Page 38 of The Venice Murders

‘Jack, old fellow? Sorry about the commotion. Another drunk for our cells, and at this time in the morning.’ Jack looked across the room at the Murano glass clock. Almost ten, nine o’clock in Brighton.

‘I got on with the search you wanted,’ the inspector continued. ‘In my spare time.’ This was said with heavy irony. ‘Actually, it didn’t take long. Franco Massi proved a complete blank. Nothing whatsoever on him in our records. But Bianca Benetti – I wondered why the name sounded familiar and now I know.’

‘And?’ It had been worth asking, he thought. Trust Flora!

‘She worked at the Old Ship, as you said, but left after a fracas at the hotel. A major confrontation in the foyer that involved her and a hotel guest. Apparently, the man concerned owned a chain of hotels in the West Country and was in Brighton to scout for properties along the south coast – with an eye to developing his business, I imagine. But he fell out with Bianca or Bianca fell out with him?—’

‘But she was a chambermaid,’ Jack objected. How did you fall out with a chambermaid so badly the police had to be called?

‘I’ll come to that in a minute. Until I read the whole report, all I could remember was that whatever the dispute, it turned into a full-scale riot and the hotel manager was forced to call the police to restore order.’

‘You remember his call coming through?’

‘I didn’t take it, old chap, my deputy did – but, as it happened, I was there, at the hotel. Which is why I remembered the girl’s name. I had a cousin staying at the Ship that week and he’d invited me for lunch. I’d walked through the entrance just as one of my constables was laying down the law.’

‘Did you find out what had gone on exactly?’

‘I didn’t at the time – lunch called – but now I’ve looked up the report, I have. The guest, a Mr Holland, complained to the hotel manager that Bianca had been harassing him ever since he’d checked in, asking to be taken on in one of his hotels as a trainee receptionist and, to get rid of her, he’d agreed. But it wasn’t an arrangement he wanted to keep, and was leaving the hotel without confirming a job offer or leaving the girl his details. She must have been watching out for him and when she realised he was hopping it, breaking his promise and, worse, laughing at her, she lost her temper and threw a bowl of fruit at him. The reception always kept a bowl of fruit on the desk, I understand. Perhaps not now, though.’

‘Not exactly a full-scale riot, I’d say.’

‘Hold your horses. You’ve not heard it all. A waiter who was walking through the foyer at the time – I reckon he was keen on Bianca – thought she was being attacked and powered in on her side. He punched the guest in the face, grabbed him in a bear grip and refused to let go – until one of my chaps produced a pair of handcuffs. By then, the foyer was looking less than pristine.’

‘Bianca was dismissed immediately, I imagine.’

‘You’re right, along with the waiter. The hotel manager somehow persuaded the guest not to bring charges – some kind of sweetener was offered, I imagine – and the girl, according to the ferry records at Dover, sailed to Calais two days later.’

‘And from there on to Venice,’ Jack commented.

‘If that’s where the lass is. She’d have left without a reference, that’s for sure.’

‘Yet she found a job here in another hotel.’ It must have been Sally, he thought wryly, who’d been happy to supply a reference.

‘That’s not the last of it either.’ There was the hint of a sigh down the telephone. ‘When I asked for the file on the rumpus at the Old Ship, Norris reminded me that he’d spoken to the Venice police a month or so ago.’

Jack frowned. ‘About Bianca?’

‘About Bianca,’ the inspector confirmed. ‘Holland, the man she had the barney with, has developed a serious health problem – blinding headaches, lack of balance, which he blames on the fight he had at the hotel. He’s gone to his solicitors intending to sue Bianca, the waiter and the Old Ship and, in turn, his solicitors have gone to the police in Venice. Not certain how it works in Italy, but the chap is adamant he wants to sue them all. Thecommissariowho spoke to Norris asked if we had any details of the incident on file. Mr Holland’s legal team has asked the Venice police to question the girl and at the moment they’re not sure what they’re dealing with.’

‘Thanks, Alan.’ Jack stared at the wall, trying to absorb what had been a torrent of information. ‘That’s helpful…I think.’

‘Always one to help, old fellow, but you really need to get on with that honeymoon. Leave Signorina Benetti to us.’

Replacing the receiver, Jack continued to stare fixedly at the wall, the sound of the bedroom door finally rousing him from his thoughts.

‘I forgot my suntan cream,’ Flora began, making for the dressing table. Then, noticing the expression on Jack’s face, she asked, ‘Ridley telephoned? Does he have anything on Franco?’

‘Not Franco.’ Jack dragged himself from his reverie. ‘Bianca. Guilty of affray, I think they call it. A brawl at the Brighton hotel where she worked between Bianca and a guest who didn’t keep his promise.’

‘Which was?’

‘That he’d employ her as a receptionist in one ofhishotels.’

Flora’s hand hovered over the drawer and stopped. ‘Really? Thatisinteresting…remember what Sally told us? That Bianca is very keen to leave her job as a chambermaid, that she wants very much to become a receptionist. A ladder perhaps to hotel management. So, her dream hasn’t died, and even Sally, who’s been a good friend to her, thinks that Franco’s position at the Cipriani was part of his attraction.’

She paused, the tube of suntan cream in her hand. ‘I wonder…I wonder if that might be one of the reasons she contacted Sally, begging her to come here. I mean, apart from having few friends and needing a shoulder to cry on. If Bianca no longer sees a future for herself in Venice, is she hoping to return to England? To train as a receptionist at the Priory?’

‘You’re making her sound weaselly.’

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