'Exactly. That's when we first suspected something was wrong. She was supposed to come over this morning, but when I called for her there was no answer. Then Maria Grazia, the housekeeper, showed up and we went inside.
It was empty, Aurelio. No Giustiniana, no note, no nothing. I was hoping that perhaps you knew where she was/ Zen felt his head spinning.
'Look, I can't come up to Rome just now. Maybe tomorrow, I don't know. Can you make a few enquiries? Ask the porter, the other people in the building.. / 'I wish I could, Aurelio, but I have to go abroad. I'm flying out of Fiumicino in a couple of hours. Abusiness trip/ 'But you told me you'd had to surrender your passport/ 'Oh, and one final thing,' Nieddu said in an oddly strained voice. 'You remember that video-game cassette you brought me to look at?'
'What about it?'
'I've just discovered there was some sort of mix-up.
Apparently the one I gave you back wasn't the same one you gave me. There were a bunch of them lying around in this place I went to test it. I suppose I must have picked up the wrong one.'
'Are you joking? Jesus Christ, Gilberto! So where's the original?'
'Don't worry, it's in safe hands. Well, I've got to go, Aurelio. I hope your mother gets in touch soon. Ciao!'
The line went dead. Zen frantically redialled the number in Rome, but there was no reply. He was trying Gilberto's home number when a figure standing meaningfully close caught his attention. Professor Esposito bowed politely.
'I'd given up on you/ Zen said ungraciously. The news of his mother's disappearance had shaken him more than he had yet appreciated. He imagined her having slipped out of her mind, as effortlessly as a dust-ball carried through an open window by the draught. She might even now be wandering around the traffic-ridden streets and addict-haunted parks of the capital, babbling to herself and accosting strangers under the illusion that she was back home in Venice, where everywhere was safe and everyone knew everyone.
'We had an appointment,' the professor remarked in a puzzled but slightly hurt tone.
'The cab driver who brought me here said you'd never show. 'The watch is worth more than what you owe him,' he told me. 'Why should he bother to give it back?''
Professor Esposito looked pained.
'Evidently he must be a low and ignorant class of person.
It is true that I could have realized a short-term profit on the transaction by retaining your watch, but only at the cost of forfeiting your custom in the future and injuring the good name I have been at such pains to build up over the years.'
Zen nodded vaguely, but he wasn't listening. He had to find his mother, but he also had to find the escaped prisoner — and, above all, the US naval ensign who had gone AWOL. If what Gilberto had told him about the videogame cassette was even half true, then John Viviani was potentially in deadly danger.
''Never make an enemy unnecessarily, nor neglect an opportunity to make a friend,'' observed Professor Esposito sententiously, ''for enemies can harm you and friends help you in ways and on occasions that you can never imagine.' Francesco Guiccardini.'
He slipped his hand into his overcoat pocket and produced a watch which he handed to Zen.
'I happened to notice it had a tendency to lose time, so I took the liberty of showing it to a friend of mine who cleaned it thoroughly. Then I thought, Genna, Genna, what have you done? Is it likely that the dottore wouldn't have got the watch fixed himself, if he wanted to be on time? If he has omitted to do so, it can only be because he wants it to run slow so as to provide an excuse when he's late for some professional or social appointment. And now you've ruined everything for him. What an idiot you are,Gennaro!' Zen thanked the professor for this thoughtful and ingenious hypothesis, but assured him that he had just never got around to getting the watch repaired. He then handed over the money he owed. The professor bowed again.
'You have my card/ he said. 'If you ever have any other little matters which need sorting out, you know where to find me/ 'Actually…'
Professor Esposito was instantly all attention.
'Yes?'
Zen shook his head.
'No, it's nothing.'
Neither man moved.
'That card of yours/ Zen said at last. 'It mentioned various services of an, er, supernatural variety/ 'Yes/ 'Would they include tracing someone who has disappeared?'
XXI
The kiss of life having proved effective, Gesualdo was all for calling a doctor to check the two girls' condition, and then an ambulance to take them straight to hospital 'and off our hands'. But the mere suggestion was enough to set off another crisis.
'First I cut her throat!' screamed Libera, grabbing a bread knife and holding it to Iolanda's neck. 'Then my own!'
'It's just the effects of the electricity,' Dario De Spino told the men. 'They're still in shock, so to speak.'
Libera waved the knife about as though executing a sculpture carved from the humid mass of the afternoon air.
'No doctors! No hospitals!' she spat menacingly. 'No authorities! No papers!'
'They'd only deport us,' Iolanda explained in a calmer tone. 'And back home they'd lock us up in a concentration camp! No one ever comes out of those places alive.'
'Better a quick and honourable death here!' yelled Libera, brandishing the knife.
'OK, girls, OK!' said Sabatino with a big grin, holding up his hands in token of surrender. He had no doubt that these crazy Albanians are quite capable of carrying out their crazy threats. He could still remember the stories his father used to tell about blood feuds up in the mountains near Avellino, things no one would believe possible now. Yet that had been just fifty years ago, a few hours drive from the city.
'We can't risk it,' he whispered to Gesualdo. 'If these two cut their throats, the cops will be all over the place.
We'd be out of circulation for a year at least, and you know what that would mean for our promotion prospects.
There're plenty of hungry young bastards out there who'd be only too glad to take our places/ Gesualdo shrugged unwillingly.
'Whatever you say.'
Sabatino turned to the two girls.
'Eh, no problem!' he announced with a big smile. 'We'll just forget this ever happened, right? And if there's anything we can do to help, within the limits of what's possible, just tell us and we'll be only too glad to bear it in mind.
Meanwhile you can stay here.. / 'And you/ Libera said, dropping the knife with a clatter and taking his hand, 'will stay too.'
Sabatino looked at her, then at Gesualdo.
'Maybe one of us had better stick around for a while to calm them down/ he said rapidly in dialect. 'You get back to work, Gesua. I'll join you as soon as I'm free. It won't take long, but in a case like this it's just as well to be on the safe side/ His partner stared at him for a moment in a way that could have meant anything or nothing.
'Whatever you think, Sabati/ he said tonelessly.
Turning to go, he found Iolanda standing in front of him, gazing at him intently. For a moment he paused, as though expecting her to say something. Then, with a shrug of impatience or relief, he bustled out. Libera caught
