exerted.”
“None whatsoever. If Captain Tapo had wanted to end our…” Piola hesitated. “Our affair , she would of course have been free to do so at any time. She did not express any such intention to me on the evening you refer to, or indeed any other occasion. It was ultimately me, not her, who broke it off.”
“Yes… So it follows that she didn’t tell you why she intended to end it?”
Piola shrugged. He had long since given up trying to work out what tortuous chain of logic Lettiere’s questions were following. “No.”
Lettiere’s eyes glinted as if he had scored an important victory. He gestured to Endrizzi, who placed a new file in front of him, open at yet another Post-it. With a sinking feeling, Piola saw that there were at least half a dozen more yellow slips protruding from its pages. “Can you tell me how Captain Tapo came to assist you on the investigation in the first place?”
“I requested her.”
Lettiere raised his eyebrows. “By name?”
How else? Piola thought irritably. “Indeed.”
“Because she had previously caught your eye, as it were?”
“Because she’s a Venetian. I’ve lived here a long time, but it isn’t the same. I thought having a local person on the team would be an asset.”
“A local person with no previous homicide experience, I understand?”
“We all have to start somewhere.”
“Indeed. And you must have known she would be grateful for the opportunity.”
“I had no intention of seducing her at the time, if that’s what you’re implying,” Piola said coldly. Which was the truth, almost. Certainly, he’d had no expectation on that first day that the relationship between them would ever be anything other than professional. But he’d felt himself falling for her almost from the start, when she’d taken off her galoshes to wade barefoot across the flooded pavement in front of Santa Maria della Salute to examine the body of a murdered woman; a woman who was dressed in the robes of a priest. He’d caught a glimpse of the bright red polish on her toenails as she stepped without fear or hesitation into the freezing salt water, and his heart had skipped a beat.
And that had been the real problem, of course. Love, a word that hadn’t been uttered once during this pointless postmortem. If the two of them had simply slept together, regretted it, and resolved to pretend that it had never happened, everything would have been fine. It had been precisely because of the strength of their feelings that continuing to work together after the affair was over would have been impossible. When the criminals they were investigating had sent photographs of the two of them to his wife, in an effort to undermine the investigation, it had worked; given an ultimatum at home, he’d been forced both to end the affair and to ask her to step aside. It had deprived her of an important step up in her career, but he still believed he couldn’t have come up with a better solution.
“Look,” he said, suddenly weary. “None of this was her fault. So if you want me to say I put pressure on her, or abused my position, then just put the statement in front of me and I’ll sign it.”
Lettiere smirked faintly. “If only it were that simple, Colonel. The reason such relationships between ranks are forbidden is precisely because of the complex issues they throw up. It may be, for example, that you thought you were exploiting her for sexual favours, whilst she simultaneously believed that she was manipulating you for reasons of professional advancement. The breaches of discipline here are not in question. But it is the motivations behind those breaches that will determine my recommendations.” Almost cheerfully, he reached for another Post-it. “Turning now to your relations with other subordinates—”
The door opened, interrupting him. “Ah, Piola. And Colonel Lettiere. How are you getting on?” General Saito said. Lettiere started to answer, but Saito simply continued
“None whatsoever. If Captain Tapo had wanted to end our…” Piola hesitated. “Our affair , she would of course have been free to do so at any time. She did not express any such intention to me on the evening you refer to, or indeed any other occasion. It was ultimately me, not her, who broke it off.”
“Yes… So it follows that she didn’t tell you why she intended to end it?”
Piola shrugged. He had long since given up trying to work out what tortuous chain of logic Lettiere’s questions were following. “No.”
Lettiere’s eyes glinted as if he had scored an important victory. He gestured to Endrizzi, who placed a new file in front of him, open at yet another Post-it. With a sinking feeling, Piola saw that there were at least half a dozen more yellow slips protruding from its pages. “Can you tell me how Captain Tapo came to assist you on the investigation in the first place?”
“I requested her.”
Lettiere raised his eyebrows. “By name?”
How else? Piola thought irritably. “Indeed.”
“Because she had previously caught your eye, as it were?”
“Because she’s a Venetian. I’ve lived here a long time, but it isn’t the same. I thought having a local person on the team would be an asset.”
“A local person with no previous homicide experience, I understand?”
“We all have to start somewhere.”
“Indeed. And you must have known she would be grateful for the opportunity.”
“I had no intention of seducing her at the time, if that’s what you’re implying,” Piola said coldly. Which was the truth, almost. Certainly, he’d had no expectation on that first day that the relationship between them would ever be anything other than professional. But he’d felt himself falling for her almost from the start, when she’d taken off her galoshes to wade barefoot across the flooded pavement in front of Santa Maria della Salute to examine the body of a murdered woman; a woman who was dressed in the robes of a priest. He’d caught a glimpse of the bright red polish on her toenails as she stepped without fear or hesitation into the freezing salt water, and his heart had skipped a beat.
And that had been the real problem, of course. Love, a word that hadn’t been uttered once during this pointless postmortem. If the two of them had simply slept together, regretted it, and resolved to pretend that it had never happened, everything would have been fine. It had been precisely because of the strength of their feelings that continuing to work together after the affair was over would have been impossible. When the criminals they were investigating had sent photographs of the two of them to his wife, in an effort to undermine the investigation, it had worked; given an ultimatum at home, he’d been forced both to end the affair and to ask her to step aside. It had deprived her of an important step up in her career, but he still believed he couldn’t have come up with a better solution.
“Look,” he said, suddenly weary. “None of this was her fault. So if you want me to say I put pressure on her, or abused my position, then just put the statement in front of me and I’ll sign it.”
Lettiere smirked faintly. “If only it were that simple, Colonel. The reason such relationships between ranks are forbidden is precisely because of the complex issues they throw up. It may be, for example, that you thought you were exploiting her for sexual favours, whilst she simultaneously believed that she was manipulating you for reasons of professional advancement. The breaches of discipline here are not in question. But it is the motivations behind those breaches that will determine my recommendations.” Almost cheerfully, he reached for another Post-it. “Turning now to your relations with other subordinates—”
The door opened, interrupting him. “Ah, Piola. And Colonel Lettiere. How are you getting on?” General Saito said. Lettiere started to answer, but Saito simply continued
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