Free Into the Killer Sphere by Stefania Mattana

were rending the air, while the reassuring face of Gloria, back from her garbage-clearing mission, peeped out from the fur-trimmed collar of her coat. She came up to Agata and, linking arms with her, took her towards her husband’s car.
    “Dear Agata, you’re so stressed, poverina ! You need to focus on Piero’s farewell to pay him his last respects. Nothing else matters now. You should rest your mind as well,” she said, then turned to her husband. “Marco, let’s go to the church, we’re late. Give the kids a call; tell them we’re coming.”
    Marco finally awakened from his trance. He nodded a greeting to everyone, gently touching Rachele’s hands and showing her his sympathy. Gloria, on the other hand, threw only a glance at her niece before turning her back and heading to the car. Rachele replied to her with louder sobs. Chase couldn’t decipher their nonverbal dialogue; he didn’t understand women. He had never understood them, even when they spoke, let alone when they didn’t.
    Speaking or not, Chase couldn’t take his eyes off Gloria. She’d been the only one able to keep calm and react quickly, separating the grandmother and the granddaughter.
    Gloria became aware of Chase’s gaze at her.
    “Sorry for this unpleasant scene,” she sighed, having put Agata inside the car, and closed the door. “As you can see we’re all exhausted and stressed. It’s a tragedy that my mother-in-law just cannot swallow without it being misinterpreted, none of us can. I hope she can bear it.”
    After having said this to Chase, she turned her back to him without even waiting for his reply. Not that he had anything to say.
    Rachele and Simone quickly returned to the house as soon as Gloria had borne Signora Galli away. Chase heard their voices coming from inside, the front door being open, but his knowledge of Italian wasn’t adequate to allow him to understand what they were saying. However, it seemed that Simone was impatient with his fiancée because she couldn’t stop crying.
    Chase couldn’t believe his eyes: an attempted homicide against Agata Galli had just happened in the same house where her son had died, using the same object-falling-down technique. And despite a little verbal fencing, no one looked particularly worried. Only Signora Galli had showed a hint of fear since she had been the target of the murderer. No one had pointed a finger at anyone else, apart from Agata blaming Rachele. Everybody had realised that the murderer was probably hiding amongst them, yet no one looked particularly agitated. No one had talked to Chase or alerted the police, asking for protection. Indeed, they went straight on with their plans: Piero’s funeral.
    Just before getting into the car with Marco, Gloria and Agata, Ramona rushed to Chase. Still panting, she had enough breath only to say one sentence to him.
    “You gotta find the evidence, please. She deserves to go to jail.”
    Then she ran back to the Audi and closed the door.

Chapter 9
     
    Chase hated tangling with his friend. No matter how Chase worded what he said, Angelo always came up trumps in the end. It was something Chase’s mother used to complain about when he was a kid and his family was visiting with Angelo’s due to their fathers’ friendship.
    "These Italian country children are too exuberant, they never say thank you or please. They’re very impertinent. Gigliola should rebuke that Angelo of hers more often, and his daredevil of a brother,” she used to say. Chase was regretting the fact that Angelo’s mother hadn’t paid any attention to his mother.
     
    “I repeat, mate, you ought to monitor the entire perimeter of the house, put someone on every suspect’s heels. What do you mean, attending the funeral will be enough?” Chase moaned on the phone.
    “They’re coming here, all of them, right? So, we can keep an eye on them here at the church. Everything’s fine, Chase. I don’t know what you’re so upset about. All of them were already