But what was the story? Maria Pia had also said that the people around there had known her for a long time. It should therefore be easy enough to find out about her: all he had to do was find someone who could begin to ask questions. But it had to be the right person, and they had to be the right questions. A woman, one who spoke Veneziano, not young and not flashy: a woman who looked and sounded like a lower middle-class housewife and mother, the sort of woman who would have stayed home to raise her children while her husband went out to work. Who more likely to feel sympathy with a woman who had lost her son? Who more likely to be honestly interested in the woman and her story? He stopped at the squad room and found Vianello, asked him to come up to his office for a moment. Pucetti started to get to his feet when he saw his superior, but Brunetti held up a hand and patted the air a few times, signalling that he would talk to him later. On the stairs, Brunetti asked, ‘You read the report on the man they found in Santa Croce yesterday?’ ‘The suicide?’ Vianello asked.
