Murder in Verona (An Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery #9)

Chapter 4

4

SUNDAY LUNCHTIME

We sat down to lunch in a huge, wood-panelled dining room housing a table longer than Violetta’s car. She and I perched bizarrely at one end and the highly polished mahogany tabletop stretched away from us like a lane in a bowling alley. It could have held another twenty people comfortably. Although the temperature outside in the sunshine was now oppressively high, in here, protected by thick, stone walls, we were remarkably comfortable even without air con.

Considering how tiny Violetta was, I was blown away by the variety and volume of the food on offer and the amount she managed to consume. First, there was a huge platter of sliced ham, fennel-flavoured finocchiona and three other types of salami, accompanied by fresh figs and slices of luscious, orange-fleshed melon. Together with this, we had slices of the wonderful unsalted Tuscan bread smothered in chopped tomatoes and olive oil, and the housekeeper opened a bottle of very good Chianti Classico. This was followed by pappardelle alla lepre , the rich, gamey sauce extremely tasty, and I had to hold my hands over my plate to prevent the housekeeper from piling it high with even more pasta. I like my food – not as much as Oscar, of course – but even I have my limits.

While we ate, we continued to talk, and I learned that Rodolfo Argento’s death had taken place only a couple of kilometres from his home. As far as I could work out without a map, this was in the hills to the north of Verona, only a short drive from the historic city. I asked how long he had lived there and the answer was informative.

‘The villa up there has been in the family since the end of the nineteenth century. My family is originally from Verona, but we have a number of houses dotted around Italy – in the high Alps, at the coast, and of course this villa here. I moved down here fifty years ago and I’ve stayed ever since.’ She shot me a little smile. ‘There’s something about Tuscany.’

I pointed towards my plate. ‘And Tuscan food. You have an amazing cook.’

‘That’s Teresa, she’s a wonder. She’s been working here since she was seventeen and I couldn’t ask for a more perfect housekeeper.’

I nodded in agreement. ‘You’re very lucky. As for Tuscany more generally, I totally agree. I love everything about this part of the world.’ I went on to query her a bit more about the family business and she elaborated.

‘Like I told you, the family business is agricultural machinery and bulk agricultural products. We import and export everything from tractors and combine harvesters to milking machines and fertiliser. We also export Italian fruit and vegetables all over Europe. We’ve recently moved into wine as well and sales are developing nicely.’ She then added almost casually, ‘The company, Agri Argento, is the biggest in its field in Europe.’

Suddenly all the houses and all the millions were explained. ‘And where’s the company based? Verona? ’

‘Yes, the head office is there and we have a number of warehouses on the outskirts of the city, plus others dotted around Italy. My brother’s children, Alfredo and Rosina, have always lived in Verona. Alfredo married about ten years ago and he’s still married, although I’m not wild about his choice of wife.’

‘Oh, why’s that?’

She waved the question away. ‘Oh, I don’t know, there’s just something about Ingrid, but maybe it’s just because she’s never liked me.’ Considering Violetta’s low opinion of her son’s wife and now her nephew’s wife, I wondered whether this antipathy might be more a reflection on the old lady’s lack of tolerance than the fault of the younger wives.

‘And the sister, Rosina, is she married?’

She shook her head. ‘She was engaged to be married, but he was killed in a horrible skydiving accident. Why people have to choose to do such dangerous sports, I really don’t know.’

I couldn’t help a little spark of interest at another violent death affecting such a wealthy family and I resolved to check the death of Rosina’s fiancé just in case. ‘Are you in regular contact with Rosina and her brother? Will you be telling them you’ve hired me to investigate their cousin’s death?’

She looked up from her food. ‘I was going to tell Rosina – she and I have always been quite close. To be honest, I don’t often speak to Alfredo. He’s always a bit distant towards me and, like I told you, I’ve never been able to forgive him for not working as hard as he should. Do you think I should tell him about you as well?’

‘I think you should, for one simple reason. I’m going to need to speak to both of them and, unless you tell Alfredo who I am, there’s probably no way he’ll agree to see me.’

She nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I see. In that case, I’ll certainly inform both of them. ’

I was interested at her hesitation. She had said that she didn’t speak to her nephew very often because he had always been ‘a bit distant’. Was that just because she was down here in Tuscany and he was up there in Verona? Had he worked out that she didn’t approve of his relaxed lifestyle? Alternatively, was it because of some rupture in the family – maybe caused by the wife who didn’t get on with her husband’s elderly aunt? I tried another line of questioning.

‘What about relations between Rodolfo and his cousins? Was he on good terms with Alfredo and Rosina? Did they ever argue about business matters?’

She shook her head. ‘Like I told you, he wasn’t in the least bit interested in the business so that’s why I acted for him. From the age of four, all he wanted to do was sing.’ Her eyes were sparkling with maternal pride, tinged with raw emotion. Clearly, mother and son had been close. After a brief pause, she continued. ‘But Rodolfo was on good terms with his cousins – he was friendly to everybody – and living in Verona, I’m sure he often met Rosina, although maybe not Alfredo.’ She added a few words of explanation and her expression darkened. ‘Alfredo’s wife, Ingrid, is downright antisocial.’

‘Did Alfredo resent having you looking over his shoulder when it came to the business?’

‘I’m sure he did, but I had Rodolfo’s one-third share to protect.’ That hard tone was back again and I could easily see how relations between her and her brother’s family might have soured.

‘Out of interest, were the terms of your son’s will common knowledge to all members of the family?’

A more cunning expression appeared on her face. ‘I knew, of course, because I wrote Rodolfo’s will – he had no interest in that sort of thing – but I’m sure it came as a surprise to the others. I know Alfredo was expecting to inherit Rodolfo’s share of the company – and so was Ingrid, his wife. You should have seen the way both of them were looking daggers at me in the lawyer’s studio when the will was read, passing Rodolfo’s share to me, not them.’ The expression on her face reflected a certain grim satisfaction and I realised – if I hadn’t already – that beneath the ‘elderly lady’ facade lay a decidedly vicious streak.

I took refuge in a sip of the excellent Chianti as I reflected on what she’d said. I’ve never liked pre-judging people, but I couldn’t help thinking that if one or the other of the two siblings had been hoping to inherit Rodolfo’s share of the company, they might have individually or together engineered his ‘accident’. His share of the company had now passed to Violetta so, if this were the case, might this mean that she could now be in danger? Presumably, as it was a family business, her interest in the company would ultimately revert to them if she also died. I looked around. With her all alone here in this isolated house with just a housekeeper and presumably a gardener, it wouldn’t take a criminal genius to dream up a scenario that resulted in her death: a fall, a shock, a heart attack or even another car accident maybe. As she was at the venerable age of eighty-one, it was unlikely that anybody would delve too deeply into how it happened. I thought I’d better warn her of this possibility, but it’s not easy to suggest that your close relatives might be considering murdering you, so I approached it obliquely.

‘What are your plans for the next few weeks? Will you be here if I need to contact you?’

‘That’s something else I need to consider. I took a call yesterday from Rosina, telling me that they’ve called an extraordinary board meeting for next Friday and I suppose I should be there.’

‘Where’s that going to take place?’

‘In the boardroom at Head Office in Verona. ’

I didn’t like the sound of this. If Alfredo and/or his wife or sister were intent on a second murder, Violetta would do well to stay as far from them as possible. Again, I tried a circuitous approach.

‘Where do you stay when you go to Verona? With one of them?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I stay at the villa. I have an apartment there. I know it so well and the staff there look after me.’

My ears pricked up at her mention of ‘staff’. How big was the Verona villa? ‘Who looks after the villa for you?’

‘Dolores is the manager and she really runs things. She’s Spanish and she’s a treasure. She keeps everybody on their toes.’

‘Everybody? Do a lot of people work there?’ Having a ‘manager’ for a private house was odd.

I could see her pause to do a bit of mental arithmetic. ‘Probably a dozen or so, maybe fifteen.’

I was obviously missing something unless her son had insisted on a different servant for every room of the house. ‘And what do they all do?’

‘They run the courses and look after the residents, of course.’

‘But I thought you said your son was living on his own in his last few months.’

‘I said that his wife had gone off gallivanting, but that didn’t mean that he was left on his own.’ Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she finally clarified the situation. ‘I’m sorry, Signor Armstrong, I should have explained. When Rodolfo inherited the villa, he and I created a non-profit-making charitable trust and transformed the place – it’s a very big building – into AOA, Accademia Opera Argento. We also transferred the villa to the trust so it wasn’t part of Rodolfo’s estate.’ That ruthless expression was back on her face again. ‘That way Alessia hasn’t been able to get her hands on it. We wanted it to become the number-one conservatoire for opera stars of the future. Admission is fully sponsored by the trust so that everybody, regardless of their background, has the same equal opportunity. It’s a charity that was very close to his heart, and I have every intention of keeping it going.’

This meant that Violetta intended to keep her dearly beloved son’s memory alive, so there was an altruistic side to her after all. ‘I see. And how many students are there at the villa now?’

‘It’s summer course time so I don’t really know – twenty-five, thirty maybe – but you’ll be able to see for yourself when you’re staying there.’

The bamboozled look must have been back on my face but, luckily, she took pity on me. ‘Don’t worry, it’s very comfortable, I can assure you. And of course you can take your lovely dog with you, as well as your history lecturer girlfriend.’

I looked across the table at her. Clearly, I wasn’t the only detective in the room. ‘You know Anna?’

She gave me a positively cheeky grin. ‘I know of her. I drop into the café at Montevolpone at least once a week and I get all the local gossip from Monica. She speaks very highly of you and your girlfriend.’

I chalked one up to Violetta. She certainly didn’t miss much, and this boded well for my chances of getting enough information out of her for me to reach a successful resolution to this case – and with another thirty possible suspects to add to my list, I was going to need all the help I could get.

I waited until the housekeeper had removed the remains of the pasta from the table and disappeared before I turned the conversation back to the matter in hand.

‘As far as the day-to-day running of the company’s concerned, do Alfredo and Rosina share the work? You said something earlier about it having been a mistake to make Alfredo the head of the company. ’

A disapproving expression appeared on the old lady’s face. ‘Without Rosina, Alfredo would be lost.’ Absently, she took a mouthful of wine, but I said nothing and waited for her to continue. ‘Alfredo is the older of the two but that was incidental to my brother. He appointed Alfredo managing director simply because he’s a man. Rosina didn’t get a look-in.’ A bitter note entered her voice and she looked up with an air of resignation about her. ‘That’s how it’s always been in my family.’

‘But you think Rosina would have done a better job than her brother?’

‘Definitely. Of course she’s a director of the company, but she ostensibly occupies a more junior role than her brother. In fact, I’m convinced that she’s the brains behind the business and she does most of the work while he spends much of his time on the golf course.’

Before I could react to this, the door behind me opened again and the housekeeper reappeared, wheeling a trolley on which there was a huge leg of roast lamb, surrounded by a mountain of little roast potatoes. Unsurprisingly, I felt movement at my feet and Oscar’s nose appeared by my knee, pointing unerringly towards the meat. I was pleased to see, however, that he resisted the temptation to make an all-out assault on the trolley and just stood there unsuccessfully trying to look as if he was in the latter stages of starvation. I handed him down a breadstick and he accepted it, although the look on his face made it clear what he would have preferred.

Over the roast lamb – which was cooked to perfection – we continued to talk and I learned more about the Argento family. Although they had always been commercially orientated, they had also maintained a long tradition of interest in opera. Violetta herself was named after the main character in Verdi’s La Traviata and her son Rodolfo’s name came from Puccini’s La Bohème . Her brother had named his firstborn after Alfredo from La Traviata , and his daughter after Rosina, the heroine of Rossini’s Barber of Seville . Violetta herself declared a lifetime interest in opera but added that she felt sure even Oscar could sing better than she did. What she didn’t know was that when Oscar hears some of Anna’s beloved opera music – particularly when sung by a soprano – he joins in and sings along. The result would no doubt make Maria Callas turn in her grave.

The good news about being able to stay in the Argento villa was that I should be able to find somebody there who would look after Oscar while Anna and I went to the Arena to hear our concert on Saturday. The thought of a howling Labrador interrupting the performance was too terrible for words.