'But he was deaf.'

'Was he, Signora?'

'What do you mean?'

There it was again, that question that was really an answer. 'I mean there was nothing wrong with his ears. With his hearing, that is. The autopsy showed that.'

'I don't understand.'

'Everyone in the neighbourhood understands, Signora.'

He watched her move from idea to idea, excuse to excuse, pose to pose. She couldn't ask him again what he meant, so she settled on an angry noise instead of words.

'They know, Signora.'

'They don't know anything,' she hissed.

'And once you make your claim to the inheritance, they'll know about what happened to Davide, too. And if it comes to law, they'll learn about the hot chocolate and biscuits he had, along with the little yellow candies.'

This time, one half of her face went white while the other remained suffused with the signs of the blow. She tried to speak, to give voice to the indignation she knew she was supposed to show, but she failed, tried again, choking with rage. Choking. He was conscious of that. Finally she managed to spit it out: 'It doesn't matter. Let them think what they want.'

A loud noise came from behind him; when Brunetti turned, he saw an immensely tall building crane slam a metal ball into the remaining wall of one of the old hospital buildings alongside the laguna. A piece of wall crumbled to the pile of rubble below, and an enormous cloud of white dust climbed up the wall that remained. Through the new opening, Brunetti saw, across the water, the wall of the cemetery and the tower of the church behind it, the tips of the peaceful cypress trees.

Brunetti decided not to tell her. Let her follow Beni Borsetta's advice and demand a 'DNU' test. And please let some compassionate judge grant it to her, and let Lucrezia and if she ever appeared Lavinia give a sample of their DNU, and let the test show that their father was not the father of Ana Cavanella's child. And let her live with that: with no home and no monthly cheque and with former neighbours, he hoped, pushed past the point of tolerance and the acceptance of what can't be proven and needing a way to punish someone for their own guilt. And without her son. Though nothing he had seen so far suggested that this would bother her much.

Wasting no more words on her Brunetti left the hospital to go and get the boat to the Lido to go for a walk on the beach.

Also by Donna Leon.

Death in a Strange Country.

Dressed for Death.

Death and Judgment.

Quietly in Their Sleep.

A Noble Radiance.

Fatal Remedies.

Friends in High Places.

A Sea of Troubles Willful Behavior Uniform Justice Doctored Evidence Blood from a Stone Through a Glass, Darkly Suffer the Little Children The Girl of His Dreams About Face A Question of Belief Handel's Bestiary Drawing Conclusions Venetian Curiosities Beastly Things.

The Jewels of Paradise.