Delayed Death (Temptation in Florence Book 1) (29 page)

Carlina held her breath. He was so close. She could smell his aftershave, could feel the heat coming from his body. It took all her willpower not to topple into his arms. She concentrated on his t-shirt, avoiding his eyes.

"There. Warm enough?"

She cleared her throat. "Yes."
Hot, rather
. She dared to lift her head and looked at him. "Thank you." She meant more than the first aid help, and she knew he would understand that.

Their eyes locked. Nothing moved. Lilly's quiet breathing was the only sound in the silent apartment. For an instant, she thought he would bend down and kiss her, but just as she leaned forward, he took a step backwards, moved a few books from the low shelf at the side, pushed Lollo's cage to the edge, and perched on the shelf. "Now tell me what happened."

It felt like theft not to have him close anymore. Did he think she was coming on to him? How embarrassing. Carlina could feel her face going red. She'd better concentrate on telling him her story. He needed to know everything, and fast. Who knew what was going on at home. Maybe some well-meaning person had come up to the apartment and found the knife. Carlina looked around. Lilly occupied the better part of the sofa, but the carpet was thick, so she slid to the floor, folded her legs, and leaned her back against the sofa. "Do you speak English?"

He lifted his eyebrows. "I do." He said it with a British accent.

"Good." Carlina continued in English. "Because I don't want Lilly to understand a single word."

He looked at the sleeping girl. "She's fast asleep."

"You never know with Lilly." Carlina shook her head. "You should get out your tape recorder before I start."

He shook his head. "You might not believe it, but in my spare time, I don't tend to walk around with a recorder."

"Of course." She felt silly. "First, I wanted to thank you for taking us in. I didn't know where to go. When I tried to call you, the operator told me you weren't in the office."

He frowned. "She has my private number. I routed my cell phone to her, so I could catch some much-needed sleep this afternoon, but I told her she should wake me if anything urgent came up."

Carlina shrugged, then winced.

"You shouldn't move that shoulder." Garini said. "It might start to bleed again."

"I forgot." Carlina took Lilly's hand. "Someone tried to kill her tonight."

His eyes narrowed. "Tell me."

"To make you understand, I have to go back to Benedetta's birthday party last week. We were having fun, and we were talking about Lilly's odd habit of jumping into my bed whenever she stays with me." She explained the connection to the wall and the falling fish mobile.

He nodded. "Got it. Who was at the party?"

Carlina stroked Lilly's soft hand. "Everybody who lives in the house. Then my sister Gabriella and her husband Bernando, Lilly herself, Angela and Marco, Uncle Ugo and his mother, Augusta. Even Electra from across the street came over to celebrate with us."

Garini shook his head. "Of course. Too much to hope that the field would narrow down at some point."

She looked at him. "They might have talked about it after the party. It was a funny story, one you might repeat somewhere else when in a good mood."

He grimaced. "Good point. Go on."

"Someone rigged up a knife together with the fish mobile." Carlina's mouth went dry. "It was sharp and thin and long. A butcher's knife." She swallowed. "If Lilly had jumped into bed as usual, it would have gone straight through her back."

He didn't take his eyes off her. "What happened instead?"

"She took a bath, and I wanted to get her pajama, but I stumbled against the sofa. I heard the sound of something falling through the air and started to laugh, thinking of the fish mobile, but then I saw the knife." She felt sick remembering it.

"Did you touch it?" He was back to interviewing mode; his questions came hard and fast.

"No."

"Hold on a second." He jumped up and left the room. A moment later, she heard him speak.

To whom is he speaking?
Carlina slid lower against the sofa. Every bone hurt, and she felt a trembling deep inside her, telling her without mistake she was still far from her usual self.

Glasses clinked, then Garini returned with a phone fixed between his ear and his shoulder. He held two glasses in his hand, filled with a transparent liquid. "Yes," he said. "Via delle Pinzochere 10. You got that? I'll join you there. Wait for me. Ciao."

He gave one of the glasses to Carlina. "It's only water, but I think you should drink it."

She nodded and accepted the glass, then started to sip. The water ran down her throat, soothing, cool. It made her feel better.

He placed the phone on the shelf, emptied his glass in one thirsty draft, and put it down next to the phone. "Please continue."

"Are you going to my apartment?"

He nodded and glanced at Lilly. "I would like you to join me, so you can explain everything while we're there."

"No way." Her response was unequivocal. "I promised I'd stay with her."

Rather to her surprise, he didn't insist. "Can you give me your keys?"

"Yes." Carlina looked around. "They're in the pocket of my coat." She made a move as if to get up.

"Don't." He held out his hand to stop her. "I'll get them on my way out." With a twist of his wrist, he glanced at his heavy wristwatch.

She had never noticed it before, but then, he usually wore his leather jacket.

He said, "I have to get to the apartment before anybody from your family does. Above all, I need to get the knife." He clasped his hands around one knee. "Tell me as much as you can. We still have about ten minutes before I have to leave. What happened after you discovered the knife?"

"I was paralyzed at first. When I could think again, I called you, but you weren't there. Afterward, I acted by instinct." She looked at him in the hope that he would understand. "I was on autopilot. I just had one goal, to get Lilly out of there. I felt it was too dangerous to stay another minute. So I told Lilly we were pirates, and I hid the knife behind a cushion, but I didn't move it."

"Well done."

"I'm sorry I brought the canary. Lilly insisted, and I didn't want to upset her." The words rushed out of her like a gush of water. It was a relief to share the responsibility.

"Did anybody see you when you left the house?"

"No. We saw Angela, Marco, Ernesto, and Uncle Ugo leave from Uncle Teo's apartment, but they didn't see us."

She took a deep breath. Now came the embarrassing part. "When we hit the street, I realized all of a sudden I had no idea where to go. Then I thought of you, and that you lived next to a hotel. Lilly was tired, so I figured I would try to find you, and if that failed, I would book ourselves into the hotel next door." She shot him a glance. "I'm sorry I imposed on you."

"No problem." He seemed to grapple with another problem. "Do you know when the knife was rigged up?"

She shrugged. Pain shot through her, and she winced.
Damn that shoulder.
"Anytime during the day. Lilly I and were out for hours. We went around the hills on my Vespa. It was great." Tears darted into her eyes. "I'm responsible for her."

"Did you see anybody during your trip on the hills?"

Carlina brought herself up short. What did that question imply? Did he want to check if she was lying? Did he think she had set up this whole rigmarole to clear herself? That she had cut herself with the knife? Tried to seduce him on top of everything else? Her face burned. "We stopped at an inn and had lunch." Her voice was glacial. "I can't recall the name, but I can take you there."

His hard eyes met hers.

She knew he had sensed her change of mood, had followed her thoughts.
Damn.

"We can do so tomorrow," he said. "I have to leave now."

She felt embarrassed to be here, in his apartment, and if it hadn't been for Lilly, she would have left that very minute. But the idea of moving Lilly again made her swallow her words. Lilly's needs came first. Besides, his apartment was safer than a hotel room where anybody had access.

Apparently, Garini's thoughts were going along the same lines. "Where did you leave your Vespa?"

"Down the road, at the next intersection."

"Good." He got up. "I think it's safest if you both stay the night." His immobile face didn't betray a single trace of emotion. "I'll place Lilly in my bed, then you can sleep next to her."

Carlina jumped up. "But I can't take your bed." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I should never have come."

"I'm glad you did. I'd rather have you here than anywhere else."

Her heart stopped beating for an instant. Had he really said that?

"It's the safest place I can think of under the circumstances. I would hate to explain to my boss that I had not managed to prevent a third murder."

Carlina swallowed. So that was why.

He bent forward and gathered Lilly in his arms. Without a word, he carried her through the door and into the next room. With his elbow, he switched on the light and placed Lilly on his bed, then gathered the blanket around her.

Carlina blinked. His bedroom surprised her.
It's the complete opposite to the living room.
The wall behind his broad bed was covered with fitted shelves which went from floor to ceiling, leaving a free square around the head of the bed. In the middle of the free square, the latest Bang and Olufsen CD player hung like a futuristic piece of art, flat like a painting. The right half of the shelves was filled with CDs, the left with books. In the four corners of the room, just below the ceiling, expensive looking music boxes tilted at an angle, and next to the window, a glittering saxophone on a stand waited to be used again.

Garini played the saxophone? She had never thought about him outside his job, about his interests and life. How self-centered she had been.

The shelves right above the bed had four hidden spotlights, flooding the bed for easy reading. They were muted by the wall opposite the bed, painted in an unusual blue-green shade. It was a vivid room, a room to live in, a room with a personality. Carlina felt like an intruder.

Garini pointed at a flat light switch at the side of the bed. "If you touch the switch in one swift move, you turn it off or on. However, if you leave your fingers on the round centerpiece, you can dim the light."

"Listen, I can't accept this." Carlina crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I've no right to take your bed tonight."

He looked at her, an ironic smile in the corner of his mouth. "You don't have a choice. I can only offer this bed and the sofa. Unless you or Lilly wish to share the bed with me, you have to accept it."

Carlina opened her mouth and shut it again. He was right.

"It's no big deal." He grinned. "I often fall asleep on the sofa. I've slept in worse places."

Did he enjoy seeing her embarrassed? "Right." She pressed her lips together.

"When I'm gone, I want you to stay put. Don't answer your or my phone, and don't open the door, no matter what happens. I'll lock the door when I leave."

"You'll shut us in?" She didn't know if that made her feel safe or trapped. A bit of both, maybe.

He regarded her for a moment. "No. I'll leave you my key, so you can get out if there's a fire. But please, stay here unless you absolutely have to go."

It wasn't like him to ask her something. So maybe he was rattled too. It didn't show in his face, though. He seemed as unruffled as ever. She frowned. "How will you get in?"

"I've got a second key." He went to the entrance of the apartment and took a key from a hook by the door. "Here you are."

Carlina took it. "Thanks. Will you . . . will you be long?"

He nodded. "Don't wait."

Her mouth twisted. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep."

"No?" He looked as if he was considering something, then he said, "Go to the bathroom, take off that shirt and check in the mirror if the bandage is still clean. If not, I'll ask the police doctor to come here. The bathroom is over there." He pointed down the hall.

She obeyed like a puppet on strings. His bathroom, like the living area, had no personality. White tiles, white walls, a thin shelf above the simple sink, faded brown towels with an orange pattern that had been modern in the seventies. It seemed Garini spent his life in his bedroom.

She unbuttoned the shirt. Her shoulder hurt when she pushed it off to have a look, but she couldn't tell if that was because of the tight bandage or because of the cut. Thank God everything was still snowy white. She dressed again and found him in the kitchen. It was small and practical, no fancy kitchen gadgets anywhere. Apparently, Garini didn't like to cook.

"No blood." she said.

"Good." He leaned against the stove and watched a kettle coming to boil.

Carlina frowned. "I thought you wanted to leave."

He glanced at his wristwatch. "I'll leave in a second, but first, I want you to have this tea." He switched off the stove, picked up the steaming kettle, and poured the boiling water into a teapot. It smelled strange, of herbs and hay on a hot summer day.