“We’ve been trying to get in touch with his wife for two days now,” the officer said. “Do you have any idea where she could be?” I said she might be on a cruise, and he made a note of this, then asked if Graziano had any other relatives and if I knew how to get hold of them. “His father,” I said, and he was about to make another note, but I told him I’d deal with it. He thanked me and asked me if I wanted to talk to the doctor, because the postmortem must be over by now. I said okay.

The officer walked ahead of me along a corridor of the hospital. The patients were leaning out the windows in search of air. It was a very hot afternoon, and the fans in the corridors were making a lot of noise but nothing else. We stopped outside a pair of double doors just long enough for the officer to take off his hat before knocking. He was a very polite policeman. “Come in,” a voice said. It belonged to a male nurse sitting behind a typewriter. The doctor was at a bigger table. He was holding some papers that every now and again he used to fan his face. He must have been very hot, because he was fat, and fat people feel the heat more than thin people. He wasn’t wearing a shirt under his white coat, and you could see his fat, hairless chest. “Just a minute,” he said, taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. He glanced at the papers he’d been fanning himself with and resumed dictating to the nurse. The police officer motioned me to a chair and I went and sat down. “Loss of upper incisors,” the doctor said to the nurse, “due to the impact. Fracture of the mandible and the third cervical vertebra, contusion with extensive hematoma on the left clavicle. Sagging of the torso with fracture of the third and fifth left rib. Death followed hemorrhage of the cerebellum. Cause: Fall.” He looked at us. “Incredible,” he said, “no fracture of the hands. Usually, people try to shield their face and they break their hands. This one didn’t.” The police officer told him who I was and the doctor looked embarrassed and invited me to sit down, even though I was already sitting. “Do you want to see him?” he said.