Chapter 3: A Nefarious Game
Romano arrived home in a terrible mood. The case was leading nowhere, there could be mafia involvement, and worst of all, Enzo's had been shut when he stopped by for dinner.
"The catch was poor today, Inspector," Enzo had said, "I could make you an aglio olio if you like?"
Romano had declined, and resolved to find something at home. His stomach had growled the whole way back to his beach bungalow. And still worse, a carabiniere blockade had cost him an extra thirty minutes in a cacophony of motorists expressing themselves with their car horns.
So it was with extra joy that he arrived home to a heavenly aroma of warm baked flavors. He stepped across the threshold to find Ingrid, wonderful Ingrid, in an apron, bent over the oven, peering in. Romano had met Ingrid, the glamorous Swede, on a case a few years before, one involving an unscrupulous lover of hers. She had become a fast friend and sometimes more. And increasingly, when things turned chilly with Lydia, Ingrid would be first on his mind.
"Ingrid, did you make me dinner?" asked Romano in honest surprise. Ingrid was known for many skills, but Italian cooking wasn't one.
Ingrid laughed. "Don't be silly, it was Adelina. She had just finished cleaning and I saw her leaving as I came in. She said now that Lydia has gone back to the North, she wanted to get you some real food. It's that eggplant thing you like so much. What's it called?"
"Caponata. In Sicily, it's caponata."
While Romano showered, Ingrid set up on the veranda. Along with the eggplants were Alici d' aceto - tender little anchovies cooked in vinegar, and a bottle, and then two, of a Mastroberardino that Ingrid had brought.
As was his preference, the pair ate, looking out over the water, keeping a silence, save for the occasional small exclamation of delight regarding this flavor or that. As he finished off the last of the caponata from Ingrid's plate, she poured him another glass of the red, balancing the bottle and the cork in an outstretched left, while reaching with her right to clean off his cheek with a napkin. Her soft, strawberry-blond hair falling like a rose waterfall across her face.
"Why Ingrid, are you trying to get me drunk?" he asked, with less wit than he intended.