...
'I assure you, Commissioner, that stone slab was turned into a door by a superb master craftsman. Just imagine, the iron hinges were totally invisible from the outside. Reclosing the door was as easy as opening it. We went in with flashlights. Inside, the cave was very carefully and intelligently fitted out. They'd made a floor, for example, out of a dozen or so puncheons nailed together and set down on the bare earth.'
'What's a puncheon?'
'I can't think of the proper word. Let's just say they're very thick planks. They built a floor to keep the crates of weapons from coming into direct contact with the damp ground. The walls are covered with lighter boards. The whole inside of the cave is a sort of giant wooden box without a top. They obviously worked a long time on it.'
'What about the weapons?'
'A veritable arsenal. About thirty machine guns and sub-machine guns, a hundred or so pistols and revolvers, two bazookas, thousands of ammunition rounds, cases of every kind of explosive, from TNT to Semtex. And a large quantity of police and carabinieri uniforms, bulletproof vests, and various other things. All in perfect order, with each item wrapped in cellophane.'
'We've really dealt them a serious blow, eh?'
'Absolutely. Tano avenged himself well, just enough to avoid looking like a traitor or repenter. I want you to know that I didn't sequester the weapons; I left them in the cave. I've arranged for my men to stand guard, in two shifts, round the clock. They're in an uninhabited cottage a few hundred yards away from the arms depot.'
'You're hoping someone will come for supplies?'
'That's the idea.'
'Good, I agree with that. We'll wait a week, keep everything under close watch, and if nothing happens, we'll go ahead with the seizure. Ah, Montalbano, do you remember my dinner invitation for day after tomorrow?'
'How could I forget?'
'I'm afraid well have to postpone it a few days. My wife has the flu...'
...
There was no need to wait a week. The third day after they had discovered the weapons, Catarella, having completed his midnight-to-midday shift on guard, went to report to Montalbano, asleep on his feet. The inspector had asked them all to do the same as soon as they went off duty.
'Any news?'
'Nothing, Chief. All peacefulness and quietude.'
'Good. Actually, bad. Go get some sleep.'
'Uh, wait. Now that I put my head to it, there was something, nothing, really, I just thought I'd tell you more out of consciousness than duty, but it's nothing.'
'What kind of nothing?'
'A tourist came by.'
'Explain a little better, Cat.'
'It looked to be around twenty-one hundred hours in the morning.'
'If it was morning, it was nine, Cat.'
'Whatever you say. Then right then and there I heard the roar of a motorcycle. So I grabbed the binoculars around my neck and precautiously looked out the window for confirmation. The motorcycle was red.'
'The color is of no importance. Then what?'
'Then a tourist of the male sex descended from off said motorcycle.'
'What made you think he was a tourist?'
'He was wearing a camera around his neck, a really big camera, so big it looked like a cannon.'
'Must have been a telephoto lens.'
'Yes sir, that it was. Then he started taking telephotos.'
'Of what?'
'Everything, Chief, everything. The countryside, the Crasticeddru, even the location I was located in.'
'Did he get close to the Crasticeddru?'
'Never, sir. But when he climbed back on his motorcycle to leave, he waved at me with his hands.'
'He saw you?'
'No. I stayed inside the whole time. But as I was saying, once he started up, he waved good-bye to the little house.'
...
'Commissioner? I've got some news, and it's not good. Looks like they somehow got wind of our discovery and sent somebody on reconnaissance to confirm.'
'And how do you know this?'
'This morning the man on duty in the cottage saw some guy arrive on a motorcycle and take photographs of the whole area with a powerful telephoto. They must have set up a very specific marker around the boulder blocking
