Death and Judgement by Donna Leon Read Free Book Online Page A

the information and so began by saying, 'Your sister told me that Signora Trevisan used to be a patient of yours.'
    'And her daughter,' the doctor added, reaching towards the brown bag, from which she took a crumpled package of cigarettes. While she was still groping around in the bottom of the bag for her lighter, a waiter appeared on her left and leaned forward to light her cigarette. 'Grazie ’ she said, turning her head towards the flame as if accustomed to this sort of service. Silently, the waiter moved away from their table.
    She drew greedily at the cigarette, flipped the bag closed, and looked up at Brunetti. 'Am I to take it this is somehow related to his death?'
    'At this point in our investigation,' Brunetti said, 'I'm not sure what is and what isn't related to his death.' She pursed her lips at this , and Brunetti realized how artificial and formal he had sounded. That's the truth, doctor. As of the moment, we have nothing, nothing aside from the physical evidence surrounding his death.' 'He was shot?'
    'Yes. Twice. One bullet must have severed an artery, for he seems to have died very quickly.'
    'Why do you want to know about his family?' she asked, not, he noticed, asking which member of the family he might be curious about.
    'I want to know about his business, his friendships, his family, anything I can that will allow me to begin to understand what sort of a man he was.'
    'You think that will help you learn who killed him?'
    'It's the only way to learn why someone would want to kill him. After that, it's relatively easy to figure out who did.'
    'You sound very optimistic.'
    'No, I'm not,' Brunetti said, shaking his head. 'Not at all, and I won't be until I can begin to understand him.'
    'And you think that by learning about his wife and daughter, you will?' 'Yes:
    The waiter reappeared at their left and set two cups of espresso and a silver sugar bowl down on the table between them. Each of them spooned two sugars into their small cups and stirred them round, allowing this ceremony to serve as a natural pause in the conversation.
    After she sipped at the coffee and replaced the cup in her saucer, the doctor said, 'Signora Trevisan brought her daughter, who was men about fourteen, to see me a little more than a year ago. It was obvious that the girl didn't want her mother to know what was wrong with her. Signora Trevisan insisted she come into the examining room with her daughter, but I kept her out.' She nicked ash fr om her cigarette, smiled, and added, 'Not without difficulty ’ She sipped again at her coffee; Brunetti said nothing to hasten her.
    'The girl was suffering from a flare-up of genital herpes. I asked her the usual questions: whether her partner was using a p rophylactic, whether she had other sexual partners, how long she had had the symptoms. With herpes, it's usually the first outbreak of the symptoms that's the worst, so I wanted to know if this was the first Knowing that would help me assess the seriousness of the infection. ’ She stopped talking and crushed her cigarette into the ashtray on the table. When that was done, she took the ashtray and, without explanation, leaned aside to move it to the next table.
    'And was it the first outbreak? ’
    'She said at first that it was, but it seemed to me that she was lying. I spent a long time explaining to her why I had to know, tha t I couldn't prescribe the righ t medicines unless I knew how serious the infection was. It took a while, but she finally told me that this was the second outbreak and that the first one had been much worse.'
    'Why hadn't she gone to see you?'
    'They were on vacation when it happened, and she was afraid, if she went to a different doctor, he'd tell her parents what was wrong with her. ’
    'How serious was that outbreak?'
    'Fever, chills, genital pain. ’ 'What did she do? ’
    'She told her mother she had cramps and went to bed for two days. ’ 'And the mother? ’ 'What about her? ’ 'Did she believe it?'