‘Heidi… Heidi Engadin.’
I grabbed a handful of paper napkins from the dispenser on the table and she took them gratefully with a shaking hand as tears started to run down her cheeks. I glanced up at Virgilio, who was reaching for his phone. ‘While you call the local police, I’ll go and tell the management, okay?’ He nodded so I turned to Anna. ‘Maybe you might like to keep an eye on Heidi…?’
I left Heidi in Lina and Anna’s care and went into the dining room and down the corridor to the main entrance. Rita gave me a welcoming smile. ‘Good morning, all well?’
‘I’m afraid not.’
I went on to tell her what Heidi had told us and she looked understandably appalled. I told her that Virgilio was in the process of calling the local police and she immediately went off to inform Signor Silvano, the owner. I returned to the terrace and when I got there, Virgilio caught my eye and beckoned to me to follow him. I made my way past the table where Heidi was still sitting with Lina and Anna, and I threw Anna an apologetic glance. She knew and I knew exactly why I was apologising, and I told myself that I would just take a quick look and then leave it to the local police. It didn’t matter whether the man had slipped, jumped or been pushed; this death was nothing to do with me, and I was only going along to keep Virgilio company. I repeated this to myself as a mantra all the way down the path to the beach.
This death is nothing to do with me. This death is nothing to do with me. This death…
When we got down to the beach, we received a frantic wave from Heidi’s partner, Martin, and we hurried over to where he was standing alongside his inflatable dinghy, looking as shell-shocked as Heidi had been. Even Edith the dachshund was looking subdued. While Oscar wandered over to renew his acquaintance with his canine friend, Virgilio pulled out his warrant card and spoke to the man in English.
‘Martin? My name is Virgilio Pisano and I’m acommissarioin the Florence police force. I’ve notified the police in Portoferraio and they’re sending a squad car straight away. Have you seen the body?’
Martin nodded grimly. ‘Yes, it’s… he’s over there.’ He pointed towards a rocky outcrop with little waves splashing against it. ‘Not a pretty sight.’ Like Heidi, he was fluent in English and probably in his thirties as well.
Virgilio and I left the two dogs with Martin and walked over to the rocks. The light-grey stone had been smoothed by the sea over millennia, and in other circumstances, the scene would have been beautiful, but not this morning. A glance up the cliff face above us told me that the victim had probably suffered a fall of fifteen metres or so – roughly the height of a four- or five-storey building. It was immediately clear that the impact against these rocks had been catastrophic. At least, I told myself, it would have been a very quick death.
The body was lying face down, the broken limbs splayed out on the rocks like a discarded rag doll, with much of the man’s head and both arms being washed by little wavelets as Heidi had said. The head and body were badly battered and bruised, and my suspicious mind immediately made me question whether this had been caused during the fall or by an aggressor on the clifftop.
I knew better than to touch a body, but I didn’t need to lift the face out of the water to recognise the victim. The tattoos and the summery blue and white shirt and shorts – albeit now badly ripped and stained – were unmistakable. I turned towards Virgilio and saw that he, too, had recognised the victim. He was rooted to the spot, his eyes staring fixedly at the remains of the big man. Slowly, reluctantly, he finally managed to drag his eyes away and he looked across at me with just one word.
‘Graziani.’
I nodded. ‘Well, that solves our little problem, doesn’t it?’ I’m not normally so flippant in the face of death but, from what I’d seen the previous evening and from what Virgilio had told me about the man’s atrocities, I felt sure that Graziani’s death was no loss to humanity.
Virgilio made no reply, his eyes returning to the body on the rocks. I could only imagine the feelings going through his head at the thought that justice for the poor victims had finally been done. I reached over and tapped him on the arm, attracting his attention once more as I pointed back towards Martin and his dinghy.
‘I think we need to let Martin go back to the hotel to be with his girlfriend, don’t you? Why don’t you go with him? I can stay here and make sure nobody goes near the body.’
He shook his head and emerged from his catatonic state. ‘It’s good of you to offer, Dan, but this is the job I get paid for. Why don’t you walk back up with him and I’ll wait here until the emergency services arrive? Go on, you accompany Martin back to the hotel, and I’ll come up and join you as soon as the police get here and take over.’
I nodded in the direction of the body. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?’
‘I’ll be fine.’ He glanced up and caught my eye for a moment, and I couldn’t miss the strange glint in his. ‘It’s funny, really. Last night, I would happily have pushed him off the cliff myself, but seeing him here like this doesn’t give me a nice, warm feeling of satisfaction. I just feel nothing, nothing at all.’
I’ve seen a lot of death in my time and I knew exactly how he felt. There’s something about the finality of finding a dead body. It somehow wipes the slate clean – but some slates don’t deserve to be wiped.
I made no comment but just patted him on the shoulder and then went back to Martin. Together with the two dogs, we walked up the path to the hotel without exchanging a single word. It was only when we reached the top and were approaching the terrace that Martin stopped and looked across at me, a bewildered expression on his face.
‘Do you think it was an accident or did he jump?’
There was, of course, another alternative – had he been pushed? From what Virgilio had told me, I could well imagine that a man with Graziani’s background could have made a lot of bitter enemies, people with long memories. If I were the investigating officer, I would be checking back through his history along with the backgrounds of the other guests at the hotel, just in case there was anybody with a grudge here, maybe related to one of the man’s victims all those years ago. Virgilio’s experience of the victim would no doubt be of interest to the police, and I hoped he wouldn’t get drawn into the investigation, interrupting his holiday. Maybe I could help…
No sooner had I thought this, however, than I told myself very firmly that I was not the investigating officer, I was not going to become the investigating officer and, indeed, I had no interest in whatever the investigating officer would discover. I was on holiday and that was that.
Anna would have been proud of me – but she would also have questioned to what extent I really meant it. She knows me too well.
In response to Martin’s question, I shook my head helplessly, made a few consoling noises and left it at that while I continued my internal monologue.
This death is nothing to do with me. This death is nothing to do with me…
When we got back to our table, Heidi pulled herself to her feet and murmured thanks to Anna and Lina before going off with Martin and the little dog, presumably to their room. I caught the eye of the waitress and ordered an espresso. I raised an eyebrow towards Anna and Lina, but they shook their heads and the waitress went off.
Anna reached across and took my hand. ‘Was it awful?’
To be honest, I’d seen far worse, but all I did was shrug my shoulders before breaking the important news to them. ‘It wasn’t so bad, but it came as a shock all the same. The victim is none other than Ignazio Graziani.’ I saw them both look up in surprise, and there was a gasp from Lina as I carried on. ‘His body’s lying on a rocky outcrop by the beach after a fall from the top of the cliff. He’s stone dead.’
