THE PLAN WAS PERFECT

Wolf was really happy that morning as he drove to his office. Ah, everything would be perfect, he didn’t have to worry. He would get rid of his wife and father-in-law, and he would inherit a fortune….Oh, finally he could give himself to the life he had always dreamed. And no one would have suspected him. His plan was really perfect.( He had planned everything perfectly). At first, he had thought of using a hitman to kill his wife Clotilde, and his father-in-law Valter. But resorting to a hitman to eliminate those two meant that someone, at least the hitman himself, would have known that it was he who had ordered the killing of his wife and father-in-law. The hitman could talk ….about him. No, if he had used a hitman to take out those two, then he should have taken out the hitman too. Not to mention that Wolf couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money on a hitman.  He would have to settle for a hitman with little professionalism, who would not have given so much reliability, who could have even failed. Ah, but from such a hitman, he could even expect to be blackmailed.

After having discarded the use of drugs or other toxic substances to eliminate those two, Wolf had decided that the safest method would be an accident. At first, he had thought of a car accident. But then, considering the complications that such an accident  could have entailed (involved), with the appraisals, the witnesses , the insurance, he had opted for the domestic accident. He had calculated everything. He had caused his father-in -law to fall down the stairs, oh, very well, and almost easy. But no, he could not make his wife fall down the stairs too….It seemed to him  that causing both of them to fall down the stairs could give rise to suspicion. He had therefore decided that he would make only his father-in-law fall down the stairs and when his wife Clotilde rushed to her father rescue, she would have been overwhelmed by the fall of the ceiling. Of course the double accident would  happen when he, Wolf, was not at home, even better ( it would be better) if he had been out of the city.

While causing his father-in-law to fall down the stairs was relatively easy, it was more complicated to calculate and arrange for the ceiling to fall when his wife came to the rescue of her father. ( to help her father) Wolf had even asked his trusted surveyor for information to make sure the ceiling collapsed at the right time….Oh, but what if his wife hadn’t woken up to the cries of her old father falling down the stairs? Wolf had thought of this too.  He would wake his wife up so that she would come to the aid of her old parent. At the time of the fall of his father-in-law he, Wolf, would have made the phone ring…Oh, since the time of the fall was not really difficult to know…His father-in- law always got up very early in the morning, he got up before it was day and, from the first floor, where the bedrooms were, he went down to the kitchen to make his coffee. To be sure that the old man fell down the stairs it would take very little ( it was enough very little) since Valter had considerable difficulty moving and walking. Instead of making the stairs slippery Wolf had thought of acting on his father-in-law’s shoes and also on his slippers____that sometimes in the morning the old man went down to the kitchen with slippers­­____which when his father-in- law had started to go down the stairs, ( they/ his shoes/ slippers) would tighten around his feet, throwing him off balance.

That Thursday morning, when Wolf had prepared everything to implement his plan for the next weekend, when he would be out of his city ( town) for a conference, he had a car accident. He had not respected a stop and had hit a woman on a bicycle. Wolf had come unscathed from the accident, but unfortunately, the woman he had hit was dead. Also, his car needed to be repaired. Albeit reluctantly, Wolf had decided to postpone the implementation of his plan until a later weekend, when he would find another excuse to be absent ( away) from home.

The fact is that between an unforeseen event and another, which always occurred at the last moment, a month had passed before he ( Wolf) could put his plan into action. Wolf had prepared accurately everything. He had worked on his father-in -law’s shoes and slippers to make him stagger and fall down the stairs. And he had tampered ( fixed) the ceiling so that it had collapsed on his wife between seven and seven thirty on Saturday morning, when she had rushed to help her father.

On Friday afternoon he ( Wolf) had left, saying  that he would go to his friend Paul F., who had a house on the lake of Massaciuccoli, about fifty kilometers from his city. Ah, he had to discuss an important building project with Paul F. He, Paul F. was a renowned, indeed famous architect, who had recently become very rich, inheriting a fortune.  His wife, his in- laws, his brother-in -law had all died in a car accident. Since he, Paul, was driving the off-road vehicle they were on board when the accident happened, and Paul had been the only survivor, Wolf was convinced that his friend , who had always talked of a tragic accident that had destroyed his family, had indeed planned that accident to kill his wife and her relatives. So he thought that  Paul would be the perfect accomplice for him, even if he hadn’t yet told him about his plan , since he thought it would be better ( safer) to tell him about it when Paul had confessed to him that he had planned that car accident to take out his wife, his in-laws and his brother-in-law. And, of course, it would have been wiser to tell Paul of his murder plan after it had been successful. Oh, but sure, it would be successful. Wolf couldn’t even think it could fail.

That evening he spent very pleasant hours in the company of Paul, and he went to bed enthusiastic, even trilled  at the thought of what would happen the next morning, which could not fail to happen, given the extreme attention with which he had planned everything.  But the day after, early in the morning, as soon as he woke up, some doubts began to creep ( to appear) into his mind about the success of his criminal plan. It was precisely when, a few minutes after seven , he called his wife….the phone rang for a long time and no one answered. Ah, but Clotilde might not ( couldn’t) answer because she had already rushed to help her old father who had surely to have already fallen down the stairs. But of course, it had to be so…ah, he didn’t have to be pessimistic. So Wolf continued to wait confidently, but certain that his plan would succeed. Ah, what a relief, he was getting rid of his wife and his father-in- law. He too would inherit and would become rich. Wolf had calculated that at least after the ceiling collapsed some of their neighbors would be worried ( would have been worried) . Maybe some of them would go  ring  the door, or  call on the phone his wife and, not getting an answer, would be alarmed. He thought that it would be over an hour before ….the accident ( the misfortune) was discovered. Only later would they try to track him down. In short, he would have to wait until at least mid-morning before someone phoned him to tell him what had happened. But the hours passed, noon arrived, and no one tried to track down Wolf. As the hours passed Wolf’s certainties began to waver and he began to become more and more nervous. He kept looking for the latest news on television and on the internet. But  there was no news about…an accident like the one he had planned. By mid- afternoon, not being able to stand that uncertainty any longer, he decided to call home. Oh, he almost had a stroke when he heard his wife’s voice. Clotilde said to him that, of course, everything was fine, of course she was fine , and her father was fine too. Wolf couldn’t believe that his carefully studied plan had failed. He later learned that it had failed because that morning his father-in -law, instead of getting up early, as usual, had stayed in bed until late. His wife had gotten up first and she had decided to wash his father’s shoes and slippers in the washing machine. For God, but you look what bad luck, Wolf said himself, regretting it. Yes, he could understand why his father-in- law hadn’t fallen down the stairs… But the ceiling, why hadn’t the ceiling collapsed, as he had planned? Wolf continued to ask himself this question for some time, that is, until his wife left  him for his surveyor. Then he understood why the ceiling hadn’t collapsed.