‘I think there’s more likelihood of Oscar learning than me. There’s an old English expression about not trying to teach old dogs new tricks, and I’m an old dog nowadays.’
Her eyes opened a bit wider. ‘You’re English? Wow, you speak great Italian.’ She gave me a wink. ‘The English don’t normally do foreign languages very well.’ She had switched seamlessly to excellent English.
I nodded in agreement. ‘I’m afraid that’s the problem when you come from a country that speaks the world’s chosen language of international communication. We get lazy. As for me, I live here now, so it’s obvious that I was going to learn the language. By the way, congratulations on your English. Very impressive.’
She smiled at the compliment. ‘What do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?’
Seeing as I was on holiday and definitely trying to ensure that this week kept Anna and me as far away from work as possible, I omitted to mention my day job. ‘I’m a writer. I live near Florence and I write murder mysteries set here in Tuscany.’
‘How exciting. You’ll have to tell me how to get hold of them. I love murder mysteries.’
A tall man with long, blond dreadlocks emerged from the bar and gave Ingrid a little wave. She nodded in his direction before holding out her hand to me. ‘Looks like I have to go.Ciao, Dan, see you later.’
As Oscar and I walked back along the clifftop path, my thoughts returned reluctantly to Ignazio Graziani. Lovely as it was here, I sincerely hoped that Virgilio would have made the sensible decision to change to a different hotel. It had been patently obvious last night that there was no love lost between the two men, and a stand-up fight between them could have done irreparable damage to Virgilio’s career. Better to put as much distance between Virgilio and Graziani as possible. It occurred to me that my new friend at the windsurfing school might have some ideas about suitable hotels, but I knew I’d better wait for Virgilio to make his decision before getting anybody else involved.
Back at the hotel, I found Anna and Lina sitting out on the terrace having breakfast. Lina looked as though she still hadn’t fully recovered from last night’s scene at the dinner table, and I felt for her. Instinctively, I looked across at the other tables to see if there was any sign of Graziani, but his table was empty, and I had a feeling it would probably be some time before he surfaced, almost certainly with a thumping hangover. There was no sign of Virgilio, and Lina told me he’d slept badly and had got up even earlier than I had, telling her he wanted to go for a walk to try to clear his head.
I sympathised but, as the stay-or-go decision wasn’t mine to make, I went into the dining room and helped myself to fruit salad and a couple of croissants from the buffet. I asked for a cappuccino, picked up a glass of orange juice, and returned to the terrace. A minute later, a waitress brought me out my coffee and very kindly went off to get a bowl of water for Oscar. When she returned with it, she was also carrying a biscuit and she gave me an enquiring look.
‘Do you think your dog might like one of these?’
I swear Oscar nodded his head before I did. I thanked the waitress and she handed the biscuit down to him. He took it very gently but by the time she had turned away and returned to the dining room, he had already swallowed it. He really doesn’t take his time and savour his food.
I took a sip of the scalding coffee before asking Lina the all-important question. ‘What do you think Virgilio’s going to decide to do? Going off and leaving isn’t going to feel very good, but I’m convinced it’s the sensible course of action.’
She nodded. ‘That’s what I was telling him last night. By the way, you two had a long walk last night, didn’t you?’
‘Did we? I seem to remember I was back in our room shortly after ten.’
Lina looked puzzled. ‘That’s strange. Virgilio didn’t come back until past eleven. He must have carried on walking around, trying to get his head straight.’
At that moment, I spotted the man himself. By this time, Oscar had licked up every single crumb – and a few imaginary ones – from the floor at my feet and he jumped up to greet Virgilio. The rest of us looked up with the same unspoken question on our lips, but Virgilio saved us the trouble of asking.
‘I finally made up my mind that life’s too short, just like Dan told me, and the sensible thing to do is to put as much distance as possible between me and Graziani. I thought I would check first of all to see how long he’s planning on staying and I’ve been to speak to Rita at Reception.’ A hint of a smile appeared on his face. ‘The very good news is that he isn’t staying here at all. He only came here for dinner last night.’
I felt a surge of relief and satisfaction that was obviously shared by Lina. She caught hold of her husband’s hand and gave him a beaming smile. ‘That’s excellent news; we can all relax. Why don’t we go with Dan and Anna to watch them windsurfing this morning? We all need a change of scene, don’t we?’
I thought it a good idea to get Virgilio away from the hotel, but I must confess that the thought of having an audience while I did my best to balance on a piece of plastic on the ocean wave wasn’t very appealing. Still, I told myself, it was a major relief that Virgilio wasn’t going to be meeting his nemesis again.
As it turned out, however, we were to see Ignazio Graziani much sooner than we’d thought.
5
SUNDAY MORNING
We were just finishing our breakfast when there was the sound of running feet and I saw the owner of the dachshund come charging up the steps from the garden onto the terrace. She was red in the face and wild-eyed, and I instinctively jumped to my feet to ask her if all was well. She shook her head, took a few deep breaths and broke the news to us.
‘I’ve just been down on the beach and there’s a dead body lying on the rocks. It’s a man and he must have fallen down the cliff.’
Virgilio was also on his feet by this time. ‘You’re sure the man’s dead? I’m a police officer, by the way.’
She nodded decisively. ‘There’s no doubt about it. Apart from anything else, his face is underwater so he must be dead.’
‘Whereabouts is the body?’
‘At the far right side of the beach… that’s the south side. Martin and I were getting our things ready for a dive when I saw something flapping in the breeze. I went over to take a look and that’s when I saw him. It was horrible.’ Her face, which had been red before, visibly drained of colour and Virgilio and I hastily grabbed her arms and guided her onto a seat. Both of us were familiar with the symptoms of shock, and it was clear she had had an awful experience. Oscar, too, picked up on her distress and came over to sit down beside her, a concerned look on his face as he placed one big, hairy paw on her knee in a show of canine support. I sat down alongside her and spoke to her as softly and gently as I could.
‘Is your friend Martin still down there?’ She nodded her head, and I carried on. ‘And what’s your name? I’m Dan.’
