Bloody Signorina

By Joseph D'Agnese

In this short detective story, a privileged yet unworldly young woman embraces a deadly habit as a means to deal with her anger and grief while living in one of the world’s most beautiful cities—Rome. This story is a Derringer Award finalist. It first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

(Note: This story appears in the larger collection, Daggyland #1, by the same author.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph D'Agnese
• Release date: Mar 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781941410042

Joseph D'Agnese

Joseph D’Agnese is a journalist and author who has written for children and adults alike. He’s been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Discover, and other national publications. In a career spanning more than twenty years, his work has been honored with awards in three vastly different areas—science journalism, children’s literature, and mystery fiction. His science articles have twice appeared in the anthology Best American Science Writing. His children’s book, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, was an honoree for the Mathical Book Prize—the first-ever prize for math-themed children’s books. One of his crime stories won the 2015 Derringer Award for short mystery fiction. Another of his stories was selected by mega-bestselling author James Patterson for inclusion in the prestigious annual anthology, Best American Mystery Stories 2015. D’Agnese’s crime fiction has appeared in Shotgun Honey, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. D’Agnese lives in North Carolina with his wife, the New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan (The Girls of Atomic City).

Book preview

Bloody Signorina

Bloody Signorina

A Short Story

Joseph D’Agnese

Nutgraf Productions LLC

BLOODY SIGNORINA

Published by Joseph D’Agnese at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 Joseph D’Agnese

NutGraf Productions LLC

First digital edition: April 2014

Cover design by GoOnWrite.com

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Bloody Signorina first appeared in the September 2013 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

The Marshal of the Borgo © 2014 Joseph D’Agnese

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This e-book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

josephdagnese.com

In this e-book

Bloody Signorina by Joseph D’Agnese

She was beautiful…privileged…and deadly.

She just didn’t know it.

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With its outdoor cafes, bubbling fountains,

and tantalizing art, Rome beckoned Annalisa.

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Nothing will stop her from living the high life

in one of the world’s most glamorous cities. Not even murder.

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A finalist for the 2014 Derringer Award

for Short Mystery Fiction

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This tale marks the first appearance of

Italian detective Matteo Scarpone.

This edition comes with a sneak peek at his latest case.

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Bloody Signorina

Fausto always became loquacious as soon as a plate of food was set before him. He enjoyed expounding about women, music, movies, Parliament—and meals he wasn’t eating. Never murder. Tonight was somehow different.

We found a fountain pen on the Via della Scala today, he told Scarpone. Smashed to bits, of course. Still intact enough to remind me of that ugly business six years back.

They were sitting at the fried fish place just off the Campo de’ Fiori, the one that only opened at night when the tourists were prowling the streets mad with hunger. Fausto had snagged a table outside, in front of the church of Santa Barbara, under the tin lights that burned like fireflies. Fausto had already sucked down his first piece of fried cod and was washing it down with beer. Scarpone, whose short dark hair was shot with gray, hadn’t yet touched his.

Ugly business? the younger cop said.

Two murders, three years apart, Fausto told him. Both victims were men working in the neighborhood. Multiple stab wounds to the necks and throats. Grisly, I tell you. The pens were left behind both times. The one we found today was the same model. The Garibaldi Principessa. No victim. Just a lost, shattered pen, lying there on the cobblestones. One of the shopkeepers who shares my interest in those cases found it and brought the pieces by.

"So you looked