Il Pane Della Vita (24 page)

Brother Donato stood and surveyed the cottages around him. When he had turned around completely, his eyes came to rest on the woods beyond the fence. He looked troubled by their discussion. Who would not be nervous? There had been a murderer in their midst, and he now realized that the murderer knew exactly where he lived.

Sister Angela knocked once before opening the door.

Neri stood, a telephone
receiver in his hand. The white of shock slowly grew until the nun could feel the heat of anger radiating around his cheek. “Please sit down, Sister. I have an important phone call I have to finish. What? Yes. I have someone in my office. I shall call you when I am free.” He put down the receiver and stared at her. “What makes you think I have all day to talk to you, Sister? I have important work to do here. I am sure your bishop will agree.”

“This is a murder investigation, Mr. Neri. Perhaps you would like to answer my questions in the station in Avalle. I can arrange that."

Brother Salvatore sauntered in. “The chief detective would like us to bring in the new evidence, Sister. I called Bassi. He’s on his way.”

“Mr. Neri, I though
t you would like to see something the security company has unearthed. She slipped the picture across his desk.”

Neri donned his reading glasses and looked at the grainy photo. “At what am I looking?”

“That’s a frame of streaming video from one of your cameras. It’s the one off the courtyard pointing up the hill at the cottages.”

“When was this taken? At night?”

“Yes, hence the lack of clarity.”

“Aren’t
these are the monks returning to their cottages after compline?”

“Yes.”

“So?”

“Who do you see?”

“There seem to be two
eremiti
walking up one of the paths.”

“And who are they?”

“They have their backs to us. If I am looking up the correct path, one should be Brother Donato and the other should be Brother Pietro. I assume that because you found a body I am supposed to tell you that one of them is an imposter.”

“Can’t you see the difference?”

“I cannot really see the one in front. Is he going into Father Donato’s cottage? I presume you believe that that is indeed Father Donato. That leaves the closer figure. He is short. Brother Pietro was not short.”

“Is he wearing a habit
like that of that of the other hermits?”

“Why is he wearing the cowl? Unless it
is snowing or raining, most of the
eremiti
do not wear their cowls. Are there any other cameras that can catch this monk at another angle?”

“No. that’s the only camera positioned inside the courtyard.”

“I am not sure there are enough cameras.”

“Look at the robe, Mr. Neri. Do some of the hermits wear a different kind of robe?”

“There might be some differences. But look at his shoes. I believe the
eremiti
wear sandals to and from services—at least in the summer. Are you certain this picture was the night of the explosion? Could not the date on this been changed? I think I watched a detective show on television last week where someone managed to change the dates.”

“This is from
a video camera, Mr. Neri. Although the camera didn’t catch the explosion directly, the camera later seemed to shake and you can hear the boom.”

“So what are you saying, Sister? That is our murderer?”

“I don’t know who he is. I was wondering if you did.”

“I was at home with my wife and two sons.”

“Do you recognize the person with that figure or with that design of robe?”

“No.”

Sister Angela and Brother Salvatore walked across the courtyard to the kitchen.

“Hey,” said Pozza. “Have you asked anyone else about the knife?”

“Not yet,” said Brother Salvatore. “I know I’ve seen it somewhere. I’ve hardly spent any time at the monastery to ask about it there.”

Bassi walked in. “I hear you two need a ride back down.”

“I would like to stop at the power company in Collinaterra. Then we need to go to the station in Avalle.”

“Do you have
another list of supplies you need, Pozza? I can pick those up while I’m waiting for our detectives in Avalle.”

The nun and the monk walked into the power office and asked to see Lippi. “Hello, Mr. Vito. Is Mr. Lippi in?”

“Yes. One moment,” he said, phoning the manager. “He’ll be right out.”

Lippi opened the door almost immediately. “What can I help you with, Sister?”

“I just want to know if
what was written on the note we found has anything to do with this company. Excuse me if I don’t hand you the note. It has my fingerprints on it because I didn’t know it was evidence, but anymore fingerprints will muddle the lab.” She turned over the plastic sandwich bag and walked over to the window for more light. The number is G59-243794-S.”

He wrote it down.
“That looks like a product number. Not from this office but from an online house of some sort. Watch, I’ll go to the internet and open one of the computer game retailers. The product number for a Mario game is T5938984-L2. Every company has its own product number for what they sell.”

“It sounds like trying to find a specific tree in our forest.”

“Actually, you can google the number and see what comes out. Here it is. The company seems to be a Busto Sistemi. So let’s look up that company. Ah, here. It makes electronic equipment.”

“Why would anyone
write that down and hide it?”

“It looks l
ike a pretty good clue, Sister,” said Brother Salvatore. “If I were going to be murdered, I might write down something like that—just in case the culprits found the note. I think this hermit might have known who was looking for him.”