"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 07" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

The archives clerks had gone back to their desks, now
that the fun was over. Zen gathered up the papers relating
go the Spadola case and started to put them into some sort
of order while he awaited confirmation that the video tape
he had produced from his pocket after dropping the file
was indeed the genuine article.
Suddenly his hands ceased their mechanical activity.
Zen scanned the smucigy carbon-copied document he was
holding, looking for the name which had leapt off the page
at him.
XXX informed that Spadola was in hiding at a farmhouse
near the village of Melzo. At 04.00 hours on 16 July
personnel of the Squadra Mobile under the direction of
Ispettor Aurelio Zen entered the house and arrested
Spadola. An extensive search of the premises revealed
various items of material evidence (see Appendix A), in
particular a knife which proved to be marked with traces
of blood consistent with that of the victim. Spadola
continued to deny all involvement in the affair, even
after the damning nature of the evidence had been
explained to him. At the judicial confrontation with Par-
rucci, the accused uttered violent threats against the
witness.
Once again, Zen felt the superstitious chill that had
come over him that night after viewing the Burolo video.
Parrucci! The informer whose gruesome death had thrown
Fausto Arcuti into a state of mortal terror! It seemed quite
uncanny that the same man should figure again in the file
which Zen had asked to see two days before as part of his
stratagem for substituting the blank video tape.
But he had no more time to consider the matter, for at
that moment the clerk reappeared, video cassette in hand.
'It's the right one,' he confirmed grudgingly. 'So where
did the other come from, I'd like to know?'
Zen shrugged.
'I'd say that's pretty obvious. When I brought the tape
back the other day, you got it muddled up with the file I
asked to consult at the same time. When you couldn't find
it you started to panic, because you knew that it had been
handed back and that you would be responsible. So you
substituted a blank tape, hoping that no one would notice.
Unfortunately, one of my colleagues had asked to see the
tape, and he immediately discovered that...'
'That's a lie!' the man shouted.
Snatching the Spadola file from Zen, he abruptly went
on to the attack.
'Look at this mess you've made! It would be no wonder
if things sometimes did get confused around here with
people like you wandering in and upsetting everything.
Leave it, leave it! You're just making a worse muddle.