As tears go by

// 31 The Elderly Home

The Venetian warden was at the end of his shift when saw a non-descriptive man and a shabby-looking woman standing in front of his counter. He jumped, surprised. He did not see or hear them enter and walk up. They had been silent like two ghosts. They looked at him expressionless and malevolent as the devil in person.

The non-descriptive man did the talking. He spoke in a polite and educated voice. His Italian was word perfect. Impossible to guess where he was from. No twang at all, no scattered syllables or tied together. No accent at all stressing vowels or consonants.

The warden sighed when he heard the name and sagged back against his chair.

"Second time in two days Luvi's in the visitors' list. Somebody visited him yesterday."

"Are you speaking about a young blond woman?" The warden interjected, glanced the watch on the wall, yawned, nodded.

"None visit pops for ages. All the other oldies have friends or children visiting them on Sundays, a couple of them a black whore once a week. Pops is always alone, ever. Non phone calls, no letters, no Christmas gifts. The loneliest person in the world. It made me sad. Once I wanted to invite him home for a Christmas dinner. He refused. This place is like a death row, but if someone visits you, it is like to keep at bay the reaper for another day. If you are alone, it is different. Outside there is the graveyard, as you certainly noticed before entering here. Death is always in front of you."

"The guy who built this place had quite a disturbing sense of humour," Sergei told him, smiling politely.

The warden nodded again. "I agree with you. It disturbs me to look at it every time I glance outside."

"So, you told us a blond woman visited him.."

"I told you about a blond visitor? I don't remember, now, sometimes I run my mouth too much, and as it happens to old motormouths I forgot what I just said a moment before. It must be the place we are in."

Sergei pushed towards him a fifty euro note.

The warden pocketed it in a split-second, and tipped his brow with his finger. "Sorry, my mind comes and goes. Yes a stunning blond woman visited him. Desperation was in her eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"What I just said. She was desperate but she hid it. Then she looked behind her a couple of times, like she feared to be pursued."

"You a shrink?"

The warden laughed. "Just joking. She was deadpan, but her eyes gave her away. I am sure of it. I am a good observer, that's all. With all these old-timers playing dumb here, you have to find a way to survive."

Sergei showed him Anastasya's picture.

The warden chuckled. "Yes, that's pops' woman. I am afraid if you want to speak with him, Luvi departed. As soon as the woman left, he followed suit, his mountain gear on his shoulder. He is a weirdo, I told you. None climbs mountains in winter."

"What do we do now?" Commissario Ferro asked Sergei walking towards the car. The cemetery was so nearby that they had the awkward feeling they could fall in.

"This Luvi is a smokescreen."

"She is here for someone else?"

"Let's go to pay Kirill a visit."

"Who the fuck is Kirill?"

"Kirill was Cubays' chum in Afghanistan. What a coincidence, he lives nearby."

"How do you know such a thing?"

"I spent the night flight studying Cubays's CV thoroughly. I know to tie knots and clue together. It is the only explanation. This Luvi is a nobody. She is trying to deceive us, as her stop at Venezia Airport. Anti-surveillance tactics. She went there just to be recorded by the CCTV. She wasn't expecting to bump into my men."

"I don't understand."

"Because you are not a soldier of razviedka."

"Bullshit. I did my service in Folgore, the Italian paratroopers."

Sergei stopped short. "I thought that only Russia had female soldiers. It is a tradition started by Catherine of Russia."

"You don't like action women, am I right?"

"Well, women have to feed babies, clean the house and cook for their husbands. Leave warfare to the men."

"You a jerk, and a sexist."

Sergei giggled.