Read Online Vipers by Maurizio de Giovanni, Antony Shugaar - Free Book Online Page A

rejects. Until I looked up at the little balcony where the young ladies parade, and there she was, my Rosaria. And she looks at me, and she doesn’t say a word. I get to my feet, I wait until she gives me a sign, I pay what I’m required to pay for an hour, and I go up to her room. For a few minutes, Commissa’, we don’t say a word: we just look each other in the face. Then, we start sobbing like a couple of fools, and we embrace.”
    The rain, which by now was driving, left streaks down the panes like the tracks of tears. The piazza was filling up with people looking up at the sky in bewilderment, using both hands to grip the umbrellas that the wind was trying to tear away.
    â€œSix months went by. I have plenty of money, I don’t have bad habits, and the company’s doing well. I’d go to see Rosaria every day: I paid for her time. I’d stretch out on the bed with her, and we’d talk; we had so many stories to tell each other. And of course we’d kiss. But not
that
, no, we didn’t do that. I wanted to wait.”
    Ricciardi thought of the blond hairs on the pillow that had smothered Viper, identical to the hair of the man before him.
    â€œWhat were you waiting for, Coppola?”
    â€œI had found the love of my life again, Commissa’. The only woman I wanted by my side, the companion I’d chosen when I was still just a child. In your opinion, what else could I have wanted? I’d asked her to marry me. To leave that job, that despicable place, and to come live with me and be the queen of my home, to take the place that was waiting for her.”
    â€œWhen did you ask her to marry you? And what was her answer?”
    Coppola ran a hand through his hair, the color of ripe wheat.
    â€œI asked her many times, over the past few months. We talked it over, we talked it about it a lot. She was always vague, she said that by now everyone knew what work she’d been doing these past few years, that she would have brought me shame, thrown it in my face, that everyone would laugh at us. I told her that for her I’d be willing to move to a new city, that we could move somewhere no one knew us; I’d have taken her son with me, and I’d have raised him as my own. I’d talked her into it, I know that she’d made up her mind to marry me. Just yesterday, she’d asked me for a few more hours before making a definitive decision.”
    Ricciardi was listening carefully, attentive to every last detail.
    â€œSo you’re saying that she had not yet given her answer. And what was your last conversation like? Did you argue?”
    Giuseppe replied with great vehemence:
    â€œNo, absolutely not! She kissed me tenderly and told me: don’t you worry. Come back tomorrow, and I’ll tell you what I’ve decided. But she was smiling, and I knew her very well: she’d decided to say yes, I’m telling you. She was going to marry me. That’s why they killed her, don’t you see? Precisely because she had decided to marry me and to leave that vile place!”
    He slumped back in his chair, overwrought, sobbing uncontrollably, both hands pressed to his face. His brother, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, turned to Ricciardi:
    â€œMy brother is innocent, Commissa’. He’d never have lifted a finger against Rosaria. When she died, he died too; he’ll never have a wife now, never have a son or a future. It’s up to us, up to his family, to stand by him now.”
    Ricciardi rose to his feet.
    â€œAll the same, I have to ask that you remain at our disposal and that you not leave the city without our authorization. For my part, I can only promise you that we will do our utmost, let me reiterate, our utmost, to make sure that the person murdered this young woman doesn’t get away with it.”
    Giuseppe stood up, still sobbing. His brother accompanied him to the door, his arms wrapped around him. Ricciardi was