sleep with Liv-La Giovannini.”
As Mimi was talking, Montalbano realized that his assistant was right. In reality, he hadn’t explicitly thought of Beba, but had made the phone call on impluse, without really knowing why. He’d simply acted. Good for Mimi, then! He was right on the money. But the inspector didn’t feel like granting him the satisfaction of knowing this.
“I never actually told you to sleep with her,” he said.
“Oh, no? Well, you’re a fine hypocrite! She’s the kind of woman-and you knew this from the start-who doesn’t give a shit about moonlight strolls by the sea! You didn’t actually say it, but you implied it. But I think we’d better just drop it. Do you still want to know what happened?”
“Of course.”
“But the commissioner took you off the case!”
“Tell me just the same.”
“We had dinner on board.”
“Sorry to interrupt you, but did you two talk at all about Shaikiri?”
“Just a brief mention. La Giovannini told the captain-”
“Did he eat with you?”
“Yes, but if you interrupt me every-”
“Sorry.”
“She told the captain to request that the body be returned so they could bury it and then leave. So, to continue. Your phone call came too late because, among other things, I’d already told Livia and Sperli that I’d agreed to come and work with them.”
“Did they explain any better what the work would involve?”
“Only one thing seemed clear to me. Livia told me she’d given a lot of thought to how they could use me, and had decided that instead of having South Africa as my base, it was better if they sent me to Freetown.”
“Where’s that?”
“In Sierra Leone. I told her it didn’t make any difference to me, that what mattered most to me was to earn as much money as possible. And I made it quite clear that I was ready to close not one eye but both.”
“But did she tell you what her interests were in those parts of the world?”
“Yes, coffee and tobacco plantations, and a very large share in extractive concerns.”
“Extractive concerns? And what does that mean?”
“Mining, I think.”
“Find out anything else?”
“No. We’re going to meet again at five this evening to work out the terms of the contract. Maybe they’ll tell me more then. But what do you think? Should I go back on board or not? If the case is no longer ours…”
“Lemme think for a minute. And what happened during the night?”
“You want details about what Livia wanted me to do?”
“I told you not to call her Livia! No, I only want to know whether anything happened that-”
“Wait. Yes, something did happen. Around midnight the captain knocked on the cabin door. Luckily we were taking a break. Liv-Giovannini went to open the door, completely naked. They talked quietly for a minute, with him standing outside and her inside, and then she closed the door, went to the rather large safe she has in her cabin, opened it, took out a folder, put on her dressing gown, and went out. I immediately got up and took a quick look at what was inside the safe, but without touching anything.”
“And what was there?”
“A lot of money: euros, dollars, yen… And files and folders, all with titles. And five or six registers. And there was a big fat binder with the name Kimberley Process written on it.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Dunno. Listen, what tack should I take now?”
“Theoretically, you should bail out. Your back’s no longer covered. If you go back on board, it’ll be without authorization.”
“But it would be a shame to leave the whole thing hanging.”
“I agree. What do you want to do?”
“I’d like to go to the five o’clock meeting just the same. I’m certain they’re going to tell me something that’ll help us screw them.”
“And how will you extract yourself afterwards? You can’t just say, ‘Look I’ve changed my mind, I’ve decided not to come with you.’”
“Of course not! They’d kill me!”
“I’ve got it!” Montalbano said all at once.
“You’ve got what?”
“I know how to get you out of there. The Shaikiri method.”
“Meaning?”
“I’ll arrest you!”
“Come on! I think it’s a little early in the morning for you.”
“Mimi, believe me, it’s the only way. You’ll call me when you’re about to go aboard the
“I hope I remember to bring a handkerchief. I always forget.”
Augello left and Montalbano went over to his bookcase and pulled out the calendar-atlas he’d already looked at. His ignorance of geography was disgraceful, to the point where he was capable of mistaking the locations of the five continents.
The first thing he did was to see what it said about South Africa.
And immediately he came across Kimberley, which was where the biggest diamond deposits were located. So big, in fact, that the place had become a sort of national monument. There were also platinum mines, not to mention iron, cobalt, and a great many other things that the inspector knew nothing whatsoever about.
And they produced tobacco but not coffee.
The coffee plantations, for their part, were in Sierra Leone, along with other tobacco farms. And there were enough diamonds, cobalt, and other minerals for everyone to have a merry old time. Enough, that is, for a merry old time to be had by the owners of the mines, which all belonged to foreign companies, whereas, according to the calendar-atlas, the life expectancy for the native populations was thirty-seven years for males, and thirty-nine years for females.
At any rate, what La Giovannini had told Augello matched up with this reality.
But in the inspector’s brain, an annoying sort of bell had started ringing.
Hoping to make it stop, he reread everything from the beginning.
But this only made the bell start ringing louder, so loud, in fact, that he began worrying that something might be happening to his brain.
Then he realized that it was the telephone.
At first he decided not to answer, but then he thought it might be Laura and started running.
“Chief, ya gotta ’scuse me fer ’sturbin’ yiz at home in yer own home.”
“What is it, Cat?”
“Dacter Micca called juss now.”
Never heard of him. The only Micca he knew of was the famous Pietro, the Piedmontese soldier he’d read about in history books.
“Did he tell you his first name?”
“Yessir, Chief. ’Is firss name’s Jerry.”
