The Discordant Note (6 page)

The two had lunch together in one of the many Italian restaurants in Monaco of Bavaria, whose sign recited “
Da Piero
”, that was actually no more than three blocks from the district of the German
Polizei
.

Once seated at the table, Germano allowed himself to give some information about the words of the two women; he confessed to the German commissioner that these meetings, although they did not provide overwhelming evidences, surely would have allowed the Italian Police to be less groping in the dark.

Theodor Kaiser, however, seemed to appreciate the attempt to share the investigation, despite the confidence that such situations usually require; once they paid the bill, they finally returned to their offices.

Germano’s office, equipped with all the essential tools during that short stay, hosted the Italian commissioner for more than two hours that afternoon, during which, in addition to a reordering of his notes, he found also some time to make a phone call to the
Bel Paese
.

“Hello”.

“Angelo? It’s Vincent”.

“Hey boss! How’s Germany? Cold?”.

“Angelo ... these stereotypes from peanuts ... it’s sunny actually, maybe you’ll see me even more tanned than usual when I’ll be back!”.

“When I see you again?”.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, it was much easier than expected, I’m not saying I’ve found Master Brandenburg’s murderer but at least I know something more about his life and contacts”.

“It’s not there that we have to look for it, eh?”.

“I don’t think so, but I found out that Corinna was not actually one of his possible lovers, she’s his own daughter”.

“You had already anticipated, Vincent, that the surprises were far from finished ...”.

“Yeah”.

“How did you get there?”.

“It was the girl's mother to tell me the whole story, that Helena Singer who had phoned a couple of times to the Master; she told me that she met the Master almost thirty five years ago and had a long love story with him, love story that led to the birth of this child”.

“There's something that doesn’t make sense to me, Vincent...”.

“If you let me finish... it happened that the Master, at the end, did not want that responsibility; according to the lady, indeed, he was very poor, and that’s why he came to Italy”.

“What do you think about it?”.

“In my opinion, Brandenburg was led to understand how his presence was not welcome within that family of industrialists; then, in order to avoid years of discussions and hypocrisies, he packed up and left. The scandal was finally covered up with a marriage of interests, promptly put in place by the Singer family”.

“What about the lady?”.

“Very talkative, Angelo ... just that I had the impression that the Master was for her only one kind of whim, a distraction, something special, light years away from hypocrisy, fake smiles and monotony of a typical upper middle class family”.

“Damn ... have you also talked with Brandenburg’s daughter?”.

“Of course, born Corinna Adler”.

“What about her, instead?”.

“Very different story ... she tried not to show her true feelings; indeed, during our brief conversation she was almost daring me, but in the end she couldn’t resist to show up her affection to the Master. I personally believe she really suffered about learning the news of her real father’s death”.

“I think so, Vincent, if you remember some of the phrases Corinna wrote to the Master, the few that the interpreter was able to translate yesterday, well ... you can say that they are the proof of her affection”.

“Yeah ...”.

“What time will your plane arrive here, tomorrow?”.

“It should land at Fiumicino around five in the afternoon, give or take a minute or two; I think I’ll take a scheduled flight but if I change my mind, I’ll let you know”.

“Okay, I guess now you want to know if there are news from Italy as well, right?”.

“I already know that there aren’t, unfortunately ... otherwise my phone would have started to ring here and instead he did not ...”.

“In our defence there is the fact that you left only one day   ago ...”.

“That's true ...”.

“There's something I need to do before you come?”.

“Actually, yes, Angelo, you should call the Fossi & Sons, the company that deals with the surveillance service of the area; ask them if they can provide us last week records. Corinna told me that she had been to see her father and that she had stayed in his house until Tuesday, a few days ago, so I'm really curious to see what happened around the place during this very period”.

“Alright Vincent, the number is on your desk, right?”.

“Yes, there should be a hand-written piece of paper by that guy who showed up yesterday on behalf of the company, you’ll see that you’ll find there the numbers of those who can give us a   hand ... one more thing, you should take all those letters the Master received, again, and ...”.

“We are already doing, actually”.

“Yes, but this time you’ll have to focus only on the names of those who sent them to him, not on the content of the letters, and then you’ll have to compare them with those written in his personal agenda, as for instance, in those rare occasions when Brandenburg wrote not only the initial but something more about the names of his students”.

“Um ... do you want to know if any of them went to the Master not only to take piano lessons, don’t you?”.

“Let’s say yes ... anyway, to let you know, I’ve also found out that Brandenburg offered violin lessons as well”.

“Okay, so if there won’t be last-minute changes we'll see you tomorrow at five o'clock, right Vincent?”.

“Yes, give or take a minute or two... please, just be there,

Angelo ...”.

“Sure I’ll be there, do you think that I would let you walk?”.

“You can never tell”.

“Um ... tomorrow, Vincent”.

“See you tomorrow”.

Sunday, July 7
^th

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A
ided by the fact that it was a festive day, the commissioner allowed himself a few more hours of sleep; it was a little after ten o'clock of that summer morning when he opened his eyes in his hotel room.

Germano forced himself to get out of bed and start getting ready for breakfast that was waiting for him in the lobby of the small hotel.

It took about twenty minutes to have a wash, shave and wear something decent to go out of his room.

He had breakfast alone and appreciated the fact that the Germans had not forgotten that in the world there are people who still like to start the day with a croissant and a coffee.

The appointment with Theodor Kaiser, who would kindly escorted him to the airport, was set for twelve thirty, right outside the same hotel in which Germano was staying; the Commissioner spent then the rest of that morning sightseeing at least a little bit of Monaco of Bavaria, strolling the streets and buying some souvenirs.

As it was easy to expect, the sedan carrying Theodor Kaiser settled in front of the hotel that housed the Italian commissioner at twelve twenty five; Germano, seeing the silhouette of the car through the windows of the hall, picked up his little hand luggage and headed to the exit.

The two cops exchanged a few phrases along the way to the international airport of Monaco, but this time they did not talk of unsolved cases, homicide or persons to be examined; their conversation, indeed, mostly focused on different aspects of German life and the Italian one as well, two peoples, as it is often said by many, that pretend to hate each other in public, while in private they do not hate at all.

Germano got out of the car, near the large window from which you access the international departures, but before going away, he wanted to say one more thing to his German colleague.

“Your English is so good, Mr. Kaiser”.

“Why do you think they chose me to take you around the city, Germano?”.

“Yeah, of course, but ...”.

“My superiors knew about the fact that you were born in America and ... let's say that they did not want to make a bad impression”.

“But ... this is not typical of your people, Theodor, am I wrong?”.

“No, no mistake, Vincent, however, it is perhaps a little bit as you say in Italian ... the world is the same wherever you go”.

At these last words, the two commissioners smiled each other, before each one took his own way.

The trip back to Italy, was a good chance for Germano to sit a little bit alone and reflect, but this time he did about the investigation he was dealing with; at that point, indeed, he still had no track to follow, no clue that could somehow give a turn to the case, the only thing which the commissioner was certain of, however, was the fact that he had never met the murderer so far, not in Italy nor in Germany.

The smiling face of Angelo Parisi was there waiting, as he had promised; the inspector took the luggage out of Germano’s hands and led him towards the service car parked just outside the arrivals area of the Fiumicino Airport.

The commissioner, since it was Sunday and then little could have been done as part of the investigation, he asked his friend and colleague to take him straight home, but not before having a good coffee together, at one of the many bars open on the seafront near the airport.

Angelo Parisi immediately understood, both from his words and gestures, that there was something behind that strange laxity.

“At the end, did you find what you were looking for?”.

“Yes ... and no, Angelo”.

“Then why didn’t you stay a few more days?”.

“Because it’s not there that we need to look for the murderer; I got the impression that everything is extremely handy but I must have missed something, Angelo ... I need to find out what”.

“Anyway, tomorrow morning we will have everything you asked me yesterday, both the videos and Piazza and Di Girolamo ready to re-examine every single letter”.

“Well, I will be there, but this time I’ll be fresh and rested”.

“That’s better, Vincent ... I'll take you home now?”.

“Let’s go”.

Monday, July 8
^th

––––––––

T
he commissioner spent a nice night that allowed him to rest for several hours, continuously, thing that he hadn’t been able to do for more than a week.

At seven thirty, he was already in his car ready to head to the station and resume the investigation.

Waiting for him, he found none of his colleagues, none but the agents of the night shift; the first to join him was Angelo Parisi, who reached the station around eight thirty and then, one by one, they all finally arrived.

At this time, Germano called everyone into his office to make the point of the situation.

“So guys ... here it is the point ...”, he couldn’t finish his sentence because of a man insistently knocking on the office door.

“Come in”.

“Hi, we met a few days ago, I ...”.

“Do you have the recordings with you?”.

“Sure, Commissioner, here they are, take the DVD, you will find everything about the last week”.

“Very good, thank you, then”.

“You’re welcome”.

Angelo Parisi immediately prepared the monitor and the player, in order to give a look at what had been moving around the house of Master Brandenburg during the last days.

The only camera they could refer to, was the one placed at the entrance of the street, from which they could see both the gate and part of the garden of the house in which the crime was committed.

The images of the previous Saturday went on pretty quickly until, when they had reached the late afternoon, the policemen gathered in Germano’s office saw the silhouette of a woman entering the frame, going up to Brandenburg’s house and buzz the intercom.

After a few seconds, the girl in the video began to greet the landlord, who in the meantime had probably opened the door or was at one of the windows; the way she greeted the man was so warm and with sweeping gestures of the arms, that they immediately understood that she had to be quite intimate with Brandenburg.

To avoid any possible distraction, Germano promptly intervened.

“That’s the daughter, when I talked to her, she told me she came to visit her father last Saturday, now we know she didn’t lie”.

Piazza asked more.

“The daughter, Commissioner? The Corinna we were looking for?”.

“Yeah... Brandeburg had a secret child, Corinna Adler, I was going to tell you when I called you here in my office, but then the guy with the video interrupted me and ...”.

“Damn, Commissioner ...”.

“Yeah, the story is quite strange; anyway, let’s go on with the video”.

They spent the next two hours reviewing the days of Sunday and Monday, as well, in which, with the exception of some sporadic going out and subsequent return of the two, nothing seemed to disturb the secluded and seemingly monotonous existence of the German Master.

Regarding the next day, Tuesday, the images passed quickly on the screen until the hour of dinner, when Corinna Adler reappeared in the video, at the time when she, presumably, greeted his father to go back to Germany; to confirm that, the policemen also managed to catch the shape of the cab going away with the girl on board.

When they set the video images at a higher speed again, Germano noticed something almost imperceptible, first appearing and then vanishing again.

“Excuse me Angelo, send back the tape up to the moment in which Corinna leaves the house, then send it forward very slowly”.

“Okay, Vincent”.

At that point, all those present reviewed the scene of the girl who first came out of the house, and then went away in the cab; it was at that moment that the commissioner suddenly asked him to stop the footage.

“What's that, Angelo?”.

“It looks like the silhouette of a scooter, wait a minute ...”.

In the upper right corner of the screen, they saw what seemed to be the shape of a scooter doing a U-turn to take the main road again; although it was almost completely hidden by some plants, they could still make out the back during the maneuver.

“Maybe, Vincent, it simply took the wrong way ...”.