Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon Read Free Book Online

here tomorrow to have a look at him, but I’d say he’s certain.’ In response to her evident surprise Brunetti added, ‘And he’s from Salerno.’
     
    ‘And he’s really willing?’ She made no attempt to disguise her wonderment. When Brunetti nodded, she said, ‘Tell me about him.’
     
    ‘He’s a little man, about forty, supporting a wife and two children by working in a pizzeria in Treviso. He’s been up here for twenty years, but still goes down there every year for vacation. When they can.’
     
    ‘Does his wife work?’ Paola asked.
     
    ‘She’s a cleaning lady in an elementary school.’
     
    ‘What was he doing in a bank in Venice?’
     
    ‘He was paying the mortgage on his apartment in Treviso. The bank that gave the original mortgage was taken over by a bank here, so he comes down once a year to pay the mortgage himself. If he tries to do it through his bank in Treviso they charge him two hundred thousand lire, which is why he travelled to Venice on his day off to pay it.’
     
    ‘And found himself in the middle of a robbery?’
     
    Brunetti nodded.
     
    Paola shook her head. ‘It’s remarkable that he’d be willing to testify. You said the man who was arrested is mixed up with the Mafia?’
     
    ‘His brother is.’ Brunetti kept to himself his belief that this meant they both were.
     
    ‘And does the man in Treviso know this?’
     
    ‘Yes. I told him.’
     
    ‘And he’s still willing?’ When Brunetti nodded again, Paola said, ‘Then perhaps there is hope for all of us.’
     
    Brunetti shrugged, conscious that there was some dishonesty, perhaps a great deal of dishonesty, in his not telling Paola what Iacovantuono had said about having to behave bravely for our children’s sake. He shifted himself lower on the sofa, stuck his feet out in front of him and crossed his ankles.
     
    ‘Are you finished with it?’ he asked, knowing she would understand.
     
    ‘I don’t think so, Guido,’ she said, both hesitation and regret audible as she spoke.
     
    ‘Why?’
     
    ‘Because the newspapers, when they write about what happened, will call it a random act of vandalism, like someone who knocks over a garbage can or slashes the seat on a train.’
     
    Brunetti, though tempted, said nothing, waiting for her to continue.
     
    ‘It wasn’t random, Guido, and it wasn’t vandalism.’ She put her face down into her open palms and slid her hands up until they were covering the top of her head. From below, her voice came to him. ‘The public have got to understand why it was done, that these people are doing something that is both disgusting and immoral, and that they’ve got to be made not to do it.’
     
    ‘Have you thought about the consequences?’ Brunetti asked in a level voice.
     
    She looked up at him. ‘I couldn’t be married to a policeman for twenty years and not have thought of the consequences.’
     
    ‘To yourself?’
     
    ‘Of course.’
     
    ‘And to me?’
     
    ‘Yes.’
     
    ‘And you don’t regret them?’
     
    ‘Of course I regret them. I don’t want to lose my job or have your career suffer.’
     
    ‘But...?’
     
    ‘I know you think I’m a terrible show-off, Guido,’ she began and continued before he had the chance to say anything. ‘And it’s true, but only at times. This isn’t like that, not at all. I’m not doing this to be in the newspapers. In fact, I can tell you honestly that I’m afraid of the trouble this is going to cause us all. But I have to do it.’ Again, when she saw him about to interrupt, she amended that. ‘I mean, someone has to do it, or, to use the passive voice you hate so much,’ she said with a gentle smile, ‘it has to be done.’ Still smiling, she added, ‘I’ll listen to anything you have to say, but I don’t think I can do anything different from what I’ve chosen to do.’
     
    Brunetti changed the position of his feet, putting the left on top, and leaned a little to the right. ‘The Germans have