Foreign Deceit (11 page)

“Uh, no. Like I said, I didn’t ever socialize with Dr. Rosenwald outside of work.” He looked to Lia and Dr. Wembly. “What’s this all about?”

“Never mind. Thanks for your time Dr. Chang. If you hear from him, can you please call this number?” Wolf looked to Lia, and she gave a phone number.
   

They asked Dr. Wembly a few more questions and left mid morning with Dr. Rosenwald’s address in hand.
 

Chapter 19

“What was that all about with Dr. Chang?” She revved the RPM’s to pass two trucks. “Why were you pressing him about the work?”

“I wanted to ask him that question before asking him about Dr. Rosenwald. To see his reactions. He wasn’t hiding anything. Not like Dr. Vlad was. That guy was a comical liar. I’m surprised he didn’t start dry-heaving right in front of us.”
 

“Yes.” She smirked while cranking a particularly tight left turn. “I admit he was acting strange. And, where did you get that receipt?”
 

“I picked it up at the morgue.”

She stared at him for a moment then went wide-eyed. “You took that when you pretended to almost pass out!”

“I wasn’t pretending. I almost passed out.”
 

M. Rosenwald
said the label next to the ever-present wrought iron gate outside of the apartment building. Lia pushed the button and waited.

“No answer.” Wolf smacked a mosquito on his neck.
 

The apartment was along the same wide river that dumped out of Lake Como, a few minutes’ drive to the north, halfway between the observatory and the city of Lecco. The building was large, containing thirty or more apartments, and built directly within a hollowed out section of a steep hill that sloped to the water.
 

“I don’t think he is home.”
 

Wolf bent forward. “Is there a building manager button?” He waged war on two more mosquitoes hovering around his ears.
 

“I don’t see one.” She shrugged.

“Okay, you do the talking.” Wolf pushed five buttons in quick succession.
 

She turned and gave Wolf a dirty look, hands on her slender hips.
 

“Pronto?”

“Pronto?” Two people answered almost simultaneously.
 

“
Buon giorno. Siamo iCaribinieri. Lasciateci entrare?
”

The gate buzzed and clicked open, then buzzed again.
 

“Okay, now let’s go get a closer look.” Wolf pushed through the gate.
 

“Is this how they do it in Colorado?”

“Nope. We don’t have fences like this where I come from.”

They climbed the stairs to Dr. Rosenwald’s floor and ran into a concerned looking old woman poking her head out the door.
 

She and Lia had a brief conversation.
 

“What did she say?”

“She hasn’t seen him.”
 

A knock at the door produced no response from inside, no sounds at all.
 

“Would you object to me picking this lock?” Wolf raised an eyebrow.
 

“I…could you do that?”
 

“I could. They don’t teach that here in your military?”

“I don’t remember learning that skill, no.” She smirked. “Well, in Italy, we do not need a warrant for drugs to search a person’s property. Since your brother had drugs in his system on the night of his death, and he was with this person on the night of his death…then, I don’t see any problem with us entering this apartment on suspicion of drugs.”
 

“Okay, good. I’m going to need some things — I need something that is long and thin metal, and I haven’t seen a lock like this in my life. I say let’s go to the old lady’s apartment and see what we can get there.” He turned to walk down the hallway.

Lia reached down and turned the door knob. With a soft click the door creaked open to the inside.
 

She swept her hand at the door. “They don’t teach that skill in the American military?”
 

“Huh. No I don’t remember learning that. Touché.” He stepped in.

The apartment was dimly lit. A corridor hallway inside the entrance was lined with a body length mirror and framed painting that looked to be Australian aboriginal art.

Two doors were closed on the right hand side and a brightly lit bigger room was at the end of the narrow hallway.

“Hello?” Wolf called into the apartment.
 

Lia flipped a light switch and the hall flooded with yellow light. She shut the door, suffocating all outside noise.
 

He caught the smell her breath as she turned toward him, and then the lavender scent of her hair. The apartment was completely silent save the gentle rustle of Lia’s clothing.
 

Wolf was aware he’d passed beyond the act of looking to staring. “I’ll check this door.” He turned and opened the nearest door, revealing Rosenwald’s bedroom. A queen sized bed lay un-made with two shirts strewn across it. A dirty clothes wicker basket was filled to the brim giving the room a musty body-odor smell. The screen-less window was open a crack, and Wolf felt another tiny sting and slapped his forearm.
   

A distant thunder rumbled outside, shaking the building deep. Light dimmed by the second. A mid-day thunderstorm was building outside somewhere within the haze.
 

“Pretty nice place!” Lia’s voice was somewhere else in the apartment. He left the room and followed her voice down the hall into a large living room that had vaulted ceilings. There were two massive windows set in an exposed brick wall that looked out on the river, filling the room with subdued natural light. The opposite wall was painted Italian-flag-green. From it hung a medium sized flat screen television. Australian landscape photography and paintings adorned the rest of the wall space. It was thoughtfully and tastefully designed with attention to detail. There was a leather couch, dark wood end tables and a kitchenette with a table where Lia was digging in a back pack.
   

“Notice the coffee table over there.” She nodded her head toward it.
 

Looking, Wolf saw a small pile of Euro coins, a few pieces of paper, and a tiny white bag. It looked like a bag of cocaine. He picked it up and looked closely. It looked and smelled like it at least.
   

“So, Matthew here is also using cocaine,” she said.
 

“I don’t think my brother was using cocaine.”

“Sorry.” She gave him a sideways glance. “What about what the coroner’s report?”

“It said there was residue on his nose. There weren’t any blood tests done.”

“True.”
 

He closed and pocketed the tiny bag and they began a thorough search of the apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for a single male from Australia, living his life as a Gamma-ray astronomer in a foreign country. Other than the bag of coke that is. Receipts were strewn about on the kitchen counter, none giving any clues to anything but his diet, which consisted of a lot of vegetables from the local supermarket.
 

“There’s no phone. That reminds me, can we look at phone records for my brother and this guy? There may be some clues there. We should have the cell phone company ping his phone as well to see where it’s at, if there’s any charge left in it. Did it go straight to voice mail when you called it earlier?”

“Yes, it did.”

“Okay, that says something. He’s not charging his phone. Maybe he knows someone could trace his phone if he charged it. Maybe he’s running. I don’t see his car keys anywhere. What about his passport? I haven’t seen one, have you?”

“No.” She looked around with her hands out.
 

“Okay, so he has his passport also. Can we trace movement with his passport?”

“Probably not. At least, it’s not easy. Schengen rules allow free travel between most European countries. Most countries don’t even have electronic passport control of any kind. There will be a guard, and he will look at the passport, and done.” She swiped her hands together as if wiping off crumbs. “We can check of course, but it is very difficult to trace by passport now. We can check his credit cards and cell phone.”

“You have a person in the Caribinieri that does all this stuff?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “there is a guy who does all this stuff. He is the technical genius of the office.”
 

A close thunder rumbled long and slow, followed by a deluge of rain drops hitting the roof and windows.
 

“We’ll have him check on Dr. Rosenwald’s car as well,” she said. “He can get the registration.”
 

“I wonder if he could hack into my brother’s computer at the same time.”

“If it can be done, he will be able to do it.”
 

I’d also like to take a thorough look at the police report, or whatever you call it here in Italy,” he said. “All after we go to the Albastru Pub.”

“Is that all?” She looked at him facetiously.
 

“I hope that’s all. Yeah.”
 

A white flash of lightning lit the interior of the apartment, followed by a deafening boom that rolled into the distance.

Chapter 20

Lia cut a chunk off her Margherita pizza. “So, what’s it like in Colorado?”
 

“It’s a beautiful state. There aren’t nearly as many people as here, at least where I come from, in the mountains. Some days you’ll see more animals than other people. I love it.”
 

They sat inside a crowded pizzeria along the river while it poured rain outside. Pizza and cokes and water were served — much needed fuel.

“Have you been there your whole life?”
 

“Most of it. I was in the military for a number of years right out of high school, then I returned.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really? Where did you serve?”

“I was stationed in Washington.”

“Where did you go?”
 

He laughed at her intense interest. “Pacific Rim. Mostly Asia and Australia.”
 

“Oh, wow. That must have been amazing.” She shook her head and sipped her Coke. “Did you see any action?”

“Nah, not much,” he lied. “I was lucky. Just a nice tour of the world.”
 

She stared at nothing for a beat, then shook her head sharply. “What is your position on the police force there?”
 

“I’m a…Sergeant”
   

“Is that a bad subject or something?”
 

“Well, it’s an interesting time for my career at the moment. There’s a possibility I’ll be appointed to Sheriff on Monday.”

Her eyebrows raised high. “Really? Monday? Wow, congratulations?”
 

“Yeah, not congratulations yet.”
 

They sat in silence as he swilled another small glass of water. “That’s if a few things go right, of course.”

“What do you mean? Do you not have the job already?”

“No, I don’t. I have to be appointed by the Town Council, which means I have to be unanimously chosen by all of the members.”

“Yes…and?”

“Well, I hurt a guy pretty bad before I left, and his father happens to be on the Town Council.”

“Uh oh.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “And you are a bit worried?”

“Well, yeah. They could be persuaded to vote for another person as Sheriff instead. Because of what I did.”

“Oh, okay. So, is there another candidate for the job?”
 

“Yes,” he said. “The guy I hurt pretty bad before I left.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Ah, I get it,” she said. “He may try to convince the others to vote for his son, especially since you just hurt his son. Also, of course there is the matter of your brother here, which you want to make sure is taken care of before you go home.”

They both resumed eating.
 

She paused. “So, you think that that Town Council member would have voted for
you
before you hurt his son? I’m confused.”

He laughed. “Yeah, it’s confusing as all hell. But, yes. He probably would have voted for me over his own son. That’s probably the reason his son and I got into it the other day.”

She nodded her head as if all was crystal clear, and then she finished her last bite and wiped her mouth. “Alright. So let’s figure this whole mess out soon so you can bring your brother home and go win your job.”

He liked this girl.
 

Chapter 21

Lia parked the Alfa Romeo right in front of the Albastru Pub, which sat in a piazza that looked otherwise restricted to vehicle traffic.
 

The pub had a large dark wooden sign with hand carved lettering above the front door, with a blue, yellow, and red square flag hanging from a pole above it. A single deciduous tree grew thick from a small brick square in front.
 

“Romanian.” Lia pointed at the sign as they got out, answering Wolf’s forthcoming question.
 

They entered the pub, Wolf noting the nautical-looking clock on the wall that said 2:10 pm. It looked like the bottom rung customers were there at the moment — a few older men slumping over a yellow beer or a brownish clear liquor in their squat glasses. Punk rock music Wolf didn’t recognize buzzed softly from out of the large wall mounted speakers. Two muted televisions showed the same channel, a sports highlight show.
 

No one was behind the bar, nor was there any indicator bell or anything to telegraph their entrance.
 

Lia took off her hat. “Buon giorno!”
 

A thin face with buggy cobalt eyes peaked around the corner from a surprisingly tall height — higher than Wolf’s eye line.
 

Almost imperceptibly, the eyes widened, then a stringy arm appeared holding up a finger, “Buon giorno! Un momento per favore,” the second half of the sentence retreating away from them. There was a fast clipped conversation just audible over the music somewhere in the back, a door closing, and then the man returned.