The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fic - By Mike Ashley Page 0,103

Maybe he will find the body.”

*

At the end of Nick Zuliani’s first full day as a grandfather, he sat with his one-time lover, Caterina Dolfin now called Valier, and Katie, the offspring of his unknown son, Agostino. He pondered broaching the possibility of the girl changing her name to Zuliani, but decided first they had more pressing matters to discuss. He told Cat what they had found at his house – omitting the small matter of the body being still there. He made out to her that they had seen the ringless fingers earlier, but had not realized the importance of it until now. The corpse therefore was not Tiepolo’s. Cat was shocked about the identity of the body, and pointed out to Zuliani a matter he would have to deal with urgently.

“As the Tiepolos have already taken the body you say is that of his lieutenant, Lando, you must tell them before they bury it thinking it is one of their own.”

Zuliani and Katie exchanged glances, then he spoke up.

“I don’t think they have had time to do anything yet. It is too late. I will tell them tomorrow. First, tell us what you have learned.”

Cat shrugged her ivory-skinned, bare shoulders, causing a little flutter of Zuliani’s heart.

“I am not sure what I have found out is very helpful. It is mainly gossip. Apparently, Francesco Tiepolo was engaged on a colleganza which aimed to try and break the Pope’s interdict on trade.”

“What’s that, granny? A colleganza.”

Zuliani puffed out his cheeks in astonishment at Katie’s question.

“Call yourself a Venetian, and you don’t know what that is? It means Tiepolo had funded a trading enterprise along with others. He must have had a ship ready to sail just before the rebellion kicked off. In the situation we are in at the moment, that was a very risky thing to have done. He must have been pretty desperate.” He turned to Cat again. “Anything else of use?”

Cat paused for a moment, and then looked Zuliani in the eyes.

“There was something else, but it sounds foolish. Don’t laugh when I tell you.”

“Carry on. Anything, no matter how small or insignificant, could be important.”

Cat looked away, and took a deep breath.

“It is something your neighbour, Justinia Erizzo, said to me. Now, I know she is scatterbrained, and has been a little inclined to get emotional about death since her husband died.”

“Spit it out, Cat.”

“She said she saw Tiepolo’s soul flying away from the fire just at the end when the flames had reached him in the topmost room.”

“What? Out of the window?”

Cat frowned, and swirled the dregs of her wine in the bottom of her goblet. The sediment rose and with a grimace she put the goblet down.

“No. That was the oddest thing. She said she saw his soul fly out of the back door. You know her house faces that alley between your house and San Giuliano Church.”

Katie laughed at the idea of a soul using a door, but Zuliani had a serious look on his face. This wasn’t just a foolish woman’s whimsy. He felt sure there was something of substance about the vision. He waved his hand in the air, trying to urge his tumbling thoughts into some sort of order.

“This vision of a soul. How was it made up? Did she say?”

“Well no. A soul is … a soul. What should it look like?”

Katie stared at her grandfather. She was beginning to understand what he looked like when he was on to something. His body tensed, and he scowled.

“What is it, grandpa?”

Zuliani groaned.

“I hate it when you call me that. Call me Nick like you did before all this family stuff came up.”

Cat hid a smile behind her slender fingers. Zuliani was clearly discomfited by all this personal closeness. He had always preferred to be a free agent. But Katie would soon cure him of that – he couldn’t resist her charms – and Cat herself fancied getting as close as they had been all those years ago. The truth was she yearned to bed him. For now, she concentrated on the mystery of Tiepolo’s death.

“I too know when something is bothering you, Nick. So get it off your chest.”

Zuliani squinted at the two women, and shook his head decisively.

“Not yet. Not until I have verified a few more facts.”

Cat rose from her chair and stamped her foot.

“I swear, Niccolo Zuliani, you are even more exasperating now than you were forty years ago. I am not going to let you