Chapter 2
Vern Blackwood is trying not to let the corpse spoil his morning. Trying to be Zen about the whole thing.
You have to avoid stress, any doctor will tell you that.
Or any of the Instagram accounts Vern follows to keep up with the latest news in the murky world of ‘wellness’.
No matter what new glitch a day might throw at you – and a body, freshly murdered, on your doorstep surely counts as a glitch – you must remember to breathe, and you must remember to keep things in their proper perspective.
Here’s a good tactic, for example. When a problem comes your way – Where is my delivery?
Why is my Wi-Fi signal so patchy? Who has just murdered my bodyguard?
– simply write it down in a journal and ask yourself if it’s still going to be a problem in, say, a year from now?
If it isn’t, then let it go. And if it is still a problem a year from now, then change your broadband provider.
Make no mistake, stress will kill you. Just as sure as the bullet in the back of his head has killed Esteban.
The corpse isn’t the worst of it though, Vern knows that. The worst of it is the note he has found in Esteban’s pocket. The spelling leaves something to be desired, but the message is clear enough:
THIS IS A WANING.
I WILL BE BACK AND YOU WILL BE NEXT.
JAKOB ERIKSSON
Perspective is everything, isn’t it? Will he remember Esteban’s corpse in a year’s time? Vern couldn’t say. Would he remember the note? Yes, he’s sure of that. It just doesn’t make any sense.
He glances at the corpse again. Esteban’s blood is really going to stain the marble but, again, try not to sweat the small stuff. Vern wishes he hadn’t sacked his cleaner, Maria, but she’d been caught stealing, so what were you going to do?
Breathe, Vern, breathe. Cleaners, corpses. Just write it all down.
Vern shields his eyes to take in the view of the Tuscan hills. That will help to centre him. He feels the gentle warmth of the morning sun spread across the top of his hand. Fields of olive green, sage and mint tumble down distant hillsides.
The day is heating up already, it’s going to be a fine one. Good news if you’re the owner of a €15-million villa, bad news if you’re a corpse. Vern sips his cappuccino, then lifts his face up to the light like a sunflower.
They’ll need to put the body in the fridge freezer. Then Vern can take some proper time to think about both the corpse and the note. The coffee will help.
Vern hears the whirr of a blender from the cottage to the south of the villa. Which means that Korbin is awake and making a fearsomely efficient smoothie. Korbin will help too. That’s what Korbin does.
An ordinary man could go straight to the authorities if he had found a corpse on his marbled seventeenth-century doorstep.
There’s a police station down the hill in Lucca, and no doubt they would be interested.
The Italian cops love a murder. All cops do, whatever they say.
They’re not in the job for the admin, are they?
But Vern can’t go to the police.
A swift flies overhead and surveys the land from the roof.
The father of the brood perhaps? The swift’s eyes dart, but Vern knows he is not taking in the vines and the cypresses, nor the stream burbling through the rocks, down the valley and into the stone-and-red-tile village far below.
Neither is he looking at the beautiful walled city of Lucca waking up in the far distance.
No, the swift is looking for something to eat. He is looking for something to kill. He has a family to feed, and there are plenty who would kill him too given half a chance.
Vern can relate. Being a swift must also be stressful.
And a swift has no way of keeping a gratitude journal.
The body can stay in the freezer for today, they can bury him tonight. Because, for the moment, Vern needs time to think about that note. The sheer improbability of it.
The swift dives and picks up a worm in its sharp beak. Then back to the stable.
If news got out that Jakob Eriksson was finally making a move on Vern’s territory, dumping corpses on his doorstep, hinting at further demands, people would not be surprised. Jakob Eriksson has killed many people already.
But Vern is surprised, and that happens very rarely. He hadn’t seen this coming, he really hadn’t. He needs explanations.
Vern has avoided threats for so long. Has been very smart. But now he is being threatened, and it will not stand.
Somebody is going to have to investigate this Jakob Eriksson business. And it can’t be the police.
So who?