The Track of Sand

belt? Three or four?”

“I don’t have any qualms, Chief, but the guy’s gonna say he didn’t do it.”

“And who’s gonna believe him?”

“But what if he tells them what really happened? That it was someone from the police who shot Gurreri?”

“Then he’ll have to tell them how and why. He’d have to say they came to my house to burn it down so I would act a certain way at the Licco trial. In other words he would have to bring the Cuffaros into the picture.Think he’s gonna want to do that?”

* * *

On the way back to Marinella, a wolflike hunger assailed him. In the fridge he found a bowl of caponata whose scent filled the soul, and a plate of little wild asparagus, the kind that are bitter as poison, dressed only in olive oil and salt. In the oven was a loaf of wheat bread. He set the table on the veranda and enjoyed himself.The night was pitch-black. A short distance from shore shone the jacklamp of a fishing boat. Seeing it there, he felt relieved, since he was now certain that nobody aboard the boat was spying on him.

He got into bed and started reading one of the Swedish books he had bought. Its protagonist was a colleague of his, Inspector Martin Beck, whose manner of investigation he found very appealing.When he had finished the novel and turned out the light, it was four o’clock in the morning.

* * *

As a result, he woke up at nine, but only because Adelina had made noise in the kitchen.

“Could you bring me a coffee, Adelì?”

“Iss ready, Isspector.”

He drank it in little sips, savoring it, then set fire to a cigarette.When he finished it, he got up and went into the bathroom.

Later, all dressed and ready to go out, he went into the kitchen to have a second cup, as was his wont.

“Oh, signore, I got somethin f’ you I keepa fuhgettin’ a give you,” said Adelina.

“What is it?”

“They gave itta me atta dry cleaner when I went a get you’ trousers.They foun’ it inna pocket.”

Her purse was on a chair. She opened it, extracted something, and held it out to the inspector.

It was a horseshoe.

As the coffee was spilling onto his shirt, Montalbano felt the ground open up beneath his feet.Twice in twenty-four hours! It was really too much.

“Whass ’appenin’, signore? You staina you’ shirt.”

He couldn’t open his mouth. He kept staring, bug-eyed, at the horseshoe, benumbed, bewildered, flummoxed, and flabbergasted.

“Isspector, you make a me frighten! Whass’ wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he managed to articulate.

He grabbed a glass, filled it with water, drank it down in one gulp.

“Nuthin’, nuthin’,” Adelina repeated, still looking at him, worried, with the horseshoe still in her hand.

“Gimme that,” he said, taking off his shirt. “And make me another pot of coffee.”

“But isn’t alla this coffee gonna make a you sick?”

He didn’t answer. He drifted into the dining room as though sleepwalking and, still holding the horseshoe, picked up the receiver with one hand and dialed the number of the police station.

“Halloo! Vigàta Po—”

“Catarella, Montalbano here.”

“Whass wrong, Chief? You gotta weird voice!”

“Listen, I’m not coming in this morning. Is Fazio there?”

“No, sir, ’e in’t onna premisses.”

“Have him call me when he gets in.”

He opened the French door, went out on the veranda, sat down, laid the horseshoe on the table, and started staring at it as if he had never seen such a thing in his life. Slowly, he felt his brain resume functioning.

And the first thing that came back to him were the words of Dr. Pasquano.

Montalbano, this is a clear sign of old age. A sign that your brain cells are disintegrating with increasing speed.The first symptom is memory loss. Did you know that? For example, does it sometimes happen that you’ll do something one minute, and the next minute you’ll forget that you did it?

It had happened. Man, had it ever happened! He had taken the horseshoe and put it in his pocket, forgetting completely about it. But when? And where?

“Here you’ coffee, sir,” said Adelina, setting a tray, with pot, cup, and sugar, on the table.

He drank a cup, scalding hot and bitter, while staring at the empty beach.

And all at once a dead horse appeared on the beach, lying on its side. And he saw himself belly-down in front of the animal, reaching out and touching a horseshoe almost completely detached from the hoof, held in place by a single nail sticking halfway out . . .

And what happened next?

What happened was that something . . . something . . . Ah! That was it! Fazio, Gallo, and Galluzzo had appeared on the veranda, and he had stood up, slipping the horseshoe mechanically into his pocket.

Afterwards, he had gone to change his trousers, tossing them into the dirty clothes hamper.

And after this, he had taken a shower, chatted with Fazio, and when the astronauts had arrived, the carcass was gone. Keep your cool, Montalbà. You need another cup of coffee.

So, let’s start at the beginning. During the slaughter, the poor dying horse manages to escape, running desperately across the sand—Good God! Want to bet that this, in fact, was the track of sand in the bad dream he’d had? And that he had misinterpreted the dream?—and ending up outside his window, where it collapses and dies. But its killers need to get rid of the carcass. So they get organized and come back with a handcart and a van, or small truck, or whatever.When they arrive a short while later to retrieve the carcass, they realize he has woken up, seen the horse, and come down onto the beach.And so they hide and wait for the right moment. Which comes when he and Fazio go into the kitchen, which has no windows facing the sea.They send a man out for reconnaissance. The man sees them in the kitchen, blithely chatting, and gives the others the go-ahead signal, all the while keeping his eye on him and Fazio. And in the twinkling of an eye, the carcass disappears. But then . . .

Was there another cup?

There wasn’t any left in the pot, and he didn’t have the courage to ask Adelina to make him another. So he stood up, went inside, grabbed a bottle of whisky and a glass, and turned to go back out on the veranda.

“First ting inna morning, Isspector?” came the voice of Adelina, who was standing in the kitchen doorway, watching him.

He froze. But he didn’t answer her this time, either. He poured the whisky and started to drink.

But then, if those guys were watching him when he was taking a close look at the animal, they must have seen him take the horseshoe and put it in his pocket. Which meant that . . .

. . . you got it all wrong, Montalbà. All wrong.

They weren’t trying to influence your behavior at the Licco trial, Montalbà. The Licco trial doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with any of this.

They wanted the horseshoe. That was what they were looking for when they searched his house. And they had even returned his watch to let him know that it wasn’t a case of burglary.

But why was that horseshoe so important to them?

The only logical answer was that as long as it was in his possession, it rendered the disappearance of the carcass useless.

But if it was so important to them, why, then, after the failed attempt to burn down his house, had they stopped trying?

Quite simple, Montalbà. Because Galluzzo had shot Gurreri, who then died. An unforeseen hitch. So surely they would be back, in one way or another.