Horoscope Read online

  Horoscope

  Claudio Ruggeri

  Translated by Laura Stecco

  “Horoscope”

  Written By Claudio Ruggeri

  Copyright © 2015 Claudio Ruggeri, Cover Image: ©Jusben (http://mrg.bz/bnGmIA)

  All rights reserved

  Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

  www.babelcube.com

  Translated by Laura Stecco

  “Babelcube Books” and “Babelcube” are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

  Author’s note

  This book is fruit of fantasy.

  Any reference to really occurred facts and/or really existing people is merely casual.

  Table of Contents

  17th December

  18th December

  5 days later (8.00 p.m.)

  24th December

  25th December, Christmas lunch

  26th December

  27th December

  28th December

  Half an hour later

  17th December

  “Hello!”

  “Hello! Good evening, is it the police station?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Ten minutes ago I saw some blood”

  “Wait a second, please... what’s your name?”

  “Mario Vinciguerra”.

  “And, where did you see that blood?”

  “I was in the garage. My neighbour’s door seemed closed, but there was something sliding out, and I think it was blood.”

  “Was it dark?”

  “Yes, at the beginning it was dim, so I switched on the light to see better and I really think it was blood...”

  “Where do you live, Mr. Vinciguerra?”

  “In Frascati, Via delle Vigne 74”.

  “Don’t move, please, wait for us”.

  Some minutes after having received the call, Inspector Parisi hit the road together with his colleague, Marco Venditti.

  The drive towards the signalled place was not so long, at 11:00 p.m. of a winter evening only a few people were obliged to suffer that cold and dampness.

  Once arrived in front of the block of flats in Via delle Vigne 74, the two policemen found Mr. Vinciguerra waiting for them. As soon as he made them out, he rushed out of his car and began waving his arms about.

  Inspector Parisi got off the car to meet him, while his colleague Venditti lingered a little, hoping to find a parking space.

  Once together, the three men immediately set off towards the garage of the building, using the entrance ramp to go down.

  “Excuse me if I was a pain in the neck, but...”

  “It doesn’t matter, Mr. Vinciguerra,” Parisi’s answer didn't allow the interlocutor to continue. Then, with a wave of the hand, the Inspector invited him to stop as soon as they reached the end of the ramp.

  The two policemen, in fact, preferred to head for the signalled door alone. Paying attention not to tread on any possible clue, they reached the door and crouched down, to observe the dark fluid more closely.

  “What do you think, Marco?”

  “I don’t think it’s oil...”

  “Neither do I! Who’s the owner of the garage?”

  “Mr. Fabio Meluzza, he lives on the second floor.”

  “Ok, go and find Mr. Meluzza. But, before help me to open the garage, please.”

  They tinkered about for some seconds, trying to force open the door, before noticing that their efforts were useless, because it was unlocked.

  The contrast between the darkness of the garage and the floodlighting light coming from the entrance-hall, didn’t allow them to see more than a few centimetres far, so the Inspector turned on his torch with the intention of entering, inviting his colleague to find the owner, Mr. Meluzza.

  The agent had just set off towards the ramp to reach the car parked outside, when the Inspector called him back.

  “Wait a moment, Marco, I probably found him.”

  The body of a man, about forty years old, grey-haired and of medium size, lied motionless into the garage, a few metres from the door; one could think he was sleeping, but for a well visible hole between the eyes.

  Agent Venditti approached the body, extracted the wallet from the rear pocket of the victim’s trousers and inspected the driving licence. This confirmed Parisi’s feelings: the body they found belonged to the owner of the garage.

  The zone was immediately isolated, waiting for the arrival of the forensic department; but a few seconds after having informed the technicians the Inspector made another call:

  “Hello!”

  “Hello, Arianna... Angelo’s on the phone. I know it’s late but ... ”

  “Are you looking for Vincent?”

  “Yes, is he near?”

  “Yes, but.... wait a moment, I wake him up.”

  “Yes, please.”

  The Inspector heard strange grumblings coming from the other side of the cord, before he could resume the conversation.

  “What is it?”

  “Hello Vincent, Angelo’s on the phone.....”

  “What the hell has happened?”

  “Did I woke you up maybe?”

  “Useless to ask now... tell me what happened instead.”

  Parisi limited to the essential, while explaining to the Commissioner what had happened that night. Germano took some notes, then he got up and get dressed.

  “Who was killed this time, Vincent?”

  “A certain Fabio Meluzza, do you know him, Arianna?”

  “I don’t remember, should I?”

  “No matter... but the name seems familiar to me.”

  “So I think you should go, come on!”

  “Ok, I’m leaving .... Have a good night, Arianna!”

  “See you later, Vincent...”

  That December night, the seventeenth to be precise, the thermometer of the car on which Germano was driving showed 4°C, the almost icy air helped the Commissioner to wake up completely.

  It took him only a few minutes to reach the place where the body had been found. Inspector Parisi was waiting for him at the beginning of the ramp to guide him directly into the garage.

  “Horrible night, isn’t it?”

  “For us it’s a horrible night, Vincent, but for the owner of the last garage it was even worse...”

  “Was it an execution?”

  “I think so, when we switched on the light everything was neat and nothing seems to be missing from the garage. Besides, I don’t think it’s the result of a robbery because we found several hundreds of Euros in the victim’s wallet”.

  “This name, Meluzza, seems familiar to me, Angelo. What do we know about him?”

  “He had some precedents with the police, he was convicted for possession of stolen cars six years ago, we found him by chance during an investigation on gambling dens.”

  “Yes, I remember now...”

  “But, Vincent, I don’t think he felt chastened, considering what we found into the garage...”

  “Something similar to a body shop, I suppose...”

  “Exactly, there is about a hundred parts of cars piled up ...”

  “Once they will be removed, please locate all owners and tell them to come and pick up the remains of their cars.”

  “Ok”

  The conversation stopped when the two policemen reached the place of the murder; the Commissioner tried to get more information from Agent Venditti.

  “Hello, Marco.”

  “Good evening, Commissioner.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “We arrived some minutes after Mr. Vinciguerra’s call, it was about 11.15 p.m.”

  “Please, tell me something about this blood.”

  “Mr. Vinciguerra tells he saw it coming out from the neighbour’s garage when he came down, firs
t of all he switched on the light, in order to be sure it was really blood, then he called the police.”

  After having heard the information, the Commissioner reached Parisi, who stood four-five metres far from Germano.

  “Did this Meluzza live alone?”

  “Yes, he never got married and had no children. He has been living in this block of flats for almost twenty years, I asked Mr. Vinciguerra if he remembered some girlfriend, maybe briefly seen only once, but he said no.”

  “I see, a part from the possession of stolen goods, was the victim involved in further traffics?”

  “I will verify more in depth, Vincent, but at the moment we don’t have further results; however maybe this information can be useful: Mr. Meluzza was called The Taurus by his fellows...”

  “We will soon find out the meaning of this nickname... in the meantime let everything seize, both from the garage and from the apartment, try to identify all means of communication he used and please find someone to question who was in strong relations with the victim; if you don’t find anything, start from the aids he had six years ago, when he was investigated for possession of stolen goods.”

  “Ok, Vincent... Doctor Silvestri just arrived”

  Germano turned and looked at the head of the forensic department who, feeling the Commissioner’s stare on him, decided to anticipate him:

  “Come with me, Germano....”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t you want to know something more about the body? The news at first hand you usually are interested in ....”

  “Yes but.... I see, you wants to spare yourself the questioning!”

  “Of course...”

  They both got into the garage and started whispering sentences, incomprehensible to all the others. According to the doctor’s suppositions, the man had probably died that night at about 10 p.m.

  He also confirmed that the cause of the death was the bullet shot in the middle of Meluzza’s forehead.

  Germano finished writing in his notebook, before leaving Silvestri and going back to his collaborators Venditti and Parisi. This latter finished the previous interrupted talk:

  “For some time now Silvestri has changed...”

  “In fact in the last period his helpfulness increased a lot, Angelo.”

  The mystery was solved by Venditti, who revealed to the colleagues that Silvestri’s wife had suddenly died some time ago and of course their colleague was suffering a lot for that.

  After having verified that in the garage locks there were no signs of breaking, Germano looked around and moved up and down into the entrance-hall, trying to understand from where the killer could have entered and left.

  Considering that there were neither automatic nor manual gates, which could prevent a stranger to access the entrance ramp, the most probable entrance and flight way used by the killer seemed to be exactly the ramp.

  This assumption was partially confirmed by the fact that the main entrance to access the stairs which lead into the building, could be opened from the outside only with a key; Mr. Vinciguerra confirmed he found the door closed when, walking on the stairs, he reached the garages entrance.

  The Commissioner wanted to ask him a last question:

  “Good evening, Mr. Vinciguerra, my name is Germano, I’m the Commissioner in charge of the investigation.”

  “Good evening, Mr. Germano.”

  “Out of curiosity, in the building is there some resident... let’s say.... a bit curious?”

  “Do you mean someone who never minds his own bloody business?”

  “In a sense...”

  “Let’s see... you can speak with Mrs. Elvira Rossi, she should be almost ninety years old, she’s widowed but her enthusiasm is the one of a teenager.”

  “Excellent, thank you, Mr. Vinciguerra.”

  “My pleasure, Commissioner!”

  After having informed his colleagues about the fact, Germano headed for the first floor of the building, found Mrs. Elvira’s door and rang the bell, convinced that, even if it was almost midnight, she wasn’t sleeping.

  “Who is it?”

  “The Police, Madam...”

  The door opened as if by magic, without Mrs. Elvira Rossi asking for further information. Obviously, she already knew everything.

  “Please, tell me.”

  “Could I come in for a while, Madam? My name is Germano, I’m a Commissioner.”

  “Please, come in, but get a move on, it’s cold out there.”

  The elderly woman immediately showed empathy towards Germano and offered to prepare him a coffee.

  The Commissioner glanced at Mrs. Rossi’s thin silhouette heading for the kitchen, thinking that Vinciguerra had been rude defining her a ninety-year-old meddler.

  Once the coffee had been served, they started to sip it, without saying a single word. Then, Germano decided to start.

  “It’s an excellent coffee, Madam...”

  “I’m without merit, the responsible is my mocha coffee pot... I simply fill it up.”

  “Yes, of course .... I suppose you can imagine while I’m here....”

  “I think so. He has been killed, isn’t it?”

  “There’s a dead person down there, but I don’t know if we are speaking of the same person...”

  “Meluzza?”

  “Yes, it’s him... but in this building there are twelve families, why did you think of him?”

  “He was the strangest, nobody really liked him.”

  “I see... I have a question for you, Madam, but I need you to be sure of your answer, if you have any doubt please tell me, no problem.”

  “Please, ask me the question, Commissioner.”

  “Did you hear the door of Meluzza’s garage, that is just under your flat, opening or closing this night?”

  “Yes, Commissioner, at about 10 p.m.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because at 10 p.m. I must take a medicine for high pressure and I remember I cursed that noise exactly when I was swallowing the pill.”

  “Why did you curse it?”

  “I had asked Mr. Meluzza not to make noise with that door or at least to oil it. Unfortunately, in my flat every noise booms a lot and every time he opened or closed that door, it seemed there was an earthquake.”

  “I see... one last question, please. How many times did you hear the noise of the door tonight? I mean...”

  “I understood Commissioner, I heard it only once at about 10 p.m., but I didn’t notice if it had been opened or closed.”

  “Never mind, Madam... you have been very useful to me and... thanks for the coffee.”

  The Commissioner got down into the basement, where there were the garages, having still several doubts, one of which could be immediately solved by consulting the first person he met in the stairs, Doctor Silvestri.

  “Excuse me, Doctor.”

  “Tell me, Germano.”

  “Meluzza died in the same place where we found him?”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  “Thanks, Silvestri.”

  Once got down, Germano analysed much more carefully the inside of the garage. More than hundreds of parts taken from other cars, there was also a Fiat Croma, that was immediately identified as the victim’s car.

  The Commissioner analysed the car only from the outside, because any contact could make useless the collection and analysis of the objects present into the car.

  He only asked a question about the possible presence of notepads or receipts.

  Into the glove compartment was found a receipt of a local car-wash, which was only a few kilometres far, of that same day at 7:47 p.m.

  Germano noted down to go and visit the car-wash the day after, as soon as it opened.

  While he was still examining the crime scene, Parisi called him.

  “Vincent, Mr. Vinciguerra asks if he can go, after all....”

  “Of course he can. Any news?”

  “Nothing new, the only news is about the bore of the gun, at
a guess it could be a 7.65, but we must wait for the final confirmation.”

  “We will wait, then.”

  “And from you, Vincent, any news?”

  “I spoke with the lady who lives just over the garage, I wanted to remove a doubt, while now I have also another.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We must understand who was in the car with Meluzza when he arrived. Mrs. Elvira asserts she heard the garage door opening only once, so the victim cannot have opened to the killer later.”

  “Maybe he opened it carefully, in order not to wake up the residents...”

  “In order to be polite, Angelo? I don’t think so. If Meluzza was going to make something illegal, he would have made no noise also the first time he opened.”

  “The killer could have come later on....”

  “This could be true, but in this case why should he have had all that care not the wake up the residents?”

  “We will discover it, Vincent... What about Meluzza’s old and main partner? Shall we go and talk with him immediately?”

  “Let’s wait a bit. For now let’s start with interceptions and shadowing, both physical and electronic.”

  “Ok, I will have a look at the places he visited in the last days and nothing more. By the way, his name is Valerio Vinci, in case you should need to know, he has a machine shop near Via Appia.”

  “Just a moment, Angelo, I write it down... for now it’s all, good-bye.”

  “Ok, Vincent, good-bye.”

  Once dismissed his colleague, the Commissioner headed for the entrance of the garages, looking for some video camera that could have shot something, but there was none.

  The first thing Germano would have tried to discover the following day, was the importance that the evident activity of Meluzza, the possession of stolen goods, could have had on its accounts. That is, if it was a way to supplement his salary or not.

  18th December

  The temperature reduced again during that December night, the more and more intense cold made restless the Commissioner’s nights, while he tried, often in vain, to sleep at least a few hours without continually waking up victim of shivers.

  The first who arrived at the police station, that morning, was Germano, who kept in his hands a glass of hot tea, hoping to benefit from it.

  More than the Commissioner, also the police doctor was out of bed long since. Some minutes before 8.00 a.m. he decided to call Germano.