"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 02" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

course just that, a copy, the original being retained by the
magistrates in Nuoro. Technically speaking its loss was no
more than an inconvenience, but that didn't mean that
Zen could just drop down to Archives and tell them what
had happened. In theory, official files could only be taken
out of the Ministry with a written exeat permit signed by
the relevant departmental head. In practice no one took
the slightest notice of this, but the moment anything went
wrong the letter of the law would be strictly applied.
Once again, Zen turned to the task in hand as an escape
from these problems. The next section of the report was
considerably less straightforward than the one he had just
written. While the facts of the Burolo case were simple
enough, the interpretations which could be placed on
them were political dynamite. Zen's completed report
would be stored in the Ministry's central database,
accessible by anyone with the appropriate terminal and
codeword, his views and conclusions electronically
enshrined for ever. At least he didn't have to deal with the
dreaded glowing screens himself! The use of computers
was spreading inexorably through the various law
enforcement agencies, although the dream of a unified
electronic data pool had faded with the discovery that the
systems chosen by the Carabinieri and the police were
incompatible, both with each other and with the quite
different system used by the judiciary. It was a sign of
their elite status that those Criminalpol officials who
wished to do so had been allowed to retain their battered
manual Olivettis with the curvy fifties' styling that was
now fashionable once more.
Zen lit another of the coarse-flavoured domestic ciga-
rettes, looked up at the rectangular tiles of the suspended
ceiling for inspiration, then began to pound the keys
again.
'Because of the exceptional diffiiwlty of unauthorized
access to the villa, the number of suspects was extremely
limited. Nevertheless, five possibilities have at various
times been considered worthy of investigation. The first,
chronologically, concerns Alfonso and Giuseppina Bini.
Bini acted as caretaker and general handyman at the villa,
while his wife cooked and cleaned. Both had worked for
Burolo for over ten years. At the time of the murders, the
couple claim to have been watching television in their
quarters in the north wing of the property. This is separ-
ated from the dining room by the width of the whole
building, including the massive exterior walls of the
original farm house. As Giuseppina Bini is slightly deaf,
the volume of the television was turned quite high. Sub-
sequent tests confirmed the couple's story that the
gunshots were at first almost inaudible. It was only when