[Brunetti 32] - So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon

Author:Donna Leon [Leon, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural
ISBN: 9780802162366
Google: _Og4zwEACAAJ
Amazon: B0B72JWGV4
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2023-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

19

Luckily, Brunetti had anticipated being delayed and had called Paola while she was still at the university to explain that he could not be home for lunch. She reminded him that the children were at their grandparents’ for lunch, so the two of them could eat whenever he arrived. She’d just ‘throw something together’.

All pressure of time removed by her remark, he decided to stop in the bookstore in Campo Santa Maria Nova. When he entered the campo, he saw the proprietor at the door of his shop, wearing his ski cap, although the day hardly warranted it. Carlo recognized him and nodded in his direction, then, as if remembering something, he quickly retreated into his shop. A moment later, he emerged holding a book in the air and waving it at Brunetti, all but shouting across the campo, ‘I’ve got your Pausanias for you, Dottore.’ Although the bookseller was not a big man, his voice filled the campo and caused heads to turn.

Had Pausanias been a hunted criminal, Brunetti could not have been happier to learn that he had been found. In truth, Pausanias was a second-century Greek geographer, references to whom Brunetti had been reading for decades. He had, over the years, collected most of the Nibby translation except for volume III, containing books 7, 8, and 9, and had held off beginning to read it until he was sure to have the entire work, and this Carlo had finally found for him.

Carlo pushed the book into Brunetti’s hands and stood back to watch his joy, his own face lit up by the delight known to those who love books. Brunetti opened it and found the title page: Descrizione della Grecia Volume Tre. This was surely it. He turned the page, read the words there, and stared across at Carlo. ‘It’s a stolen book,’ he said in surprise.

‘What?’ Carlo said, his face falling in shock.

‘Look,’ Brunetti said, passing the open book to him. He watched Carlo’s face as he read the page following the title page: ‘New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation’.

‘Oddio,’ Carlo said, and then, with angry contempt, ‘They stole it from a library.’

Brunetti took the book back and paged through it slowly to give Carlo a moment to get over his indignation. When sufficient time had passed, Brunetti looked up, all jokes gone. ‘I wanted to speak to you about something else.’ Inesh was a reader who had much-read books on his shelf: if anyone in the neighbourhood knew him, it would be the person who had sold him those books.

Carlo responded to the tone as well as to the words and asked, ‘The dead man?’

‘Yes.’

‘Inesh,’ the book dealer said, as if he had to make it clear.

‘You knew him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Could you tell me about him?’

Carlo looked off to the people seated on the benches facing his shop, but none of them seemed ready to help him answer this question. ‘There’s not much I can say, Commissario. He bought books from me for years.’ Carlo gave a small snort of laughter.

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