Page 29 of Murder at the Ponte Vecchio

‘You’ll manage perfectly, I know you will.’ She jumped to her feet and came over to shower me with kisses, leaving my Labrador looking positively jealous. ‘I’ll call Monica and Tiberio now to tell them it’s back on. I was speaking to them just before you arrived and they were understandably bitterly disappointed. They’ll be so happy when they hear that Cousin Dan has agreed to help out.’

‘I hope they’re still happy when they see me on stage.Hopefully, the audience will be blown away by their performances and they won’t notice the mistakes that I make.’ This reminded me of the other reason why I’d come here this afternoon, so I asked as casually as I could. ‘Who are they anyway? Monica and Tiberio who? What’re their surnames? I need to know for when they’re famous.’

‘She’s Monica Gallo and he’s Tiberio Carbone.’ I could see that she was already thinking about everything she would now have to do to revive the play, so I didn’t interrupt her. Instead, I just sat there and sipped my tea. The tea had been a random supermarket brand and the only milk in the fridge had been that awful long-life stuff, but it was better than nothing. I wondered idly if Zebra realised that Monica was the mayor’s daughter. Gallo is a very common surname in Italy and it was possible that Monica had kept her family background a secret so as not to stick out like a sore thumb in this more plebian environment. Certainly, Zebra had never even hinted at this to me, and when the mayor showed up in the audience on Saturday night, there was likely to be quite a surprise in store for her. I had to wait several minutes before she looked up, that same little smile once more appearing on her face as she picked up her phone. ‘Dan, you’ve saved my life; the show must and will go on. As Julius Caesar said as he crossed the Rubicon,“Alea iacta est”– the die is cast.’

I couldn’t help pointing out, ‘And we all know what happened to Julius Caesar, don’t we?’

‘It’ll be fine, Dan. You’ll be fine, I just know it.’

I wished I shared her confidence but, as she had said, the die was cast and I was in it now – up to my neck.

While I finished my tea and tried not to contemplate the terrifying prospect of drying up in front of the whole audience, Zebra phoned Monica Gallo and Tiberio Carbone and, from what Icould hear, they were both delighted that the play was back on again. By the time the call ended, a proper smile had returned to Zebra’s face and the first thing she did was to stand up, throw her arms around my neck and kiss me some more. She then turned back to Oscar and did the same to him. I was glad she had kissed me before she kissed him. He does tend to stick his nose into some insalubrious places.

‘Thank you so much, Dan. You’ve saved the day. And please don’t worry, I’ll be close by to prompt you if you forget your lines – but I’m sure you won’t need me.’ I didn’t share her optimism but I decided not to spoil her mood. Her depression had passed and she was looking excited once again. I was happy for her and she was beaming at me. ‘Now I need to get hold of Dario and tell him to come back and get the scenery finished.’

I stood up. ‘I’m glad to be able to help. All right with you if I collect my camera now? And then I’d better go home and learn my lines.’

I had only just finished removing the spy camera when Amélie the cleaner arrived with a broad smile on her face. I asked how she had heard the news so quickly and she looked puzzled.

‘What news?’

I told her that the play had been cancelled but that it was back on again. In response, she clapped her hands together and her smile became even broader. I felt I had to ask if there was another reason why she had come in looking so happy and she came over to me to explain, the excitement in her voice almost palpable. ‘We’re finally leaving Florence next week and heading to England. I’m so happy, I could sing. Not that Zebra hasn’t been a great help, but it’s just fantastic to know that we’re progressing.’

‘So this means you’ve been able to collect together enough money for the journey?’

‘Well, with a little bit of help. My brother-in-law, Vanda’shusband, has arrived and he’s brought enough money for us to continue our journey.’

‘He wasn’t travelling with you?’

She shook her head. ‘No, he’s been working in the mines over in the DRC. He made his way here by a different route.’

‘The DRC? Sorry, my geography isn’t great.’

‘The Democratic Republic of the Congo. A lot of the men in our country go there to find work. Ours is a very poor nation.’

‘And he managed to smuggle cash out of the country? That sounds risky.’

A sour expression appeared on her face, but only for a few moments. ‘You’re right, he didn’t bring much cash. The people smugglers and the gangs would have taken it off him.’ She glanced around and lowered her voice. ‘He sewed three little diamonds into the hem of his trouser leg.’

I tried my best to keep my expression neutral, although my brain had suddenly erupted into a fury of conjecture. ‘Diamonds? Was he working in a diamond mine?’

‘No, a copper mine, but there are plenty of diamonds on sale over there, if you know the right people.’

I knew I needed to find out more, but I tried not to sound too inquisitive. ‘What a good idea. And he sold them here? Did he just walk into a jeweller’s and sell them?’

She shook her head. ‘Not these diamonds. There’s a man at the station who buys them.’ Realising that she had probably said too much, she turned towards the door. ‘Anyway, I need to get on. The theatre will be open to the public in a few days’ time and everything’s got to be sparkling clean.’

I shook her hand and wished her a safe journey, hoping that she really would be able to achieve her dream of getting to the UK but knowing that it wouldn’t be easy. After the door had closed behind her, I sat down and reflected on what I’d justheard. Could diamonds form a link between two murdered asylum seekers, a pair of Dutch jewellers with a ‘gentlemen’s agreement,’ and a bent police officer? The ramifications of this were potentially huge. And what had she meant when she’d said, ‘Not these diamonds’?

It occurred to me that I maybe knew somebody who knew somebody who could help with this conundrum.

The first thing I did, after saying goodbye and good luck to Zebra, was to drive to an even more deserted part of the suburbs where there was nobody around. I parked in a patch of shade, pulled out my phone, and called Anna, who answered almost immediately.

‘Ciao, Dan. Where are you?’

‘In the van, thinking about taking Oscar for a good long walk, but first, I was wondering if you could give me the phone number of your friend in the tiger costume, Amy Mackintosh. She told me her husband’s a geologist, and I need to speak to somebody who knows about diamonds.’

She gave me the number, and we agreed to carry on spending the nights out at my place in the hills, seeing as Florence was already getting uncomfortably warm. I told her I’d make a mixed salad and she sounded delighted – but maybe that was just because she wasn’t going to have to do the cooking for a change.

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