Words from Beyond

By Claudio Ruggeri

The apparent calm of the Police Commissioner, Vincent Germano, will suddenly be put through the wringer by the suicide of a pensioner and the arrival of an anonymous letter, which indicates the name of a possible murderer but not that of the victim. 

The Commissioner can not help but grope to fit every piece of the puzzle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Mar 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781498944212

Claudio Ruggeri

Claudio Ruggeri, 30岁。出生于Grottaferrata (罗马)。现为从业人员，前裁判员。他遍游各地，在美国呆了很久，2007年回到意大利。写作是一直以来他的最大爱好。

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Words from Beyond

Claudio Ruggeri

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Translated by Anna Sigillo 

Words from Beyond

Written By Claudio Ruggeri

Copyright © 2014 Mconnors (http://mrg.bz/6BWULT)

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Anna Sigillo

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

Author’s notes

This book is fiction

Any resemblance to real events and/or to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

October 3rd

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Commissary Office, please tell me...

"Good morning... I’m... the caretaker of a building here in Frascati and... I’ve got other tenants

here with me because...".

First of all, tell me your name, please.

I’m Pasquale Amadei.

Well, now try to keep calm and tell me what happened, okay?

"Okay.. well... actually we’re not sure about what happened, but there is Gino Palmi’s apartment,

here at the fourth floor, that gives a really bad smell".

It could possibly be rubbish Mr Amadei, have you notice if...

Honestly, it doesn’t really seem rubbish to me, Inspector.

Doesn’t it? Have you tried to contact this Palmi? at the intercom or making a phone call?.

Sure I did, but he doesn’t answer.... that we smell, Inspector, really looks like the smell of death.

I see...give me the address, I’ll send a patrol.

Via Ippocrate 64.

Good, you will expect there without moving, right?

Okay.

The matter was immediately switched to the office of Inspector Angelo Parisi, who was

comfortably seated at his own desk, waiting for the person in front of him, a girl caught with

cocaine in her pocket, to recognize the face of her dealer among the hundreds in the archives.

Hello.

Good morning Inspector Parisi, it’s from the operating room, we’ve got something for you.

The inspector took some notes of the information that could possibly be relevant and, being in the

impossibility to intervene in person, preferred to switch the matter to Gianni Piazza.

After few minutes, Inspector Piazza was yet in his service car, driven by Agent Venditti, on their

way to the location where the phone call came from.

The roads of the centre were fairly busy that Thursday morning; among the several things that

slowed the two policemen down there was the nice conversation between a walker on the sidewalk

and the driver of a Fiat, who considered it appropriate to stop just there in double park and roll

the window down to better enjoy the conversation with his friend.

Inspector Piazza just gave the driver a bad look as he overtook the car, but the driver, instead of

apologizing for his behavior, even got irritated for being interrupted and sent the policeman to

hell with sweeping gestures; the inspector, confused by that absurd behavior, just went on

giving  Agent Venditti the indications to reach the location.

As they got in front of the building, they found a small crowd of about ten people waiting for them.

The first to come forward was the caretaker.

Are you from the Police?

Yes we are, are you the one who....

Yeah it was me to call you, follow me.

The three, followed in the first place by the crowd that went thinning out as they went up the stairs,

reached the fourth floor of the building and approached the door where the bad smell seemed to

come from.

Gianni Piazza began to ring  the intercom, announcing himself by violently knocking on

Mr Parlmi’s door; he went on for about two or three minutes then asked the caretaker to leave and

go back to the ground floor.

Why, man?

"Simple Mr Amadei, what we’ll probably find breaking down this door could not be to your liking,

so do me a favor, just go back downstairs and keep the other tenants calm, don’t let them

come up for any reason".

Still reluctantly, the caretaker set stealthily down the stairs, guessing that Inspector Piazza’s words

were not the truth, at least not completely.

Mr Amadei was indeed right, what really worried the policeman the most, as soon as he guessed

what he was going to face after he had walked through that door, was indeed the tampering

with evidence that becomes quite sure when nosy people are messing around playing to be

detectives.

Forcing the lock was not that hard since it was not locked from the inside. The scene that presented

itself in front of the two men clearly confirmed their bad feelings.

What are we going to do, Inspector?.

Call Germano.

While Gianni Piazza was bounding the scene with the Crime scene yellow ribbon, Agent Venditti

picked up his phone and, to get a better reception, approached one of the window at the end of the

corridor, there at the fourth floor.

The Police Commissioner Vincent Germano was in that moment, comfortably seated in front of the

headmaster of the secondary school that his son Luca was attending to; not that it was a nice

interview, on the contrary he was putting up with a loud heavy scolding about the compliance with

the rules, that was, in the headmaster’s view, not a priority for Germano’s family, judging by how

his son used to talk and jeer at the teachers as soon as he got the chance.

The interesting interview was interrupted but the incessant ringing coming from the inside pocket of

the commissioner’s jacket.

Hello.

Good morning Commissioner, it’s Venditti.

Hi, tell me everything.

"I’m with Inspector Piazza in a building here in Frascati... we got a phone call reporting a bad

smell coming out one of the apartments and... we went in and found a body hanging from the

rafters, I think you’d better come here".

So do I.. Meanwhile, you two do not let anybody in, I’ll call the coroner, see you soon.

See you later, Commissioner.

Germano’s habit to keep his phone slightly away from his ear let the headmaster listen the whole

conversation.

Quite disturbed by the fact that hanging bodies could come out with such ease, the headmaster

didn’t resistance when the commissioner got up and put on the jacket he kept leaning on the chair;

they just shook their hands and made an appointment for the next morning.

The journey to the building located in the center of Frascati was fairly ease, Germano was even able

to find a park for his car in the neighborhood.

After the short walk to get to the building where the body was found, Germano found on the main

doorway, the one directly facing the street, Inspector Piazza waiting for him.

How is it going, Gianni?

What could I say... people here seem to be attracted to the macabre, it gets even worse....

I see...but I meant the body....

"The body is Gino Palmi’s, Commissioner, fifty nine years old, retired five years ago after an

accident at work, unmarried".

Do we have any clue about what could have pushed him to commit suicide?.

"Not yet, however I’ve already called the office asking for a research on Palmi’s financial situation,

was I wrong to do it, Commissioner?".

You did right, Piazza.

The two policemen were coming up the steps, two by two, while talking, until they reached the

landing of the fourth floor a few meters from Gino Palmi’s apartment.

Excuse me, Piazza...

Yes sir....

Who actually found the body?.

"We found it, after that the caretaker had called us to report an unpleasant smell coming from

Palmi’s place".

Have you already talked to the caretaker?.

Not in details but I will do it as soon as we’ll have the place clear.

Germano just answered with a nod and, noting how many people were still on the landing,

suggested the inspector to stay there for a while just listening to the rumors that people can

never do without.

Germano went into the apartment while other agents, under the coroner and the scientific team’s

supervision, were laying Gino Palmi’s body down on a stretcher.

The commissioner preferred to wait for the operation to be concluded to start talking to the woman

in charge, Doctor Del Santo.

Is it exactly as it seems, Doctor?.

A suicide, you mean?

Yeah.

"Yes Commissioner, judging from the marks you can see on the neck it seems that we have a

suicide case, anyway I will be able to be more precise and detailed after I will have the body

analyzed far and wide in my lab".

Okay... how long do you think he’s been there hanging?.

Thirty six hours, two days at most.

So he killed himself on October 1rst....

It seems so.

As the lifeless body of Gino Palmi was carried out by agents of the mortuary, Germano and

Inspector Piazza decided to stay about twenty minutes longer inside the apartment.

The place, a little bit grim, was not bigger than sixty square meters; the main room was actually the

same living room with kitchenette where the owner was found hanging from a rafter, a bedroom and

a rather spacious bathroom with a bath completed the plan of the place.

The two policemen checked those places that might seem the most prominent, looking for

a farewell message, a note, or something, but they did not find anything.

When also all the tenants of the fourth floor had returned to their homes, Germano and Piazza

thought there was nothing better to do than go back to the office, the case was actually already

addressed on a well-defined track, but some further investigations, even if only a light and discreet

look, it was anyway worth.

While passing through the gate of the police station, Germano set his eyes on Inspector Parisi,

wandering from office to office with a piece of paper in his hands; after the last door to the long

hallway of the police station was opened and closed, the commissioner decided to catch his

attention.

What the hell is happening, Angelo?.

"Nothing, Vincent.... Piazza called me when you were still inside the apartment asking me to do

some researches, but actually I can not track anyone here".

What do you mean?.

"The only family member seems to be Anna Palmi, his sister; I tried to call her at home and at work

and even on the mobile phone but nothing, no one ever answers. Her employer told me she should

be at home now, since she declared herself ill two days ago".

"What is