The Bitter Taste of Murder by Camilla Trinchieri

Author:Camilla Trinchieri [Trinchieri, Camilla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, Traditional, International Crime & Mystery, Fiction
ISBN: 9781641292832
Google: rKsKzgEACAAJ
Amazon: B08N6V3P4D
Goodreads: 56475611
Publisher: Soho Crime
Published: 2021-08-10T05:00:00+00:00

TEN

Perillo swerved to the side of the road and stopped the car. He leaned over the passenger seat and rolled down the window. Nico, on his daily run to town, recognized the car and ran past him.

“Ehi, Nico, stop. Get in the car. I was coming to see you.”

Nico kept running.

Perillo slapped the horn in frustration. Nico was angry. Perillo couldn’t blame him. Well, he was angry too. If Nico had a perfect right to display his feelings—displayed childishly, in Perillo’s opinion—then the maresciallo had a right to explain himself. He put the car in first gear, slipped back onto the road, shifted twice and raced past Nico, spewing gravel from the back tires.

Juvenile, Nico thought, slowing down. His knees hurt, and his breaths were getting shorter and shorter. He didn’t want Perillo to see the sorry state he would be in if he kept up his normal pace. Slow was good, slower even better. Let the maresciallo wait.

“I’m glad to see you took your time.” Perillo was sitting on Nico’s doorstep, smoking a cigarette. Nico had walked back. His breath was back to normal, even if his knees still hurt. OneWag, who had learned that his short legs were no match for Nico’s long ones on a morning run, now ran to greet him.

“You know our saying,” Perillo said. “Who goes slow—”

“—goes far and goes with health,” Nico finished for him. “Daniele?”

“In church.”

Nico kept his distance. Besides being covered in sweat, he wanted to avoid the cigarette smoke. “When I got home last night, Cinzia was waiting for me. She was not a happy woman. Are you here to tell me why?”

Perillo met Nico’s look with wide eyes. “She must have told you.”

“Not that. The bigger why.”

Perillo took a long drag of his cigarette before answering. “Aldo was arrested under suspicion of murder. Yes, I’m here to tell you everything Yunas, the waiter, witnessed at Mantelli’s table.” He told Nico about the two whiskies poured by the owner, the second one from a new bottle and tasted by Falchetti, who was still alive. Perillo hesitated, taking another drag of his cigarette. “Aldo may be a good man, but he is stupid.”

“Go on.”

“In the statement he signed in my office as to his whereabouts on Tuesday evening, he didn’t mention that he went to Mantelli’s table with his Chinese buyer.”

“Cinzia told me. Did the waiter claim he saw Aldo put something in Mantelli’s whiskey?”

“No, but right after Aldo left, Mantelli complained about the taste.”

“Don’t tell me Tarani considers that proof Aldo tampered with the drink?”

“I don’t know about Tarani. He’s a closed book. Della Langhe thinks it proves Aldo poisoned him.”

“Did Aldo explain why he went to Mantelli’s table?”

“He claimed the buyer found out Mantelli was in the next room and wanted to meet the famous Italian wine critic. Aldo said the buyer is a very good customer and he felt obliged to please him.”

“Have you or Tarani called the Chinese buyer to hear what he has to say?”

“Cinzia gave us his number and email.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.