Free The Monster of Florence by Magdalen Nabb

and went on to Piazza Pitti where the huge file on the “Monster” case awaited his attention. As it happened, quite a number of other things and people were awaiting his attention and at half past eight in the evening the file still lay closed on his desk. He would have preferred not to take it with him but the alternative, coming into his office after supper, was too miserable a thought to contemplate and so he tucked the thing under his arm as he turned out the lights and locked up.
    “What have you got there?” Teresa asked, without really looking, as she tried to get to the fridge to open it.
    “Nothing.”
    “Don’t stand there. Aren’t you going to have a shower?”
    He left the file in the bedroom where there was no chance of the boys seeing it and then got showered and changed. Teresa, with the same idea in mind, waited until the boys had gone to do their homework before asking, as she stacked the plates in the dishwasher, “How did you get on?”
    “It wasn’t as bad as I expected.”
    “Things never are.”
    He told her about young Bacci, whom she’d never met as she’d still been down at home in Sicily in those days.
    “But he must be a bit young and inexperienced, surely, for a big case like that?”
    “He’ll get some experience now, then,” he answered crossly, unwilling to admit that the same thought had crossed his own mind. “Anyway, he’ll be as pleased as punch. He always fancied himself as a detective.” He got up. “I need a coffee.”
    “But you never have coffee after supper.”
    “I’ve got to stay awake, go through some paperwork. I’ll make it.”
    “I’ll go and get the boys moving, then.”
    As he waited for the coffee to bubble up he opened the file on the kitchen table. He felt a bit depressed, but it wasn’t because of the case. He realized what it was as he poured his coffee out and sat down. It was that this sitting alone in the kitchen with paperwork in front of him was a strong reminder of the bad old days before Teresa and the boys had come up to Florence, released to him by the death of his mother whom Teresa had cared for after her stroke. That was the only time in his life that he’d lived alone and he’d hated every minute of it. And—that was it—talking about the days when Bacci had been with him had been an even stronger reminder. How glad he was now to think of Teresa there, having a moment’s peace while the boys were in their room playing and quarrelling instead of doing their homework. He spooned sugar into the thick scalding coffee and drank it in two sips. So stimulated and comforted, he opened the file and faced its terrible contents.
    PREMISE: SECTION 1
    FACTS RELATING TO THE SEVEN DOUBLE HOMICIDES COMMITTED IN THE AREA SURROUNDING FLORENCE BETWEEN 1974 AND 1985 BY PERSON OR PERSONS KNOWN AS THE ‘MONSTER.’
1985
On the 9th September 1985, in the early hours of the afternoon, the carabinieri on duty in the Station of San Casciano Val di Pesa were informed that in a wooded area adjacent to Via degli Scopeti, a stretch of road linking San Casciano with the Via Cassia which runs between Siena and Florence, a body had justbeen found. The marshal commanding the station repaired immediately to the zone indicated with his men and established that the body was that of a young man who had received a number of gunshot wounds and knife wounds in various parts of his body. The body itself was partly hidden by shrub and a pile of empty paint tins which had been tossed on to it. In the clearing immediately above it and very close by stood a Volkswagen Golf. The car was white and had French numberplates: beside it a Canadian-style tent had been pitched. The tent showed a large rent in the cloth at the back. Inside lay the naked body of a young woman who likewise had received numerous gunshot and stab wounds. The woman’s body also showed evidence of mutilation, the pudenda and left breast having been removed.
   It was evident before the autopsy