Death in Tuscany by Michele Giuttari

Finzi been away?'
'Just for a few days. She came back today'
For some reason, that cheered him up.

    It was a bit late now to go back to Headquarters, so he told the driver to drop him on the banks of the Arno, near where he lived.
On the way, he called Leone's office.
    The pathologist greeted him with the words, 'You left without saying goodbye!'
'That's why I'm calling you now'
    'Oh, I see, it's not because you wanted to ask me some questions
    Ferrara smiled. 'Why didn't you become a detective, Leone?'
    'For the same reason you didn't become a pathologist, judging by the way you ran off today just when things were getting nasty. The State needs both of us, and God in His infinite wisdom invented the division of labour. So what do you want to know?'
'Everything.'
    'Obviously. Okay, let's say . . . today is Friday, tomorrow we start the lab tests, so . . . You can call me again next Friday, all right?'
'Can't you at least tell me part of it?'
'You mean, let's stop joking?'
'If possible . . .'
    'At your service, Chief Superintendent. Given what I've seen so far, I think the hospital's diagnosis was correct.'
    'So do I, but that's not the most important thing. It's the circumstances in which the drugs were taken that interest me. And there's something else: I've just found out that when the child—'
    'I wouldn't necessarily call her a child. You saw her yourself.'
    'The girl, then, if you like. When she came into the hospital, she had blood on the insides of her thighs, near the groin. Is it possible to establish if she was having her period or if she'd just finished it?'
    'Of course, from the histological test. I'm going to do a biopsy on the sample I took from her uterus. We just have to wait.'
    'In the meantime, if - hypothetically - she wasn't having her period, would that mean she had sexual relations very close to the time of her death?'
    'Yes, of course, and if there was blood, that would mean those relations were probably violent and repeated, since we know she wasn't a virgin. But we'd have to ascertain that the blood was hers.'
    'What if you had a sample?' Ferrara asked, thinking of the jeans.
'We'd be home and dry!'
    'Good. What impression did Professor d'Incisa make on you?'
    'A competent professional, I'd say, someone who knows his stuff, but a bit of a cold fish. Why?'
    'One of my inspectors has been following the case since before the girl died, and he has the feeling the girl might not have been treated as well as she could have been. He said he thought she'd been a bit neglected.'
    'So what are you thinking? Malpractice? Well, we won't be able to ascertain that from the autopsy, but it would be useful to have a look at the hospital's medical records. Do you have them?'
'I've put in a request to the deputy prosecutor.'
    'If you do get them, make sure I'm sent a copy. It's possible the doctors there aren't as careful as they should be. I did notice an alteration in the mucous membranes of the nose, and d'Incisa said it was due to the tube they put in. But I've seen similar cases where microscopic analysis has revealed the presence of foreign bodies.'
And would that be important?'
'If it's what I'm thinking, it'd be curious to say the least.' 'Why, what are you thinking?'
    'Well, all the other cases I was talking about were cocaine users.'
    For a moment, Ferrara was speechless. 'So apart from the heroin, she may have taken coke, too? At that age?'
    'Not only at that age, but not even as a habitual user. But all this still has to be demonstrated. Let's wait for the test results.'
'When will they be ready?'
    'I'll see if I can get some preliminary results to you in forty-eight hours.'

    They had arrived. He got out of the car and walked along the banks of the Arno. The narrow pavement was crowded with tourists, many of them stopping to photograph the Ponte Vecchio in the nostalgic orange light of early sunset.
    He needed that short walk, despite the heat, to try to put the whole tangle of things inside his head into