The Lost Twin

“Nice to meet you”, said Zamagni.

“Good morning”, replied back the mother of hemiplegic boy. “What’s the matter with you coming in this hour?”

“He’s a trustworthy person whom I know for a long time and just thought he’d come here and have a quick look at the apartment, in the attempt to realize what had happened here”, explained Carla Mezzogori pointing to Stefano Zamagni, “I should have been at work, instead preferred to take one day off in order to be here with him. It seemed right to do so.”

“Frankly speaking, I’m quite shocked by what just happened here”, returned Marisa Lavezzoli, “Perhaps it would be better if I stay alone for some time.”

“I don’t mean to bother you, madam”, the inspector tried to calm her down, seeing her upset, “It will take you only few minutes. Carla has told me roughly the general situation and I just wanted to have a look at the apartment. I have no idea who’s gonna take on the responsibility of this case, as it’s not my job to tell it, but what I can suggest is that you make a report to the police authorities describing in detail what has happened.”

During all the time Zamagni spent talking to the mother of the victim and her sister-in-law, he was also looking around the place, noticing that the apartment was poorly furnished with the minimal stuff at a very low cost.

“Where was the dead body taken to? Did they take it away for the autopsy?”, then he asked the mother.

The woman nodded.

“Tell me a little bit more. What did you say to the persons who came to pick up the body of your son? When did you call them?”

“I went out for a while to buy some groceries, as I always used to do, then once back home, I found my son laid down on the floor”, the woman began to explain, “I had left a window open to allow some air inside the room, without thinking at all of somebody who could enter forcefully in attempt of robbery. Unfortunately, I found my son alone and probably a fight could have occurred between them. When Carla, my sister-in-law showed up, the incident had happened a short while ago, and after she left away, I called the ambulance saying that I found my son dead upon my return home. Unfortunately I was quite shocked and wasn’t aware of what had happened, therefore I merely declared the above without going into details such as the open window and all the rest that I just mentioned right now. The fight and robbery attempt are only my delirious thoughts, probably because of my instability from this tragic incident.”

“Fine, now I think I have a rough idea of what had happened here”, nodded Zamagni, “However, I’d better get back to work now. I said before to the captain that I would leave shortly for something urgent, while now, I absolutely need to go back and continue what I was doing, otherwise he’s gonna be angry with me.”

The inspector said goodbye to Marisa Lavezzoli and left her apartment together with Carla Mezzogori.

“What do you intend to do next?”, she asked, while both were going down the stairs.

“I don’t know”, answered Zamagni, “I have no idea right now what is the best thing to do. In particular, your sister-in-law mentioned the open window, as an eventual attempt of robbery, but all this has been happened in such a short time? Furthermore, is it possible to measure more accurately the length of time passed from her leaving till she came back home? I wanna say that whoever is going for a robbery attempt should have the material possibility to make it happen, should have the sufficient time to come in, commit the act of robbery and then run away. If then, he comes across an unpredictable situation, of course that the robbery is not supposed to happen quickly. I wouldn’t wish the robbery attempt to be an assumption simply arisen by the “delirious thoughts” of your sister-in-law due to the shock she just experienced. In fact, the open window could be just a detail that misleads us in our inquiry on what had really happened. Are you sure that your nephew hasn’t fallen down accidentally? In this case, the solution would be only with such a statement “nothing was found”. A natural death or something of this kind, and that’s all.”

“As far as I know Marco, I strongly believe he hasn’t moved out the room. At least, in normal circumstances. I think something more or less unexpected has happened indeed”, returned Carla Mezzogori.

“I see”, said the inspector after all, “In any case, we need to wait for the results of autopsy.”

“All right!”, she nodded.

“Excuse me now, Carla, but I absolutely need to get back to my pending jobs. I should begin with the verification of some important documents and after all, I wouldn’t want the captain getting angry with me as I’ve been out for long hours. I promised him to get the job done very soon and still need to begin with it.”

“Don’t worry”, she reassured him, “Go back to your uncompleted jobs. Thanks for your particular attention and interest you’ve shown so far.”

“It has been my pleasure”, returned Zamagni, “For anything you may have, please don’t hesitate to tell me. The worst that may happen is that I couldn’t have enough time, but nevertheless, in one way or another everything will be solved.”

“Thank you.”

“Not at all.”

Both said goodbye to each other, and then the inspector got back to work and the lady went home.

Once back to his work desk, Zamagni found the same huge piles of paperwork waiting for him, the same ones since he left office for going to Carla Mezzogori, then sat down, and after a while started to review the documents related to Daniele Santopietro’s case.

After about one hour yielding no positive result, in which he wasn’t able to find the connection between Atropos Association, that voice on the phone and Santopietro, the inspector took back the letter sent to him before, but coming to no conclusion at all.

He wasn’t finding any connection that could probably help him get a possible solution, therefore he put the letter aside, stood up and went to buy some drinks at the vending machines in the hallway.

While drinking some lemon ice tea in can, he saw his colleague Finocchi coming right there.

“Hi Stefano.”

“Hi Marco”, said the inspector, greeting back to him.

“How’s going on?”, asked the agent, “Did you take up work again after the case you’ve handled with Atropos Association?”

“Pretty much”, answered Zamagni, “I meant that I got plenty of rest since the completion of that case, and now I’m still trying to gather some data available in order to find out the connection between Santopietro, the voice of that man over the phone and the letter I’ve received, but didn’t find any clue for the moment. Probably my reference view is not the right one.”

“Yes, it could be so”, nodded the agent, “Let’s get together and review all the details. Perhaps we can find out something helpful for our further inquiry.”

“All right.”

“If you can wait me for a moment, I’ll go and take a drink just for refreshment.”

“Of course”, said Zamagni, “May I offer it to you?”

“Ah, no... I already owe a pizza to you, next time I have to pay it out, therefore don’t even think to offer me anything to eat, otherwise we’ll never be equal”, returned Marco Finocchi.

“Nevermind.”

“Well, how did you spend those few days of vacation?”, then asked the inspector.

“Nothing special. Just relaxed. What about you, any interesting thing you’ve done?”

“Either me, nothing special, except for an evening party out with my friends, drinking with them.”

Zamagni nodded.

“Shall we leave?”, suggested the agent throwing away the can into the trash bin.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

As soon as arrived at Zamagni’s working desk, both met with captain Luzzi who was waiting for them right there.

“That’s the way how you should work?”, said the superior in a serious tone of voice.

“I’m sorry captain, but I needed to have a fresh and cold drink, and afterwards Finocchi showed up and took also something for himself. Maybe we’ve wasted time, but now promise that we’re gonna set to work really hard. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything that would help us to make the connection between the facts and the people in the inquiry process, but I guess everything will become easier as we’re already two persons instead of one”.

“I was kidding if you understood me right”, the captain said to them, ”Among other things and the documentations on your working desk, I noticed the letter that was sent to you before. But I forgot to tell you something important. The expert that examined the text carefully, wasn’t able to decode those words written over there, however he found that the letters are in Greek.”

“Ah.. therefore, I confirmed the impression I had when reading the text for the first time”, admitted Zamagni, “I never have learnt Greek, hence didn’t know what to say, but now we are sure about it.”

“Yeah. The point is that unfortunately, this expert lacking a full proficiency of Greek language, has failed to provide us with the text decoding. We need to have the decoding from somebody else.”

“Sounds good, meanwhile me and Marco will take care of the rest.”

“I think you’d have no time for now”, said Giorgio Luzzi.

“I’m not clear at all”, said the inspector, “What’s up? Is something else so urgent that we’d rather leave this at a later time?”

“We still don’t know for sure, but I guess we’re gonna get to know very soon.”

“May we have a little bit more of information?”, asked Zamagni kidding.

“You’re right. Now I’m gonna explain it better to you”, returned the captain.

“We’re listening very carefully”, said Finocchi.

“Do you remember a hemiplegic boy?”, the captain began to speak, turning to the inspector.

“...Marco?”, asked Zamagni, after a moment of hesitation.

The agent Finocchi turned around, with a hugely surprised face.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t think it was about him”, said immediately Zamagni.

“I don’t really understand what you’re talking about”, returned Marco Finocchi to them.

“Do you mean Marco Mezzogori?”, Zamagni asked the captain, who in return nodded as a sign of approval.

“Yeah, I’ve known him, if it’s correct to say so”, then continued the inspector, “I’m informed that he was found dead yesterday in late afternoon.”

“Could you extend some explanation to me as well?”, asked Finocchi.

“I will tell you everything after a while”, Zamagni cut it short, before turning to the captain once more.

“How come you already know that?”

“I’ve been informed about the results of autopsy. It’s been a murder.”

The inspector still remained speechless and after some moments, the captain began to speak.

“From the results of autopsy, it comes out that a fight has been occurred between the hemiplegic boy and the murderer. Nobody knows the real cause of the fight, but we should keep inquiring further on.”

“Why did you approach to me personally, captain?”, asked Zamagni, “I‘ve got acquainted with the boy by chance, at the time he was found dead, and additionally, we need to take care of the verification of these documents. Isn’t anybody else who could be in charge of this case?”

“Perhaps would be”, returned the captain, “but there is one other detail I haven’t yet mentioned to you.”

“What is it about?”

“The boy’s aunt has called the police, probably after the family has been informed on the results of autopsy, and has explicitly demanded you to deal with the investigation of this case.”

The inspector remained silent for a couple of seconds, and then nodded.

“Ok, as you wish.”

“Have you become famous now?”, the agent Finocchi asked Zamagni.

“I don’t think so, but I know personally the boy’s aunt. It was just to do her a favor as she‘s my acquaintance by chance. ”

The agent nodded.

“Well, what are you waiting for?”, the captain said to them, as if he was feeling around the pressure that needed to be taken away.

“Let’s go right now”, said Zamagni, and Marco followed him while both of them went down the street.

“Now, it would be the right moment to talk to me and tell me some more things.”

“I’m gonna tell it to you on the way to San Lazzaro of Savena.”

“But what are we supposed to do right there? Do you need to pass by your house at first?”

“No. That’s the place where the murder did occur.”

IV

“Could you let me know on what I’m supposed to do right there?”, asked the agent Finocchi, sat down on the passenger seat while coming close to San Lazzaro of Savena.

“All happened just by chance”, began to speak the inspector Zamagni, driving the car in the attempt to escape from the heavy traffic on the road, “I know shortly Carla Mezzogori, the aunt of hemiplegic boy who remained dead from the murder. She asked me a favor to go and see the apartment where her sister-in-law actually lives. It was very obvious that the boy, given his physical disability, was living together with the mother.”

Marco Finocchi nodded, and then let the inspector to go on with the whole story.

“His mother declared that she went out for a while in the evening of the same day the boy was found dead. She still says of going out to buy some stuff as always, and once back home, she found her son laid down on the floor, with no sign of being still alive.”

“But who could have wanted him dead?”, Finocchi asked such a question to himself and to the inspector as well. “I mean... he was an innocent boy, I guess. I think he hasn’t been harmful to anybody. One of the reasons occurring to my mind right now, is the vengeance for an offence the boy has committed before.”

The agent remained silent for an instant, and then got back to reasoning.

“But how can we? Perhaps it has to do more or less with a sort of dispute?”

“I couldn’t really make a guess in this regard”, said Zamagni, “If it was about a sort of dispute, who would be the other person the boy has been disputing with? There wasn’t anyone else inside the apartment, is that right?”

“Yeah, exactly”, nodded Finocchi, “It seems nobody, so far.”

“Another assumption is that of a petty thief who enters the apartment forcefully seeing the window left open, comes across with the boy over there, then suddenly a fight occurs between them while the boy is disadvantaged because of his general physical disability.”

“Based on this version, to my opinion there’s a problem in terms of time, which means that, everything is supposed to happen very quickly”, said the agent.

“For now, we can only make guesses”, returned Zamagni, “Until now there are very few facts on which we can give any opinion.”

“What did mother say when you visited her with the sister-in-law?”

“Nothing useful. She merely said of being very shocked and failing to think or speak about it.”

“Yeah”, nodded Finocchi, “Now eventually, since some time has already passed, she could do better, and be able to tell us further information. Perhaps she’s been very confused in her mind due to the trauma caused by the son’s death and can’t help thinking of what had happened to her.”

“Ok then, we’re going to make a try once more”, proposed the inspector, “Let’s hope things will go better than the last time... We arrived.”

After they parked the car along the road, both of them moved towards the apartment where the woman was living, ringed the bell and once introduced themselves, went upstairs to the apartment at the first floor.

“Hello, madam”, said Zamagni, “We already know each other quite well, while the person next to me is one of our colleagues. Please, let me introduce you with the agent Marco Finocchi.”

“Good morning”, returned Marisa Lavezzoli, “I guess you’re here again for the investigation on my son’s death, isn’t it so?”

“Yes, exactly”, admitted the inspector, “We’d want to talk a little bit on what had happened to your son.”

“But I’ve already told you”, the mother of hemiplegic boy tried to cut it short.

“I know, madam. Please excuse us, but we’re in charge to shed light on this case”, said Zamagni, in attempt to avoid any sort of dispute with her.

“You may perfectly understand that we’re here with the only scope of finding out who is the murderer of your son”, added Finocchi, “We’ve been acknowledged on the autopsy report, results of which reveal that it’s been a murder.”

“We’d want to catch him and do justice to your son”, said Zamagni.

The lady remained silent for an instant, without opening her mouth, and then said only a few words: “I don’t know if I can help you to do your job. I am still shocked because of what had happened to me.”

“We perfectly understand how you feel”, returned the inspector very empathetically, “and we’ll make sure the situation appears as easy as possible to you. We’re only doing our job, intending to do all that is possible, for bringing the murderer to justice. To make it happen, we also need for your help and for everything else you might know, which would make our job easier.”

The woman still kept silent.

“We cannot exclude a priori any version, but basically, the robbery attempt is less likely to happen due to lack of time”, said Zamagni.

“Have you ever thought that possibly the time has been well planned by the robber, who instead had studied all the timings in detail?”, Marisa Lavezzoli asked both of them, “That is, everytime I go for shopping, I use to do it pretty much at the same timings, hence the thief might have noticed that and then tried to enter the apartment forcefully.”

“It’s likely to happen what you’re saying now”, admitted the inspector, “even though doubts remain in this respect. However, we’re still at the initial phase of our inquiry. For the moment, it would be enough for us to gather as much data as possible.”

“Now I would like to leave me alone”, said the woman, “I’m not in good mood and would want to have some rest, without thinking at all.”

Zamagni and Finocchi stared at each other, and then looked at the mother of the hemiplegic boy.

“Please.”

“Ok”, nodded the inspector, “but please be advised that we’ll need your help to conclude this case, and, for sure, we’ll have to get back to you again.”

The woman nodded in sign of approval and saying nothing else, opened the door and kindly asked the two policemen to leave the apartment.

“Unfortunately, the Forensic Science probably won’t be able to find anything helpful. The fingerprints are already confusing”, said Zamagni, going down the stairs.

“Proceeding in such a way would lead us nowhere”, captain Luzzi pointed out as soon as he learned about the unsuccessful visit to the apartment of the hemiplegic boy’s mother.

Zamagni and Finocchi nodded, and then the inspector added: “As long as the lady seems unwilling to cooperate, it would be extremely hard for us to come to a final solution of this case.”

“Frankly speaking, it hasn’t occurred to my mind before”, said Marco Finocchi, “what about her husband? The hemiplegic boy has had a father, right?

“It seems that one day he has left away, as if he disappeared into thin air”, explained Zamagni.

“This means that he’s not findable so far?”, asked the agent.

“It seems so, even though I’d want to get in touch with him”, said the inspector.

“At least, he would be able to save his wife suffering from this shock”, asserted Finocchi.

“Would be possible to start searching for him?”, proposed Zamagni, “If we succeed, then we can make him meet his wife again. Even though there’s bad blood between them, I believe the two spouses could become closer to each other for the sake of their son.”

“Yeah, we can have a try”, admitted the captain, “Let’s spread the word then.”

“All right. What else can we do in the meantime?”, the agent Finocchi wanted to know.

“Good question”, Giorgio Luzzi replied to him, “We don’t have yet in our hands any fact or clue that may lead us to a pertinent connection or conclusion. Although it might seem unlikely, this is the only lead to be followed at the moment.”

“Hence, how are we gonna proceed further on?”, asked Zamagni. “I don’t know”, was the instinctive answer of the captain, “We need to squeeze our brains and come up with some idea.”

Since the day in which the tragedy happened, the mother of Marco Mezzogori, had switched from the initial state of shock to a sort of nervous breakdown, and as far as appeared, she had no desire to meet or talk to anyone.

Even Carla, the aunt of hemiplegic boy, so far hadn’t been in the apartment of her sister-in-law after the death of her nephew.

The nephew was indeed the true inspirational motive of her visits to that apartment, and this was also because of the cold relationships with her sister-in-law.

Giuseppe Ruspoli, Carla’s husband, and Luciano Mezzogori, Marco’s father, used to work together in the same mechanic shop, and it occurred once in a while that Carla went to see her brother in the job place.

In this way she had met by chance her future husband.

To be more precise, Luciano was the employer of his brother-in-law given that he was the owner of this mechanic shop and the other one located in Bologna as well.

At that time, Luciano Mezzogori was already engaged to Marisa, her future wife, and it occurred to both couples to get together and arrange a hangout around.

On those occasions, Carla has had also the chance to know Marisa much better, and at once she had the feeling that Marisa seemed a woman unrealised in the full sense. Her husband used to say that she should be dealing with housework, instead of working. She had no kids and her hobbies were just limited to very minimal things. She also used to listen music, and occasionally used to go to cinema with Luciano for watching movies, and that’s all.

Her self-realisation has been materialized in her son, Marco, who very soon had presented some problems with hemiplegia.

It was obvious that Marisa was never felt happy and, as if this wasn’t enough, her husband also disappeared one day. Carla still hasn’t been able to understand the reasons that led to such disappearance; the only thing occurred to her mind was that her husband could no longer bear to see the son in that condition, but in her view, he wasn’t that kind of person who could abandon his own family due to such reason.

Moreover, their son now wasn’t with her anymore, he’s dead already.

Carla didn’t know how to cope with such situation, as she was completely aware of the problems and hardships arisen and, on the way to the apartment of her sister-in-law, she wouldn’t allow any mistake to herself. In particular, the very first approach would be decisive.

When decided to go and visit her sister-in-law, she saw no significant change happened since the day when she witnessed her sister-in-law with the son laid down dead on the floor.

On the way back home, she passed by her as usual, and went upstairs to her apartment, but once showed up at the door, she noticed that her sister-in-law was not so welcoming.

Once entered the apartment, Marisa immediately said: “I’d want to be alone.”

“You should do something to overcome this situation”, Carla advised her, “We both know that it has been a big shock, but now the Police is inquiring to find the murderer of your son and do justice for him. Meanwhile, you should think to do your best so that you can go back to normality.”

“And why would it really matter!”

“I can imagine it’s extremely hard for you, but you should do something. Have you ever tried to go out for a walk around?”

“No”, was the sharp reply of Marisa Lavezzoli.

“You need to try”, said Carla, “You should give courage to yourself in order to shrug off these thoughts. Unfortunately, only the idea that Marco won’t be back amongst us, is very hard even to me, but we cannot help but admit it, and it’s worthwhile to realise that your behavior is not helpful at all.”