plastered her mouth against Montalbano's. Since he made no sign of reacting to her passionate kiss, Anna let her hand slide farther down his body. She caressed him there as well.
Montalbano decided to speak.
'See, Anna? It's hopeless. Nothing happens.'
In a single bound Anna sprang out of bed and locked herself in the bathroom. Montalbano didn't move, not even when he heard her sobbing a childish wail, like that of a little girl denied a toy or some sweets. Against the light of the bathroom, whose door she left open on her way out, Montalbano saw her fully dressed.
'A wild animal has more feelings than you,' she said, leaving.
Sleep then abandoned Montalbano. At four in the morning, he was still up, trying to finish even one a game of solitaire, though it was clear he would never succeed.
...
He arrived at work grumpy and troubled, the encounter with Anna weighing on his mind. He felt remorseful for treating her the way he did. On top of this, that morning he'd started wondering: had it been Ingrid instead of Anna, would he have behaved the same way?
'I urgently need to speak to you,' said Mim Augello, standing in his doorway looking agitated.
'What do you want?'
'To bring you up to date on the investigation.'
'What investigation?'
'Okay, I get the message. I'll come by later.'
'No, you stay right here and tell me what fucking investigation you're talking about.'
'What do you mean? The one into the weapons traffic!'
'And I, in your opinion, put you in charge?'
'In my opinion? We talked about it! Remember? It seemed implicit to me.'
'Mim, the only implicit thing around here is that you're a goddamned son of a bitch, no offense to your mother, of course.'
'Let's do this: I'll tell you what I've done, and you can decide if I should continue.'
'All right, let's hear what you've done.'
'First of all, I thought Ingrassia should be kept on a leash, so I assigned two of our men to tail him day and night. He can't even take a piss without me knowing about it.'
'Two of our men? You put two of ours on his tail? Don't you know that that guy knows everything about our men down to the hairs on their ass?'
'I'm not stupid. They're not actually ours, not from the Vig force, I mean. They're two officers from Rag that the commissioner transferred to my service after I spoke to him.'
Montalbano looked at him in admiration.
'Ah, so you spoke to the commissioner. Well done, Mim, you really do know how to get around!'
Augello did not respond in kind, preferring to continue his exposition.
'We also listened in on a phone conversation that might mean something. I've got the transcript in my room, I'll go get it.'
'Do you know it by heart?'
'Yes, but if you hear it, you might be able to discover'
'Mim, at this point I think you've discovered everything there was to discover. Don't make me waste time. Now tell me what they said.'
'Well, from his supermarket, Ingrassia phones the Brancato company in Catania. He asks for Brancato himself, who comes to the phone. Ingrassia complains about the snags that occurred during the last delivery, he says you cant send the truck so far ahead of schedule, that this caused him a lot of problems. He wants them to meet so they can study different, safer means of delivery. Here Brancato's answer is shocking, to say the least. He raises his voice in anger and asks Ingrassia, How dare you call me here? Ingrassia, now stammering, asks for an explanation. Which Brancato provides, saying that Ingrassia is insolvent, and that the banks have advised him to cease doing business with him.'
'And how did Ingrassia react?'
'He didn't. He didn't even make a peep. He just hung up.'
'Do you realize what that phone call means?'
'Of course. Ingrassia was asking for help, and they cut him loose.'
'Stay on top of Ingrassia.'
'I already am, as I told you.'
There was a pause.
'What should I do?' continued Mim, 'Continue the investigation?'
Montalbano wouldn't answer.
'You're such a fucking jerk!' commented Augello.
...
