Death Of An Englisman

Also by the Author

Death of a Dutchman
Death in Springtime
Death in Autumn

The Marshal and the Murderer
The Marshal and the Madwoman
The Marshal's Own Case
The Marshal Makes His Report
The Marshal at the Villa Torrini
The Monster of Florence
Property of Blood

First published in Great Britain in 1981
Copyright © 1981 by Magdalen Nabb and © 1999 by
Diogenes Verlag AG ZurichPublished in the United States in 2001 by
Soho Press, Inc.
853 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nabb, Magdalen, 1947Death of an Englishman / Magdalen Nabb.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-56947-254-8
eISBN 978-1-56947-820-2
1. Guarnaccia, Marshal (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2.
Police—Italy—Florence—Fiction. 3. Florence(Italy)—Fiction.
I. Title.
PR6064.A18 D4 2001
823'.914—dc21

2001020654
10 9 8 7 6 5 4

Although set very specifically in Florence,
which it lovingly portrays, all the characters
and events in this story are entirely fictitious
and no resemblance is intended to any real
person, either living or dead.

Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Part One
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
Part TwoCHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
Part Three
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3

Part One

CHAPTER 1

The small office was in darkness, except where the red night lamp stood by the
telephone on the desk, and the white kid gloves lying on top of a sheaf of papers within the
patch of light were flushed pink. A black uniform jacket was hung over the back of a swivel
chair and amatching military greatcoat, lined with red, was buttoned neatly on to a hanger
behind the door, alongside a well-brushed hat. There was just room in the office for a camp
bed along one white-painted wall, and on the camp bed, his legs carefully placed so as not
to crease the red stripe down his trousers, lay Carabiniere Bacci. He was doing night duty.
The features of his Florentine face wereserene. He was asleep.
He was very young and he slept deeply, with a copy of the Codice di Procedura
Penale open on his chest and a handbook of military tactics on the floor beside him. His
idea had been to stay awake all night and study, but the closeness of the little office, the
softness of the red light, and the silence had combined to close his brown eyes, though he
thought in his dreamthat he was still reading.
The telephone shrilled loudly and insistently in its pool of light. Carabiniere Bacci
had leapt to his feet before he was awake and saluted before he was on his feet. When he
realized what the noise was, he grabbed the receiver quickly before it could wake the
Marshal. A small, distressed voice said:
'Marshal Guarnaccia, Marshal … you'd better come round here rightaway, it's the
Englishman, he—'
'Just a moment.' Carabiniere Bacci felt about for the main light switch and picked up
a pencil.
'Marshal?'
'This is not Marshal Guarnaccia, this is Carabiniere Bacci speaking, who's that?'
There was a pause, then the voice continued obediently, 'Cipolla, Gianpaolo Maria.'
'And the address?'
'My address?' The voice was so weak that Carabiniere Bacci wonderedif he were
speaking to a man or a boy.
'Your address and the address you're speaking from if they're different.'
'Via Romana eighty-three red, that's my address.'
'And you're speaking from?'
'Via Maggio fifty-eight.'
'And there's been a crime committed there?'
'Yes, it's the Englishman … Is the Marshal not there? My sister lives next door to
the Marshal, with her husband being a gardenerin the Boboli, so I know him—and the
Marshal …'
'Might I ask you,' said Carabiniere Bacci with all the cold dignity of his two months'
practical experience, 'just what you're doing in Via Maggio in the middle of the night if you
live down Via Romana?'
Another pause. Then the small voice said, 'But … it's morning … I work here.'
'I see. Well. Stay where you are and I'll be over there in...