became a Christian church, it was left standing.A fine example of tolerance. Just like today.”
After this brief cultural digression, the inspector returned at once to the matter at hand.
“Wanna bet those three guys in the boat were real fishermen? Listen, let’s go to the bar and sit down.”
This proved impossible. All the tables were occupied by English, German, French, and especially Japanese tourists, who were taking snapshots of anything they could think of, including a pebble that had found its way into one of their shoes.The inspector started cursing the saints.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, agitated.
“Where we gonna go?”
“We’ll go scratch our balls in—”
At that moment, Fazio’s cell phone rang.
“It’s Galluzzo,” he said, bringing the little phone to his ear.
“Okay, we’ll be right there,” he immediately said.
“What did he say?”
“He said we have to go immediately to your house.”
“He didn’t say anything else?”
“No, sir.”
They drove back to Marinella at a speed that even Schumacher at a Formula 1 Grand Prix rarely achieved, but without flashing lights or siren. When they arrived, they found the front door open.
They raced inside.
In the dining room, one half of the French door was dangling from its hinges.
Galluzzo, pale as death, was sitting on the sofa. He had drunk a glass of water and was holding the empty glass in his hand. He stood up as soon as he saw them.
“Are you all right?” Montalbano asked him, looking him straight in the eye.
“Yessir, but I got really scared.”
“Why?”
“One of the two shot at me three times, but missed.”
“Really? And what did you do?”
“I fired back.And I think I hit the one who hadn’t shot. But the other guy, the one with the weapon, grabbed him and dragged him all the way to the road, where there was a car waiting for them.”
“Feel up to telling us the whole story from the start?”
“Sure, I’m okay now.”
“Would you like a little whisky?”
“That would be nice, Chief !”
Montalbano took the glass from his hand, poured him a generous serving, and gave it to him. Fazio, who had gone out onto the veranda, came back inside with a dark look on his face.
“After you two left, they waited half an hour before coming to shore,” Galluzzo began.
“They wanted to be sure we had really left,” said Fazio.
“But, once ashore, they hung around the boat for a long time, looking every which way. Then, after about an hour, two of ’em took a couple of big jerry cans out of the boat and started coming towards the house.”
“What about the third guy?” asked Montalbano.
“The third guy, on the other hand, started taking the boat out to sea again. So I ran out of my cover and took up a position behind the left corner of the house. When I looked around the corner, one of the guys, who was holding a crowbar in his hand, had just finished prying the French door off its hinges.Then they went inside. As I was trying to figure out what to do, the two guys came back out on the veranda. I’m sure they were coming to get the jerry cans. I decided I couldn’t waste any more time. So I jumped out, pointed my gun at them, and said:
“‘Stop! Police!’
“Ah, Chief! In a flash, one of the two, the bigger guy, pulls out a gun and fires at me. I took cover behind the corner of the house. Then I saw that they were running away towards the parking area in front of the house, so I ran after them.And the big guy shot at me again. So I shot back and the other guy, who was running beside him, started staggering like he was drunk and fell to his knees.Then the big guy pulled him up with one arm and fired a third shot at me.When they got as far as the road, there was a car there with its doors open, and they sped away.”
“So,” Montalbano observed, “it was already planned that they would escape by land.”
“Excuse me,” Fazio said to Galluzzo, “but why didn’t you keep running after them?”
“Because my pistol jammed,” Galluzzo replied.
He took it out of his pocket and handed it to Fazio.
“Take it to Weapons with my sincere thanks. If those guys had realized I couldn’t shoot anymore, I wouldn’t be here telling you what happened.”
Montalbano made as if to go out on the veranda.
“I already checked, Chief,” said Fazio. “There are two twenty-liter jerry cans full of gasoline. They were gonna burn down your house.”
Now that was serious news.
“So, Chief, how should I proceed?” asked Galluzzo.
“About what?”
“About the two shots I fired. If the guys at Weapons ask me—”
“Tell ’em you had to shoot a rabid dog and the gun jammed.”
“Just what, exactly, are your intentions, Chief ?” asked Fazio.
“To have somebody fix the French door,” said the inspector, cool as a cucumber.
“If you want, I could fix it for you in less than an hour,” said Galluzzo. “You got the tools?”
“Go look in the storeroom.”
“Chief,” Fazio resumed, “we’ve got to agree on an explanation.”
“Why?”
“’Cause in the next five minutes our guys, or the carabinieri, are liable to show up here.”
“Why?” the inspector repeated.
“Was there, or was there not, an exchange of gunfire? Five shots were fired! Somebody in the area must surely have called the police or the—”
“How much you want to bet?”
“On what?”
“That nobody called anybody. Given the hour of the day, most of the people who heard the shots either thought it was some motorbike backfiring or some punks fooling around.The two or three who realized it was gunshots, being practical and smart, probably kept doing whatever the hell they were doing.”
“There’s everything I need here,” said Galluzzo, returning with the tool drawer.
And he got down to work. After he had been hammering awhile, the inspector said to Fazio:
“Let’s go in the kitchen.You want some coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“How about you, Gallù?”
“No, thanks, Chief. Otherwise I won’t sleep tonight.”
Fazio was silent, lost in thought.
“You worried?”
“Yeah, Chief.The boat, the car, the continuous surveillance, at least three men for the job ...This isn’t some offhand thing. It stinks of the Mafia to me, if you really want to know. Maybe you were right to think of the Giacomo Licco trial.”
“Fazio, I haven’t got any of the papers on Licco here at home. And they realized this when they did their thorough search. If they came back today to set fire to the place, it must mean they want to intimidate me.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“But are you convinced they’re doing it for Licco’s sake?”
“What other important stuff have you got going at the moment?”
“Important stuff, nada.”
“You see? Listen to me, Chief, it’s the Cuffaros who are behind all this. Licco’s one of theirs.”
