'I'd like to speak with Andrea Sorrentino.'
'That's my father. He's not at home.You can find him at the Town Hall.'
'Does he work there?'
'Sort of. He's the mayor.'
...
'Of course I remember Lisetta,' said Andrea Sorrentino. He wore his sixty-odd years quite well, only a few white hairs. A handsome man. 'But why do you ask?'
'I'm conducting a rather confidential investigation. I'm sorry I can't tell you more. But you must believe me: it's very important that I get some information about her.'
'All right, Inspector. I have very beautiful memories of Lisetta, you know. We used to take long walks in the country. With her at my side, I felt so proud, like a grown-up man. She used to treat me as if we were the same age. But after her family left Serradifalco and she returned to Vig, I never heard from her again.'
'Why's that?'
The mayor hesitated a moment.
'Well, I'll tell you because it's all in the past now. I think my father and Lisetta's father had a terrible row. Around the end of August in 43, my father came home in an awful state. He'd been to Vig, to see Uncle Stefanou, zu Stefano, as I called him, I don't remember what for. He was pale and had a fever. I remember that my mother got very scared, and so I, too, got scared. I don't know what transpired between the two of them, but the next day, at the dinner table, my father said that in our house, the Moscato's name must never be mentioned again. I obeyed, even though I really wished I could ask him about Lisetta. You know how it is, with these horrible feuds between relatives...'
'Do you remember the American soldier Lisetta met here?'
'Here? An American soldier?'
'Yes. Or so I've been led to believe. She met an American soldier in Serradifalco, they fell in love, she followed him, and a little while later they got married in the United States.'
'I heard some vague talk of this marriage business, when an aunt of mine, my fathers sister, was sent a photo of Lisetta in bridal dress with an American soldier.'
'So why were you surprised when I mentioned it?'
'I was surprised that you said Lisetta met the American here. You see, Lisetta disappeared from our house at least ten days before the Americans occupied Serradifalco.'
'What?'
'Oh, yes. One afternoon, it must have been around three or four oclock, I saw Lisetta getting ready to leave. I asked her where we were going on our walk that day, and she told me I shouldn't feel hurt, but she wanted to take her walk by herself. Of course I felt deeply hurt. That evening, at suppertime, Lisetta still hadn't returned. Uncle Stefano, my father, and some local peasants went out looking for her but never found her. Those were terrible hours for us. There were Italian and German soldiers about, and the grown-ups were worried she'd come to harm ...The following afternoon, Uncle Stefano said good-bye, telling us he wouldn't be back until he found his daughter. Lisetta's mother stayed behind with us; poor thing, she was devastated. Then the Americans landed, and we were cut off by the front. The very day the front moved on, Stefano Moscato came back to get his wife and said he'd found Lisetta in Vig and that her escape had been a childish prank. Now, if you've been following me, you will have understood why Lisetta could not have met her future husband here in Serradifalco, but must have met him in her own town, in Vig.'
20
'I know the temples are splendid. Since I've known you I've been forced to see them about fifty times. You can therefore stick them, column by column, you-know-where. I'm going off by myself and don't know when I'll be back.'
Livia's note oozed with rage, and Montalbano took it in. But since a wolf-like hunger had seized hold of him on his way back from Serradifalco, he opened the fridge: nothing. He opened the oven: nothing. Livia, who didn't want the housekeeper about for the time of her stay in Vig, had taken her sadism to the point of cleaning everything utterly. Not the tiniest piece of bread was to be found. He got back in his car and drove to the Trattoria San Calogero, where they were already rolling down their shutters.
'We're always open for you, Inspector.'
To quell his hunger and to spite Livia, he ate so much he nearly had to call the doctor.
...
'There's one statement here that's got me thinking,' said Montalbano.
'You mean where she says she might do something crazy?'
They were sitting in the living room having coffee, the inspector, the headmaster, and Signora Angelina.
Montalbano was holding young Lisetta's letter, which he'd just finished re-reading aloud.
'No, signora, we know she eventually did that. Mr. Sorrentino told me so, and he would have no reason to lie to me. A few days before the landing, therefore, Lisetta got it in her head to flee Serradifalco and come here, to Vig, to see the one she loved.'
'But how would she have done that?'
'She probably asked some military vehicle for a lift. In those days the German and Italian troops must have been constantly on the move. A pretty girl like her, she wouldn't have had to try very hard,' interjected Headmaster Burgio, who'd decided to cooperate, having resigned himself to the fact that once in a while, his wife's fantasies
