“Who the fuck is that, at this hour?”
He went to the door just as he was, in his briefs, and opened up.
“Hi,” said Anna.
He’d completely forgotten; the girl had indeed said that she would come see him around this hour.
Anna was looking him over.
“I see you’re wearing the right clothes,” she said, then stepped inside.
“Say what it is you have to tell me, then go back home. I’m dead tired.”
Montalbano was truly annoyed by the intrusion.
He went into his bedroom, put on a pair of pants and shirt, and returned to the dining room. Anna wasn’t there. She had gone into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and was already sinking her teeth into a bread roll filled with prosciutto.
“I’m so hungry I can hardly see.”
“You can talk while you’re eating.”
Montalbano put the espresso pot on the stove.
“You’re going to make coffee? At this hour? Will you be able to fall back asleep afterward?”
“Anna, please.” He was unable to be polite.
“All right. This afternoon, after we split up, I found out from a colleague, who for his part had been told by an informer, that starting yesterday, Tuesday morning, some guy’s been going around to all the jewelers, receivers of stolen goods, and pawnbrokers both legitimate and illegitimate to alert them that if someone came in to buy or pawn a certain piece of jewelry, they should let him know. The piece in question is a necklace, with a solid-gold chain and a heart-shaped pendant covered with diamonds. The kind of thing you’d find at some cheap department store, except that this one’s real.”
“So how are they supposed to let him know? By phone?”
“It’s no joke. He told each one of them to give a different signal—I don’t know, like putting a green cloth in the window or hanging a piece of newspaper from the front door, things like that. He’s shrewd: that way he can see without being seen.”
“Fine, but I think—”
“Let me finish. From the way he spoke and acted, the people he approached concluded it was best to do as he said. Then we found out that some other people, at the same time, were making the same rounds in all the towns of the province, Vigata included. Therefore, whoever lost that necklace wants it back.”
“Nothing wrong with that. So why, in your opinion, should this interest me?”
“Because the man told a certain receiver in Montelusa that the necklace might have been lost in the Pasture Sunday night or Monday morning. Does it interest you now?”
“Up to a point.”
“I know, it may be only a coincidence and have nothing whatsoever to do with Luparello’s death.”
“Thanks anyway. Now go back home. It’s late.”
The coffee was ready. Montalbano poured himself a cup, and Anna naturally took advantage of the opportunity.
“None for me?”
With the patience of a saint, the inspector filled another cup and handed it to her. He liked Anna, but couldn’t she understand he was with another woman?
“No,” Anna said suddenly, putting down her coffee.
“No what?”
“I don’t want to go home. Would you really mind so much if I stayed here with you?”
“Yes, I would.”
“But why?”
“Because I’m too good a friend of your father. I’d feel like I was doing him wrong.”
“What bullshit!”
“It may be bullshit, but that’s the way it is. And anyway, you seem to be forgetting that I’m in love, really in love, with another woman.”
“Who’s not here.”
“She’s not here, but it’s as if she were. Now don’t be silly and don’t say silly things. You’re unlucky, Anna; you’re up against an honest man. I’m sorry. Forgive me.”
~
He couldn’t fall asleep. Anna had been right to warn him that the coffee would keep him awake. But something else was getting on his nerves: if that necklace had indeed been lost at the Pasture, then surely Gege must also have been told about it. But Gege had been careful not to mention it, and surely not because it was a meaningless detail.
