9781616953539: A Few Drops of Blood
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1616953535 ISBN 13: 9781616953539
Verlag: Soho Press Inc, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Jan Merete Weiss’s Italy comes to life as Captain Natalia Monte of the Naples Carabiniere returns to investigate a murder committed at the heart of the great city’s art community.

When the bodies of two men are found, shockingly posed, in the garden of an elderly countess, Captain Natalia Monte of the Carabiniere is assigned the case. Soon she finds herself shuttling between Naples’s decadent art galleries and violent criminal underworld. If she is to succeed in solving the heinous crime, Natalia must deal with not only her own complicated past and allegiances, but also those of the city as a whole. A riveting and poetic exploration of the violence that lurks in the heart of beauty.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jan Merete Weiss grew up in Puerto Rico. She studied poetry and painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and received a Master's degree from NYU. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines. She lives in New York and lectures at Lehman College.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1
The moon was a ghost when the call came in. The caller said she wished to notify Captain Natalia Monte about two bodies. Routed from another Carabinieri station to hers on Via Casanova, the voice announced herself a countess and said that she didn’t trust ordinary police.
        Moments later Natalia Monte raced through the predawn gray, siren blaring, flashing lights throwing blue and white bolts across buildings and intersections. She drove along Via Carducci, turned onto the Riviera di Chiaia, past its expensive shops and the aquarium, still run down since the Second World War when the hungry raided its tanks.
       The Alfa Romeo zipped along the boulevard, palm trees arched overhead, the plazas dark, the Bay of Naples a blur to her left. On Via Petrarca she shot past a fountain she’d loved as a girl, with marble cherubs blowing trumpets.
Finally she slowed and searched for the turn.
       Natalia spotted the driveway of Palazzo Carraciulo and passed through its open gates, up a long curved drive lush with royal palms. So different from the cramped alleys of old Naples where she lived and worked. A hundred yards in, she pulled alongside a new police Ferrari parked in front of a grey stone mansion, its pristine façade incorporating sleek pediments discreetly illuminated. An ancient butler directed her to the garden. Natalia followed a stone path around the side of the building and flashed her identification at the Carabiniere guarding the scene.
        The lush garden was beautifully wild with grasses and flowers. Several cats dozed on the edge of a patio. Honeysuckle and jasmine perfumed the air. A yellow butterfly on
an orange lily slowly opened and folded its wings.
       Natalia stepped onto the grass and walked toward the rose bushes that surrounded a life-sized horse cast in metal, the centerpiece of a dry fountain half filled with potted blooms—white roses. The sculpture was enormous. Two male figures sat astride the unbridled steed—one man pitched forward, his arms draped along the animal’s neck.
The second man leaned into him from behind. Neither was clothed.
       Natalia stepped closer. Dark splotches marred the creamy petals of flowers encircling the fountain. Already there were flies. She circled the statue slowly, shining a light up at the two, just barely making out dark punctures that riddled their chests. Young men—shotgunned from the look of them. Blood dripped down their torsos and loins, along their legs and the flanks of the horse into the fountain’s basin. Its iron scent mixed with the lush bouquet of the roses.
       Suddenly she noticed the woman by the rhododendrons, motionless as the men. Silver hair framed her face and flowed past her slim shoulders. She wore a white silk

kimono printed with orange and purple cranes. Cranes symbolized long life, Pino, Natalia’s ex, had told her once in an intimate moment. The woman’s eyes were a startling shade of lavender.
       Natalia held up her Carabinieri identification. “Captain Monte. As you requested.”
       “Contessa Antonella Maria Cavazza,” she said and extended her hand, the tiny fingers like a child’s. “Thank you for coming.”
       Natalia took the delicate, age-splotched hand.
       “You found them?”
       “Yes, I made the unhappy discovery.”
       “Do you know the victims?”
       “The second man in back. Vincente Lattaruzzo. He’s a senior curator at the Museo Archeologico.”
       “When did you find them?”
       “Just before seven. I’m an early riser. Unless it’s raining, I take my coffee here in the garden.”
       “Did you see or hear anything during the night or early this morning?”
       “Hear? No. My bedroom is in the wing over there.” Antonella Cavazza pointed to the far end of the building. “When I have trouble sleeping—which is often these days—I wander the house. But the windows are all double glazed and sealed for the  air-conditioning. So, no. I didn’t hear a disturbance.”
       “How do you know the victim?”
       “I’m on the board of the museum. Once a year I host a dinner party. Senior staff are invited. I first met him there— last Christmas, I believe. And he had occasion to address the board at times. Terribly likeable.”
       The medical examiner, Dr. Francesca Agari, arrived, followed by the forensic photographer draped with equipment. He proceeded immediately to the dead men and began taking still pictures and videotaping the crime scene. A groundskeeper brought a ladder, and the photographer mounted it to get closer to the dead equestrians.
        “Captain Monte,” Dr. Agari said, acknowledging Natalia as she came forward, then, “Nell.” She kissed the countess on each cheek. “How terrible for you!”
       As usual, Natalia’s colleague was perfectly groomed, blond highlights symmetrical. She wore a filmy gray blouse, tasteful yet sexy under a black suit jacket, and slacks.
       “Yes,” the countess said. “How are you my dear? How’s Mama?”
       “Difficult as always,” Dr. Agari replied warmly. The countess moved away to let the detective and the doctor confer.
       “Mama?” Natalia said, as she pulled on rubber gloves.
       Two mortuary men entered near the hedges.
       “Over here!” Dr. Agari called. “She and my grandmother were great friends. I had my tenth birthday party here in this garden.”
       Mortuary staff earned a good living in their coveted jobs. Nepotism abounded: The husky men looked to be brothers.
       “They’ll need another ladder.” Natalia returned to the countess.
       “There’s one in the tool shed,” she said and escorted the men toward the far end of the garden.
       Natalia searched the perimeter. Fancy topiary abounded: bushes shaped like turrets, azalea trimmed to a perfect circle around the base of an olive tree. Something interrupted the perfect symmetry. She stepped closer. It took her a moment to understand what she was seeing: a cotton work shirt. This one appeared old, the kind once worn by laborers in the fields, patched and mended many times, laid out across a bush as if to dry. It may have been white when new, but this morning—except for the rust-colored sleeves—the shirt lay dark and stiff, heavily stained, its fabric torn.
       Natalia called for an evidence bag, slipped it in, and returned to the corpses. Dr. Agari was peering in and around the bodies, looking for signs of sexual union between the two. Soon, Natalia...

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Verlag
Soho Press Inc
Erscheinungsdatum
2014
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1616953535
ISBN 13 
9781616953539
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
292
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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ISBN 10:  1616955341 ISBN 13:  9781616955342
Verlag: Soho Crime, 2015
Softcover