Three-Card Monte by Marco Malvaldi, Howard Curtis

mistakenly. “But they didn’t kill
him
.”
    â€œThat’s not the point. The point is that the Japanese government depends for its funding decisions on what other professors say, usually the most important ones in the country. And Asahara was a member of the advisory board. Now, what I heard was this. I heard Asahara say that there was something in his computer that would destroy Watanabe.”
    Ah, Massimo thought. Well, well, we have our murderer, the old-timers’ faces exclaimed.
    â€œNow, given what you’ve told me, I’m sure you’ll agree that the first thing I should do is talk to the police.”
    â€œOh, of course,” Del Tacca said. “But phone home first. The man in charge is quite capable of arresting you for stealing your clothes from the rag merchant.”
    â€œI’m sorry?”
    â€œNo, don’t say sorry,” Ampelio said. “There’s no point.”
    â€œGrandpa, please just shut up,” Massimo cut in. “Excuse me, professor, but there’s something not quite right. What words did Asahara use exactly? Did he really say destroy?”
    â€œOh, yes. That’s what he said all right. In my laptop, he said, I have something that will destroy Professor Watanabe. He was laughing when he said it. I thought he was joking. But now . . .”
    â€œAnd what do you think it could have been?” Aldo asked, in a tone that said, come on, we’re not going to believe everything this scarecrow says, are we?
    â€œI have my suspicions,” Snijders replied, not even noticing the old man’s doubtful attitude. “Like I said, a center doing calculations like the one Watanabe runs needs money. Lots of money. Without funding, it won’t get anywhere. Now, it’s possible that Asahara, being on the board that’s supposed to evaluate Watanabe’s funding request, was of a negative opinion. And that this opinion, in other words, his report advising against giving funding to Watanabe, or even preventing it, was on his laptop.”
    Snijders finished his by now ice-cold cappuccino while Massimo looked away, then resumed:
    â€œThis is just a hypothesis, of course. It needs checking. We’d need to know if it really was possible for Asahara to do that. If he was that powerful. And if the board really is due to meet soon.”
    â€œAnd, obviously, if a negative opinion from Asahara would really have destroyed Watanabe,” Tiziana said. “Isn’t that a bit drastic?”
    â€œI’ve no idea,” A. C. J. replied with a smile. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    â€œShe means that it seems a little exaggerated that an opinion could destroy a person’s activities,” Aldo said. “And I have to say I don’t completely disagree. Not that I have any experience of these things, so I may not be the right person to judge.”
    â€œIt depends,” Snijders replied. “In general, you’re right. But it depends. A group may be in difficulty, may have had a series of setbacks, and so is counting a lot on financing. True, it’s unlikely that a failed bid for funding could lead to the destruction of the group. But it may be the beginning of the end. Maybe you have some really good young people under you, and you’d like to hold on to them, but without money and without prospects you can’t. It may seem impossible. Maybe it is.”
    Snijders stood up, pulled up the zipper of his K-Way, and walked to the cash register to pay.
    â€œThat’s five-seventy for the breakfast and six hundred for the information,” Massimo said.
    â€œI’m sorry?”
    â€œFive-seventy. But to get to the police station, you’ll have to walk five or six hundred yards through the pine grove. As soon as you leave here, you’ll see a sign with the words Poseidon Bathing. Take the path just after that and go in the opposite direction from the sea. After six