‘RODOLFO! Come back! You have to listen to me! I’m the Director of the TUSC and you’re a murderer!’ I shout while in pursuit of him. ‘Stop in the name of justice!’
‘Ani, he might be dangerous!’ Riri warns from behind me. She’s so slow and she better be keeping an eye on Fred.
‘RODOLFO, STOP RUNNING!’ I keep running. I’m sweating all over, winded and panting like a dog, but I don’t care. ‘Slow down and tell me why you did it!’
I can see now that it totally makes sense that he’s the murderer. Here’s the evidence:
– He’s always been mean
– He had public arguments with Mrs Kostas/Dimas about his disapproval of the new chef vacancy
– He lied about taking a smoke break at 4.30 p.m.
– He was staring at me and Riri in the street
– He didn’t want Mrs Kostas/Dimas to hire another chef. At EEE, he said, ‘We were coming to an arrangement.’ As in, he killed her and that sorted it out
True, right now he’s unemployed but someone will buy Cafe Vivlio, if not Derek. I doubt that anyone would apply for the chef vacancy, so Rodolfo might have the upper hand if the new owner needs an experienced chef who’s also a familiar face to customers. I don’t know if being a chef is worth killing for, but murderers be weird like that.
– He ran out of Mrs Kostas/Dimas’s flat, the same flat that the murderer might’ve set up to look like she was running away
I’m going to get a confession now. I stop and inhale deeply. Then I charge for him.
‘Ow, get off me!’ Rodolfo shouts. All I did was bump into him at high speed. At least he’s stopped now. ‘And I’m not the murderer!’
Once they hear that, Riri and Fred run over to me and Rodolfo. Chickens. But Riri and Fred are foolish – Rodolfo’s word means nothing. We need proof.
And at the most inconvenient time, my supersleuth senses are telling me to think about the article where Mrs Kostas/Dimas/Anastasia saw Detective Larsson die outside her childhood home. I ignore it . . . for now.
‘Prove it,’ I tell Rodolfo. ‘Otherwise, the police will be here so quickly – they’re probably on their way over already.’
Rodolfo shakes his head. He looks pained. There are creases on his face and his Adam’s apple bobs. ‘I shouldn’t have run –’
‘And you shouldn’t have stared at us like a-a creepy murderer!’ Riri squeaks.
‘I only did that because I wanted you to pass on a message to the police from me!’
‘You couldn’t do that yourself?’ I stare at him like I don’t believe him. ‘You could’ve gone to the police to confess.’ I dial Chloe’s number.
‘To confess? No, I’m not confessing to anything. Look, the murderer is after me.’
‘How?’ While I don’t believe him, my interest is piqued. There’s an anguished look on his face.
‘Because –’ he pinches the bridge of his nose – ‘I-I saw something. I saw Polly and Mimi having a disagreement that day.’ I raise my eyebrows. No one mentioned anything negative between Mrs Kostas/Dimas and Mimi. That’s suspicious. And I’m angry that not only Rodolfo lied about this, but Mimi did too during the interrogation stage. ‘And now Mimi is dead. I don’t think her house-fire was accidental. I just know it was the murderer who started it. And he must’ve seen me see them so he’s coming after me too.’
‘How do you know that? Did you see the murderer?’
‘No. But we know the murderer wasn’t them two – they’re both dead! And I’m next!’
‘Rodolfo –’ I say – ‘you are the murderer and you killed Mimi as well, in case she said something. Maybe she saw you and Mrs Kostas arguing.’
‘No!’ he yells. ‘I would never kill Polly. Her and me, we go way back. Back to when her name was Anastasia Dimas.’
I freeze. ‘How do you know about that?’ I whisper because I’m afraid my voice will break.
‘Me and Mrs Kostas were the same age. When she was younger, she was an art thief. Me? I was the security guard at a Spanish museum. I was the guard in charge of Infante and Dog by Diego Velázquez. It was a lost painting that my boss had managed to buy back. But when the curtain lifted, the painting was gone. Her partner, Nikolaos, he sent the newspapers a letter confirming it was him and Anastasia who’d stolen it. I was disgraced – I lost everything. Eventually my name faded from the news but whenever I tried to apply for a job, it all came back up again. I lost everything because of Polly.’
Suddenly I remember all the clues that were right under my nose all along.
a) The day before the murder, Rodolfo said to Mrs Kostas/Dimas, ‘Remember everything you’ve thanked me for, Polly.’
b) Also on that day, he said, ‘If it [covering the counter] gets too much, then I can always go outside and play guard. Right?’
c) Regarding the Poppy Flowers situation, Rodolfo said something about the painting days later, in the kitchens. Maybe she’d told him because he already knew everything?
d) When we interrogated him at EEE, Rodolfo said, ‘I might head back to Spain, relax a bit. I could go back to being a security guard, I guess. Not sure.’
He was getting revenge on Anastasia, coming back to haunt her! He so did it. ‘Well, that’s motive enough for you to kill her, Rodolfo.’ I look at my phone. ‘Did you get that, Chloe?’