“Ok then, we’re going to make a try once more”, proposed the inspector, “Let’s hope things will go better than the last time... We arrived.”
After they parked the car along the road, both of them moved towards the apartment where the woman was living, ringed the bell and once introduced themselves, went upstairs to the apartment at the first floor.
“Hello, madam”, said Zamagni, “We already know each other quite well, while the person next to me is one of our colleagues. Please, let me introduce you with the agent Marco Finocchi.”
“Good morning”, returned Marisa Lavezzoli, “I guess you’re here again for the investigation on my son’s death, isn’t it so?”
“Yes, exactly”, admitted the inspector, “We’d want to talk a little bit on what had happened to your son.”
“But I’ve already told you”, the mother of hemiplegic boy tried to cut it short.
“I know, madam. Please excuse us, but we’re in charge to shed light on this case”, said Zamagni, in attempt to avoid any sort of dispute with her.
“You may perfectly understand that we’re here with the only scope of finding out who is the murderer of your son”, added Finocchi, “We’ve been acknowledged on the autopsy report, results of which reveal that it’s been a murder.”
“We’d want to catch him and do justice to your son”, said Zamagni.
The lady remained silent for an instant, without opening her mouth, and then said only a few words: “I don’t know if I can help you to do your job. I am still shocked because of what had happened to me.”
“We perfectly understand how you feel”, returned the inspector very empathetically, “and we’ll make sure the situation appears as easy as possible to you. We’re only doing our job, intending to do all that is possible, for bringing the murderer to justice. To make it happen, we also need for your help and for everything else you might know, which would make our job easier.”
The woman still kept silent.
“We cannot exclude a priori any version, but basically, the robbery attempt is less likely to happen due to lack of time”, said Zamagni.
“Have you ever thought that possibly the time has been well planned by the robber, who instead had studied all the timings in detail?”, Marisa Lavezzoli asked both of them, “That is, everytime I go for shopping, I use to do it pretty much at the same timings, hence the thief might have noticed that and then tried to enter the apartment forcefully.”
“It’s likely to happen what you’re saying now”, admitted the inspector, “even though doubts remain in this respect. However, we’re still at the initial phase of our inquiry. For the moment, it would be enough for us to gather as much data as possible.”
“Now I would like to leave me alone”, said the woman, “I’m not in good mood and would want to have some rest, without thinking at all.”
Zamagni and Finocchi stared at each other, and then looked at the mother of the hemiplegic boy.
“Please.”
“Ok”, nodded the inspector, “but please be advised that we’ll need your help to conclude this case, and, for sure, we’ll have to get back to you again.”
The woman nodded in sign of approval and saying nothing else, opened the door and kindly asked the two policemen to leave the apartment.
“Unfortunately, the Forensic Science probably won’t be able to find anything helpful. The fingerprints are already confusing”, said Zamagni, going down the stairs.
“Proceeding in such a way would lead us nowhere”, captain Luzzi pointed out as soon as he learned about the unsuccessful visit to the apartment of the hemiplegic boy’s mother.
Zamagni and Finocchi nodded, and then the inspector added: “As long as the lady seems unwilling to cooperate, it would be extremely hard for us to come to a final solution of this case.”
“Frankly speaking, it hasn’t occurred to my mind before”, said Marco Finocchi, “what about her husband? The hemiplegic boy has had a father, right?
“It seems that one day he has left away, as if he disappeared into thin air”, explained Zamagni.
“This means that he’s not findable so far?”, asked the agent.
“It seems so, even though I’d want to get in touch with him”, said the inspector.
“At least, he would be able to save his wife suffering from this shock”, asserted Finocchi.
“Would be possible to start searching for him?”, proposed Zamagni, “If we succeed, then we can make him meet his wife again. Even though there’s bad blood between them, I believe the two spouses could become closer to each other for the sake of their son.”
“Yeah, we can have a try”, admitted the captain, “Let’s spread the word then.”
“All right. What else can we do in the meantime?”, the agent Finocchi wanted to know.
“Good question”, Giorgio Luzzi replied to him, “We don’t have yet in our hands any fact or clue that may lead us to a pertinent connection or conclusion. Although it might seem unlikely, this is the only lead to be followed at the moment.”
“Hence, how are we gonna proceed further on?”, asked Zamagni. “I don’t know”, was the instinctive answer of the captain, “We need to squeeze our brains and come up with some idea.”
Since the day in which the tragedy happened, the mother of Marco Mezzogori, had switched from the initial state of shock to a sort of nervous breakdown, and as far as appeared, she had no desire to meet or talk to anyone.
Even Carla, the aunt of hemiplegic boy, so far hadn’t been in the apartment of her sister-in-law after the death of her nephew.
The nephew was indeed the true inspirational motive of her visits to that apartment, and this was also because of the cold relationships with her sister-in-law.
Giuseppe Ruspoli, Carla’s husband, and Luciano Mezzogori, Marco’s father, used to work together in the same mechanic shop, and it occurred once in a while that Carla went to see her brother in the job place.
In this way she had met by chance her future husband.
To be more precise, Luciano was the employer of his brother-in-law given that he was the owner of this mechanic shop and the other one located in Bologna as well.
At that time, Luciano Mezzogori was already engaged to Marisa, her future wife, and it occurred to both couples to get together and arrange a hangout around.
On those occasions, Carla has had also the chance to know Marisa much better, and at once she had the feeling that Marisa seemed a woman unrealised in the full sense. Her husband used to say that she should be dealing with housework, instead of working. She had no kids and her hobbies were just limited to very minimal things. She also used to listen music, and occasionally used to go to cinema with Luciano for watching movies, and that’s all.
Her self-realisation has been materialized in her son, Marco, who very soon had presented some problems with hemiplegia.
It was obvious that Marisa was never felt happy and, as if this wasn’t enough, her husband also disappeared one day. Carla still hasn’t been able to understand the reasons that led to such disappearance; the only thing occurred to her mind was that her husband could no longer bear to see the son in that condition, but in her view, he wasn’t that kind of person who could abandon his own family due to such reason.
Moreover, their son now wasn’t with her anymore, he’s dead already.
Carla