THE GHOST OF THE APARTMENT BUILDING IN VIA ARIOSTO

THE GHOST OF THE APARTMENT BUILDING IN VIA ARIOSTO

Gaetano had begun to frequent that apartment building as a young man, when he was ( had been) a door-to-door salesman, first of encyclopedias, then of household  cleaning  products, then of kitchen utensils. That five storey building, divided into apartments ___on each floor there were four apartments____had been built in the seventies of the twentieth century. Then  in the following decades, the area had thickened with other, taller, more modern buildings.

However he, Gaetano, had continued to prefer that building now considered out of mood ( old-fashioned) or outdated, if not downright old, not only when he was (had been) a door-to-door salesman of various items, but also when he had set up his own business, a company of catering that provided meals at home. In that building, at number 13 in via Ariosto, he had not only acquaintances ad customers, but also friends. The tenants  who lived in the apartments in that building were all quiet, friendly. Or so it seemed. Because then, in the summer of 2017 there was that crime, in one of the apartment of the ground floor, that had upset all the tenants and , to tell the truth, it had cast quite a few shadows on they all who, until then had been considered quiet and pacific people.

The victims, Sara and Mohammed, they were a young engaged couple who lived since some months in one of the apartments on the ground floor.  Sara and Mohammed had been shot to death, but they had also been stabbed.  From immediately after the discovery of the crime, the situation had appeared quite intricate, but indeed even rough. In fact, there was something obvious( evident), that yet it seemed those who were investigating could not see. Then, how can we not think that if they didn’t notice ( see) something so obvious ( evident), it was because they didn’t want to notice it? The rifle with which Sara and Mohammed had been shot belonged to Sara’s father, who also lived in the same building, in an apartment  on the third floor. He told that he, for reasons of space___he lived together his wife, his mother and his son_____had brought the rifles which, regularly reported, he kept as a hunter, in the apartment of his daughter and her partner. Now, the rifle with which the two young had been shot , were found on the table, while the two dead lay on the ground . Who had put the rifle, on which no fingerprints were found , on the table? Furthermore, neither in the living room, where Sara and Mohammed had been killed, neither in the whole apartments had any knife been found  that could be identified as the one with which they had been stabbed. Yet, despite these details, of which televisions and newspapers had spoken, the investigators, immediatewly after the discovery of the double crime, they had said that the most probable hypothesis was that it was ( had been) a murder-suicide, that one of the two young had killed the other, then had killed himself.

The two young ( people) had been shot by night, but when all the tenants of the apartments were at home. Was it possible that no one had heard either the shots or the screams? The surveillance camera in front of the entrance door hadn’t framed anyone who didn’t live in that building. People, above all those who lived in the apartments of that building, started to suspect that it had been Paul V., father of the killed girl, to kill Sara and Mohammed. And they, who lived in that building, began also to suspect each other, because it seemed evident that, if even he wasn’t ( he hadn’t been) Sara’s father, as most of them believed, the murderer had to have been, anyway, someone who even before nightfall. was ( had been) in the building.

 Despite police investigators continued to claim that it was a murder-suicide, they, people who lived in the apartments of the building, who had known the two young victims , couldn’t believe that Sara and Mohammed had decided ( chosen) to die. They were young, healthy, in love. They had  project to be carry out. No, it was impossible that they had killed each other,  or that one of the two had first killed the other, and then  had killed himself (in turn)

The first who came up with ….the GHOST ( who came to talk about) who wandered there, in the apartment building and that could , as a ghost, act undisturbed, were the Debbie, Clarice and Aldous, who lived in an apartment at the top floor of the building, with their Bulgarian caregiver.  The Debbie were very old and, it was said, very rich too.They received frequent visits from members of renowned, meritorious members of voluntary associations, which in fact had also thought of providing them with the Bulgarian caregiver. He, Gaetano, decided to go to visit them, just hoping to get news …of the ghost he had heard there around. He had heard that the old Debbie told that they had even seen the ghost wandering there, in the building. Gaetano (had) tried to get the Debbie  to talk about…the GHOST, starting to speak about the terrible double murder happened in the building.  Ah, what a terrible fate had befallen those two poor young…. Who knows WHY they had been killed, he said. And then again…oh, he could not think that he had been, Sara’s father who had killed them. Clarice and Aldous Debbie (had) listened to him in silence, nodding at what he was saying, but they did not comment. Indeed, they had sidetracked the conversation, asking him about his catering ( restaurant) company. They had even begun to praise the tortelli with artichokes and the eggplant stuffed with ham they had recently tasted.

It was only when Gaetano, after saying goodbye to the Debbie, was about to leave, that Milena, the Bulgarian caregiver, reached him at the door and she said him that Mr and Mrs Debbie….oh, but he had to have understood it, they…didn’t like to talk about…that presence

“ Of course, I understood” Gaetano confirmed. “ Oh, but why didn’t the Debbie want to speak about the ghost? Yet they had to have told someone about it. Several people had said me that they had been, the Debbie, who told of this ghost in this building. Here, I just wanted to know: but, in short, did they really see this ghost?” He asked. She, Milena nodded almost insistently, but she didn’t say a word. “ But well….and where did they see this ghost? What was his appearance?” Gaetano asked.  Milena went out with Gaetano, leaving the apartment door open.

 “ Mr and Mrs Debbie tell they saw the…this ghost come out of there” Milena said, pointing to the apartment opposite the Debbie’s. “ But how? Would the ghost get out of there? Oh, but isn’t that the Robbins apartment?” Gaetano exclaimed. “ Not anymore. The Robbins lived there until about a month ago “ Milena said, nodding at her words. “ And now who lives there ( in there)?” He asked. “ Now nobody lives there. Since the Robbins had left, the apartment is empty”    “ Ah, an empty apartment! Well, just the right place for a ghost!” Gaetano said, trying to joke. He, however did not believe at all the ghost who ( which) had settled in an uninhabited apartment. He rather thought (believed)that someone, for who knows what reason, was hiding inside that apartment. Someone that the very old Debbie had taken for a ghost, when they saw  him leave  the apartment they knew it was uninhabited. “ And you, have you seen this ghost?” Gaetano asked, almost impatient. She, the Debbie’s caregiver, lowered her head and took her chin in her hands. “ I…but…I really don’t know if…if I saw him…if he was truly …well, yes…oh, if he was right the ghost, that one Mr and Mrs Debbie saw…” Then Milena said, exitant, rather embarrassed. “ Ah, you don’t know,,,eh, you cannot be sure  to have seen precisely that ghost! Well, perfect! “ He said, snorting. “ But why didn’t you ask him…that guy you saw, if he was the very ghost the Debbie had seen ( saw)?”Gaetano asked, as if joking, when he was instead rather irritated. He was impatient to find out more about…this ( that) ghost. Of course, knowing that the…so called , or reputed , ghost was ( stayed) incognito in the empty apartment where the Robbins had lived, it was ( already) something, but it was not enough. “ Oh, I didn’t just see this..this ghost. I only caught a glimpse of him, when he was going down the stairs, and I was standing at the top of the stairs” The Bulgarian caregiver said…and she spoke holding her face in her hands, af if, yes, she had toothache. “ Then you only saw the ghost , uh, from behind. And how was he dressed?” Gaetano asked. “ He wore a black, long and large dress, a kind of shapeless black sack….He had a hood on his head, a very high hood, which seemed a tower….a black high hood “ Milena said. Then she put a hand on her forehead, as if she was trying to remember something. …” Ah, when he went down the stairs, and he was going down so fast that he seemed to be flying….then he turned his face on one shoulder …oh,his nose! I didn’t know ghosts could have a nose like that!”

“Well, I knew ghosts didn’t have noses” He said nonchalantly. Then Milena had started talking of the very impressive, stunning nose of …that ghost. He had an incredibly big nose, the ghost! Ah, but it wasn’t only big! It had a really strange shape, but, even more, an incredible shape for a nose. His nose looked like a potato, she said at first, saying soon after, no it looked  more like a beet than a potato. Gaetano had come to think that, if Milena  wasn’t making fun of him, then it was likely that the “GHOST” she had seen was someone with a mask on his face.

The investigations into the double murder of Sara and Mohammed had just ended____and it had ended in a record time, as those in charge of doing them had always maintained that it was ( had been) clearly a murder-suicide case____ when another murder happened in that same apartment building.  Peter V., a man of thirty five years was killed in the apartment where his wife, Christine, from whom he was separated, lived with her mother and her two children. That evening happened that Ilary, the mother of Christine, when she came back home, after she had been out since the morning, she ( had) found Peter V., her son-in-law, lying on the floor of the living room. She had thought he was feeling bad, or he could have fallen. It was only when she went next to him, that HiIlary realized not only that Peter was dead, but also that he had to have been killed.  He had a large head wound and many wounds even on his face, on his neck, on his chest. HiIlary , very upset, had started called Christine. She believed her daughter was at home with her children, but instead she had to realize, with dismay, that in her house there was only her son-in-law, who had been killed. Hilary asked for help to Marta, a neighbors of hers. Marta, who knew her since years, who(m) HiIlary considered her friend, when she saw Peter dead, with all those wounds, she began to look at her frightened. But not only, Marta was looking at her as if she thought that it could only have been she, Hillary,  who had killed her son-in- law. When the cops arrived, they too seemed sure that oh, but it was clear ,it could only be ( have been) she who had killed that man. They had also already learned from her neighbors, friends, .relatives, that she had a very tense relationship , not at all good, with her son-in- law. Hillary, in addition to being anguished because it seemed everyone thought it was she who had killed her son-in-law, she was even more anguished since she feared it was her daughter Christine who had killed Peter V. While also her daughter suspected her of the killing of Peter V. Hillary was arrested and sent to trial. However, shortly before the trial began she was acquitted. It had happened that Milena, the Debbie’s caregiver, remembered that the day Peter V. had been killed, she had seen a man coming out of the apartment where Peter was found dead, which was the apartment where Hillary and Christine lived. Milena said that she did not know that almost strange man, who was wearing a black coat, but he, that man in black, could have been just the ghost that the Debbie had seen come out of the apartment where the Robbins had lived. The apartment from which the Robbins had left some months ago was searched and it was discovered that they, the Robbins had never moved from there. They were in fact found dead.  People who lived in the apartments of that building then began to believe that not only there was a ghost there, in that building, but also a ghost who had killed Sara and Mohammed, Peter V., and the Robbins too. Gaetano, on the other hand, thought that, wandering in the building, it was not at all a ghost but, rather, someone who killed on commission. Someone to whom Sara’s father had probably turned , to have her daughter and her partner killed. Someone  by whom Christine had probably had her husband killed. Convinced of his hypothesis or teory. Gaetano had talked about it at his friends and acquaintances, who had seemed to consider his hypothesis well founded and probably. But then perhaps, just they were those who had him locked up in an asylum.