A Whodunit

Go ahead, be daring. Try to discover whodunit.

 

 

A WHODUNIT

 

Elisa turned round in front of the mirror, at the same time she stared at her reflection from different angles. There was a pile of fur coats on her bed. Leopard, mink, otter, fox, wolf: skins without bodies, heads without limbs. Where were the eyes?

Tired of the images Elisa took off the coat she was wearing, letting it fall on top of the others. Without paying much attention to anything she picked up another coat. Once again she was in front of the huge mirror looking at herself, not missing out even the smallest detail. And there on the bed were the other coats awaiting their turn.

When Elisa had tried them all on she rang the fur shop. “Good afternoon, Lina? Mrs Barron, here. I’m sorry but there’s not one that I like. They make me look fat. I don’t like the cut this year.”

“Very good, madam. I’m sorry that you are not keeping at least one of them. Perhaps you’ll find one more to your liking in the next  batch. I’ll send the delivery man round to pick them up. He’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll give them to the doorman so that he can hand them over to the delivery man,” Elisa answered in a tone of voice that showed she was no longer interested in the coats.

“Very well. Good afternoon, Madam.”

“Good afternoon, Lina,” and Elisa hung up.

Lina heard the click of  the phone and making a face at it, hung up.

Elisa placed the coats in a very large cover, zipped it up, and rang for the doorman. When he was at her door she handed it over to him saying, “Make sure it is the delivery man from the fur shop before giving it to him. The contents are worth a fortune.” The poor man went down to the entrance with the precious parcel thinking, Why did she have to say that about the value of the coats? To reaffirm her social position or to inform me that I can’t afford these things and she can? Grumbling to himself, the doorman sat and waited for the delivery man.

In her apartment, Elisa was getting ready to go out. Her hair was several shades of blonde. It was even a bit lion-like near the parting, it was all well prepared for her by her hairdresser. Her eyes were as black as jet. Her mouth was that of a repressed woman.

Satisfied with the result of the effort she had made with brushes and paints, Elisa opened the wardrobe. The wardrobe door slid open silently to reveal coats of the most beautiful furs hanging in it. Elisa looked at her sweater and pants and got out a honey coloured mink coat. She closed the wardrobe door and the silence and darkness of a tomb reigned once again in the interior.

Elisa parked her car in a small street near the music shop. The shop assistant had the CD ready for her.

“Good afternoon, I’m Mrs. Barron. You rang to say you have the CD.”

The shop assistant put the CD on top of the counter, “Here it is, Madam.”

Elisa paid for the CDand left the shop.

The apartment was full of the sound of the music of the new CD. The living-room was in shadow, the only light in the room came from a standard lamp near the window. Elisa was lying down on the sofa with her eyes shut. She could see once in a while the vision of the pile of fur coats at the back of her eyelids. Without knowing why, Elisa felt annoyed. The CD finished and there was a heavy silence. In the distance a howl could be heard. The woman got up from the sofa and turned on the lamp, looking around her cautiously to make sure that nothing was hidden there. The clock chimed seven. Elisa switched off the lamps and went to the kitchen. The kitchen with the radio on made her forget everything.

Her husband arrived at a quarter to eight.

“Hello, how about eating in the kitchen?” Elisa suggested.

Elisa’s husband was a fat man with a bad tempered face, and he stopped on his way to the bathroom to say, “Don’t waste time in saying silly things.” The two dined in silence with the television being the only thing with any life in the living-room.

“Joseph, I tried on some coats from Lina this afternoon and I didn’t like any of them.”

Without taking his eyes off the television, Joseph said, “Ring another shop then.”

“I don’t understand you. I have quite enough fur coats. I can wait till a new design comes out.”

“Tomorrow I’ll ring another furrier.” Joseph put more chocolate into his mouth and so put an end to the conversation so that she’d leave him in peace.

Elisa and Joseph slept in a bed that was much bigger than a regular double bed. The last physical union between them had taken place many years ago. The great big bed had been bought deliberately so as to avoid any contact whatsoever. They stayed together for their own reasons, Joseph, so that he could be free to have a fling, and Elisa because she had no intention of doing anything that looked like work.

That night there they were together yet separated in the big bed. His mind was on things far away from that bedroom. Elisa’s mind was a blank waiting for the moment when Joseph would fall asleep.

Night in the street was cold and desolate. The sound of a cockroach could be heard in the pipes.

Halfway through the following morning Joseph rang home, “Elisa, pack my case. I’m going to be away till Sunday.” It was Tuesday.

Happily Elisa packed the suitcase. Now she would have the big bed just for her, she would be able to go to bed when she felt like it. It was a bit colder than the previous day, and Elisa opened the wardrobe with its tomb-like silence to get out a fox jacket to wear to the supermarket.

At half past midday, Joseph arrived for the suitcase. “I’m off to the States for a few days. If I stay on longer I’ll ring you. Bye.”

“Bye. Have a good trip.” Elisa was alone. After a solitary lunch she sat down to read.

Her sister arrived at four o’clock. “Hello, Gorgeous. How are you?”

“Hello, Margarita. Nice to see you.” The sisters hadn’t seen each other in quite a time.

“Elisa, guess what? Frank has bought me a mink jacket. I don’t suppose it’s as good as yours, but I’d like to see yours.”

“Come with me.” The sisters went to the matrimonial bedroom. Elisa took out a black mink jacket, put it on and turned this way and that for her sister. “What d’you think. Joseph wants to buy me another.”

Margarita stared intensely at her sister’s jacket and said, “Mine is not so black. It must be because yours is from Canada, isn’t it?”

“Would you like to try it on?”

Margarita put on her sister’s jacket and stroked the fur. “It’s lovely and soft. But anyway, I’m very happy with mine even though it’s not so good.”

Elisa returned the jacket to the wardrobe. For one moment it was as cold as a fridge full of frozen corpses.

Blinking, Elisa in one quick movement closed the wardrobe. Margarita was talking, “I’ve got to go. Frank is in the car. I can’t make him wait for me any more. Bye, Darling,” and left. Elisa waited until her sister had gone and went back to the living-room.

The CD had finished but Elisa continued lying down on the sofa. With a long night ahead of her she worked out a plan. After having dinner and washing up her things she sat down on the sofa with a new book.

A sound that came from the balcony made her get up to find out what it was. She stopped when she felt the cold air on her face. There was nothing on the balcony except a couple of plants. Beneath the street lamp outside her building there was a cat. Elisa was on the point of going back inside when she looked down. The cat was staring at her with the wisdom of ages.

The next day the sky was grey and not very promising when Elisa got up. At half past ten a delivery man arrived with a bag full of fur coats. Elisa placed the bag on the bed and opened it, she took out one of the coats to see it closer. How strange! It had hardly any sheen to it. It resembled the hair of a dead person. Elisa tried on the rest of the coats and eventually decided on one of snow leopard. When the delivery man went back later to pick up the coats, Elisa told him she would keep the white one. She rang her sister, “Margarita, guess what. I’ve bought another coat.” In spite of her sister’s silence Elisa went on talking. “It’s snow leopard, there can’t be anything so pretty. I look precious in it.”

Margarita with teeth clenched said to her husband, “Elisa’s got another coat.”

Frank pretended to be deaf, Margarita congratulated Elisa and making lunch the excuse, she hung up.

Elisa opened the wardrobe and pushing the other coats to one side made a space for the new one.

I’ll have to get another wardrobe made, no more will fit in this one, she said to herself. Elisa went to the kitchen to make some lunch. During the afternoon she tried to read but found it impossible. Every time she tried to concentrate the sight of the new coat invaded her mind and the only remedy she had was to go to the wardrobe and try it on.

Ten o’clock that night Joseph rang from the States, “Are you OK?”

Elisa still euphoric told him, “Yes, Joseph, I’m very well. Everything all right?”

“Yes, everything’s fine.”

“Joseph, I’ve bought a snow leopard coat. A delivery man came from another furrier with a bag of coats and I bought one.”

“What furrier was he from?”

“Guido’s. It must be new. I don’t know it. Why do you ask? Is anything wrong?”

Joseph lied to her, “No, there’s nothing wrong. You can show me the coat when I get back. See you on Sunday.” When Joseph heard the click of the phone from his apartment, he hung up and turned to the woman at his side. Well, well, he thought. I haven’t rung any furrier.

On Friday Elisa left her apartment earlier than usual, leaving the maid alone. After having spent a restless night her head was aching. The day was as unpromising as the one before.

Elisa usually did the shopping at a supermarket outside the town. She was incapable of putting up with queues and carrying shopping in her hands so she got the car and left. Once it was finished a man put her shopping in her car and she went back to her apartment. That Friday she saw that two cars had hit head on.

“How did it happen?” Elisa asked one of the onlookers.

“Apparently a cat jumped out of that tree.” The man pointed to the tree beside the lamppost outside Elisa’s apartment.

“Where’s the cat now? I can’t see one.” Elisa asked, looking around her.

“It’s probably gone off to hide somewhere. Cats know how to hide themselves very well.”

Elisa, seeing that  nothing more was to be gained, got into her car and drove it into the garage. The light from her headlights shone in the darkness. A cat could hide here very easily, Elisa thought.

The maid had finished and left. Elisa was alone after eating and the radio was on. According to the news reader many people had had accidents due to cats and dogs,

and ended up by saying, “Cats must be kept indoors and dogs must wear leads.” No animals had been killed.

The sofa, the book, and the woman. There was an old film on the television and Elisa decided to watch it. When Joseph was away she felt like watching television. She took the set into the bedroom so as to see it when she was in bed. The wind was colder and stronger. Without knowing why, she went out on the balcony to see the sight of the accident. She felt no surprise on seeing the cat from the other night sitting in the same place. Was it coincidence that it stared at her with that inscrutable feline air? Elisa didn’t know and didn’t stay there. Following Joseph’s instructions, she carefully locked the windows and the main door.

The film entertained her for a couple of hours. In the distance a howl could be heard and then another.

One policeman said to another, “Something’s going on tonight, the animals are very restless.”

The other policeman, dry and realistic, said, “As long as it doesn’t happen on our shift, I’m not bothered. I want a quiet night.”

There was something in the drainpipe trying to get to the surface.

The television was switched off. Elisa was restless and moved so much in her bed that she made the bedside table lamp fall onto the floor. The noise woke her up. Two amber eyes were looking at her. Desperately, Elisa looked for the lamp.

 

The apartment was full of policemen. Elisa’s bedroom was covered in blood. The forensic doctor was examining the corpse that was on the bed.

“Well, Doctor. What did she die from? What could have caused all this butchery?” the inspector asked.

The doctor raised his head to look at the inspector. “See these marks on her throat and how her pyjamas are in shreds. It looks as though the murderer wanted to skin her.”

The inspector looked down at the floor and saw the paw print of a large feline. “Is it possible that the owner of this paw killed her?”

“For sure. These scratches were made by a giant cat.”

The inspector couldn’t believe it, there were no windows open and the door had been locked. A policeman opened the wardrobe door. Inside it was empty. Elisa’s coats were not on their hangers. The two policemen stared at each other, and their gaze ended up by falling on the inert and skinned form on the bed.

And the hangers swung slowly backwards and forwards.