murder in the tremiti isles

Chapter 1 – Why you?

Chapter 1 – Why you?On the little terrace overlooking the sea of the Tremiti Islands, together with the few clients, there was a Persian cat that seemed very keen on the food served by Michelina who was probably very generous with him, but like a great panderer never missed a chance to rub himself on people’s legs to get something extra. As a starter Rosario asked some peppered mussels, which he loved, while his partner ordered a Palamito, a very tasty fish used as a starter and served with vinaigrette, capers and parsley. It was ten o’clock when they sat down and they had an hour to have dinner before the last ferry of the evening left to bring them back.

«Good god, it’s already late. If we keep going like this we’ll have to consider the idea of swimming back to the island if we want to go home» she said looking at the Cartier watch she wore on her wrist and never took off, even at night. Pretty and enterprising, she was sure of herself and she knew she had the perfect weapons to convince some fisherman to bring them back. They started the game of seduction that they both enjoyed making them feel complicit and on the same wavelength. Lightly touching him with her foot under cover of the tablecloth, she reminded him that anyone would face even the roughest sea to make her happy while he started to feel uncomfortable in his immaculate linen suit from which his dark skin showed up his well-muscled body thanks to years of weight-lifting and jogging. With a wink and a joke they came to a kind of deal that they would take that decision only as a last resort, maybe if they had eaten so much that they were incapable of swimming to the other side.

The mussels and the Palamito, with the gentle sound of the sea in the background, were a perfect opening and everything made them think that the sea-food risotto that they had both ordered was going to be the best completion of their dinner. As usual Saru urged the young waitress to insist with the chef for big servings and she smiled letting him know that she had understood.

«Actually we have a female chef and she’s very strict, but I’ll tell her anyway» she said heading towards the kitchen after writing down their order. Saru liked her self-confidence which contrasted with her seemingly colorless personality and he was looking forward to tasting a good rice dish, one of his favorites.

Unfortunately, with great regret, he changed his mind when he saw the tiny serving, not even nicely presented, which instead of the colorful dish he had been expecting with the flavorsome red sauce from Puglia, the full-blooded shrimps, the cherry clams and the shimmer of green parsley, was a dead pink which destroyed his appetite after the first mouthful. Because of his disappointment he had the sad feeling that the chef, as if to taunt him, had served him up a frozen ready-made risotto. An insult when you are eating almost on the sea where at any moment a fish could jump straight onto your plate from the water and even more for someone like him always ready to taste his beloved Pugliese food. Unwillingly he decided to eat that abomination anyway going back in his mind to the lunch of the day before which had been a celebration for his demanding palate. Mauro had offered him a big juicy dish of spaghetti with a delicious sauce made with lobster, scampi, red snapper and monkfish, all washed down with an excellent local wine.

As he was raising his fork with effort, wondering whether he should make a sarcastic comment to the waitress about the dish or go directly to the kitchen for a showdown with the chef, a terrible scream sent a shudder down his spine, making him almost choke on his mouthful. To calm the coughing he quickly drank a glass of mineral water, then glanced at his companion mopping the tears to focus on her questioning look. After a few seconds he looked around meeting the puzzled eyes of the other clients on the terrace then suddenly stood up.

«Where are you going?» asked Elisa, worried.

«I’ll go and see what happened» answered Saru.

«But where?».

«I don’t know, I think it’s down that side, that’s what it sounded like» he said pointing with his right hand to a place that was more hypothetical than real.

«What do you care about it? We aren’t in Bologna. We’re on vacation, you don’t have to work» she tried to say to him, but it was enough to look into his eyes to see the change of mood as if something from the depths of his soul had taken possession of him and, even if he was on vacation, had forced him to put himself in the reporter’s shoes looking for a story for the news.

Saru quickly grabbed some money from his pocket and leaving it on the table pausing to ask her to pay since he didn’t want to eat any more of the tasteless risotto. He left only after drinking a glass of water not because he was thirsty, but to take the nauseating taste of the risotto out of his mouth and headed towards the stairs leading to the fortress. He felt like he had to go somewhere, but he didn’t know where and he started running following his instinct. He crossed the street with the palms and reached Santa Maria Church flanked by the walls on the right and ending with the high square tower. There was no one around and passing by he quickly crossed himself then, running across the courtyard on the right of the Romanic church, he reached the archeological area now deep in darkness.

He already knew the way because he had walked along it earlier, but in the darkness everything seemed different and while his instinct started to give way to his reason, he started thinking he might have acted too quickly in an unknown situation without asking for help or calling the police. Now he had got himself into that dead-end street, with no torch, he started feeling the fear and he didn’t know what to do anymore. Inside himself, the belief that he’d made an almighty mistake started to grow, confirmed by the fact that none of the guests had followed him and not even some curious local came to have a look at least to give him a bit of courage. He was out of breath and, as he was used to running three times per week, he thought he was going to have a panic attack, something that had never happened before.

Following his instinct, he started to look around, above all behind him. In the archeologic area there was dead silence and you couldn’t even hear a mosquito humming. He tried to take some random steps forward and he regretted it when suddenly a seagull, perhaps scared by something, took off flying right in front of his face. He couldn’t control himself and he let out a scream that made his throat sore for a couple of days. At the same time he heard the sound of something falling in the water, but he didn’t think much about it, it was probably a stone falling from the rock. When he started to feel better again he kept going.

He could hear the sound of the sea, the only sound around him, and he thought he was not far from the Tower of the Knights of San Nicola below which there was the big opening in the rock which let the sea in and separated the castle from the San Nicola cliff almost isolating it so that side was not vulnerable to an enemy attack. His heart started beating like crazy and he kept looking around and behind him without knowing what he could defend himself with. He thought it was quite likely that some mugger might attack him so he kneeled and he picked up a stone off the ground and at that exact moment he heard groans getting louder and louder. He headed towards the vague noises, admittedly frightened of the unknown, but at the same time was empowered by a strength which pushed him to keep going to understand what had happened without even thinking of stopping or calling for help on his mobile. Waiting for someone would have meant wasting time and maybe those moments could be precious for someone in trouble. He was not running anymore but walking quickly, trying to focus his eyes and so, in the darkness, he made out something white moving.

For a few moments his blood froze and he swung around fearing for his safety. He was scared stiff, but the curiosity to find out what was happening was stronger than his fear. He continued for a couple of meters and, turning back to look behind him, he stumbled and tripped over someone in white pants lying on the floor. He had fallen onto a woman, the only thing he was sure about at that moment given the softness of her skin and her breasts. He leaned on the ground to take his weight off the body and as he was getting up he felt his hands wet and sticky and rubbing them on his body to dry them he realized that some parts of his clothes were wet too. Then he noticed the sugary and nauseating smell of fresh blood and this awareness hit him like a violent punch in the stomach. He just had the time to turn his head and vomit. At that moment he was certain that he was in the center of a tragic event even if he could not understand what had happened to the woman and the darkness didn’t help him.

«Say something, what happened to you? Can you talk?» he peered at the body of the woman who was uttering feeble moans, perhaps more to gain courage himself than to really help her. He was hoping that at any moment someone would arrive to help him and that thought seemed to calm his heart, hammering like a compressor, giving him a moment of lucidity to think about what to do next.

A burst of heat overcame him suddenly and he started to sweat, but despite being so tense he took his cellphone from his pocket and started jabbing wildly at the keys which kept the screen on and shed some light on the scene. It was enough for him to see the woman, lying on her right side, slightly doubled up, her shoulders towards him, and weakly begging for help before falling silent. Saru put two fingers of his right hand on her neck, he couldn’t feel a heart-beat and he saw there was nothing left to do. The smell of blood was really strong, it filled his nostrils and was suffocating his mind, he rolled the woman over and thanks to the light he could just make out that the wound was in her stomach and from the size of the bloodstain he understood that it was wide or very deep. Suddenly the anxiety made way for rationality and he convinced himself that the best thing was to leave everything like it was, as now he knew that she was dead and it was essential not to disturb the crime scene even though he had stumbled into it by pure chance. He felt her blood everywhere, even on his face and hair and he didn’t understand how he could have got so dirty.

He kept looking around desperately without seeing anyone and it seemed such an inexplicable situation as at the restaurant there were people and that scream could also have been heard in other parts of the island. As the minutes passed and his eyes started to get used to the darkness and his nose to the odor of blood, he was able to perceive a fragrance he seemed to have smelled before in other circumstances. A sudden and inexplicable presentiment made him bend over the dead woman to smell her perfume and to try to get a better look at her face in the light of his cellphone.

«Noooo…Lucia!» he groaned with his heart beating again more violently than before while he started to feel a kind of horror taking possession of him, traversing in him like a shiver full of unanswered questions. He didn’t think about anything else for a few moments knowing that she would never hear his words nor perhaps sense the feelings that were churning up his soul.

«Why you, Lucia?».