Lady.”
“Yeah, go ahead and play the wise guy. This is really not the time for that, Salvo.”
Montalbano got worried.
“Salvuccio’s not feeling well?”
“Salvuccio’s feeling great. It’s me that’s the problem, after receiving a heavy dose of Liguori, who practically went nuts.”
“Why?”
“See, I was right to ask you where you’ve been! Don’t you know what happened yesterday in Fanara?” “No.”
“You didn’t turn on your TV?” “No. Come on, what happened?” “MP Di Cristoforo died.”
Di Cristoforo! Undersecretary for communications! Rising star of the ruling party—not to mention, according to gossips, a young man much admired in those circles where admiration goes hand in hand with staying alive.
“But he wasn’t even fifty years old! What’d he die of?”
“Officially, a heart attack. Owing to the stress of all the political commitments to which he so generously devoted himself…and so on and so forth. Unofficially, from the same illness as Nicotra.”
“Fuck!”
“Exactly. Now you understand why Liguori, feeling the seat of his pants starting to burn, demands that we arrest the supplier before any more illustrious victims fall.”
“Listen, Mimi, weren’t these gentlemen doing cocaine?”
“Of course.”
“But I’d always heard that coke wasn’t—”
“That’s what I thought, too. Except Liguori, who’s a first-class asshole but knows his trade well, explained to me that when coke isn’t properly cut, or is cut with certain other substances, it can turn poisonous. And in fact both Nicotra and Di Cristoforo died of poisoning.”
“But I don’t get it, Mimi. What interest could a dealer have in killing his clients?”
“Well, in fact, it wasn’t intentional. It’s just a little collateral damage. According to Liguori, our dealer didn’t just deal. He also further cut the merchandise, by himself and with inadequate means, doubling the quantity before putting it on the market.”
“So there might be other deaths.”
“Absolutely.”
“And what’s lighting a fire under us all is the fact that this dealer supplies a high-flying circle of politicians, businessmen, established professionals, and so on.”
“You said it.”
“But how did Liguori come to the conclusion that the dealer is in Vigata?”
“He merely hinted that he deduced it from clues provided by an informer.”
“Best wishes, Mimi.”
“What do you mean, ‘best wishes’? Is that all you have to say?”
“Mimi, I told you yesterday what I had to say. Make your moves very carefully. This is not a police operation.” “It’s not? Then what is it?”
“It’s a secret service operation, Mimi. For the guys who work in the shadows and are followers of Stalin.” Mimi scowled.
“What’s Stalin got to do with this?”
“Apparently Uncle Joe once said that when a man becomes a problem, you need only eliminate the man to eliminate the problem.”
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“I’ve already told you, and I repeat: The only solution is to kill this dealer or have him killed. Think about it. Let’s say you go by the book and arrest him. When you’re writing the report, you can’t very well say he’s responsible for the deaths of Nicotra and Di Cristoforo.”
“I can’t?”
“No, you can’t. Mimi, you’re more thickheaded than a Calabrian. Senator Nicotra and MP Di Cristoforo were respectable, honorable men, paragons of virtue—all church, family, public service. No drugs of any sort, ever. If need be, ten thousand witnesses will testify in their favor. So you weigh the pros and cons and come to the conclusion that it’s better to gloss over this business of their deaths. And you end up writing that the guy’s a dealer and that’s all. But what if the guy starts talking to the prosecutor? What if he blurts out the names of Nicotra and Di Cristoforo?”
“Nobody would voluntarily incriminate himself in two homicides, even unintentional ones! What are you saying?”
“Okay, let’s say he doesn’t incriminate himself. There’s still the risk that someone else might link the dealer to the two deaths. Don’t forget, Mimi, Nicotra and Di Cristoforo were politicians with many enemies. And in our neck of the woods, and not only our neck of the woods, politics is the art of burying one’s adversary in shit.”
“What’s politics got to do with me?”
