Some Bitter Taste Read Online Free PDF Page B

and ask no questions when, after a time, it is produced. Still, a very sad business, having to send the boy away. He had taste, and one tries to help the young … Jeremy came to me at that age, knowing nothing. He is now very expert indeed.’
    ‘Sir Christopher …’
    Jeremy Porteous, the soft, dark man, was back, flourishing a sheet of paper in front of him.
    ‘Thank you, my dear. Captain, here is the list of stolen goods, nothing of great interest, as you’ll see, but my lawyer will be dealing with the insurance company and they’ll need a copy of our report to you.’
    ‘Of course.’ The captain took the list and passed it to the marshal without glancing at it. ‘Marshal Guarnaccia will deal with everything. He’ll transfer this list to one of our report sheets and bring it for your signature. Naturally, we’ll circulate this list to all the Florentine antique dealers but I can’t, as I’m sure you realise, offer you much hope …’
    ‘I do, indeed, realise it and apologise for having to take up your time on account of the insurance. I don’t expect to see any of these things again. And although I’m sorry for it, since the silver was from my father’s bedroom, which has never been touched since his death, what I’m most concerned about is that poor boy, Giorgio.’
    ‘I’m sorry?’
    ‘I should really be very distressed and surely with fingerprinting and so on you can prove—’
    ‘Now, you mustn’t upset yourself,’ Porteous interrupted. ‘The boy assures me—’
    ‘So did Alex assure us, and I’m still not convinced we were right to do what we did. I can’t let young Giorgio be judged unfairly.’
    Porteous laid a hand on the older man’s shoulder, murmuring, ‘Remember you mustn’t get agitated.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘The marshal will need to speak to all your staff, Sir Christopher, including this Giorgio. Did he replace the boy you dismissed after the other robbery?’
    ‘No. Oh, no, since Alex there have been a number of … he’s quite recent, has only been here a matter of months. A charming boy. You won’t … ? I mean …’
    ‘The marshal will speak to him just as he does to the rest of your staff.’ The captain got to his feet. ‘Sir Christopher, please believe me when I say that your preoccupation is perfectly comprehensible. You want to feel safe in your own home, among loyal people, and that is certainly more important than recovering a few pieces of silverware. If I might take a look at all access points of the house and then the room or rooms where the thefts occurred. The marshal here will stay with you and explain the procedures which will follow. I’m sure he’ll convince you that you have nothing to worry about.’
    The marshal’s heart sank. Maestrangelo had an unshakable conviction that he was good at talking to people and getting them to talk to him. But in this case it was ridiculous. Why the captain had come here was still a mystery. The marshal had been a bit embarrassed to ask on the way here but, surely, if it was the usual thing of pressure from high places—important foreign resident—the captain should be sitting here making polite small talk while the marshal got on with his business, checking for forced entry, questioning staff, and so on. The very idea of leaving him with the job of trying to comfort a millionaire who’d had a few knickknacks stolen! And besides, to get people to confide in you, you had to edge into the thing gradually, chat about everyday problems until you found an opening or rather the other person did. People needed to talk, after all … what in God’s name was he supposed to chat casually about to this chap? What could his everyday problems possibly be? He launched, instead, into an explanation about fingerprinting the staff-^just to eliminate them, you understand—the examination of the outside of the building, the precautions to be taken in case this should be a trial run for something bigger once the flurry had died