Page 36 of Vengeance in Venice
“He did,” Premarin said without obvious resentment. “It was a good one, too—government business always is.”
“Austrian government?”
Premarin grimaced. “Is there any other kind? Odd sops thrown our way when it is something the Austrians themselves cannot or will not do for themselves. The cleverest of us work around the system and make the most of it. Savelli and I could do that.”
“But Giusti could not?”
Premarin sighed gustily. “Giusti had nothing after the war. If it had not been for his friends, he would be in exile like poor Manin. Or worse.”
“Friends like you?” Solomon asked.
Premarin smiled. “I am quite the diplomat.”
“Yet I understand you too were on the losing side of the quarrel with Austria.”
“The cleverest of us leave all doors open,” Premarin said vaguely. “And rightly so. No one is always one hundred per cent correct. I understand Savelli’s position. I understand Giusti and the young men of noble ideals. One must deal with reality. In which I like to think I have been successful. As was poor Savelli.”
“He and Giusti were enemies, I understand.”
“Foolish young men…”
“You don’t think their quarrel was serious enough to lead to murder? Even in self-defense? An argument, a fight, even, that got out of hand?”
“The police found no evidence of a fight,” Premarin said. “Only unprovoked murder. That is not Giusti’s way.”
Solomon’s instincts were much the same, though there were unplumbed depths of emotion in Giusti. “Who would resort to such a way? Who would have a motive strong enough to commit murder? Or to send an assassin to do so?”
“No one,” Premarin said. “There has been enough death in Venice. And Savelli was good for the city.”
“And yet he is dead,” Solomon said deliberately. “Do you know why he hired his bodyguards?”
“To protect his wife.”
“From what?”
Premarin smiled, almost indulgently. “From his imaginary fears.”
“Have we come back to Giusti?”
“No,” Premarin said. “To Savelli himself. Elena is as virtuous as she is beautiful. Everyone knows that.”
“But Savelli didn’t trust her?”
“He didn’t trust himself. He never forgot that she was once betrothed to another. Even though Giusti never went near her.”
“These men that he hired, do you know anything about them?”
“No, but the police do. Unsavory types. And then there was the thief Savelli apprehended, who escaped. My firm belief is that one of those low creatures committed this crime.”
“Isn’t that a little too comfortable?”
“It does not comfort me,” Premarin said with dignity. “Nor Signora Savelli, I daresay, who lives under the same roof as these men.”
Solomon suddenly remembered Elena ordering about the men who had tried to intimidate Constance. They had obeyed her immediately, and she had clearly expected them to. She was a strong woman, of course, and used to commanding her household, but what if…
What if one of those bravos had turned on Savellion Elena’s orders?
Shoving that possibility aside for future consideration, Solomon tried to concentrate on Premarin while he had the man’s attention. They were in St. Mark’s Square now, and the magnificence, the beauty, struck him all over again. The Basilica of San Marco, with its domes and spires, rose in unique, unequaled splendor. He could almost imagine himself among the ghosts of men who had walked here hundreds of years ago.
