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.
Ingrid took a sip from her own glass and looked at the Inspector shrewdly. "Maybe," she laughed, "Would you like me to? Your Lydia isn't gone 12 hours, my dear."
Romano waved her off, "Not at all. It sounded funny in my head. And thank you for rescuing me from another night of aglio olio."
"It was all Adelina. I was just in the right place at the right time. It's my special talent," she said with a soft smile. "So how is the investigation? We've eaten, now you can talk. You know I come by to live out my secret detective fantasy."
"I don't know Ingrid," answered an unsteady Romano, "this is an odd one. Our victim has no clear source of income but owns such a house. He must have inherited?"
"And the parties," said Ingrid, "Such incredible parties they threw. I hear they were a regular event, numbering in the hundreds of guests. You have to have money to manage that."
"Really?" asked Romano, "How regular?" Now Ingrid was showing her true value, or, at least part of it.