Elegant Death Read online

  “Yes.” Stefano nodded. “We specialize in analyzing communication structures within medium and large companies. A lot of important information gets lost because the communication structure is not set up in the right way, particularly when it comes to talking between different levels, from CEO to director, for example, but also within the departments on the same level. We're starting with collecting information about the status quo and will then suggest improvements.”

  Carlina was impressed. It sounded as if he'd explained this a thousand times already, while they'd only made it up last night during dinner.

  Orlando scratched his head. “It doesn't sound like Dorotea at all.”

  “Signor Ashley believes it's vital to understand the communication structures for the ongoing success of the company.”

  Carlina nodded while hiding a smile. She'd had no idea Stefano could sound so very pompous.

  Orlando shrugged. “Well, what do you wish to know?”

  Carlina took out a notebook with the questions they had prepared the night before. “How often did you have meetings with signora Di Silva?”

  “Once a month, at the director meeting, and once every two weeks for issues that only concerned the production.”

  “Do you feel this was enough?”

  He made a wry face. “On the one hand, I would say it was more than enough. I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but when I came out of a meeting with her, I always felt as if I'd been through the spin cycle of a washing machine. The personal meetings were the worst because she didn't hold back during the one-on-one talks. On the other hand, I would sometimes have liked more time to discuss issues with her.”

  Carlina wondered if he would have been as willing to share his feelings before Dorotea's death.

  “So, for the future, you'd say this rhythm is acceptable?”

  “I think so. It all depends on Enzo's style of leading and if he wants to take the company into a new direction.”

  “A high turnover of personnel leads to a quick loss of information and knowhow,” Stefano continued. “How do you judge the current state of the company in that respect?”

  Orlando snorted. “The turnover is so high we could use the speed of some people's departure for ventilation.”

  “And why is that the case?”

  “Because the CEO was extremely demanding and impatient. If you didn't perform the first time, you didn't get a second chance.”

  Carlina slipped into her chatty personality again. “Have you personally been afraid for your job then?”

  Orlando laughed in a bitter way. “All the time. I know she didn't appreciate me, but so far, I was lucky and didn't make a mistake, so she accepted me. Quite often, I tell my wife when I leave for work in the morning that I might be out of a job by the time I come home.”

  “That must be an immense pressure.”

  He shrugged. “It isn't pretty. But once you've worked for Di Silva, you can work anywhere. It's a seal of distinction. I wanted to stick it out for three years because that's a good time period when you look at your resumé. Everyone in the industry knows you must be extremely resilient if you withstand the pressure for so long.”

  Stefano looked up. “But haven't you been with the company for three years now?”

  “Almost. I've got another two months, but with her death, all bets are off.”

  Carlina bent forward. “It must feel a bit like a relief, then, doesn't it?”

  Orlando shrugged. “It's a mix. Relief and incredulity. I wouldn't be surprised if she came back as a ghost to terrorize us all. It would be in character.”

  Stefano got up. “Thank you very much, signor Orlando. We do appreciate the tour and your time and will come back to you if there are any further questions. For the moment, this will give us a good starting point.”

  They retreated into the office Enzo had given to them. It was a square room on the seventh floor usually used for meetings. “I want to place a bet with you,” Carlina said as soon as the door had closed behind them. “I lay you ten euros that not a single person here in the company has shed a tear about her death. Isn't that horrible?”

  “I'm not taking that bet.” Stefano stretched and yawned. “But I'm finding it very difficult to get results in this roundabout way. I didn't know I was so set in my ways. The question 'where were you while Dorotea was murdered?' hovered on my tongue for most of the interview. That was a good move, to pretend to be a gossipy woman, by the way.”

  Carlina smiled. She was glad he had recognized it as a strategic move. “So, what do you feel about Orlando?”

  “If we could check up on his alibi, I would say he's out of it. He's also quite open about his feelings, and I think that helped him to bear it all.”

  “I feel the same. I have to admit I'm a bit too keen to cross people off the list, simply because I feel there are way too many.”

  “It can hardly be enough if you consider Enzo's position, though.”

  Carlina bit her lip. “True. Do you think he's in danger of being arrested?”

  Stefano hesitated. “I think we should prepare ourselves for it.”

  “Then we have to ask Enzo to give us a free hand, even when he's not here anymore.”

  “Yes. He might set up a paper of some kind that we could show if the worst case happens.”

  Carlina swallowed.

  “I'd like to come back to what you just said about the suspects.”

  “Hmm?” Carlina tried to pull her thoughts away from prison and concentrate on Stefano. How serious he looked.

  “There might be more, you know.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It's possible Dorotea didn't speak the truth when she said she'd spent the night at home.”

  Carlina's eyes widened. “You mean she might have had a date?”

  “Why not?”

  “But she told Enzo she'd been home all night!”

  Stefano gave her an eloquent look.

  “All right, all right.” Carlina lifted both hands. “Accepted. But how do we find out if she really was at home?”

  “I don't know yet. Maybe the secretary will be able to give us some more information.”

  “She's sworn to secrecy, remember?”

  “I'll ask Enzo to get us a copy of her schedule.” Stefano lifted the receiver and asked Enzo for the information, then turned back to Carlina. “There's one other point. She might also have met someone in the morning, at the fitness studio, and might have mentioned her upcoming trip to Florence. We should definitely schedule a visit there.”

  Carlina blinked. “The fitness studio. Ugh. I hate those.”

  Stefano leaned back in his chair and looked at his wife with a little smile in one corner of his mouth. “They have a pool and a massage center, as well, and it's not very far.” He pointed to the roof. “It's at the top of this building, and Dorotea happens to be the owner, too.”

  “Gosh. You mean it belongs to Enzo now?”

  “Yes. And he gave us free passes.”

  “Well done.” Carlina grinned. “A free massage sounds like just the kind of thing I could put up with in the course of an investigation. But first we have to do those interviews.” She looked at her fingernails. “You know, I have a feeling we would get better results with the secretary if I talked to her on my own.”

  “You mean Liza Martini? Why?”

  “Because she's extremely nervous.”

  “Is she? When did you notice that?”

  “When she led us to the office. You went in first, and when I followed she looked at me with startled eyes, as if she was seeing a wolf. It was only an instant, then she averted her eyes and closed the door.”

  “Well, I don't mind if you try her on your own. We can always tackle her later together if it shouldn't work out the way you want.”

  “Yes.” She blew him a kiss. “And what will you do in the meantime?”

  Stefano checked his watch. “I think I'll find the kitchen and see if I can get a cup of coffee. Hopefu
lly, someone will be standing around, willing to gossip a bit.”

  Carlina laughed. “Spoken like a true office expert. The watering hole is the best place to learn about new things.”

  “Exactly.” He pulled her to him. “A funny honeymoon, eh?”

  “Yes. But we can't help it. Are you angry with me?”

  “No. I regret it, of course, but being on that island wouldn't have given us any joy, either. We'd both have been too busy thinking of Enzo.”

  “True.” She kissed him on a wave of gratitude. He'd said “we”.

  Five minutes later, she sat with Liza Martini in a meeting room that offered seats for twenty people. Carlina looked around. “Wow, this is an intimidating place.”

  Liza Martini nodded. “It was signora Di Silva's favorite room. She liked space around her, and she needed the long tables when she was looking at new designs and cuts.”

  “Is this also where the directors met every month?”

  “Yes.”

  The room already made you feel small and insignificant. The leather chairs, stark tables and white walls breathed no emotions whatsoever. Carlina added a demanding and impatient boss to that and could well imagine the monthly meeting of directors had been a stressful event. Last Friday, Dorotea Di Silva had stood here, and had probably signed her death certificate by talking about her weekend plans. She shook her head. “I'm sure it still seems unbelievable to you that she should never come back.”

  Liza Martini opened her soft brown eyes wide. “Oh, yes. And such a relief.”

  Carlina choked. “A relief?” She'd not counted on such a straightforward answer.

  “Yes.” Liza was a slight person with a short skirt that showed her thin knees in black stockings. She had wavy brown hair, bound back in a severe ponytail, but a strand had slipped out and hung in front of her face, so she continually pushed it to the side with small, trembling fingers. “You see, she had given me notice until the end of the month, and now, with signor Ashley being the new boss, I do hope he will cancel that notice, so I won't have to go looking for a new job.”

  “Why did she give you notice?”

  The soft mouth trembled. “I was not quick enough or decisive enough for her.”

  “For how long have you been with her?”

  The glossy head bent down. “Only three months. I was still in my trial period.”

  Carlina blinked. Liza didn't seem like a lion tamer, and after the first few sentences with her, it should have been clear to anyone with the slightest intelligence that she wasn't the paragon in efficiency obviously needed in such a position. “But why did she take you on at all?”

  Liza's eyes widened. “She'd had a terrific argument with her previous secretary who was quite headstrong, and said she needed someone friendly and helpful for a change. Only, when she had worked with me for three months, she said she …” Her voice broke. “… she said she couldn't stand that, either.”

  “Maybe it would have been better that way,” Carlina said.

  “Oh, no. You see, I gave up a very good job because my friends told me I wasn't appreciated there, and if I ever wanted to advance, I should try to find something else, so I screwed up my courage and applied here. I … I'm afraid I didn't do enough research before accepting the job, because once I'd taken it, everybody was shocked and said they couldn't ever work for signora Di Silva.”

  “Couldn't you have looked for something else?”

  “I didn't have the time.” Liza sighed. “After ten hours in the office each day, I was too exhausted to send out new applications.”

  “What about the weekend?”

  “She often called me on the weekend and gave me new jobs. She expected me to do reports during the weekend, so I had to take the work home with me.”

  “Is that what you did this last weekend?”

  Liza nodded. “I had to write the report about the monthly meeting with the directors. She expected it on her desk at eight o'clock in the morning on Monday, but the meeting only ended late on Friday, so I didn't have a choice.”

  “That sounds horrible.”

  “Yes.” Liza swallowed. “And I was so afraid because she never liked the report. She said I misunderstood things all the time.”

  Carlina decided to ask Enzo for the report. He must have found it on the desk when he'd arrived on Monday. Maybe it would give them a better impression about that last important meeting. For the moment, however, she had to concentrate on Liza's alibi. “I can't imagine why you did the report at all. After all, she'd already given you your notice, hadn't she? Why didn't you leave?”

  “Oh, I couldn't do that.” Liza's eyes widened in shock. “I want to have a job reference that's not too damning. With the crisis and all, it's not easy to find a new job.”

  “I see. So you spent your Saturday typing that report?”

  Liza sighed. “Yes. It took me three hours because I couldn't really make out my notes anymore. They'd said so much, and there were so many contradictions, and in the end, I got all muddled and didn't know what they'd agreed on, if anything at all, and I didn't dare to ask because I knew she'd be angry if I spoke.”

  Maybe that report wasn't going to be much help after all. “But I hope you had a nice Saturday afternoon. The weather was still nice, wasn't it?”

  “Oh, yes. We …” She broke off and flushed scarlet. “I mean, I … I went for a walk at the Parco Sempione.”

  “The Parco Sempione?”

  “Yes, do you know it? It's very pretty, and they've got a lake there.”

  Carlina had never taken the time to go to the park the few times she'd been to Milan, but she didn't want to discuss green spaces. “Did you stay all the afternoon?”

  “Yes, we … I mean I walked around the lake and then we sat in the sun for a bit, and later, we, I mean … I had dinner at a restaurant.”

  She would never have made a good spy, but Carlina didn't complain. Obviously Liza was very much in love with the other half of the “we” she had met on Saturday, and just as obviously, she didn't want to talk about it. She wondered why, and how she could get her to spill her secret. “How very nice.” She leaned back as if the preliminary gossip was done with, and they were now coming to the meaty part. “Well, as you know, signor Ashley called us in to check on the internal communication processes of the company. Things can only work smoothly if people share what they know and if they trust in each other.”

  The large brown eyes looked at her with dismay. “Trust?”

  Obviously that was a foreign expression at Camicie Di Silva. “Yes.” Carlina spoke with a firm voice. “And one sign of trust and well-being is that people spend their spare time together. Do you sometimes go out with your colleagues?”

  Liza's face flushed deeper red, right to the roots of her brown hair. “Not … not really.”

  So it was someone from the company. Carlina couldn't imagine Liza coolly traveling down to Florence and shooting her employer in the back, but maybe she'd told her lover, and they'd hatched the plan together. That sounded more like it. Yes, Liza had motive enough, if being kicked out of a job was reason enough for murder. Comparatively few people got murdered for throwing people out, but quite apart from that, Liza just didn't seem to be the type for that kind of murder. Carlina stopped herself short. What did she know about it, after all? Was there a certain type of character, easily recognized, who was liable to shoot people in the back? She would have to ask Stefano.

  Carlina asked a few more questions about internal communication processes, but even though she noted the answers, she knew they were leading her nowhere. She couldn't push Liza too far in this very first interview. Better let the trust between them grow a bit and tackle her again in a day or two. She was the kind who liked to confide, and sooner or later, she would come out with his name.

  She let her go and returned to the office she shared with Stefano. He was lounging in a chair, his hands folded behind his head, his long legs stretched out, looking out the window as if mesmerized by t
he haze that veiled the buildings and made the bosco verticale resemble two blurry cucumbers.

  “Tschah.” Carlina dropped her notebook with a bang onto the table. “Here I am, clear worn out with interviews, and you're sitting here, daydreaming. I find that unfair.”

  He unlooped one arm, caught her and pulled her onto his lap. “I've been doing some profound thinking, my dear.”

  “Oh, really?” Carlina grinned. “And what is the result of this profound thinking? A great conviction that it's time to have dinner? Or take a nap?”

  “What a suspicious mind you have.” He pulled at one of her curls. “Did I know that when I married you?”

  “Yes, you did. I never tried to hide it.”

  He sighed. “I must have been blind.”

  “Yup. I guess that's it. But you still haven't told me about your result.”

  The smile left his face. “I'm expecting Cervi here any minute now.”

  “Cervi? Your boss? Why?”

  “Because he can't possibly lead the investigation from Florence. There's nothing there for him to learn, and sooner or later, he'll be forced to come to Milan.”

  She swallowed. “Do you think he'll come to arrest Enzo?”

  “I'm not sure. As long as he hasn't found the gun, it's risky. There's a motive, and there's opportunity, but there's not a shadow of proof, and Enzo is now in a position to hire the best attorneys in the country who could shred all circumstantial evidence. Cervi won't risk that, and that's why he'll have to come here.”

  “What will we tell him when he sees us here?”

  Stefano gave a slow nod. “That's what I've been thinking about. I've also been thinking about Marco Riva, the director of finance.”

  “What about him?”

  “I met him at the watering hole, as you called it.”

  “Ah.”

  “He takes his coffee black.”

  “Fascinating.”

  “Stop making fun of me. That was the first point of conversation, to break the ice, so to speak.”