The Paper Moon (9 page)

“And what was his explanation?”

“He gave me an extremely stupid explanation. He said they were supposed to prove to Michela that I was madly in love with him, as opposed to what she claimed. And I pretended to be satisfied with this explanation, because deep down I didn’t give a damn about the whole thing.”

“You think in fact there was different reason?”

“Yes. To get some breathing room.”

“Could you explain?”

“I’ll try. You see, Inspector, Michela and Angelo were very close. From what I was able to find out, when their mother was all right, Michela would very often sleep at her brother’s place. She would go out with him, and she knew at all times where he was. She controlled him. At some point Angelo must have got tired of this, or at least he needed more freedom of movement. And so my phony but over-leaping jealousy became a good alibi. It allowed him to get around without always having his sister in tow. He had me write the other two letters before going away on a couple of trips, one to Holland, the other to Switzerland. They were probably pretexts for preventing his sister from going along with him.”

Did this explanation for writing the letters hold water? In its twisted, contorted way, like a mad alchemist’s alembic, it did. Elena’s conjecture as to the real purpose proved convincing.

“Let’s set aside the letters for a moment. Since, in our investigation, we have to cast a wide net, we’ve—”

“May I?” she interrupted him, gesturing towards the letters on the coffee table.

“Of course.”

“Go on, I’m listening,” said Elena, taking a letter out of the envelope and beginning to read it.

“We’ve found out a few things about your husband.”

“You mean what happened during his first marriage?” she said, continuing to read.

Let alone the rug. This girl was pulling the ground out from under him.

Without warning, she threw her head backwards and started laughing.

“What do you find so amusing?”

“The tric-troc! What must you have thought?”

“I didn’t think anything,” said Montalbano, blushing slightly.

“It’s that I have a very sensitive belly button, and so…”

Montalbano turned fire red. Ah, so she liked to have her belly button kissed and tongued! Was she insane? Didn’t she realize those letters could send her to jail for thirty years! Tric-troc indeed!

“To get back to your husband…”

“Emilio told me everything,” said Elena, setting down the letter. “He lost his head over a former pupil of his, Maria Coxa, and married her, hoping for a miracle.”

“What sort of miracle, if I may ask?”

“Inspector, Emilio has always been impotent.”

The girl’s frankness was as brutal to the inspector as a stone dropped from the sky straight onto his head. Montalbano opened and closed his mouth without managing to speak.

“Emilio hadn’t told Maria anything. But after a while he couldn’t find any more excuses for covering up his unfortunate condition. And so they made an agreement.”

“Stop just a minute, please. Couldn’t the wife have asked for an annulment or a divorce? Everyone would have said she was right!”

“Inspector, Maria was extremely poor. Her family had gone hungry to put her through school. The agreement was better than a divorce.”

“What did it entail?”

“Emilio agreed to find her a man she could go to bed with. So he introduced her to a colleague of his, the gym teacher, with whom he’d already spoken.”

Montalbano goggled. No matter how much he’d seen and heard in all his years with the police, these intricate matters of sex and infidelity never stopped astonishing him.

“So, in a word, he offered him his wife?”

“Yes, but on one condition: that he be informed beforehand of the meetings between Maria and his colleague.”

“Good God! Why?”

“Because that way it wouldn’t seem to him like a betrayal.”

Of course. From a certain point of view, Emilio Sclafani’s reasoning made perfect sense. After all, wasn’t a guy named Luigi Pirandello from around there?

“So how do you explain that the gym teacher very nearly lost his life?”

“Emilio was never told about that encounter. It was…well, a secret encounter. And so Emilio reacted like a husband catching his wife committing flagrant adultery.”

The rules of the game
. Wasn’t there a play of the same name by the above-mentioned Pirandello?

“May I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure. I don’t feel so prudish with you.”

“Did your husband tell you he was impotent before or after you married him?”

“Before. Me, he told before.”

“And you agreed anyway?”

“Yes. He said I could go with other men if I wanted to. Discreetly, of course, and provided I always informed him of everything.”

“And have you kept your promise?”

“Yes.”

Montalbano had the clear impression that this “Yes” was a lie. But it didn’t seem to be all that important whether Elena met secretly with someone without telling her husband. It was her own business.

“Listen, Elena, I have to be more explicit.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why does a beautiful girl like you, who must have men constantly wooing and desiring her, agree to marry a man who is not rich, much older than her, and can’t even—”

“Inspector, have you ever imagined yourself flailing in the water because your boat has sunk in a storm at sea?”

“I don’t have a very good imagination.”

“Try to make the effort. You’ve been swimming a long time, but you just can’t go any further. You realize you’re going to drown. Then you suddenly find yourself beside some object that might keep you afloat. What do you do? You grab onto it. And it makes no difference to you whether it’s a plank of wood or a life raft with radar.”

“Was it really that bad?”

“Yes.”

Clearly she didn’t want to discuss the subject. It was hard for her. But the inspector couldn’t pretend it didn’t matter. He couldn’t let it slide. He needed to know everything past and present about the people associated with the murder victim. It was his job, even though it sometimes made him feel like someone from the Inquisition. And he didn’t like this one bit.

“How did you meet Emilio?”

“After the scandal in Comisini, Emilio went to live for a while in Fela. There, my father, who’s his second cousin, talked to him about me and my situation, and the fact that he was forced to put me in a special home for minors.”

“Drugs?”

“Yes.”

“How old were you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Why did you start?”

“You’re asking me a specific question that has no specific answer. It’s hard to explain why I started. Even to myself. It was probably a combination of things…First of all, my mother’s sudden death, when I wasn’t even ten years old. Then my father’s utter inability to care about anyone, including my mother. Then simple curiosity. The opportunity arises at a moment of weakness. Your boyfriend from school, whom you think you’re in love with, pushes you to try…”

“How long did you stay at the home?”

“A whole year, without interruption. Emilio came to see me three times. The first time with my father, so he could meet me. After that he came alone.”

“And then?”

“I ran away. I got on a train and went to Milan. I met a lot of different men. I ended up with one who was forty. I got stopped twice by the police. The first time they sent me home to my father, since I was a minor. But if living with him was dramatic before, this time it became impossible. So I ran away again. I went back to Milan. When they stopped me the second time…”

She froze, turned pale, started lightly trembling again, and swallowed without speaking.

“That’s enough,” said Montalbano.

“No. I want to explain why…The second time, as the two policemen were taking me to the station in their car, I offered to make a deal with them. You can imagine what. At first they pretended not to be interested. ‘You have to come down to the station,’ they kept repeating. So I kept pleading with them. And when I realized they were getting off on hearing me implore them, since they could do whatever they liked with me, I made a scene, started crying, got down on my knees, right there in the car. Finally they accepted and took me to a secluded place. It was…terrible. They used me for hours, as never before. But the worst of it was their contempt, their sadistic desire to humiliate me…In the end one of them urinated in my face.”

“Please, that’s enough,” Montalbano repeated, in a soft voice.

He felt deeply ashamed for being a man. He knew that the girl was not making up her story. This sort of thing had happened before, unfortunately. But now he understood why, at the mere mention of the words “police station,” Elena had nearly fainted.

“Why did the police arrest you?”

“Prostitution.”

She said it with perfect ease, without shame or embarrassment. It was one thing among so many others she had done.

“When we were hurting for money,” she went on, “my boyfriend used to prostitute me. Discreetly, of course. Not on the streets. But there were some raids, and I was caught twice.”

“How did you meet back up with Emilio?”

She gave a little smile that Montalbano didn’t immediately understand.

“Inspector, at this point the story becomes like a comic book, or some feel-good soap opera. Do you really want to hear it?”

“Yes.”

“I’d come back to Sicily about six months earlier. On the day of my twentieth birthday, I went into a supermarket with the intention of stealing something just to celebrate. But the moment I looked around, my eyes met Emilio’s. He hadn’t seen me since my days at the juvenile home, but he recognized me at once. And, strangely enough, I recognized him. What can I say? He’s been with me ever since. He saw me through detox, had me taken care of. He’s looked after me for five years with a devotion I can’t put into words. Four years ago he asked me to marry him. And that’s the story.”

Montalbano got up and put the letters back in his pocket.

“I have to go.”

“Can’t you stay a little longer?”

“Unfortunately I have an appointment in Montelusa.”

Elena stood up, drew near to him, lowered her head slightly, and for a moment rested her lips on his.

“Thanks,” she said.

He’d scarcely entered the station when a sudden scream from Catarella paralyzed him.

“Chief! I screeeewed ’em!”

“Who’d you screw, Cat?”

“The last word, Chief!”

Standing up in his little closet, Catarella looked like a dancing bear, hopping for joy on one foot, then the other.

“I got the last word! I writ it and it disappeared!”

“Come into my office.”

“Right like straightaway, Chief! But first I gotta print the files.”

Better get away from there. The people walking in and out of the station were looking at them a bit aghast.

Before entering his office, he stuck his head in Augello’s. And Mimì, oddly, was there. Apparently the kid was feeling okay.

“What did Liguori want this morning?”

“To sensitize us.”

“Which means?”

“We’ve got to aim higher.”

“Meaning?”

“We’ve got to go in deep.”

Montalbano suddenly lost patience.

“Mimì, if you don’t start speaking clearly, you know where I’m going to go in deep on you?”

“Salvo, it seems the upper spheres of Montelusa are not pleased with our efforts in the fight against drug dealers.”

“What are they talking about? In the last month we’ve put six dealers behind bars!”

“It’s not enough, according to them. Liguori says what we do is just small potatoes.”

“So what’s big potatoes?”

“Not limiting oneself to arresting a few dealers by chance, but rather acting according to a precise plan, provided by him, of course, which will supposedly lead us to the suppliers.”

“But isn’t that his responsibility? Isn’t he chief of Narcotics? Why’s he coming here breaking our balls? Let him make his plan and, instead of giving it to us, let his own men carry it out.”

“Salvo, apparently, according to his investigations, one of the biggest suppliers is here, in Vigàta. So he wants our help.”

Montalbano stood there staring at him, lost in thought.

“Mimì, this whole business stinks to me. We need to talk about it, but I don’t have the time right now. I have to take care of something with Catarella and then run off to Montelusa to meet with the commissioner.”

Catarella was waiting for him in the doorway to his office, still dancing like a bear. He came in behind him and set two printed pages down on the desk. The inspector glanced at them and understood nothing. There was a string of six-figure numbers piled one on top of the other, and each of these numbers corresponded to another number. For example:

and so on. He realized that to understand the matter he had to dispatch Catarella, whose little tribal dance was getting on his nerves.

“Well done! My compliments, Catarella!”

Now he changed from a bear into a peacock. But since he had no tail to spread, he raised and extended his arms, fanned out his fingers, and spun around.

“How did you find the password?”

“Ah, Chief, Chief! That dead man is so clever he drove me crazy! The word was the name of the sister, the dead man’s, who’s called Michela, combined in combination wit’ the day, month, an’ year of birth when she’s born—his sister, I mean, the dead man’s—but written wittout numbers, only litters.”

Since, in his delight at having found the solution, Catarella uttered the whole sentence in a single breath, the inspector had trouble understanding, but grasped as much as he needed to.

“I think I remember you saying you needed three passwords…”

“Yessir, Chief, I do. Iss ongoing work.”

“Good, then go on working. And thanks again.”

Catarella staggered visibly.

“You dizzy?”

“A little, Chief.”

“You feel all right?”

“Yessir.”

“So why are you dizzy?”

“’Cause you just gave me tanks, Chief.”

He walked out of the room as if he were drunk. Montalbano cast another glance at the two sheets of paper. But since it was already time to go to Montelusa, he slipped them into the pocket holding the little songbook. Which he could have sworn contained the code for making some sense of all those numbers.

“My dear Inspector! How goes it? Everyone doing well at home?”

“Fine, fine, Dr. Lattes.”

“Make yourself comfortable.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

He sat down. Lattes looked at him, and he looked at Lattes. Lattes smiled, and so did he.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Montalbano’s jaw dropped.

“Actually, I…the commissioner told me…”

“You’re here for the meeting?” Lattes asked in wonderment.

“Well, yes.”

“What? You mean the receptionist there, Cavarella—”

“Catarella.”

“—didn’t tell you? I called late this morning to inform you that the commissioner had to leave for Palermo and will expect to see you here tomorrow at this same hour.”

“No, nobody told me anything.”

“But that’s very serious! You must take measures!”

“I will, Doctor, don’t you worry about that.”

What fucking measures could one possibly take against Catarella? It would be like trying to teach a crab to walk straight.

Since he was already in Montelusa, he decided to drop in on his friend Nicolò Zito, the newsman. He pulled up in front of the Free Channel studios, and the moment he walked in, the secretary told him Zito had fifteen free minutes before going on the air.

“I haven’t heard from you for a while,” Nicolò reproached him.

“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, Nicolò. I just wanted to see you.”

“Listen, are you giving Giacovazzo a hand in the investigation into Angelo Pardo’s murder?”

It was nice of the Flying Squad captain not to have denied that the investigation had been turned over to him. This spared Montalbano from being besieged by journalists. But it was still hard for Montalbano to have to lie to his friend.

“No, no hand at all. You know what Giacovazzo’s like. Why do you ask?”

“Because nobody can drag a single word out of him.”

Naturally. The captain of the Flying Squad wasn’t talking to journalists because he had nothing to say.

“And yet,” Zito went on, “I think that, considering what’s happening now, he must have some idea.”

“Why, what’s happening now?”

“Don’t you read the papers?”

“Not always.”

“A nationwide investigation has led to the arraignment of over four thousand doctors and pharmacists.”

“Okay, but what’s that got to do with it?”

“Salvo, use your brain! What did former doctor Angelo Pardo do for a living?”

“He was a representative for pharmaceutical concerns.”

“Exactly. And the charges being leveled at these doctors and pharmacists are collusion and kickbacks.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning the doctors let themselves be corrupted by some pharmaceutical informers. In exchange for money or other gifts, these doctors and pharmacists would choose and prescribe medications indicated by the informers. And when they did this, they were handsomely rewarded. You see how it works now?”

“Yes. The informers didn’t limit themselves to informing.”

“Exactly. Of course, not all doctors are corrupt, and not all informers are corrupters, but the phenomenon has proved to be very widespread. And, naturally, some very powerful pharmaceutical firms are also implicated.”