Donna Leon - Wilful Behaviour (Commissario Brunetti 11)

Wilful Behaviour

Also by Donna Leon

Death at La Fenice

Death in a Strange Country

The Anonymous Venetian

A Venetian Reckoning

Acqua Alta

The Death of Faith

A Noble Radiance

Fatal Remedies

Friends in High Places

A Sea of Troubles

Donna Leon

Wilful Behaviour

WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON

08680643

First published in the United Kingdom in 2002 by WilliamHeinemann

13579108642

Copyright Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich 2001

Donna Leon has asserted her right under the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shallnot, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwisecirculated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding orcover other than that in which it is published and without a similar conditionincluding this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from theBritish Library

Typeset by SX Composing DTP, Rayleigh, Essex Printed andbound in the United Kingdom by Clays Ltd, St Ives PLC

ISBN 0434 00994 6

-X

I dubbi, i sospetti Gelare me fan.

Doubts and suspicions Turn me to ice.

Mozart

Le Nozze di Figaro

I

The explosion came at breakfast. Brunetti's position as acommissario of police, though it made the possibility of explosion more likelythan it would be for the average citizen, did not make the setting any lessstrange. The location, however, was related to Brunetti's personal situation asthe husband of a woman of incandescent, if inconsistent, views and politics,not to his profession.

'Why do we bother to read this disgusting piece ofgarbage?' Paola exploded, slamming a folded copy of the day's Gazzettino angrily onto the breakfast table, where it upset the sugar bowl.

Brunetti leaned forward, pushed the edge of the paper asidewith his forefinger and righted the bowl. He picked up a second brioche andtook a bite, knowing that clarification would follow.

'Listen to this,' Paola said, picking up the paper andreading from the headline of the leading article on the front page:'"Fulvia Prato Recounts her Terrible Ordeal."' Like all of Italy,Brunetti was familiar with Fulvia Prato, the wife of a wealthy Florentineindustrialist, who had been kidnapped thirteen months before and kept in acellar for that entire time by her kidnappers. Freed by the Carabinieri two weeks before, she had spoken to the press for the first time theprevious day. He had no idea what Paola could find especially offensive in theheadline.

'And this she said, turning the paper to the bottom ofpage five.' "EU Minister Confesses to Sexual Harassment in Her FormerWorkplace Brunetti was familiar with this case, as well: a female commissioneron the European Commission, he couldn't remember what her exact position was -one of those trivial ones they give to women - had yesterday said at a pressconference that she had been the victim of sexual aggression twenty years agowhen she worked in a firm of civil engineers.

A man who had learned patience in his more than twentyyears of married life, Brunetti awaited Paola's explanation. 'Can you believethey'd use that word? Signora Prato did not have to confess to havingbeen the victim of kidnapping, but this poor woman confessed to havingbeen the victim of some sort of sexual attack. And how typical of thesetroglodytes she said with a vicious jab at the paper, 'not to explain whathappened, only to say that it was sexual. God, I don't know why we bother toread it.'

'It is hard to believe, isn't it?' Brunetti agreed, himselfgenuinely shocked by the use of the word and more shocked that he had notregistered its dissonance until Paola pointed it out to him.

Years ago, he had begun to make gentle fun of what he thendubbed her 'coffee sermons', the fulminations with which she greeted herreading of the morning papers, but over the years he had come to see that therewas great sense in seeming madness.

'Have you ever had to deal with this sort of thing?' sheasked him. She held the bottom half of the paper towards him, so he knew shewas not referring to the kidnapping.

'Once, years ago

'Where?'

'In Naples. When I was assigned there 'What happened?'

'A woman came in to report that she had been raped. Shewanted to make an official denuncia.' He paused,letting memory return. It was her husband

Paola's pause was equally long; then she asked, 'And?'

The questioning was done by the commissario I was assignedto at the time

'And?'

'He told her to think about what she was doing, that itwould cause her husband a great deal of trouble.'

This time Paola's silence was enough to spur him on.

'After she listened to him, she said she needed time tothink about it, and she left He could still remember the set of the woman'sshoulders as she left the office where the questioning had taken place. 'Shenever came back.'

Paola sighed, then asked, 'Have things changed much sincethen?'

'A bit.'

'Are they any better?'

'Minimally. At least we try to have female officers do thefirst interview.' Try?'

'If there are any on duty when it happens, when they comein

'And if there aren't?'

'We call around and see if a woman can come on duty 'Andif not?'

He wondered how breakfast had somehow become an inquisition.'If not, then they are interviewed by whoever's available

That means, I suppose, that men like Alvise or LieutenantScarpa could do the questioning She made no attempt to disguise her disgust.

'It's not really questioning, Paola, not like when we have asuspect

She pointed at the Gazzettino, herfingernail tapping out a quick triple beat on the second headline. 'In a citywhere this is possible, I hate to think ofwhat any sort of questioning is like

He was just at the point of opposition when she, perhapssensing this, changed her tone entirely and asked, 'How's your day look? Willyou be home for lunch?'

Relieved, aware that he was tempting fate but helpless tostop himself, he answered, 'I think so. Crime seems to be on holiday in Venice

'God, I wish I could say the same about my students shesaid with tired resignation.

'Paola, you've only been back at work six days he couldn'tprevent himself from saying. He wondered how she had managed to monopolize theright to complain about work. After all, he had to deal, if not on a dailybasis, then at least with upsetting frequency, with murder, rape and battery,while the worst thing that could happen in her classroom was that someone wouldask the identity of the Dark Lady or forget what happened at the end of WashingtonSquare. He was about to say something to this effect when he caughtthe expression in her eyes.

'What's the matter?' he asked.

'Huh?' He knew evasion when he heard it, saw it.

1 asked you what was the matter

'Oh, difficult students. The usual stuff

Again, he recognized the signs that she was reluctant todiscuss something. He pushed back his chair and got to his feet. He came to herside of the table, braced his hand on her shoulder, and bent to kiss the top ofher head.

Ill see you at lunch

'I'll live in that single hope she answered and leanedforward to sweep up the spilled sugar.