Return to Umbria by David Wagner (13 ebook reader txt) 📗

looked at LoGuercio who was holding up a hand to indicate they’d heard enough for the moment. He took the hint. “You’ve been very helpful, Gina, and if you can think of anything that might help, even some tiny detail, you can call me. I’ll leave my cell phone number with you both.” He got to his feet. “Could you ask Francine to come out, please?”

She nodded and gave both men a wooden smile before going back inside. Rick sat down and watched LoGuercio flipping through the pages of his notebook.

“You handled the woman very gently, Riccardo, and I think that helped to get her to open up. We will talk with her again, but for the moment there is much to be done. We must find out who Signora Van Fleet knew when she was a student here years ago. I suspect that at least one of them is still living in Orvieto. We Italians tend to stay close to our birthplace, unlike you Americans. Unless we’re policemen.”

As LoGuercio was speaking, the door had opened and Francine Linwood appeared on the porch. She had taken advantage of the time to change into a different outfit—a long, loose skirt and a blouse, with sandals—as well as put on some makeup. She carried a coffee mug. Rick stood and motioned her to the chair just vacated by Gina. Rick was about to explain the interpreting drill but she spoke first.

“Where did this take place, Rick? Is her body in some morgue somewhere? When can we arrange to have her sent back home?”

“Since this just happened,” Rick answered, “I’m not sure if the police have advised the embassy. They will assign a consular officer to deal with these issues.” He left her other questions unanswered.

“If there is an issue about next of kin, Gina is it. Rhonda’s parents are long gone, as you would expect for someone of our age.”

Rick quickly interpreted for LoGuercio and turned back to Francine. “So you and Gina are it? No other close friends?”

For the first time, Francine showed some emotion, covering her mouth with her hand and blinking. “I think I was her closest friend. Much more so than even Gina. They weren’t quite estranged, but nearly.”

“Francine,” said Rick, “we regret that you have to go through this questioning, but it has to be done.”

Her answer was a wave of the hand and nods. LoGuercio took out his note pad.

“How long had you known Rhonda?” Rick asked.

Francine’s chest slowly rose and fell as she took in a long breath and let it out. “Let me see. We go back a long time, we were in college together, and were in the same sorority. One of the years we were roommates. I remember when she went off to this exchange program here—did Gina tell you about that?” Rick nodded, and she continued. “The sorority sisters joked back then that she did it to marry some rich Italian count. That didn’t happen, of course, though she later did well—in a monetary way—with the husbands she had.”

While Rick interpreted she took a drink of whatever was in the mug.

“Rhonda was very different when she returned from the year abroad. I guess that would be expected, and I understand it more now that I’m here. The different culture, the history, the food; it would change anyone.”

“You’ve been close to Rhonda ever since college.”

“No, in fact we lost touch for many years. I married someone and lived on the coast, but it didn’t work out and I ended up moving back to Arizona. We ran into each other in 2000, I remember since it was just after my divorce. I went into her pottery shop—did Gina mention that Rhonda had a shop?” Again Rick nodded. “I went into her pottery shop and we recognized each other. You know how women are, after a few minutes it was like we’d never been apart. She had also just gone through a divorce, even nastier than mine, so we quickly found that we had as much in common as when we were back in school.”

“How did this trip come about?”

“It was Rhonda’s idea, of course. She’d been talking about it for a long time, but then she found out about some serious health issues, which made the trip more urgent. I’m sure Gina told you about Rhonda’s cancer. How ironic, since now she’s gone. She also decided that she had to return to Orvieto, where she’d spent that year when she was a student. We were going to stay in a few other cities, but that changed when she got the news from the doctor.”

“So just Orvieto.”

“This was it for me and Gina, but Rhonda was going to spend a few days in Milan by herself after the villa. She didn’t tell us why.”

Rick’s translation caused a flicker in LoGuercio’s eye as he took notes.

“We arrived three mornings ago, stayed in Rome one night, then picked up the car and drove here. We were still exhausted, so yesterday was our first foray into town. We took the bus, at Rhonda’s insistence, and it turned out she was right. Parking would have been a nightmare, and it was fun coming up on the funicular. That was when we saw you, of course.”

She smiled and brushed back a tuft of the short hair.

“And what happened after that?”

“The bus dropped us in the square in front of the cathedral. Rhonda was so excited to see it, since I guess it’s kind of the symbol of the town, so it brought back a lot of memories. We were taking in that gorgeous facade when she slipped away and talked with someone. Someone from her time here, of course.”

“Had she told you before the trip that she was planning on meeting anyone from her exchange year?”

“No. But Rhonda keeps her relationships to herself. Kept, I should say.”

“Did you see the person in front of the cathedral?”

“No, but now I wish I had. After that, Rhonda was still excited, being