In The Thick Of It

Chapter 17, Pages 311 to 314 THURSDAY The magnificent church of the Santissimo Redentore, built to a design by Palladio, is a memorial to the tens of thousands of Venetian citizens who died from the plague in the sixteenth century. It dominates the Canale della Giudecca. It is a beautifully clear day as the Sacristan, Padre Rossi, stands on the steps of Il Redentore looking out across the canal to Piazza San Marco. He takes a small silver case from his cassock pocket and rolls a cigarette. As he smokes he watches the dozens of craft routinely navigating their way along the canal. He then notices a boat speeding towards him. It stops suddenly in an arc a few yards away, creating a wash that laps noisily over the quayside. The boat stops alongside an object bobbing up and down in the water. Two carabinieri in the boat haul a woman’s body out of the water and place it on a plastic sheet at the rear of the boat. Padre Rossi crosses himself and stubs his cigarette out on the steps. He walks down to the quayside, takes a closer look, and sees that the body is distorted and unclothed. He has to move back up the steps quickly to avoid the wash as the boat speeds off . On the other side of the canal, diagonally opposite Il Redentore, two men and a woman are drinking coffee on the pier of the Pensione La Calcina. They have also been surveying the scene. They mostly converse in English. One of the trio is German. He is Franz Siegel, a young, muscular, barrel-chested man, with a fair complexion and long blonde hair that is tied in a ponytail. He wears jeans and a thick, white polo neck sweater. His companions are the Italian twins Giovanni and Susanna Pronti. They have identical brown eyes, similar noses and mouths, and they are both short. But there the similarity ends and to most casual onlookers their contrasting appearance would not suggest that they are even brother and sister. Giovanni is slim. His dark hair is cut in a modern, short, brushed forward style. He is fashionably dressed, as always, with a collarless striped shirt worn under a black short winter coat. He is handsome and he has a particularly winning smile. Susanna has a chubby complexion. She is naturally vivacious and she has much of Giovanni’s charm. She wears her hair long, dyed auburn, carelessly drawn up into a bun. She has a voluptuous figure that is customarily concealed beneath jerseys and long denim skirts, usually in dark colours. She wears rimless glasses at all times, behind which the lashes of her sparkling eyes are daubed in thick black mascara. They sit at a remote table, engaged in hushed conversation. Giovanni is boasting provocatively about a conquest in Vienna of a young woman he describes as a minor celebrity. He says that she is related to someone they know but he cannot yet divulge her identity. He mentions that while they are staying in Venice he will organise a party for their friends who live there and introduce everybody to his new prey. Franz Siegel says that he will be sad to miss the party as Giovanni always provides numerous young unattached girls. They all laugh. Susanna suggests to Franz that he can return from London to Venice if he wishes, rather than going back to Hamburg. They talk obliquely about plans for Christmas. “We must all be in Rome well before the twenty-fourth,” says Giovanni. “Or else we’ll have to communicate by BlackBerry but that’s not secure really. Much better to be there in person.” Susanna orders another coffee. “I can be there by the twenty-third. In fact I would like to make certain of it by being there the day before, on the Thursday. Don’t forget I’m supposed to be responsible for setting up the telecommunications.” The waiter brings the coffee Susanna ordered. He places it in front of Franz by mistake, and Susanna corrects him firmly. He then whispers to Giovanni, who gets up and goes into the bar of the hotel. Franz leans over to Susanna, grinning lecherously, and touches her thigh. “You’re so butch, Susanna! Fancy a man for a change? Little Miss Piggy? Oink, oink!” Susanna pulls her leg away and slaps his wrist. “Don’t give up, do you? You’re incorrigible.” They both laugh. Giovanni returns from inside the hotel, resuming his seat. “What are you two giggling about?” Without waiting for a response, he says, “Hey you guys, I have some hot gossip. The waiter just heard from his friend in the carabinieri. That body they picked up across the canal is a young woman. She was totally naked and there was nothing to identify her except that she was wearing expensive earrings. Very expensive indeed, gold, ruby and diamond. Also they think she had been drugged.” “Was she pretty?” asks Franz. “I don’t have any more than that,” says Giovanni. “We should keep our ears to the ground though. I must go now. What did we say, six tonight? Usual place?” Franz nods. “Yes, I need to get more detail about tomorrow’s trip from HL, preferably before this evening. I want to find out what I’m supposed to be doing in London. Maybe I’ll have to check in with him when I’m there.” “No, he should be back here this evening, but don’t count on it,” says Giovanni. They have arranged to meet in the bar in the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido. Giovanni arrives early and orders himself a gin and tonic. Giovanni and Susanna have had a trusting and intimate relationship since they were teenagers. They enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle as children. Ottavio and Rosina Pronti had each inherited money and Ottavio’s success as an entrepreneur in the emerging electronics industry brought riches that supported a number of privileges. Ottavio was an opera lover. He took every opportunity to escort Rosina and the young twins to performances during the winter seasons in Bologna and Milan. He had a particular passion for the Italian, Lorenzo Da Ponte operas of Mozart. He was so taken by the fact that he and his wife had the same names as characters from Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, that he and Rosina decided to give names to the twins in similar vein. Hence Giovanni was named after the protagonist in Don Giovanni, and Susanna after the young fiancée of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro. Ottavio often joked with Rosina that he hoped Giovanni did not develop into as sadistic and lecherous a character as his namesake in the opera. He was not to know the full horror of events that would ultimately overtake Giovanni in his depravity. By the time Giovanni and Susanna had reached the age of fifteen their parents had become unfashionably liberal in the standards of behaviour they allowed. Susanna had latent lesbian tendencies but she was unaware of them herself and she had no inherent objection to experiencing full sexual intercourse with a man. The twins often drank alcohol in their teenage years, and did so to excess during their parents’ frequent absences from home. One night during a party Giovanni and Susanna had given for their school friends while their parents were away they both became very intoxicated. After their friends had left they smoked marijuana together. Now without any inhibitions, as they sat side by side on the living room sofa, Giovanni first undressed himself and then Susanna. Prompted by Giovanni, .....