Italian Rules by Tom Benjamin

Author:Tom Benjamin [Benjamin, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

There was someone asleep on top of my bed when I got in.

‘Rose?’ She turned over, turned on the light. It was Anna.

‘God, I must have dropped off.’ She sat up. ‘So you’re okay? They didn’t beat you up in custody? Try to pin it on you?’

‘Nothing like that,’ I said. ‘It was like they said: to take a few samples, and ask a few questions.’ She got up, went over to the desk beneath the TV where I noticed a bottle of Scotch whisky that hadn’t been there before.

‘I thought you might be able to use one,’ said Anna. ‘I definitely could.’ She poured us both a generous finger. We clinked glasses. She sat on the end of the bed while I took the chair.

‘I’m terribly sorry about what happened,’ I said. ‘How do you feel?’

‘I’ve had better nights.’ She winced at the taste of the Scotch. ‘I’d … Well, I’d definitely not seen anything like that before. His throat was cut?’ I nodded. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much blood. I mean, I guess I’ve seen my fair share of the fake stuff on set but, well, it’s nothing like that.’ She frowned. ‘It’s the smell, you know? The iron-y smell of all that blood. That’s … oh my.’ She took another sip.

‘Are you all right?’

She straightened. ‘Too real, altogether too much reality. Live a life like mine and you can avoid it, mostly. But sometimes …’

‘Believe me, that wasn’t “real”. What I mean is, I’ve never seen anything like that before myself.’

‘So how do you feel?’

‘Like I could do with a drink.’

‘But you do owe me an explanation,’ she said. ‘There’s got to be more to this than some missing film, right?’

‘It’s beginning to look that way,’ I said.

‘Those two kids, then this guy and his wife. What’s going on, Daniel?’

‘I wish I knew. Maybe the intruder will be able to throw some light on it.’

‘You don’t look convinced.’

‘I don’t know what to think, honestly. I was hoping Signor Volpato would be able to explain how part of the film in his archive had apparently made it to Gianni Colline in Bologna … The guy I caught appeared more like an opportunist … saw the windows open, maybe knew there was some valuable stuff …’ I took another sip of Scotch. Anna was right – it was precisely what I needed. ‘This remake of Amore su una lama di rasoio …’

‘Or Love on a Razorblade, as it’ll be known.’

‘Certainly seems to be … jinxed.’

‘Toni Fausto was murdered, wasn’t he, all those years ago?’

‘He was.’

‘And did they get anyone for it?’

‘Apparently they convicted people for crimes associated with the killing but were never able to pin the actual shooting on anyone.’

‘Do you think all this could have anything to do with that? I mean it was decades ago, right?’

‘Yeah, but here’s the thing about Italy – the past tends to co-exist with the present, not least because people stick around for so long. Though it’s

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