When we had finished reading the statement, Engles carefully folded the sheet of paper and handed it back to Keramikos. ‘It’s strange to see it all written down,’ he said. ‘I was convinced that that was roughly what had happened. But I couldn’t prove it. Stelben’s statement was that, shortly after passing the Tre Croci Hotel, they were forced to a stop because a lorry was drawn up across the road. His men mutinied and joined the men from the lorry. He and his servant, joined by the guard from the slittovia, attempted to prevent them getting at the gold. There was a fight. The slittovia guard and his servant were killed. He was bound and taken up to the top of the slittovia. He managed to free himself eventually and at seven-thirty in the morning he staggered into the Tre Croci Hotel. That was the statement he made to the Commandant of the anti-aircraft unit at Tre Croci. Later he went on with the remaining nineteen cases of gold to Innsbruck, where he made a similar statement to the Gestapo.’
‘Yes, I heard about the statement,’ Keramikos said. ‘One of my people had seen it. Did the Gestapo arrest him?’
‘No. Things were a bit chaotic at the time and he was urgently required in Italy to deal with the threatened Communist risings in the big towns. I interrogated him, you know, when he was first arrested. I could never shake him from that statement. Its weakness was, of course, that they would never have troubled to take him up to the top of the slittovia.’ Engles looked at Keramikos with a puzzled frown. ‘Just why did you show me Holtz’s statement?’ he asked.
‘Ah — you are thinking that it tells you where the gold is hidden, eh?’
‘By the time he had killed those men up here and taken the bodies down to the bottom and then climbed all the way back, it could not have been earlier than, say, four o’clock. He reported to the Commandant at the Tre Croci Hotel at seven-thirty. That gives him barely three hours in which to bury the five remaining bodies and twenty-one cases of gold. He wouldn’t have had time to move those boxes to another hiding place.’
Keramikos shrugged his shoulders. ‘Perhaps you are right,’ he said.
‘Then why did you show me the statement?’
‘Because, my friend, it only tells you where the gold was. It does not tell you where it is now. Don’t forget that Stelben owned this place for a short time. And he had two Germans working for him up here. They were here for over two weeks before they were arrested.’
‘Were they alone here?’
‘Yes. Aldo and his wife and Anna were given a month’s holiday.’
‘Strange that the two Germans should have been killed in that riot at the Regina Coeli.’
Keramikos smiled. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Very convenient, eh — for someone. But who?’
At that moment Carla interrupted us. ‘You have secrets that you talk together so quietly — yes?’
‘No secrets from you, Carla,’ Engles replied. ‘We were just wondering what your little Heinrich did with the bodies of the five German soldiers he buried up here.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t pretend that you know nothing about it. Where did he put them — and the gold?’
‘How should I know?’ She was tense and her fingers were tearing at a button on her scarlet suit.
‘Weren’t you here when he had those two Germans working for him?’ Engles asked.
‘No. I was in Venice.’
‘He did not trust you, eh?’ Keramikos said with a sly smile.
She made no answer.
Engles turned to Valdini, who had moved quietly over to join us. ‘And where were you?’ he asked.
‘I also was in Venice,’ Valdini replied. He was watching Carla and there was an ugly little grin on his face.
‘You were in Cortina.’ Carla’s voice sounded startled.
‘No,’ he said, still with that evil grin. ‘I was in Venice.’
‘But I told you to go to Cortina. You said you were at Cortina.’ She was very agitated.
‘I was in Venice,’ he repeated, and his eyes watched her coldly, like a snake.
‘Ah,’ said Keramikos. ‘You were told to keep an eye on Stelben and his two friends. Yet you remained in Venice. I wonder why.’
‘There was no need to go to Cortina. The two Germans were friends of Mayne’s. They were looking after her interests — and Mayne’s.’
I heard Mayne miss a note, and I glanced towards the piano. He was watching us and, as I looked at him, he stopped playing and got up. The others had not noticed. They were watching Valdini. And the little Sicilian was watching Carla.
‘So you stayed in Venice?’ Keramikos said. ‘Why in Venice?’
‘I wished to keep an eye on Mayne,’ Valdini replied slowly.
‘You were spying on me,’ Carla snarled in Italian. ‘Why were you spying on me?’
