Doctored Evidence

When the body of an elderly woman is found, brutally murdered in her Venetian flat, the prime suspect is her Rumanian maid, who has left Venice and is heading for Rumania. When the woman is approached as she attempts to cross the border, she makes a run for it and is killed as she crosses the tracks in front of an oncoming train. She has a considerable amount of money on her and her papers are obviously forgeries. Case closed. When the old woman's neighbour returns from a business trip to London, it becomes clear that the maid could not have had time to kill the old woman before catching the train, and that the money was not stolen. Commissario Brunetti decides - unofficially - to take the case on himself. As Brunetti learns more of the old woman's family, it becomes clear that this is probably not a crime motivated by greed, rather that the probable motive has its roots in the temptations of lust. Perhaps Brunetti is following a false trail and thinking of the wrong deadly sin altogether ...