Free The Disappearance of Signora Giulia by Piero Chiara Page B

for his own confrontation with Barsanti. The appeal was granted, and a few days after their face-to-face, he was able to set down a few facts:
that Barsanti had received the famous letter exactly four days before the crime;
that Barsanti did not remember having shredded or destroyed it, but in any case he hadn’t saved it and couldn’t put his hand on it;
that Barsanti had sold his furniture from the flat on viale Premuda to a shopkeeper in via Fiori Chiari, four or five days after receiving the letter;
that he’d moved to Rome the next day;
that in one of his first letters to Signora Giulia he had told her about having at last found an apartment at viale Premuda, n. XY;
that he had signed some of his letters with his Christian name, and others with both Christian name and surname.
    After the meeting Esengrini went back to his cell, asked for paper, pen and ink, and made another appeal to the authorities. He requested an inspection of his office and a search for the Molinari file: S.I.R.C.E. In the folder a sealed yellowenvelope would be found with ‘Molinari Accounts: supporting documentation’ written on it. The envelope was to be opened by the investigators, who would find in it conclusive proof in the form of the famous letter received by Barsanti.
    The magistrate couldn’t understand where Esengrini was going with this or how the letter had come into his possession. He had the feeling that he was playing a game of chess with the ablest of adversaries, to whose moves he had to submit from the moment he failed to prevent them.
    He went to the lawyer’s office, found the file and the large yellow envelope inside it, and opened it seated at Esengrini’s desk. Inside, he discovered two letters in their envelopes, one of them typewritten on the Esengrini office letterhead with the old address in via Lamberti and addressed to Luciano Barsanti, viale Premuda, n. XY. He read:
    M——, 15 May 1955.
    Dear Sir,
    I am aware of your arrangement with my wife Giulia. I have no intention of causing a scandal and I advise you to put an end to the situation. Should you fail to do so I will pursue the matter with the utmost rigour. I rely on your good sense and alert you to the fact that I am prepared to take action that would see you in jail. Don’t mention this letter to my wife: it would only be perpetuating the betrayal.
    It was signed by Esengrini.
    The magistrate was stymied. How could the letter have come into Esengrini’s hands? He found the explanation inthe other letter. It was in an envelope with the letterhead of another lawyer, Attilio Panelli of Milan, via Marsiglia, n. XX, and was worded precisely as follows:
    Milan, 20 May 1957.
    Dear Colleague,
    The enclosed letter with your address on it was found in the drawer of one of the items of furniture in the forced sale of effects during the course of proceedings against one Antonio Nanni and the sale of effects previously seized from said Nanni, trading in used furniture from the warehouse in via Fiori Chiari, n. XX. As the letter concerns neither the accused nor my client, I thought it best to return it to you, thereby preventing matters relating to your private life from coming to the attention of strangers.
             Cordially,
                            Attilio Panelli
    So, the magistrate reasoned, Barsanti had forgotten the letter at the back of a drawer. The furniture, sold by the rag-and-bone man of via Fiori Chiari, had ended up at auction and the letter, falling into the hands of the lawyer Panelli had, with the delicacy of a colleague, been returned to sender.
    But of what interest was it to Esengrini to produce it now? Hadn’t he always denied having written it? The letter appeared to have been sent from M—— on a Saturday, and to have arrived in Milan on the following Monday. Three days later, on Thursday, Signora Giulia had disappeared. Barsanti’s statement regarding his encounter with the lawyer corresponded with the