Free Death in Springtime by Magdalen Nabb Page A

two weeks in all, but not always in Florence. They spent some time in the north.'
    'Did he have business there?'
    'No, none. Debbie was upset that they didn't spend all their time here with her.'
    'What did they do in Florence?'
    'Mostly sightseeing. And some shopping, he bought his wife quite a lot of jewellery.'
    'And his daughter?'
    'He bought her a fur coat, as a late Christmas present.'
    'Was she wearing it the day you were kidnapped?'
    'No. It's still in the flat.'
    'Wasn't it snowing that morning?'
    'Yes, but it wasn't a bit cold.'
    'Did her parents stay in the flat with her?'
    'No, there's only one bedroom. They stayed at the Excelsior.'
    'Did Maxwell give his daughter an allowance? Is that what she lived on?'
    'Yes. A telegraphic order arrived every month.'
    'Do you have any idea how much it was for?'
    'Yes. She sometimes signed it over to me if she needed it urgently and hadn't time to queue at the post office. It was always for two million lire.'
    'That's a lot of money for a student.'
    'They could afford it, I suppose.'
    The Captain interrupted: 'Do you also live on an allowance?'
    'Yes, but it's about half what Debbie gets and it's paid not by my father but by his firm of ship's engineers of which he's a director. I can study anywhere I like in Europe for two years.'
    'Do you wish us to inform your father about what's happened?'
    'Do you have to? If it's not necessary from your point of view I'd rather you didn't. I'm of age, after all, and it would give him a terrible fright. He's had one minor heart attack already, I wouldn't like to cause him another.'
    'Then we'll leave it to you. Lieutenant . . . Something about their contacts and daily habits . . .'
    But the girl had understood.
    'We study Italian for four hours every weekday morning at the Cultural Centre for Foreigners. After that we would go back to my flat which I share with two other students in the Santa Croce area, or to Debbie's. She didn't much like to be on her own.'
    'But she didn't invite you to share her flat?'
    'I suppose she wasn't used to sharing since she's an only child. Most of us only share for financial reasons. She didn't have to.'
    'What did you do with the rest of the day?'
    'We always had homework to do. Later on we would walk round town and maybe go to the cinema. Occasionally Debbie would buy a dress.'
    'Is that how she spent her allowance? On clothes?'
    'Only very occasionally, when the mood took her.'
    'Did she spend much on restaurants, on living well in general, on entertaining?'
    'No, very little.'
    'In that case what did she do with all her money? It must have accumulated. And she didn't have a bank account?'
    'No. That's why she would sometimes sign the order over to me so that I could put it through my account— otherwise she had to queue up at the post office, as I said.'
    'You paid her in cash?'
    'Yes.'
    'So where did she keep the rest of the money?'
    'I don't know. I suppose it must be somewhere in the flat . . .'
    The Captain signed to him to change the subject.
    'Why did she come to Italy?'
    'She said she wanted the experience.'
    'Did she have any boyfriends?'
    The girl hesitated and then said: 'One or two . . .'
    'Nobody special?'
    'No.'
    Again the Captain made a sign and began dictating questions for translation.
    Did they go to any one bar or meeting place regularly?
    Did she take her father to any such place when he was here?
    Did she talk about her family circumstances at school, out of school, in bars or restaurants, to her boyfriend?
    Did the father know other people here independently of his daughter?
    All negatives. And yet somebody had known she was worth kidnapping, somebody had checked on her financial position and her daily movements, probably over a long period.
    The girl was growing pale. Two red spots high on her cheekbones suggested that there was still a trace of fever. She had also become very tense. The Captain was aware that at this stage she was still sufficiently frightened by what had happened