“Apparently you knew her well.”
“Yes. We became friends. And we continued to see each
other even after my brother broke up with her. I called her just this morning, to tell her my brother had been murdered.”
“By the way, have any journalists contacted you?”
“No. Have they found out?”
“The news is starting to leak out. You should refuse to speak to them.” “Of course.”
“Let me have the addresses, if you’ve got them, or the phone numbers of the other two women you remembered.”
“I don’t have them right at hand. I need to look in some old datebooks. Is it all right if I give them to you tomorrow?”
“All right.”
“Inspector, can I ask you something?” “Go right ahead.”
“Why are you centering your investigation on Angelo’s women friends?”
“Because you and Elena are doing nothing but serving me women’s names on a platter—or, better yet, on a bed,”he wanted to say, but didn’t.
“You think it’s a mistake?” he asked instead.
“I don’t know whether or not it’s a mistake. But there certainly must be many other leads one could follow concerning the possible motive for my brother’s murder.”
“Such as?”
“Oh, I don’t know … something concerning his business…maybe some envious competitor… “
At this point the inspector decided to cheat, laying a trick card down on the table. He put on an embarrassed air, like someone who wants to say something but doesn’t really feel like it.
“What’s led us to favor the…ahem…the feminine hypothesis… “
He congratulated himself for coming up with the right words; even the British-cop-like “ahem” had emerged from his throat to perfection. He continued his masterly performance.
“…was…ahem… a detail that perhaps I’d … ahem…better not… “
“Tell me, tell me,” said Michela, assuming for her part the air of someone expecting to hear the worst.
“Well, it’s just that your brother, when he was killed, had just had …ahem…er,sexual relations with a woman.”
It was a whopper, since Pasquano had said something else. But he wanted to see if his words would have the same effect they had the first time. And they did.
The woman sprang to her feet. Her dressing gown opened. She was completely naked underneath. No panties, no bra. A splendid, lush, compact body. She arched her back. In the motion her hair fell down onto her shoulders. She clenched her fists, arms extended at her sides. Her eyes were popping out of her head. Fortunately they weren’t looking at the inspector. Watching obliquely as if through a window, Montalbano saw a raging sea uncoil in those eyes, with force-eight waves rising to peaks like mountains and crashing back down in avalanches of foam, then reforming and falling back down again. The inspector got scared. A memory from his school days came back to him, that of the terrible Erinyes. Then he thought the memory must be wrong; the Erinyes were old and ugly. Whatever the case, he clung tightly to the arms of the easy chair. Michela was having trouble speaking; her fury kept her teeth clenched.“Shedid it!”
The two sheets of sandpaper had turned into grind-stones.
“Elena killed him!”
Her chest had become a bellows. Then all at once the woman fell backwards, hitting her head against the armchair and rebounding forcefully before collapsing in a swoon.
Covered in sweat from the scene he’d just witnessed, Montalbano went out of the living room, saw a door ajar, realized it was the bathroom, went in, wet a towel, returned to the living room, knelt beside Michela, and began wiping her face with the towel. By now it had become a habit. Slowly the woman began to come to. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she did was cover herself with the dressing gown.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes. Forgive me.”
She had amazing powers of recovery. She stood up.
“I’m going to go have a drink of water.”
She returned and sat back down, calm and cool, as though she hadn’t just had an uncontrollable, frightful bout of rage verging on an epileptic fit.
“Did you know that Monday evening your brother and Elena were supposed to meet?”
“Yes, Angelo called to tell me.”
“Elena says that meeting never took place.” “What was her story?”
“She said she went out, but after she got in the car, she decided not to go to their rendezvous. She wanted to see if she could break off with your brother once and for all.”
“And you believe that?”
