Give unto Others by Donna Leon

Author:Donna Leon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2022-02-25T15:53:32+00:00

17

Dottoressa del Balzo had no sooner started down the steps than Brunetti began trying to imagine what her husband could be afraid of. The attack on the clinic showed that Fenzo and his wife had something to fear. Could a warning be any clearer? The animals now; you next.

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Pucetti. Brunetti waved him inside, asking, ‘How did it go?’

‘They weren’t home, so I left him with Claudio, at the bookshop round the corner. He said he’d call them and tell them he had the cat.’

Brunetti waved Pucetti to a chair and, when he was seated, asked, ‘Did you find the others?’

Pucetti smiled to indicate that he had had some success and said, ‘She’s in the phone book, so I went to talk to the guys in the Carabinieri station in Campo dei Gesuiti, but they didn’t even know who they were. The restaurant in the campo is still closed, but the bar across the way is owned by the same man, and it’s open. The owner said Fenzo’s saved him a lot of money over the last years by claiming expenses and deductions he never knew about and getting him onto the right list of businesses that will be eligible for Covid-loss payments.’

After a moment’s thought, Pucetti said, ‘It’s strange, sir. The restaurant and the bar are the only commercial places in the campo, and you know how big it is.’ He asked, ‘Did . . .’ but stopped.

‘Did what?’ Brunetti asked.

‘Did the city use to be like that, with real places, where you could buy real things?’

‘Like buttons and kitchen pots?’ Brunetti asked.

‘Yes.’

‘You could even find underwear and fresh pasta and flowers,’ Brunetti was happy to reveal.

‘That’s what my mother tells me,’ Pucetti said. ‘It sounds like a fairy tale.’ Seeing Brunetti’s expression, he added quickly, ‘To me, that is, sir.’

‘Yes, it was different,’ Brunetti said but was unwilling to continue the topic. ‘Thanks for taking the cat back, Pucetti.’

Reading the signal correctly, Pucetti got to his feet. ‘You’re welcome, sir. Any time I can be of use . . .’ He stopped in the middle of that sentence, saluted, and left the Commissario to his thoughts.

Sending a cat home on a police launch? Had he really ordered that? He had been aware for months of the invasive lethargy of the pandemia, a symptom that seemed to have struck everyone, regardless of whether they’d fallen victim to the other, malign symptoms. Decisions took longer to make, longer to regret having made. Correspondence had slowed, and it took a week to write an email with a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Recalling conversations he’d had, even the day before, now required effort. But to have used a police launch to return a cat to its owner: this was more than lethargy. It put him in mind of the behaviour of the mother and son who had gone to Dottoressa del Balzo’s clinic to retrieve their kidnapped dog. The thought of one old woman led Brunetti to think of the other: Signora Galvani.

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.