Viper - Michael Morley [85]
‘Franco has a temper. He hates how he is. You can understand that, can’t you?’
Pietro nodded. ‘The way he is would give me a temper too. But could he kill?’
Antonio remembered his missing gun and shells. ‘He could kill. You know he has my gun. He fires it in the pit. I don’t know if he hits anything – he says he aims at rats – but he fires it. And he has this temper. But I don’t think so. No, I don’t think so.’
Pietro’s eyes gave away his thoughts – parents never considered their kids to be capable of murder.
Antonio held the officer’s gaze. ‘Please go gentle on him. Do whatever you can to bring him in safely.’
The police cell was cold and Paolo Falconi hadn’t been given the second blanket he’d asked for. He was tired and his body ached as they marched him to the interview room. They showed no interest in his complaints about last night or his requests for something to eat or drink.
Sylvia Tomms, however, was well rested and raring to go. She got the formalities out of the way as they settled themselves at a small table. Once more Paolo said he didn’t want a lawyer. Insisted he had nothing to hide. She opened a case file and slid over pictures of the dead bodies of Rosa Novello, Filippo Valdrano and the still unidentified female corpse found in the Castellani pit.
‘I hope these people came to you in your dreams last night, Paolo.’
You could hear a pin drop in the interview room as her words sank in.
‘Did they? Can you live with their deaths? With what was done to them?’
The pictures turned his stomach. Now he was glad they hadn’t given him breakfast.
‘Nothing to say, Paolo?’
‘Nothing new. I told you everything yesterday. How’s my nonno? Can I see him? He’s really old and –’
‘We let your grandfather go home. He’s fine.’
Paolo looked relieved.
Sylvia touched Rosa’s picture. ‘This girl can’t go home, though. She used to be pretty – not now. Look at her.’
He glanced at the picture, took in the missing part of the girl’s skull. Her milky eyes. His face showed both shock and sympathy. Right from the start Sylvia had been having trouble seeing him as a killer, but the conversation last night with Jack had raised doubts in her mind. ‘Do you like girls, Paolo, or are boys your thing?’
He frowned at her. ‘You think I’m finocchio.’
‘So, you have a girlfriend?’
He didn’t answer.
‘I said, do you have a girlfriend?’
‘I heard what you said. No, I don’t – but that doesn’t make me anything. I just don’t have a girl.’
Sylvia pushed all three photographs nearer to him. ‘I’m not bothered if you’re straight, or if you’re gay. I’m bothered whether you – and your runaway cousin – had a motive to kill any of these people.’
He glared at her.
‘Well? Did you?’
‘You’re crazy. You’re all fucking crazy. I told that lieutenant yesterday everything I knew.’
‘What about the panties, Paolo? The yellow panties?’
‘I told him about them too.’
‘You told him nothing. Just that sometimes you’d seen Franco with women’s underwear.’
Paolo scowled at her. ‘That’s it. That’s all I know. I told that big guy.’
Sylvia stood up and sighed. ‘Va bene. You want to be stupid. Fine. We’ve got other leads to chase up. I have a job to do, and I have to do it before anyone else gets hurt. You think I give a damn whether you rot in here for another month?’
They stared at each other.
Paolo scratched the back of his head.
Sylvia gave him a make-your-mind-up look.
He let out a sigh and looked down at the floor. ‘Franco sometimes stole underwear and stuff from the campers’ vans.’
‘Go on.’ She stayed standing.
‘He’d see a young girl walking around and he’d talk about wanting to fuck her. But he knew that was never going to happen.’
‘Because of the way he looks?’
‘What do you think?’
Sylvia sat back down. ‘So, he would steal their things – the girls’ things – then what?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know?’
Paolo looked embarrassed. ‘He did things in the dark, or in the bathroom with them – on his own.’
‘So how did you know he had them?’
‘Sometimes he’d show me. He’d point out a girl, then show me her panties. It was like he was somehow connected