Valerio followed.
“Federico. I’m sorry.”
But Federico didn’t answer. He was through the front door. It slammed behind him.
—
Valerio’s phone was dead. He plugged it into the wall, but it still wouldn’t start. He hoped it hadn’t shorted out in the rain last night.
He showered in the old tub, the water coming in too hot and then too cold, the pipes moaning all the while. He squeezed toothpaste onto his finger and used this to brush the foul taste from his teeth and tongue.
His clothing from last night was drier, if worse for the wear. His shirt sleeve had a bloodstain, and he scrubbed at it in the kitchen sink for several minutes before Penny saw what he was doing.
“Is that blood?” she said, nudging him aside. “Give that to me!”
When she returned it to him, the blood was mostly gone, but the shirt was dripping. He wrung it out, then hung it on the bathroom heater, and wore the mustard-colored T-shirt instead. He’d just pulled it back over his head when the knock came at the door.
—
“Please tell me you have coffee,” Emilio said when Valerio opened the door.
“You two look like shit,” Valerio observed, stepping aside for the detectives to pass. Sonia gave him a cold stare and Emilio yawned.
Orlanda, who had trailed behind Valerio, extended her hand. “I’m Valerio’s sister. Orlanda.”
Sonia introduced herself and Emilio, then asked, “Is your mother at home?”
Orlanda turned and shouted, “Penny! The detectives are here! Bring Mamma, will you?”
She herded the group into the small living room and seemed ready to join them on the shabby brown sofa when Valerio shooed her away.
“Coffee, Orlanda!”
His irritation with his sister was some warped residue of their combative childhood and teenage years. He felt the steady, predictable climb to the top of a familiar roller coaster ride, knew the wild descents and loops that would follow, and for a moment, felt powerless to alter them. He braced for the fight. Then he caught the wounded expression in her eyes, and a memory shoved into his mind: three years ago, late at night, and he’d answered the door to find his sister’s bloodied face, lip split and swollen, a black bruise blossoming on her cheek. The sight had shocked him. More than this, he’d been shaken by that look in her eyes—raw and pleading, the doors of her soul flung wide.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Hey, I’m sorry. Would you mind making more coffee? I think everyone’s tired.”
—
Leonora, when she came into the room with Penny, was dressed in her best maroon pantsuit, white hair brushed and shaped into hard curls, retaining the form of the curling iron. Tan makeup coated his mother’s wrinkled face, rouge on her cheeks and dark lipstick on thin lips. She had the same cross around her neck that she always wore, large pearl clip-on earrings, and a gold brooch on her lapel in the shape of a honeybee.
Penny carried two wobbly wooden chairs from the kitchen into the living room for herself and Orlanda, and Valerio helped his mother into her favorite armchair, facing the detectives. Orlanda served the coffee.
“Thank you for meeting with us, Signora Alfieri,” said Sonia. “I hope you got some rest. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been praying,” she said. “I’ve asked God why he would allow such a thing. Why he would show it to me…to see that poor woman—hold her head in my hands. Why, God? What is your meaning?”
She gestured towards the ceiling as if Jesus himself were hovering there.
“I can’t imagine how it must have felt, Signora Alfieri,” said Sonia.“It’s understandable that you would want to find meaning in such a terrible act of violence.”
“God gave me an answer,” Leonora said. “He gave me a sign. He sent his messenger.”
“Mamma,” breathed Orlanda, her head ducked, shoulders raised.
Valerio shifted, feeling his sister’s posture reflected in his own. A primitive shame crawled across his skin, hot and itchy.
“An angel came to me,” his mother said with firm certainty, staring at each of her children in turn, eyes wide, as if they had openly contradicted her. “Itdid. An angel—in the form of a spider coming from beneath the picture frame on its fine web.”
