Page 24 of Vengeance in Venice
“Did you help prepare him for bed?”
“I set out his nightclothes and he sent me away. He often did. He would stay up later and work.”
“Is that what he did that night?” Solomon asked.
“I don’t know. I went to bed and I never saw him alive again.”
“What was he wearing when he died?” Constance asked.
Elena blinked at her in surprise but still asked the question.
“I mean,” Constance clarified, “did he wear the same clothes as on the night before? Was he fully dressed? Or in his night attire?”
“The same clothes except for the coat,” Ricci replied. “He wore no coat.”
“No coat?” Solomon pounced. “But it was surely cold at that time of the morning… Did you not say he took his purse with him?”
“It was in the pocket of his trousers,” Elena said, without referring to the valet.
“Who found the body?” Solomon asked.
The boatman stepped forward.
“He did,” Elena replied after a brief exchange. “When he went to make sure the gondola was in good order.”
“When did he last use the boat?” Solomon asked.
“The previous afternoon, when he came home from the lagoon.”
“Remind them, if you please, that I am not a policeman,” Solomon said, “but I want to speak to the men who attacked Signor Giusti.”
Four men shuffled forward, including the bruised ones Constance had noticed earlier.
“How did you travel to find Signor Giusti?” Solomon asked.
“By foot. We knew where to look, and it was not far.”
Solomon nodded and suddenly stepped forward, causing some of the men to leap aside and reveal the two slyly grinning men Constance had also seen before. “And yet those who abducted my wife brought her by dark alleyways and by boat. From more or less the same place. Why was that?”
The two men did not appear remotely intimidated. One spoke and looked directly at Constance as he did so. She had methis type often before. He liked to intimidate with his eyes and his words.
“Pellini,” Elena snapped at him, and he subsided. She did not translate, but then, she didn’t need to, for the man had spoken with deliberate clarity so that even Constance could understand.“She liked the company.”
“And you like to hurt women?” Solomon said softly, surprising everyone. Constance held her breath. “What a big, proud man you must be.”
Color suffused the man’s face. He tried to outstare Solomon, who smiled at him so encouragingly that he might as well have said the words,Please, try to hit me, just give me a reason.
Elena snapped again, and the man dropped his eyes. Here was one woman he did not choose to frighten. Which was interesting.
“Did you use Signor Savelli’s gondola?” Constance asked them.
Pellini and the man next to him did not look at her, but at Elena as she translated and brought back the answer. “No, they used one of the smaller boats that the servants use for supplies.”
“Were you looking for a particular woman?” Constance asked. “Or did you just grasp what you thought was an opportunity?”
Elena spoke without expression and returned the slightly sheepish answer of the thugs. “They took the opportunity because Pellini had heard that Giusti had a mistress. They misunderstood, thinking you were with him. My husband was angry with them.”
To Constance’s relief, Solomon turned to another subject. “Did anyone see or hear Signor Savelli go outside during the night he died?”
