The Track of Sand

“Yes, but . . .”

“But what?”

“I need more time. I’d like to confirm it.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Apparently he was recruited about three months ago.”

“By whom?”

“The Cuffaros. Apparently they took on Gurreri to replace Licco.”

“About three months ago, you say?”

“Yes. Is that important?”

“I don’t know yet, but these same three months keep popping up.Three months ago, Gurreri left his house; three months ago, the name of Licco’s mistress was discovered, the one who will provide Licco’s alibi; three months ago, Gurreri is recruited by the Cuffaros . . . Bah, I dunno.”

“If you don’t have anything else to tell me,” said Fazio, standing up,“I’m going to go back and talk to a lady who’s a neighbor of Gurreri’s wife, who hates her guts. She had started telling me something, but then you rang me and I had to drop everything.”

“Had she already told you anything?”

“Yeah. She said Concetta Siragusa, for the last few months—”

Montalbano leapt to his feet, eyes popping.

“What did you say?”

Fazio almost got scared.

“Wha’d I say, Chief ?”

“Repeat it!”

“That Concetta Siragusa, Gurreri’s wife—”

“Holy fucking shit!” said the inspector, falling heavily back into the chair.

“Chief, you’re getting me worried! What is it?”

“Wait, let me recover.”

He fired up a cigarette. Fazio got up and shut the door.

“First, I wanna know something,” said the inspector. “You were telling me the neighbor lady told you that for the last few months, Gurreri’s wife . . . And that’s where I interrupted you. Now continue.”

“The neighbor was telling me that for some time now, Gurreri’s wife has seemed scared of her own shadow.”

“Do you want to know for how long Gurreri’s wife has been scared?”

“Sure. Do you know?”

“For three months, Fazio. Exactly three months.”

“But how do you know these things about Concetta Siragusa?”

“I don’t know anything, but I can easily imagine them. And now I’ll tell you how it all went. Three months ago, someone from the Cuffaro clan approaches Gurreri, who’s a small-time crook, and asks him to join the family.The guy can’t believe it; it’s like getting a work contract with no time limit after years of temps.”

“But wait a second, if I may. What use could the Cuffaros possibly have for someone like Gurreri, who’s not even all there in the head?”

“I’ll get to that.The Cuffaros, however, impose a rather harsh condition on Gurreri.”

“Namely?”

“That Concetta Siragusa, his wife, provide an alibi for Licco.”

This time it was Fazio’s turn to be shocked.

“Who told you that Siragusa is Licco’s mistress?”

“Giarrizzo. But he didn’t tell me her name; he wrote it down on a sheet of paper, which he pretended to leave on his desk.”

“But what’s it mean?”

“It means that the Cuffaros don’t give a flying fuck about Gurreri. It’s his wife they want. Who, at a certain point, is forced to play ball, willy nilly, even though she’s scared out of her wits. At the same time, the Cuffaros tell Gurreri that it’s best if he leaves his home; they’ll take care of finding him a safe place to stay.”

He torched another cigarette. Fazio went and opened the window.

“And since Gurreri, who now feels strong with the Cuffaros behind him, still wants to take revenge on Lo Duca, the family decides to lend him a hand. It’s the Cuffaros, not some loser like Gurreri, who staged the horse operation. So, to conclude: For the past three months, Licco has had the alibi he didn’t have before, and in the meanwhile, Gurreri has had the revenge he wanted. And they all lived happily ever after.”

“And we—”

“And we take it up the you-know-what. But I’ll tell you another thing,” Montalbano continued.

“Tell me.”

“At a certain point, Licco’s lawyers will call Gurreri as a witness.You can bet on that. In one way or another they’ll get him to talk on the stand. And Gurreri will swear that he has always known that his wife was Licco’s mistress, and that this was why he left his home in disgust, fed up with the constant quarrels with Concetta, who wouldn’t stop crying for her beau behind bars.”

“Well, if that’s the way it is—”

“How else could it be?”

“—maybe you’d best go back to Giarrizzo.”

“What for?”

“To tell him what you’ve just told me.”

“I’m not going back there, not even with a gun to my head . . . First of all, because he pointed out to me that it’s improper for me to talk to him. And, secondly, because he has assigned the supplementary investigation to the carabinieri. Let him figure things out with them. Now hurry back and finish your discussion with Concetta’s neighbor.”

* * *

At eight o’clock on the dot, the phone rang.

“Chief, that’d be the lady Esther Man.”

Their date! He had completely forgotten about it! What was he going to do now? Should he say yes or no? He picked up the receiver, still undecided.

“Salvo? This is Rachele. Have you overcome your reservations?”

There was an ever so slight note of irony in her voice, which irritated him.

“I still haven’t finished here.”

You want to get wise with me? Then stew in your own juices.

“Think you’ll manage to get away?”

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe in an hour or so . . . But that’s probably too late for you to go out to eat.”

He was hoping she would say that, in that case, it was better to meet another evening. Instead, Rachele said:

“Okay, no problem. I can even eat at midnight, if need be.”

O matre santa! How the hell was he going to spend the next hour with nothing to do in the office? Why had he played so hard to get? Most importantly, he was ravenous, eaten alive by his hunger.

“Wait. Can you hold on a second?”

“Of course.”

He set the receiver down on the desk, got up, went over to the window, and pretended to be talking audibly to someone.

“What do you mean, you can’t find it? . . . Put it off till tomorrow morning? . . . Well, all right.”

He turned around to go back to his desk, but then froze. Standing in the doorway was Catarella, who looked at him with an expression between concern and fear.

“You feel okay, Chief ?”

Without saying a word, Montalbano shot out one arm to signal that he should leave the room at once. Catarella disappeared.