"That's terrible!" I wondered at the person who could put such guilt on their loved one.

  "She was not nice to Franco, ever, but later she was ill, poor thing. He was patient with her."

  "You and Cecilio have known Franco a long time?"

  Giusi laughed. "You want to know everything! Michela said you were a very good investigatrice, a detective. Cecilio trained Franco in the military!"

  "The military?" I smiled as I recalled Franco's amusement when I had said Cecilio was a retired civil servant.

  "Cecilio was a professional soldier," Giusi said with pride. "Franco was, too, for a few years. Then he left to finish University. He studied law and went to work for the police. When Franco needed help with his wife, he came to Cecilio." Giusi shrugged as if to say their friendship was the simplest thing in the world to understand.

  "You were a soldier's wife." I felt I was only beginning to understand the relationship between Giusi and Cecilio Cecchi.

  Giusi finished marking the dresses, and I changed back to my old clothes.

  "Sit a moment, Bert. I want to tell the investigatrice something."

  We sat side-by-side on the sofa.

  "Cecilio did not kill Antonio. And Giovanna and Anna could never do anything like that to Antonio! Besides, Anna would have convinced Cinzia not to marry Antonio, so there was no reason for her to kill him! But we think Giovanna had convinced Antonio to end the engagement and the relationship," Giusi said firmly. "This would hurt Cinzia, of course, and she has a very bad temper!"

  "You think Cinzia killed Antonio?"

  "She had the best motivo, motive."

  I took a chance and asked, "Don't you think Cecilio had a good motive to want Antonio dead?"

  "Cecilio? Maybe! But on that day, in that way, in that place, never! Cecilio would never hurt Laura! Not after all she did for our Paola after the accident! And look what happened to his oil press! Never! You tell Franco what we think about Cinzia. I don't want him to think Cecilio did anything wrong." Giusi suddenly got up and led me outside. It was as if she were sending me off to the marshal as quickly as possible to deliver her message.

  "I'll tell Franco, Giusi, but you should know that I'm done with investigating. I'm just a tourist, now!"

  "No, not a tourist," Giusi disagreed strongly. "You'll find out who did this so Laura's heart can be at rest. You may be her pretend mamma, but you feel like a real mamma." Giusi nodded wisely. "We saw when Laura put on the wedding gown, you were so nervous! I told Laura you were a real mamma, and she almost cried. You can't leave her. She needs you!"

  "Leave her?" I felt my heart being twisted around Giusi's every word.

  "Cecilio's bought the wood to make the cupboards for your dressing room. I have ideas for more clothes, and I asked Giovanna for more beautiful fabrics! You must stay in Italy!" That was Giusi's final word.

  *****

  "I told Laura I'd walk you into town, Bert." Cecilio caught up with me just as I was going through the garage gate. He led me along a path that paralleled the road and climbed the mountain to the town of Montemorello. "Laura's a good woman. She wanted to speak to me before she went to the funeral, so she could apologize for inviting Antonio to the party! I told her there was no way she could have known." Cecilio shrugged.

  "Laura was very upset when Michela told her this morning. She hated the idea of having hurt you and Giusi."

  "Because she's a good woman!" Cecilio said a moment later, "Giovanna's a good woman, too. She was only doing what she thought was right." He looked at me as he said, "Some might think I killed Antonio."

  "You were heard to say you might do that." I recalled Michela's slip-of-the-tongue to that effect.

  Cecilio growled out with the anger he still felt, "I was angry enough, but I would never have done it here or in that way!" His voice gained in strength as he said, "Once, I thought about how I would do it. I would use my father's gun from the war. My father was a brave man. I'm a brave man. Antonio's killer was a coward."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "He hit Antonio out of anger with the wooden bar, and then tried to hide that with the stone. Only a coward strikes in anger, and only a coward is afraid to pay for his crime." Cecilio explained this as if it were an obvious fact that any decent person should know.

  "Giusi said she thought Cinzia killed Antonio. What do you think, Cecilio?"

  "She's an angry young woman, and angry people do bad things. Cinzia's ungrateful, too, and she doesn't understand the world as it was before she was born. Her mother didn't have the same choices women have today. Anna did the best she could for both of them."

  "You knew Anna back then?"

  "I knew them all," Cecilio said with a wave of his calloused hand for emphasis. "Egidio was a cruel man. He had lovers from the day he married Giovanna, and bragged about them to his gang," he said with contempt. Then Cecilio smiled, "But Giovanna's a smart woman."

  "Why do you say that?" I was curious what could produce such approval from Cecilio.

  "She took in that Olvidi character. Everyone thought he was her lover, but Giusi and I knew the truth. It made Egidio look the cornuto, the cuckold! After that, he didn't brag about his women anymore." Cecilio laughed at the victory Giovanna had exacted from her husband. "She took care of Anna and the baby, too."

  "Did that make her husband angry?"

  "What do you mean?" Cecilio stopped walking.

  "Giusi said some of the women at the factory complained about Anna. I thought maybe Egidio complained, too."

  Cecilio nodded. "He complained, but it did no good. Giovanna took care of Anna and Cinzia. My Giusi was good to them, too. They were the only two women who were good to them, in this whole town."

  We had reached the beginning of the town of Montemorello.

  "All those silly women. Now their daughters live with men who aren't their husbands, and have children without being married. Their own grandchildren are bastards! How would they like it if someone treated them the way they treated Anna and Cinzia?"

  "They would say that society has changed since then."

  "But people haven't!" Cecilio said forcefully. "The pain is the same. The need for compassion is the same. Italy changes too slowly for me!"

  I looked at Cecilio in amazement. A sixty-plus, male, humanist, feminist in work overalls was walking next to me into the village!

  "Laura told me she's going to end her relationship with Tomaso. I'm glad! You tell Franco, and that it's up to him, now."

  "You never liked Tomaso, did you, Cecilio?"

  "I can't bear a man who shakes like a coward whenever he's near me! He's not a man! He's a boy. I don't think Laura's ever loved a man. It's about time she did!"

  "You mean Franco?" I did not disagree with Cecilio's analysis of Tomaso or Laura. The old soldier's intuition was flawless.

  "Yes, I mean Franco. And I don't think Franco's ever loved a real woman before. It's about time he knows what that is! And before you ask, yes, I mean Laura."

  I asked tentatively, "She's nothing like his late wife, is she?"

  "Night and day," growled Cecilio.

  That was what I had wanted to hear. Cecilio and Giusi had set my mind at ease on that point.

  Cecilio indicated the office in front of us.

  "Laura called him before she left for the funeral. He's waiting for you. Bert, you may have started this to help Laura, but I think you won't stop until it's solved. You're not the type to leave things unfinished. I'm just an old carpenter, but I have my intuitions, and I say you won't leave a mystery unsolved."

  I watched as Cecilio turned and walked back along the main street. I muttered into the wind, "Just an old carpenter; my foot!" As I entered the police station, I was sure I heard a gruff laugh coming from Cecilio's direction.

  *****

  "The problem is, there are too many motives!" Franco shook his head in frustration.

  "Antonio was not a nice person."

  Franco smiled at my understatement and said, "Let's work our way through the suspects. Aldo and Donatella Bianchi."

  "You know about their son. That would be their motive."

  "Revenge." Franco nodded. "Actually, I knew about their son before they told me. I'd checked the police records of all our suspects, and their children, too. I came up with a drug arrest for Marco Bianchi. What I didn't know was that Antonio Bartolini had started and fed his habit."

  "What a terrible young man he was."

  "That's more like it!" Franco laughed. "'Not very nice' has made way for 'terrible young man.' Let's speak clearly, Antonio Bartolini was a horrible young man, one that Aldo and Donatella could have killed."

  "No one saw Aldo in the study," I said. "And Donatella was near the oil shed."

  "The Cecchis are vague about when she arrived at their place. They'll swear only that she arrived before Giovanna Bartolini."

  "But neither are vindictive people, and neither of them would want to involve Laura in any revenge of theirs. They love her too much to hurt her."

  "That's good to hear," Franco said more to himself than to me.

  I felt I was not making my case strongly enough. "Donatella lives in the present. She'd never take revenge for something that happened so long ago. Aldo admitted to me that if his son had died, he might have killed Antonio, but never that way, or at that time, or in that place. And besides, his son didn't die."

  "You use psychology and character judgment to build your case." Franco appraised his partner. "I have to rely on facts, so I can't rule them out." I was about to protest but he cut me off. "But I do listen to my instinct, which is just policeman-speak for psychology." He smiled conspiratorially. "My instinct tells me they're not likely killers. They weren't sorry he was dead, but I don't believe they killed Antonio."

  "Wouldn't the real killer pretend to be sorry Antonio was dead?"

  "That would mean none of our suspects killed Antonio because no one was sorry. I watched them closely, and they were either glad he was dead or upset for Giovanna Bartolini. Even she looked more worried than sorry her son was dead! She showed more concern for Laura than for her dead son!"

  "She was worried about Tomaso becoming a suspect."

  "And she was right to worry. You know something, don't you?" Franco looked wonderingly at his assistant. "You're just full of information. Tell me in a minute, though. Let's go over Michela and Colin Whitehorse." He consulted a list of suspects and notes he had before him. "They have each other for an alibi. As for motives, Colin was angry with Antonio after their fight earlier that day. Michela was angry with Antonio for what he'd said to her earlier that day, and because of the accident with Paola Cecchi."

  "So, they told you everything?" I was not surprised.

  "Yes, but I already knew. It happened outside the Bartolini factory. It's not far from here. I was called in but there was little I could do." He said with anger, "Antonio knew there were no witnesses. It was his word against hers, so he drove away and just kept denying it. The local word is, he drove straight to a car wash to have her blood cleaned off his car before we could check for evidence. That's why we found nothing conclusive."

  I shivered in disgust at Antonio's callousness. For the first time, I wondered if the killer had really done a bad thing taking Antonio's life. It was not a question I had considered before, even when Antonio's other faults had been exposed, but now I could not keep it from my mind. Franco was watching me closely. "It's wrong, I know, but some people cause so much pain and suffering for others!"

  Franco said with sympathy, "Antonio was on the road to prison. People like that get there, sooner or later. If only we'd caught him sooner, like for the hit and run of Paola, someone might not have felt they had to kill him."

  "Do you really suspect Colin and Michela?" I liked Michela very much, and I thought Colin was eccentric but not a likely killer.

  "No, not unless there's more to it. If Colin has a record of violent offences in Britain, or there's a stronger motive, maybe. But as it is now, I don't think it's likely."

  I said reluctantly, "Colin had a rough youth. I imagine he may have a record, and there may be a stronger motive. Michela is president of a charity she set up."

  "I know. I used to see them socially, in a previous life. That's part of the reason I don't suspect them. I never saw Colin angry. He was always under control." Franco added with a laugh, "Especially compared to your average Italian! And Michela was always the polished, capable politician that her work required. What's this motive?"

  "Michela has rivals for her job. If they can come up with a scandal, they could push her out. Maybe Antonio had something on the Whitehorses. That could have been what was behind the bad feeling that morning. Michela said Antonio made a disparaging comment about her because of Paola Cecchi, but none of us actually heard what Antonio said."

  "What could Antonio have on the Whitehorses?" Franco took my idea seriously, to my surprise and pleasure.

  "This may sound silly, and I've no idea if it's true or not. It's something from Colin's past. Antonio used to go to the library as a young man with his English class. Maybe he saw something then and was using it now to get money?"

  "Colin Whitehorse's past? Not the spy thing? Is that what you're getting at?"

  "You know about that?"

  "Rumors, most of them, if not all of them, started by Colin himself to make himself more interesting. I've never known a spy to advertise himself. Besides, cold war spies may have been librarians, but not in Colin's day. Today, they're business people or charity workers. But I'll know more about Colin when I get his records from Britain. I do like the blackmail part of your idea, however. It fits well with something I came up with. Antonio had been gambling a lot lately for large sums of money. He lost mostly, but he paid all his debts. When I asked his mother about the gambling, she insisted she'd stopped paying his gambling debts. So where was he getting money? I'm following up something Antonio left behind, but I can't tell you any more right now." Franco consulted his list. "That brings us to Cecilio and Giusi Cecchi."

  I sighed, "I don't want it to be Cecilio, and I can't believe it was Giusi."

  "No alibi, except each other, and you yourself said Cecilio was livid with Antonio earlier that same day. They both hated him because of what he did to Paola. If you've spoken with them, you know about our history."

  I nodded.

  "If Cecilio had killed Antonio, it would have been with his bare hands or a gun, and he would have turned himself in."

  "Intuition?" I asked.

  "A certainty."

  "And Giusi?" I had to laugh at the idea of Giusi killing Antonio.

  Franco smiled. "Never in Cecilio's oil press!"

  "I agree! They think Cinzia killed Antonio because he ended his relationship with her because of Giovanna's objections."

  Franco said thoughtfully, "I think the killer used the stone because it was a gruesome way of working off his anger. If the killer were Cinzia, she might have wanted to destroy the face of the lover who'd rejected her."

  "I was thinking that maybe one person hit Antonio with the log, and another killed him with the stone to protect the first person, and to put suspicion on Cecilio, who'd fought with Antonio earlier that day over the oil press."

  This intrigued Franco. "Who did you have in mind?"

  "I thought either Giovanna or Cinzia for hitting Antonio, and Tomaso for finishing him off to help one or the other. This is probably the best time to tell you what I learned last evening. Giovanna and Tomaso both lied to you."

  Franco did not look surprised.

  "Tomaso went back to the oil shed from the garages and fought with Antonio, and Giovanna overheard them. She says she was in the vegetable patch behind the shed at the time."

  "I didn't believe either of them, anyway. A mother protecting her son was to be expected. Two brothers hating each other, that's not a surprise, either, and I'd heard stories. What else did Tomaso say?"

  "He says he left Antonio alive." I shrugged, as if to say, What else would Tomaso say? "And he says he lied to you because he would have looked too suspicious, and he didn't want to waste your time when you could have been looking for the real killer."

  "How considerate of him," Franco said dryly.

  I laughed. "Another thing about Tomaso." I handed Franco the note. "Tomaso had been looking for it. I found it this morning in the garden shed."

  "Very impressive!" Franco nodded his approval as he read the note. "That means we can say that at least Cinzia was in the garden shed."

  He picked up a clear plastic folder that held the paper he had recovered from Laura's study. A second folder held Tomaso's note to Antonio. Franco placed the new note in a third folder, arranged the pieces of paper, and then stacked the folders on top of each other. When he showed me the result, I saw that they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

  "But why meet in such a private place?"

  I answered quickly, "To hide the private things you do in private places."

  Franco tossed the plastic sheets down on the table in anger. "Does Laura know about this?"

  "Yes, but she's not faced that possibility. But Laura's decided to end her relationship with Tomaso after the murder is solved."

  "I still think she shouldn't wait."

  "Still?"

  Franco looked at me admiringly. "You've caught me. Laura mentioned it when she called earlier. I understand her concern for Giovanna, but I think she should worry more about herself, and end all ties to the Bartolinis, now!"

  "Is that what you said to her?"

  "Not as forcefully as right now, but you can tell her!" He said with a steely voice, "And tell her things don't look very good for Tomaso with the law. Alright," he took a deep breath, "back to the case. So Cinzia and Tomaso lied about meeting by the pool because they wanted to provide each other with an alibi that was not suspicious, like meeting alone in a garden shed."

  "I've caught them alone together several times since the murder, but Tomaso insists he's comforting her grief."

  Franco suppressed a laugh. "I spoke to Cinzia the day of the murder and the day after the murder. She felt no grief, only frustration that all her plans had gone wrong."