many important people and was in a position to help him . . . I forgot to mention that Antonio had got a degree in civil engineering—you know, bridges, viaducts, roads . . . Well, he accepted and came. In the early going, my sister- in-law supported him unstintingly. He remained in Uruguay for five years. Just think, they’d bought two apartments in the same building in Montevideo so they could be close to one another. Among other things, Salvatore sometimes had to leave home for months at a time for work, and he felt reassured to know that he wasn’t leaving his young wife alone. Anyway, to make a long story short, during those five years, Antonio made a fortune. Not so much as an engineer, the way my brother tells it, but through his skill in manipulating the various ‘free zones’ that were so numerous over there . . . which was a more or less legal way of evading taxes.” “Why did he leave?”
“He said he was terribly homesick for Sicily. And he couldn’t stand being away any longer. And that, with all the money he now had, he could start up his own business over here. My brother later suspected, though not at the time, that there was a more serious reason.” “What was that?”
“That maybe he’d made a wrong move and feared for his life. In the two months prior to his departure, his moods had become impossible, though Giulia and Salvatore attributed this to the fact that he was leaving soon. They were like a single family. And Giulia, in fact, suffered a great deal when her brother left. So much, in fact, that Salvatore accepted an offer to go work in Brazil just so that she could live in a new and different environment.” “And they didn’t see each other again until—”
“Are you kidding? Aside from the fact that they continually called and wrote to each other, Giulia and Salvatore came to Italy at least once every two years and spent their vacations with Antonio. Just think, when Susanna was born . . .” At the mention of her name, the doctor’s voice cracked. “. . . When Susanna was born rather late in their marriage—they’d given up hope of having children—they brought the baby here so she could be baptized by Antonio, who was too busy to travel.
Eight years ago, my brother and Giulia finally moved back.
They were tired. They’d been all over South America and they wanted Susanna to grow up in Italy. On top of this, Salvatore had managed to put aside a good deal of money.”
“Could you say he was a rich man?”
“Frankly, yes. And it was I who took care of everything. I invested his savings in stocks, land, real estate . . . As soon as they arrived, Antonio announced that he was engaged and would soon be married. The news took Giulia entirely by surprise. Why hadn’t her brother ever mentioned having a girlfriend he intended to marry? She had her answer when Antonio introduced Valeria, his future wife, to her. A beautiful child, barely twenty years old. Antonio, by this point, was pushing fifty, and he went head over heels for the girl.” “Are they still married?” Montalbano asked with involun-tary malice.
“Yes. But Antonio quickly discovered that to hold on to her, he had to cover her in gifts and fulfill her every desire.”
“Did he ruin himself?”
“No, that’s not what happened. ‘Operation Clean Hands’
happened.”
“Wait a minute,” Montalbano interrupted. “Operation Clean Hands started in Milan over ten years ago, when your brother and his wife were still abroad. And before Antonio got married.” “True. But you know how things go in Italy, don’t you?
Everything that happens up north—Fascism, liberation, industrialization—takes a long time to reach us. Like a long, lazy wave. Anyway, a few magistrates finally woke up down here as well. And Antonio had won quite a few government contracts. Don’t ask me how, because I don’t know and I don’t want to know, though it’s not hard to imagine.” “Was he investigated?”
“He made the first move himself. He’s a very clever man.
To save himself from an eventual investigation that would surely have led to his arrest and conviction, he needed to make some papers disappear. He confessed this, in tears, to his sister, one evening six years ago. And he added that the operation would cost him two billion lire, which he needed to find in a month’s time, because he didn’t have the cash at that moment and didn’t want to borrow from the banks. Those were days when anything he did could be interpreted the wrong way.
He said the whole thing almost made him laugh—or cry—
because two billion lire was a trifle compared to the huge sums that often passed through his hands. And yet those two billion lire represented his salvation. And they would, of course, be only a loan. He pledged to repay the entire sum within three months, supplemented by any losses incurred by the hasty sell-off. Giulia and my brother stayed up an entire night discussing this. Salvatore would have given the shirt off his back to keep his wife from despairing. The following morning they phoned me and told me of Antonio’s request.” “And what did you do?”
“I must confess that I reacted badly at first. Then I had an idea.”
“What?”
“I said the request seemed senseless, insane, to me. All he needed was to have Valeria sell her Ferrari, her boat, and some jewelry, and they would have their two million quite easily.
Or, if he had trouble reaching that figure, Giulia and Salvatore could make up the difference. But only the difference. In short, I was trying to limit the damage.”
“Did you succeed?”
“No. That same day, Giulia and Salvatore spoke with Antonio and told him about my offer. But Antonio started crying. During that period tears came easily to him. He said that if he accepted, not only would he lose Valeria, but word would get around and he would lose his good standing in the community. People would start saying he was on the verge of bankruptcy. And so my brother decided to sell everything.” “How much did they get for it, out of curiosity?”
“One billion seven hundred and fifty million lire. By the end of the month they no longer had anything, just Salvatore’s pension.”
“Another thing, also out of curiosity, sorry. Do you know how Antonio reacted, when he was given less than the sum he’d asked for?”
“But he got the two million he’d asked for!”
