More seriously, the padlock had been forced and broken. We gingerly stepped inside to find the place in disarray. Clothes were scattered everywhere, and the boxes containing the light and sound equipment had been upset. “Perverts!” Anna muttered under her breath.
We got down to work. Anna and I started gathering up the costumes, inspecting them and putting them on hangers and back on the rack where I’d left them. Most were just dusty, a couple required washing, and one, roughly handled, had caught on the hook of a metal hanger and was torn. I noticed with genuine regret that it was Sophia’s. The tear didn’t look too serious to me, although no one has ever complimented me on my sewing. Marissa, who’d mentioned that she’d sold her lacework, seemed the logical candidate for the job, not the least because of what I saw as genuine affection for her son’s girlfriend. I figured she could probably also use a bit of a diversion too. I told Anna I’d see to it that the costume was taken care of in lots of time for the performance.
Victor fussed around his boxes with Mario’s help, but they had not been opened, the locks still intact and functioning. He reported two spotlight bulbs smashed and said he’d get them replaced right away.
“Sheer vandalism!” Anna said. “If they’d wanted anything of value, they would have broken into the boxes and taken the sound equipment. If they can get in the door, those little locks would have given them no trouble. Whoever it was just wanted to stop the performance. Perverts!” she repeated.
It certainly looked that way, although I must say I had the impression that, for a very small island, a lot of very strange things were going on. We all worked at tidying up the place, even the rather retiring Esther.
“Esther, I’m not sure we’ve been officially introduced,” I said when we were outside together straightening out the costumes and inspecting them in the sunlight for dirt and damage.
“Esther Aquilina.” She smiled. “I hope you are enjoying your stay in Malta,” she said, then looked dubious. “Except for this, I mean,” she gestured toward the shed, “and of course, the murders.” She bit her lip.
“I am, actually, despite these things. Malta is an exceptionally beautiful place.”
She brightened. “You must have a very interesting job, Esther,” I said, “working in the Prime Minister’s office.”
She nodded. “It’s Mario who works for the Prime Minister,” she said. “I work in the Protocol office, the External Relations Ministry. I work on visits of foreign dignitaries, that sort of thing. It’s actually lots of detail work, not very exciting sometimes, until they get here, and then it gets way too exciting. Worrying everything will go okay and all,” she explained.
“You must know the Minister, then,” I said, in what I hoped was a casual tone. “What’s his name again?”
“Giovanni Galizia,” she replied obligingly. “Yes, I work for him. But of course someone of my level in the organization doesn’t get to deal with the Minister very much. He’s very nice, very charming, though. Except, of course, when something goes wrong,” she sighed. “I’m hoping he won’t hear about this,” she said glumly.
“But you must get to meet some very interesting people, and attend some lovely events,”‘ I said, trying to sound suitably awed by all this. In fact, I’d had the dubious pleasure of meeting a couple of Cabinet Ministers who’d been patrons of the shop. Neither had particularly impressed me, burdened as they were by unbridled ambition untempered, in my opinion, jaded though that may be, by an equal passion for public service. It sounded, come to think of it, a little like the person the Hedgehog had described, and would not have been out of keeping with a close friend of Martin Galea. Perhaps public service is not the high calling it once was.
“I’m still pretty new to the job,” she replied. “So I haven’t really met that many people. The Minister, though, is the Prime Minister’s closest advisor,” she said proudly. “His office is very close to the Prime Minister’s.”
That might be true about the location; as to the rest of it, not from what I’d heard. “And where is that?” I asked.
“The Palazzo Parisio, around the corner on Merchant Street. Napoleon stayed there; he slept right in the alcove in the Minister’s office. In what is now the Minister’s office, I mean. He, Napoleon that is, was on his way to Egypt, and he captured Malta first because of its strategic importance.”
She went on a bit more about various other aspects of Malta’s history, and what she had to say was very interesting. Until I’d arrived here, and particularly until I’d become involved with Anna Stanhope’s historical drama, I’d had no idea that Malta had played such an important role in Mediterranean history, and once again wished Galea had given me more than twenty-four hours notice about this trip. But there was something in the way that Esther was talking about it. She sounded as if she’d memorized it all, somehow, as if a button had been pushed and now the speech was to unfold in its entirety. Characteristic of a recent protocol school graduate, I thought, or someone determined to please. I was glad when the speech was over. I had what I wanted: an address for the man I wanted to see. I had learned something else too. Esther made much of the fact that her minister lived in Mdina, among the rich and famous, I could tell.
Soon Victor, Mario, and Anna joined us outside, and we all surveyed the damage.
“We must get this painted,” Victor said, eyeing the shed severely. “I have a friend, a cousin actually, who will help us with this.” And with a bow in our general direction, he started up the causeway to the exit.
“We’ll get some of the boys to help,” Anna called after him. “Maybe Sophia’s young man… Anthony, I think his name is.” She turned to me. I nodded.
“Isn’t he a lovely man?” she said to the retreating back of Victor Deva.
“Lovely,” I agreed.
“I haven’t had much experience with men,” she said in a low voice. “I’m not the type men go for, you know. Never got to the prom, so to speak. Too big, too loud…”
“Too smart?” I added. She smiled at me.
“Thank you. I like that better. I’m such a novice. At my age! I’m just kind of trying to find my way with Victor, taking it one day at a time. I feel totally inadequate but also totally exhilarated!” She paused for a moment, then said, “I know what you’re thinking. That I’m an old fool.”
“Not at all,” I said. “I think he’s perfectly charming, and he obviously has a crush on you. I think that’s just great.”
She beamed. “Thank you again,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Now we must get back to work. Lots to do before the rehearsal tonight. Do you think you can get these costumes in shape?”
“Sure. Esther is giving them all a good going-over. Most of them just need to be brushed off. There’s only one that really needs work, and I will get Marissa, Anthony’s mother, to work on it if she’s willing. I’ll be off now. See you about six.”
She stopped me for a moment as I left. “I should tell you that the girls are quite chuffed at how well the play is looking with Victor’s lights and music and the improvements you’ve made in the costumes and the way things flow,” she said rather shyly. “There’s no question that between the two of you, you’ve moved the production up a notch, professionally speaking. I want you to know I appreciate it as much as the girls do.” I was grateful for her kind words. With so many bad things happening, any thoughtful gesture almost brought me to tears, and so I waved my thanks and got on my way before I embarrassed myself.