Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon Read Free Book Online Page B

of?’
    Hearing him refer to Flori with such formality pleased her, but her smile was brief, more a tightening of her lips than a smile. ‘I was hardly a friend, Commissario.’
    â€˜You behaved like one.’
    Reluctant to try to speak about this, she returned to his question. ‘No, not that I know of. We weren’t really friends because we really couldn’t talk. Just people who liked one another.’
    â€˜And when you left her at the station, how would you describe her behaviour or her mood?’
    â€˜She was still upset by what had happened but much less so than before.’
    He looked down at the floor for a moment, then back at her. ‘Did you ever see anything else from your window, Signora?’ he asked, but before she could even think about defending herself from the suggestion of nosiness, he went on, ‘I ask because, if we accept the premise that Flori didn’t do this, then someone else must have, and anything you can tell me about Signora Battestini might help.’
    â€˜You mean, to find out who it really was?’ she asked.
    â€˜Yes.’
    So effortless had been his acceptance of the possibility of Flori’s innocence that she didn’t have time to register surprise. ‘I’ve been thinking about this since I called you,’ she said.
    â€˜I imagine you must have, Signora,’ he said but didn’t prod her.
    â€˜I’ve lived across from her for more than four years, since I bought the apartment.’ She paused but he gave no indication of wanting or needing to hurry her. ‘I moved in in February, I think;towards the end of winter, at any rate. So I didn’t notice her, not until the spring, when it got warmer and we started to open our windows. That is, I might have seen her moving around the apartment, but I paid no attention to her.
    â€˜As soon as the noise started, though, I paid attention. I started by calling across the
calle
, but it didn’t do any good. She was always asleep; never woke up. So one day I went over and looked at the doorbells, then I found her number in the phone book and called her. I didn’t say who I was or where I lived or anything like that; I just asked her if she could, at night, try to keep her television turned down.’
    â€˜And how did she respond?’ he asked.
    â€˜She said she always turned it off before she went to bed and hung up.’
    â€˜And then?’
    â€˜Then it started during the day, and I’d call and when she answered I’d ask her, always very politely, to turn it down.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜And most of the times she did.’
    â€˜I see. And at night?’
    â€˜Sometimes it wasn’t on, for weeks at a time. I’d begin to hope something had happened, that she’d been taken away or gone away.’
    â€˜Did you ever think of getting her a pair of those earphones, Signora?’
    â€˜She’d never wear them,’ she answered with absolute certainty. ‘She’s crazy. That’s why. Mad as a horse. Believe me, Signore, I did my homework on this woman. I spoke to herlawyer, her doctor, her niece, the people at the psychiatric centre at Palazzo Boldù, to the neighbours, even to the postman.’
    She saw his interest and went on. ‘She was a patient at Boldù for years, when she could still manage the stairs and leave the house. But either she stopped or they threw her out – if a psychiatric centre can throw people out, that is.’
    â€˜I doubt they can,’ he said. ‘But I suppose they could encourage her to leave.’ He waited a moment, then asked, ‘The niece? What did she say?’
    â€˜That her aunt was “a difficult woman”.’ She snorted in scorn, ‘As though I didn’t know that. She didn’t want to have anything to do with it. In fact, I’m not sure she really understood what I was talking about. Same with the police, as I told you, and