Jeff Carson - Foreign Deceit

“And then,” he gestured to Wolf, “we have the conviction of a brother who doesn’t want to believe the evidence that is staring him in the face.”

Wolf didn’t move. “You guys dismissed this case from the beginning. You haven’t given it enough attention. There’s more to it. You didn’t even perform an autopsy, which probably would have told you the bruise on his head was not after death, but before death. You would have found out my brother doesn’t take drugs. There wouldn’t have been any drugs in his system.”

A tinge of doubt crept into his mind with the last statement, but he kept his poker face. “If you would have followed up on the receipt in my brother’s pocket, you would have seen that he was at a pub the night he died. A pub owned by some shady individuals who are current or former gang members. The kind of guys you want to look into further. Guys that I now know are smuggling drugs. Undoubtedly the same cocaine that was found at my brother’s and at Dr. Rosenwald’s apartment.

“There wasn’t even an investigation into the night of his death. Who was he with? What exactly was he doing? Where were the people he was with? These questions didn’t come up for your investigators?”

Marino inhaled deeply and let the question hang.

“Officer Wolf, it looked like a suicide.” He swiped his hands together and held them up, a gesture Wolf was becoming intimately familiar with.

“Not to me.”

Marino took another drag and swiveled his chair to the side, smoke seeping from his nostrils. He stood up. “I will have my men look into it further. Officer Parente will help,” he said. “You have my word. Now I need you to go home and let us do our job.”

Wolf shook his head and looked to the dirty tile floor.

Marino sat on the edge of his desk. “You will let us do our job. Or we will risk having an international incident. I do not want to have to take you into custody, Officer Wolf. But I will not have you going around breaking into property and conducting an investigation by yourself. How would you like it if this happened in your town in Colorado? How would you deal with it?”

Wolf looked at Lia, who gave him a sympathetic sideways glance. He narrowed his eyes and stared back at the floor, coming to a lucid conclusion. “All right. I have your word you will look further into the pub owner and the observatory employee?” He stood up straight and tall.

Marino put his cigarette in his mouth and stood, hands out to his sides.

“You have my word.”

Wolf exhaled, looking to the ceiling, a resigned look on his face. “Okay. I’ll take the next day and get my brother’s things in order, then I’ll be leaving on Sunday morning.” He looked back down to Lia, who sat obediently. “Is it possible to get a ride to the airport on Sunday morning from officer Parente? Rather than take the train again?”

“If it is her day off. You will have to arrange that with her.”

“I’m on duty Sunday, sir,” she said.

“Then Lia will take you to the airport in the morning. You two can arrange it. Now if you will excuse officer Parente and myself, we need to speak about something.”

Wolf shook Marino’s hand and opened the door.

“Officer Wolf,” Marino called.

“Yes?”

“I’m very sorry. Good luck to you and your family.”

Wolf nodded and closed the door.

The room outside Marino’s office was subdued. A few officers pecked at their cream colored keyboards. The air was stagnant, hot and damp, windows all shut for some indiscernible reason.

Rossi looked up from his desk and ran over in a hurry. “David, I’m so sorry. Did you hear about the truck?”

“Hi, Valerio. Yes, I did. They must have been spooked and changed their plans.”

Rossi shrugged. “I’m sorry. I was going to let you guys know about it, but I was just inside Marino’s office myself. I didn’t have a chance to call, then I saw you enter his office just now.”

“No problem. Don’t worry about it.”

Lia came out of Marino’s office behind Wolf.

“Why didn’t you tell us about the truck Valerio?” she hissed, closing the door.

“I was just telling David, I didn’t know about it until just now, then I had to talk to Marino. Then I didn’t get a chance to talk to you when you came in here.”

She shook her head in disgust, looking back at Marino’s office.

“Anyways, thanks Valerio,” Wolf held out his hand.

Rossi straightened and shook it. “You are welcome, Wolf. I wish you and your family the best of luck.”

“I would really appreciate it if you looked into this further after I leave.”

“David, I am going to look into this personally. I’ve already spoken to Marino about it. If they are running a smuggling operation, I will get the evidence needed to bring them in. Then we can find out if they are behind your brother’s murder, once and for all.”

Wolf fetched his brother’s computer from Paulo, said his goodbyes, and made his way down the stairs, giving one final wave to Valerio, who was dialing his phone. He stopped and put the phone to his chest. “Goodbye, David. Do not worry.” Rossi nodded his head with a steeled look.

He didn’t worry. He also didn’t give a shit what they did.

Lia was glancing at him frequently on the ride back to his brother’s house.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“I’m thinking I let my brother down.” He looked at the hordes of Friday afternoon lake shore walkers whizzing by.

“We will…” She let the futile sentence die, sensing his mood.

Wolf glanced in the side mirror as they swept around a traffic circle, revealing another Caribinieri Alfa Romeo cruiser directly behind them.

He looked at her and nodded. “I appreciate it. I really do.”

They pulled up to the courtyard of his brother’s apartment building. He unbuckled his belt and climbed out.

“What are you going to do for the next couple days?” She leaned over the seat, looking up at him with perfect eyes.

“I’ll probably get some rest tonight and just pack up my brother’s things. Then, I have no clue,” he lied. “How about tomorrow night you pick me up and I take you out for a pizza?”

She smiled wide and laughed.

“There’s more to Italian cuisine than pizza! I will take you for Risotto Milanese.”

He shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” He closed the door and slapped the roof.

“I will see you at eight!” She rolled up the window and drove off with squealing tires.

The room was pitch black save for the screen on his cell phone, the alarm on it chiming next to him. A bright flash flickered through the shutter slats from outside and the building rumbled. He ripped the sheets back and stood with a forced enthusiasm and walked to the bedroom balcony. He opened the sliding shutters, revealing a bright orange sunset sky with jet black storm clouds stacked up against the mountains. A long ground strike of lightning flickered for a two count halfway up the mountain followed by a deafening boom that shook the windows near the point of breaking. The thunder rolled long, sound waves sloshing back and forth across the lake against the surrounding mountains.

It jolted him into action. He put on his pants, socks, and shoes and ran up the stairs to Cristina’s.

He knocked loud and Cristina cracked the door, showing her big coffee eyes. She smiled pleasantly and opened the door wide. The apartment was filled with the sounds of modern electric jazz and an aroma that made his mouth water.

“How are you?”

“I’m doing well, how are you?” Wolf mused that he was telling the truth. The few hours’ nap had energized his mental and physical state.

“One second, come in!” she said shuffling to the stereo. She wore a pair of black tights without shoes, a long gray sweater and black leather belt that cinched to show her slender waist. Her sandy blonde hair was pulled up in a quick pony tail, and she swept the straggling strands behind her ears as she straightened.