"It isn’t true, it was definitely an accident that took place before I went inside," the other had denied.
"If you weren't an accomplice at loggerheads, then you were sent to kill her by a competitor," the officer had pressed.
"Commissioner I’m telling you again that it is not true!" the man had become angry, abandoning the docile attitude he had kept until then.
Without being asked, Brigadier Bordin had snapped: "Busòn!16 Be respectful to the commissioner or I'll kick you where you like to get it!"
The Deputy Commissioner did not allow bad manners and had reprimanded him: "Marino, keep the kicks and the insults to yourself." He had resumed: "Gennaro, provided that Gennaro Esposito is really your name, and you can be sure that we’ll check at the Registry Office tomorrow ... no, this morning, seeing the time, listen up: I too, like you, would like to finish this, so I'll make you a proposal," – the man had visibly raised his attention threshold, half-opening his mouth as his pupils dilated a little – "if you confess guilty to homicide, which means that you killed going beyond the intention you had ..."
"... I know."
"Then listen: you could tell me for example that you had no money and that the victim didn’t want to concede herself on credit, so in an irrepressible impulse of anger you pushed her, without wanting to kill her but, unfortunately, she fell and was fatally injured; well, you know what I mean: in this way you don’t end up in front of the firing squad17 , you just get a little jail time. Instead, if I write in my report for the investigating judge that I suspect you’re the hitman for some camorra blackmarketer who wanted to eliminate her, or a direct competitor of the woman on the black market who wanted to take her out once and for all, you are already good and shot."
Even though he was more tired than the Deputy Commissioner, the man had not confessed: "Not only will I repeat yet again that I am not a murderer and, as far as I know, the woman died from an accident which took place before I entered her apartment, but now I’m also telling you that I am a sergeant major gunner and that I crossed the lines and arrived in Naples yesterday evening."
"Hmm... tell me more."
"I am also a cook, I was serving as kitchen manager in the officers' club of the 3rd battalion, 1st Coastal Artillery Regiment, stationed five miles north of Paestum, in the province of Salerno."
"I know where Paestum is... okay, assuming that you’ve told me the truth now, it’s in your own interest that we check your military identity, so tell me about the school for cadet non-commissioned officers you come from and which course." In reality, that verification would probably have been impossible in the chaos following the armistice and D'Aiazzo knew it, but he had counted on the fact that if the other lied to him, he would give himself away.
The man had not turned a hair: "My career started with an apprenticeship: at twenty-eight, after I lost my job of assistant cook in a trattoria ..."
"... what did you do?"
"...nothing wrong! The restaurant had closed because, as the owners said, the final consequences of the crisis of '29 had arrived."
"Okay, go on."
"I had looked for work elsewhere but found nothing: no one was hiring, if anything they were firing. Then, so as not to weigh on my mother who had been widowed and worked hard doing the cleaning in shops and sewing and embroidering at home for strangers, I enlisted as a volunteer in the end, hoping to work my way up and become a non-commissioned office. I had been discharged from the service six years earlier, with honor, with the rank of corporal, which was recognized at the reaffirmation. And since I had already been in kitchens during the draft, after a refresher course on certain regulations, they had sent me in front of the pots again, apart from the periodic shooting exercises with the artillery, rifle and pistol. That’s how it was right through my military career, first as a corporal, then as a sergeant and, finally, as a non-commissioned officer18 : sergeant major manager of the kitchen of the officers' club.
After the armistice and the landing of our former enemies19 on our coasts, I was left in the lurch with my fellow soldiers in the hope of not running into Anglo-Americans or Germans. I hid, eating fruit and vegetables I took from vegetable gardens and, the few times someone put me up in a farmhouse, bread, milk and eggs as well. But farmers, or at least the ones I met, are not generous people, and they all asked me for compensation, first in money, and little by little I gave them what I had left of the last salary, then when the money ran out I had to leave my watch: it was steel, but a good brand; and to the last purucchio20 I gave my medal of San Genna' on a little chain, both in 18 carat gold, a gift from my parents for my First Communion, in exchange for the old shirt and the work overalls I’m still wearing. I got myself into plain clothes and threw away the military dog-tag and the military documents too, because they are not only another color for us career people but they say that we are in fact military and our rank as well..."
"... I know"
"Yes, it’s like that for you too. I threw away my identity card and military license and only kept my civilian license. Then, no longer in uniform, I headed to my Naples and managed to cross the front line and last night I arrived in the city. I moved cautiously even though I was in civilian clothes and had a document with me, and I got to Piazzetta del Nilo, which is not far from the little house where mamma and I live in Vicolo Santa Luciella; and, because of my good heart, after what I had already been through, I still had the impulse to help that woman who was groaning and ... here I am, just when I was very close to home."
"How come your domicile in the area of Paestum is not indicated on your driving permit?"
"I had a room in the barracks, with another sergeant major who was a bachelor as well, I didn’t have any place outside: I never considered the barracks my home and I never thought of having the address in Naples removed. I just had it changed on the identity card and the military driving permit because it was mandatory, apart from the fact that on the civil license I would often have to have the Department of Motor Vehicles change my address, since they moved me every few years. Whereas the military card and license were done again directly in the new department; and then, after all, I came back to Naples to see mamma every time I went on leave."
"You should know that we’ll go to Vicolo Santa Maria to check if your mother really lives there and if other people know you."
"... and I thank you, Commissioner, because that is exactly where mamma lives and you will have confirmation about me from her and the neighbours as well. But please, I beg you with all my heart: don’t frighten mamma. Tell her, please, that I have asked you to say hello to her since I couldn’t come in person because of service reasons."
"If we find your mother, we won't scare her and we’ll talk to her as you wish." At this point, however, the Deputy Commissioner had started on him again: "Earlier you tried to make me believe that you had an appointment with Demaggi and then you admitted that it was not true. So tell me: if that was the first time you saw her, how did you know that the woman was a prostitute?"
Unperturbed he replied: "I heard your patrol chief talking about it with his colleagues when they were with the deceased."
"I'll check. Now tell me one more thing" – D'Aiazzo had left the question for last, to fire it when the man was very tired – "Why were you wearing wool gloves at this time of year? So as not to leave prints, right?"
"... no, Mr. Commissioner," the other wasn’t worried, "the reason is simple, I’ve been wearing them for some time now, I also had them when I was in service, with the captain’s permission. I suffer from pain in my fingers and also in my left palm."
"Hm..."
"... yes I do, because of the humidity in the kitchens over many years, what with steam from pots and water where we washed the cauldrons, as the lieutenant