Doctored Evidence Read Free Page A

older one asked, ‘
Sì
?’ expressing his irritation only in the tone.
    â€˜Gentlemen, leave the compartment,’ commanded Peppito. Before either of them could protest, he allowed his right hand to wander over to the butt of his pistol. The men, makingno attempt to take their suitcases, left the compartment. The woman, seeing the men leave, got to her feet, acting as though she thought the order was meant for her as well.
    As she tried to squeeze past Peppito, he gripped her left forearm with a firm hand. ‘Documents, Signora,’ he spat out.
    She looked up at him, her eyes blinking quickly. ‘
Cosa
?’ she said nervously.
    â€˜
Documenti
,’ he repeated, louder.
    She smiled nervously, a placatory tightening of the muscles of her face, demonstrative of harmlessness and good will, but he saw the way her eyes shifted down the corridor towards the door. ‘
Sì, Sì, Signore. Momento. Momento
,’ she said in an accent so strong the words were almost incomprehensible.
    A plastic bag hung from her right hand. ‘
La borsa
,’ Peppito said, indicating the bag, which was from Billa, and meant to hold groceries.
    At his gesture, she whipped the bag behind her. ‘
Mia, mia
,’ she said, stating possession but demonstrating fear.
    â€˜
La borsa, Signora
,’ Peppito said and reached for it.
    She turned halfway round, but Peppito was a strong man and managed to pull her back towards him. He released her arm and grabbed the bag. He opened it and looked inside: all he saw were two ripe peaches and a purse. He took the purse and let the bag fall to the floor. He glanced at the woman, whose face had grown as white as the hair showing at her roots, andflicked open the small plastic purse. He recognized the hundred-Euro notes instantly and saw that there were many of them.
    One of his men had gone off to tell his colleagues that they had found her, and the other stood in the corridor, trying to explain to the two men that they would be allowed back to their seats as soon as the woman had been removed from the train.
    Peppito snapped the purse shut and moved to put it in the pocket of his jacket. The woman, seeing this, reached for it, but Peppito batted her hand away and turned to say something to the men in the corridor. He was standing at the entrance of the compartment, and when she lunged towards him with her entire body, she drove him back into the corridor, where he lost his balance and fell on to one side. That was all it took for the woman to slip past him and run to the open door at the front of the carriage. Peppito called out and struggled to his feet, but by the time he was standing, she was down the steps and racing along the platform beside the train.
    Peppito and the policeman closest to him ran to the door and jumped down on to the platform; both drew their pistols. The woman, still running and now clear of the engine, turned and saw the guns in their hands. At the sight of them she screamed aloud and leapt from the platform down on to the tracks. In the distance could be heard, at least by anyone not caught up in the panic and tension of this scene, the arrivalof a through freight train on its way south from Hungary.
    The policemen and their shouts followed the running woman. She looked up, saw the approaching train, glanced back to calculate the distance between herself and the policemen, and decided to risk it. She ran forward a few more steps, staying close to the tracks, then suddenly veered and jumped to the left, just metres before the train would reach her. The policemen shouted, the whistle of the train blared at the same moment as the shriek of the brakes filled the air. Perhaps it was one of these noises that caused her to falter; perhaps she merely put her foot down on the rail instead of the gravel. Whatever the reason, she fell to one knee, then instantly pushed herself up and lunged forward. But, as the policemen had seen from the greater