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“Do you mean Marco Mezzogori?”, Zamagni asked the captain, who in return nodded as a sign of approval.
“Yeah, I’ve known him, if it’s correct to say so”, then continued the inspector, “I’m informed that he was found dead yesterday in late afternoon.”
“Could you extend some explanation to me as well?”, asked Finocchi.
“I will tell you everything after a while”, Zamagni cut it short, before turning to the captain once more.
“How come you already know that?”
“I’ve been informed about the results of autopsy. It’s been a murder.”
The inspector still remained speechless and after some moments, the captain began to speak.
“From the results of autopsy, it comes out that a fight has been occurred between the hemiplegic boy and the murderer. Nobody knows the real cause of the fight, but we should keep inquiring further on.”
“Why did you approach to me personally, captain?”, asked Zamagni, “I‘ve got acquainted with the boy by chance, at the time he was found dead, and additionally, we need to take care of the verification of these documents. Isn’t anybody else who could be in charge of this case?”
“Perhaps would be”, returned the captain, “but there is one other detail I haven’t yet mentioned to you.”
“What is it about?”
“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 I would like to leave me alone”, said the woman, “I’m not in good mood and would want to have some rest, without thinking at all.”
Zamagni and Finocchi stared at each other, and then looked at the mother of the hemiplegic boy.
“Please.”
“Ok”, nodded the inspector, “but please be advised that we’ll need your help to conclude this case, and, for sure, we’ll have to get back to you again.”
The woman nodded in sign of approval and saying nothing else, opened the door and kindly asked the two policemen to leave the apartment.
“Unfortunately, the Forensic Science probably won’t be able to find anything helpful. The fingerprints are already confusing”, said Zamagni, going down the stairs.
“Proceeding in such a way would lead us nowhere”, captain Luzzi pointed out as soon as he learned about the unsuccessful visit to the apartment of the hemiplegic boy’s mother.
Zamagni and Finocchi nodded, and then the inspector added: “As long as the lady seems unwilling to cooperate, it would be extremely hard for us to come to a final solution of this case.”
“Frankly speaking, it hasn’t occurred to my mind before”, said Marco Finocchi, “what about her husband? The hemiplegic boy has had a father, right?
“It seems that one day he has left away, as if he disappeared into thin air”, explained Zamagni.
“This means that he’s not findable so far?”, asked the agent.
“It seems so, even though I’d want to get in touch with him”, said the inspector.
“At least, he would be able to save his wife suffering from this shock”, asserted Finocchi.
“Would be possible to start searching for him?”, proposed Zamagni, “If we succeed, then we can make him meet his wife again. Even though there’s bad blood between them, I believe the two spouses could become closer to each other for the sake of their son.”
“Yeah, we can have a try”, admitted the captain, “Let’s spread the word then.”
“All right. What else can we do in the meantime?”, the agent Finocchi wanted to know.
“Good question”, Giorgio Luzzi replied to him, “We don’t have yet in our hands any fact or clue that may lead us to a pertinent connection or conclusion. Although it might seem unlikely, this is the only lead to be followed at the moment.”
“Hence, how are we gonna proceed further on?”, asked Zamagni. “I don’t know”, was the instinctive answer of the captain, “We need to squeeze our brains and come up with some idea.”
Since the day in which the tragedy happened, the mother of Marco Mezzogori, had switched from the initial state of shock to a sort of nervous breakdown, and as far as appeared, she had no desire to meet or talk to anyone.
Even Carla, the aunt of hemiplegic boy, so far hadn’t been in the apartment of her sister-in-law after the death of her nephew.
The nephew was indeed the true inspirational motive of her visits to that apartment, and this was also because of the cold relationships with her sister-in-law.
Giuseppe Ruspoli, Carla’s husband, and Luciano Mezzogori, Marco’s father, used to work together in the same mechanic shop, and it occurred once in a while that Carla went to see her brother in the job place.
In this way she had met by chance her future husband.
To be more precise, Luciano was the employer of his brother-in-law given that he was the owner of this mechanic shop and the other one located in Bologna as well.
At that time, Luciano Mezzogori was already engaged to Marisa, her future wife, and it occurred to both couples to get together and arrange a hangout around.
On those occasions, Carla has had also the chance to know Marisa much better, and at once she had the feeling that Marisa seemed a woman unrealised in the full sense. Her husband used to say that she should be dealing with housework, instead of working. She had no kids and her hobbies were just limited to very minimal things. She also used to listen music, and occasionally used to go to cinema with Luciano for watching movies, and that’s all.
Her self-realisation has been materialized in her son, Marco, who very soon had presented some problems with hemiplegia.
It was obvious that Marisa was never felt happy and, as if this wasn’t enough, her husband also disappeared one day. Carla still hasn’t been able to understand the reasons that led to such disappearance; the only thing occurred to her mind was that her husband could no longer bear to see the son in that condition, but in her view, he wasn’t that kind of person who could abandon his own family due to such reason.
Moreover, their son now wasn’t with her anymore, he’s dead already.
Carla didn’t know how to cope with such situation, as she was completely aware of the problems and hardships arisen and, on the way to the apartment of her sister-in-law, she wouldn’t allow any mistake to herself. In particular, the very first approach would be decisive.
When decided to go and visit her sister-in-law, she saw no significant change happened since the day when she witnessed her sister-in-law with the son laid down dead on the floor.
On the way back home, she passed by her as usual, and went upstairs to her apartment, but once showed up at the door, she noticed that her sister-in-law was not so welcoming.
Once entered the apartment, Marisa immediately said: “I’d want to be alone.”
“You should do something to overcome this situation”, Carla advised her, “We both know that it has been a big shock, but now the Police is inquiring to find the murderer of your son and do justice for him. Meanwhile, you should think to do your best so that you can go back to normality.”
“And why would it really matter!”
“I can imagine it’s extremely hard for you, but you should do something. Have you ever tried to go out for a walk around?”
“No”, was the sharp reply of Marisa Lavezzoli.
“You need to try”, said Carla, “You should give courage to yourself in order to shrug off these thoughts. Unfortunately, only the idea that Marco won’t be back amongst us, is very hard even to me, but we cannot help but admit it, and it’s worthwhile to realise that your behavior is not helpful at all.”
“There are only words, what you’re saying, but now I remained alone, and all this due to an incident.”
“I’m fully aware that a petty thief may have come up here through the open window, but, what if he might have an unexpected sickness, and consequently the autopsy results could have proved to be wrong? Have you ever thought about it? It may occur sometimes that even doctors make mistakes, isn’t it so?”
Carla has pronounced these last words mostly in attempt to make her distract from the current situation, because she herself didn’t believe such words said to her sister-in-law.
Carla was convinced that something terrible had happened to her nephew, who perhaps was prompted to fight with a kind of murderer or thief without having the slightest chance to run away unharmed.
“I’m so sorry the problem remains intractable”, Marisa expressed her apologies, “But the situation is quite critical and believe me, I would get more exhausted before escaping from all this.”
Carla nodded.
“Now I’m going home”, she said at the end, realizing that it was time to go away and leave alone her sister-in-law. Perhaps it was better to take one step at a time, and for the moment, the right thing was to put the conversation to an end.
Marisa said goodbye to her sister-in-law, who left the apartment and went out into the street.
