Chapter 14 #2
Over the next half-hour, I managed to exchange a few words with all of the main players, and the only ones that sounded reasonably unaffected were Greg Gupta and, unexpectedly, Lucy O’Connell.
Of all of us, Gupta was the one who managed to pull off the Renaissance look most successfully.
His predominantly grey and black striped costume gave him a rakish air, and he had the best legs of all of us – the men at least. Lucy O’Connell in her wimple that covered her whole head apart from her face – and that was concealed beneath a full face mask – cast a somewhat forlorn figure, and it occurred to me that the choice of costume neatly encapsulated her present condition.
Whether she was still on drugs was impossible to tell, but, from what I’d seen of her at lunchtime, she was in need of some serious rehab to return her to her former beautiful self.
The three of us chatted for a couple of minutes, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Lucy O’Connell sounding unexpectedly animated.
Hopefully, this excitement had been brought about by the prospect of the murder mystery rather than by pharmaceutical means.
Both of them told me they had received cards from Alice, but neither spoke of their contents, so they were either quite literally keeping their cards close to their chests, or there hadn’t been anything as contentious on their cards as on those given to some of the other guests.
We were joined a few minutes later by Carlos Rodriguez. Even with his mask on, I could almost feel the indignation emanating from the famous director, and I couldn’t help wondering what his card had said. Did he have a guilty secret and, if so, what might it be?
At that moment, we were invited to sit down for dinner and I joined the three of them at a table under the vine-covered pergola.
At the next table, Alice and Mary were accompanied by the actor playing the part of the Doge and nobody else.
Clearly, the comments on the cards hadn’t endeared the hostess to the majority of her guests.
‘Would you mind if I join you?’ The strong Yorkshire accent was unmissable, and I looked up to see the impressive figure of the actor playing the part of Admiral Diodato. We waved him into a spare seat and he immediately launched into the murder mystery plot.
‘The word on the street – or should I say in the canal? – is that there’s going to be an attempt on the life of the Doge this evening.’ He glanced in my direction. ‘Don Daniele, have your spies been telling you the same thing?’
I played along with him. ‘From what I’ve heard, Admiral, there’s a very real threat to somebody here on this island and, of course, you know what that means, don’t you? That means that the would-be killer is almost certainly sitting at one of these tables right now, maybe even at this very table.’
The Admiral nodded in agreement. ‘Exactly. Nobody is free from suspicion. Why, Don Daniele, the murderer might even be you.’
‘Indeed, and the same applies to you. My spies have told me that there’s no love lost between you and the Doge, or his lady wife. Are you carrying a weapon?’
He shook his head. ‘No, your men confiscated our knives when we arrived on the island. If there’s going to be a murder, the killer will have to use one of these.
’ He picked up a pointed steak knife from the table in front of him and held it up threateningly.
‘Somebody here tonight might well use this to commit a murder. It’s a sobering thought. ’
On that note, he grabbed his glass and swallowed the last of his champagne before turning towards me again and dropping the ‘Renaissance man’ act for a moment. ‘How did you manage to get yourself a beer? I’m gasping for one.’
I stayed in character. ‘In my business, Admiral, it pays to know people.’ I imagined he could hear the humour in my voice even through my mask and I added sotto voce, ‘If you like, I can have a word with Diego on your behalf.’
A moment or two later, I saw Diego’s daughter emerge from the kitchen carrying a large wooden tray with three steaming silver dishes on it.
She came over to our table and explained what was on offer.
‘The cook has prepared three different pasta dishes and she suggests that you might like to try all three.’ She set the tray down on the table and pointed to the dishes one after the other.
‘Bigoli ai frutti di mare, tagliatelle al ragù and lasagne al forno.’ She started with the Admiral.
‘Admiral Diodato, would you like to try them all?’
He raised his mask and gave Gabriella a broad smile before answering her in perfect Italian, interestingly without even a hint of his Yorkshire accent.
‘Do you need to ask? Yes, please, it smells divine.’ His smile broadened even further when I managed to attract Diego’s attention and a tankard of beer was presented to the Admiral.
Gabriella went around the table serving the pasta, which did indeed smell absolutely amazing, and I was pleased to see Lucy O’Connell accept a reasonable-sized plateful.
She was pitifully thin, and I felt sure what she needed was good food, rest and the chance to recover.
Her arms were bare and I couldn’t miss faint bruising on the inside of her elbow and forearm, although it looked as though she had tried to conceal it.
I felt genuinely sorry for her. This might mean that she hadn’t kicked the habit yet, and I wondered idly how she had dared to smuggle class A drugs through Customs. For a celebrity, it would have been a high-risk strategy unless she had somehow arranged to pick them up here in Venice.
I remembered what Virgilio’s inspector friend had told me.
There was no shortage of drugs to be found in Venice.