Trace Elements by Donna Leon

Author:Donna Leon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780802148698
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2020-04-14T14:00:00+00:00

15

The next morning, just as he turned into the riva leading to the Questura, Brunetti saw Griffoni arriving from the direction of Il Ponte dei Greci. He reached the entrance first and stepped into what shade it offered. He noticed that the door was open, a warm breeze flowing from it. The guard stood inside but to the left of the door, out of the breeze, which Brunetti judged hot enough to dry beef.

Griffoni, he was troubled to see, did not look well, even at this distance. Her face seemed sun-starved, and her hair, pulled back from her face, seemed oily and would certainly be unpleasant to the touch. As she neared the door, he saw that her eyes looked dry and lifeless.

‘Come stai, Claudia?’ he asked, trying to mask his concern under an ordinary greeting.

‘Not so good,’ she said, passing into the Questura and stopping a few metres beyond the guard. ‘I mean I’m fine: I feel all right today, but I had to go home early yesterday.’ He nodded in understanding, and she went on. ‘It’s been hard to sleep the last two nights: I kept seeing her and you, and hearing her.’

Brunetti wondered if he too looked like the survivor of troubled nights. He had tried to keep Signora Toso alive and lost her, but he had not formed a bond with her before she died: Claudia had. Claudia had spoken to her, held her hand, called her ‘Benedetta’, touched her arm while Signora Toso spoke the few words she gave them. He had tried to keep her alive, and failed, but it was Claudia who had lost her.

‘It’s difficult,’ she said, although it hardly needed saying. ‘I keep trying to make sense of what she told us, and then I start thinking about the girls.’

‘You shouldn’t be here today,’ Brunetti said.

She made a noise, leaving it to him to interpret its meaning.

‘Let’s see what Signorina Elettra’s found,’ he suggested, hoping it would help them to keep busy.

She looked at him directly, making no attempt to hide her surprise, nor to move. ‘The other day it sounded like you were fed up with this whole thing, and now you’re interested.’

Brunetti offered no defence, no explanation. He was embarrassed to say he’d made a promise to the dying woman or that having his hands on her heart at the moment of her death had changed everything. Because he didn’t understand this, he could hardly explain it to her.

In the face of his continuing silence, Griffoni went on. ‘Think about it, Guido: she knew she was dying, she knew she didn’t have much time. So why was it so important to talk to the police? What did she think? Or know? Or,’ she began and paused, as if waiting for the right words to come. They did. ‘What did she have?’

Brunetti didn’t want to discuss this here, in the entrance hall, where anyone could pass by and hear what they said. ‘Let’s go and see what she’s found,’ he said again.

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