.'

'Did he take himself seriously as a painter, as far as you can judge?'

'I couldn't say. I got the impression it was a certain way of life he was interested in. He never spoke about his painting much and I doubt if he ever made anything from it.'

'When was the last time you saw him?'

'He sent for me when he was taken into hospital. He was in a very bad condition and I understand his liver was irreparably damaged.'

'He drank?'

'Very heavily. I had last seen him some years previously when the ten year limit was up on the payment of conveyance taxes on the villa. He was already in bad shape then.'

'And when he died you contacted his daughter?'

'Yes. She was surprised at first to have inherited the villa, until I explained that there had simply been no will and she was his only relative. Apparently she had made considerable efforts to make peace with her father when she arrived here but had been firmly rebuffed.'

But she'd never admitted it, the Captain mused, not to her mother-in-law to whom she had always given her father's address. Not even to Querci, to whom she had pretended he was dead.

'I wonder, in that case, how she knew where to find him, given that he had no further contact with his family after walking out on them.'

'She knew he was in Florence, or was fairly sure of it. The family had taken holidays here and he had always expressed a desire to live here. I gather she asked for help at the German Consulate and they got in touch with the Foreign Residents' Department at the Questura.'

Had Christian had to go through the same procedure to find his mother? The Captain strongly suspected not.

'Would you ask the Signora if her grandson, when informed about the money sent by his mother, asked for her address?'

It was obvious that the question displeased her.

'He did.'

'Did you give it to him?'

'I did not.'

'But he could have got it from the bank?'

'He could have done, yes.'

'Did you quarrel about it?'

'I've already pointed out that these questions regarding my grandson seem to me to be irrelevant.'

'Unfortunately, Signora, I have reason to believe that your grandson did come here to find his mother. We have evidence that a boy named Christian was staying in her villa. The boy disappeared during the summer and a body was subsequently found which could well be his. If I have troubled you with so many questions it was only in an attempt to verify that possibility. Had you been able to tell me that your grandson was at home, alive and well, I would have been able to spare you the distressing business of trying to identify the body and clothing of the boy we found dead. I'm very sorry, Signora, but that's now going to be necessary.'

Again that slight trembling of the lips.

'I'm sure you're mistaken.'

'I sincerely hope so.'

'You must be mistaken. My grandson ... he would have had documents with him, his passport . . .'

'No documents were found. It's possible that death was caused by an accidental overdose of heroin and that his papers would have been removed by his companions to avoid any involvement. I have already asked Avvocato Heer to accompany you when we go to the Medico-Legal Institute. Perhaps you should try to eat something first.'

'No. This misunderstanding must be cleared up immediately . . . immediately. Wait . . . you said he disappeared in the summer?'

'Yes. We only found the body recently.'

'But that would mean—' Her face had reddened and her fists tightened around the black handbag on her knees.

'I'm afraid it does mean that identifying him, even for you—'

But she was interrupting, talking rapidly to the lawyer without giving him time to translate. When at last he managed to stop her he said:

'She wants to know, if it is her grandson, whether he must have died before his mother.'

Only then did the Captain begin to understand her reticence about the boy.