Into the Killer Sphere by Stefania Mattana

making people think likewise, since Agata was generally supposed to be right,” Angelo continued.
    Fortarrigo nodded at first, then opened his mouth, unleashing another doubt.
    “And what about the chandelier? How can you guys explain that?”
    Chase straightened up on the lawn swing where he was almost laid flat and displayed more interest than before.
    “That was very tricky and complicated, mate. A real enigma, if it wasn’t for this fool next to you,” he said, pointing to Angelo, who opened his eyes wide while sipping his beer.
    “The other day, this jerk bothered me with his damned cigarette smoke without doing it on purpose. And that was the moment I twigged. Angelo and I thought that cutting the chandelier down was only a distraction, but as the investigation moved along I considered it as an attempt to kill someone else turning out bad.”
    “You mean Agata, right?” Fortarrigo asked, astonished.
    “ Sì , bello ,” nodded Angelo.
    “When I saw the garden gloves and the scratched shears on the patio, and later the ladders in the fruit garden, I immediately thought of Gloria. Like everyone in her family, she has her routines too, like using the French door to enter the library, as I’ve already said. And, of course, she knows the others’ daily habits too. So she brewed up a brilliant way to kill Signora Agata. Up on the library ladder, all she had to do was wait for Agata in the darkness of the room at the exact time she usually went to choose her book for the next day. Once she was in the library, Gloria would have dropped the chandelier on her head, staging a tragic accident. Ramona’s inability at doing housework would have justified the lack of attention on the chandelier’s maintenance. It was simply an unlucky coincidence that the same night that Gloria chose to perpetrate her crime, her brother-in-law decided to bring forward his dogs’ dinnertime due to the bad weather,” explained Chase.
    “So Piero entered the library before the old lady, and when Gloria cut the cables of the chandelier, she was astonished that her mother-in-law had remarkably quick reflexes and was able to avoid it,” Angelo added between a cigarette and a fistful of crisps.
    “Gloria told the rest of the story herself after her arrest. As soon as she discovered Piero lying on the ground, she panicked and took advantage of his dizziness. He was dazed after falling during his lunge to escape the falling chandelier. She got down from the ladder, put on her work gloves, grabbed the closest heavy object and threw it at Piero - who in the meantime had stood up - two or three times with all the strength she had. Signora Agata barely heard the crash of the chandelier because it came from the inside of the house. Afterwards Gloria took all her tools outside, hid them well, then went back home again undisturbed. She took just a couple of minutes by car. The roar of the storm with the wind and thunder meant no one heard her car’s engine. And no one in her family noticed either,” Chase concluded.
    “It’s weird that Gloria’s family didn’t notice anything, or her absence from home, don’t you think? Not even her husband.” Fortarrigo doubtfully underlined Chase’s ‘no one noticed’ thing.
    “ Bello , are you doubting us?” laughed Angelo.
    “Marco Galli believed Gloria was in the kitchen arranging their son’s eighteenth birthday special supper. The kids were upstairs not bothering about their parents as the dinner was supposed to be a surprise. Actually, they don’t seem to care about anything apart from themselves, especially the girls. So nobody noticed when she slipped out and came back later. That’s why her alibi stood up.” Chase argued.
    “At the end, why go to the trouble to kill an old lady and a man who was there by accident?” Fortarrigo muttered.
    “Money, big boy. The oldest reason in the world, along with love. Agata was going to change her will in Ramona’s favour, and Gloria was not so