Free Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon Page A

was that he had spoken to Signora Gismondi, and everything she said led him to believe that he had indeed done as Signorina Elettra suggested and got the truth out of her.
    Now he went downstairs to Signorina Elettra’s office and found her talking on the phone. She raised a hand and held up two fingers to signal that it would take but a moment to finish the call, bent and took a few notes, then said thank you and hung up.
    â€˜How did that happen?’ he asked, noddingwith his chin to the point where Lieutenant Scarpa had stood.
    â€˜Know thy enemy,’ she answered.
    â€˜Meaning?’ he asked.
    â€˜He hates you, but he’s only deeply suspicious of me, so all I had to do was offer him the chance to force you to do something you didn’t want to do, and the desire to do that was enough to overcome his distrust of me.’
    â€˜You make it sound so easy,’ he said, ‘like something in a textbook.’
    â€˜The carrot and the stick,’ she said, smiling. ‘I offered him the carrot, which he thought he could turn into a stick he could use to beat you.’ Then, suddenly serious, she asked, ‘What did the woman say?’
    â€˜That she took the Romanian woman to the train station, bought her a ticket to Bucharest, and left her there.’
    â€˜How long before the train left?’ she asked instantly.
    He was pleased that she too could see the weakest link in Signora Gismondi’s story. ‘About an hour before the train left.’
    â€˜The newspapers said it happened over by the Palazzo del Cammello.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜There would have been more than enough time, then, wouldn’t there?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜Why bother?’ he asked. ‘This woman, Assunta Gismondi, says she gave the Romanianwoman about seven hundred Euros,’ he began, and when he saw Signorina Elettra raise her eyebrows he continued, ‘and I believe she did.’ Cutting off her question, he said, ‘She’s impulsive, the Gismondi woman, and I think generous.’ Indeed, he was convinced that these were two of the qualities that had brought her to the Questura this morning, those and honesty.
    Signorina Elettra pushed her chair back from her desk and crossed her legs, revealing a short red skirt and a pair of shoes with heels so high they would have raised her above even the worst
acqua alta
.
    â€˜If you will permit me a seemingly impertinent question, Commissario,’ she began, and at his nod she continued, ‘is this your head or your heart speaking?’
    He considered for a moment, then answered, ‘Both.’
    â€˜Then,’ she said, getting to her feet, a process which raised her almost to his height, ‘I think I’d better go down to Scarpa’s office and make a copy of the file.’
    â€˜Isn’t it in there?’ he asked, waving a hand towards her computer.
    â€˜No. The lieutenant prefers to type up his reports and keep them in his office.’
    â€˜Will he give them to you?’
    She smiled. ‘Of course not.’
    Feeling not a bit foolish, he asked, ‘Then how will you get it?’
    She bent down and opened a drawer. From it she took a thin leather case, and when sheopened it he saw a set of picks and tools frighteningly similar to the ones he sometimes used. ‘I’ll steal it, Commissario. And make a copy. Then put it back where I found it. And, as the lieutenant is a suspicious man, I shall be especially careful when I replace the half-toothpick which he leaves between the seventh and eighth pages of files he thinks are important and which he fears other people will try to see.’
    Her smile broadened. ‘If you’d like to wait for me in your office, Commissario, I’ll bring the copy up as soon as I’ve made it.’
    He had to know. ‘But where is he?’ What he really wanted to ask was how she knew that Scarpa was not in his