The Terra-Cotta Dog

you've got any news. Call me at home, don't forget. Not at the office; there may be a mole there.'

He waited until evening for De Dominicis's call, which never came. This did not worry him, however; he was sure that De Domenicis had swallowed the bait. Apparently, even for him, the going had not been easy.

The next morning he had the pleasure of seeing Adelina the housekeeper again.

'Why haven't you been around these days?'

'Whattaya mean, why?'

'Cause the young lady don't like seein me bout the house when she's here, that's why.'

'How did you know Livia was gone?'

'I found out in town.'

Everybody, in Vig, knew everything about everyone.

'What'd you buy for me?'

'I'm gonna make you pasta con le sarde,and purpi alla carrettera for after.'

Exquisite, but deadly. Montalbano gave her a hug.

...

Around midday the telephone rang and Adelina, who was cleaning the house top to bottom to get rid of every trace of Livia's presence, went to answer.

'Signuri, Dr. Didumminici wants you.'

Montalbano, who'd been sitting on the veranda re-reading Faulkner's Pylon for the fifth time, rushed inside. Before picking up the receiver, however, he quickly established a plan of action for getting De Dominicis out of his hair once he'd obtained the information.

'Yes? Hello? Who's this?' he said in a tired voice full of disappointment.

'You were right, it was easy. Calogero Rizzitano graduated on November 13, 1942. You'd better write this down, because the title is a long one.'

'Wait while I look for a pen. For what it's worth...'

De Dominicis noticed the flatness in Montalbanos voice.

'Are you all right?'

Complicity had made De Dominicis more concerned and personal.

'Am I all right? Need you ask? I told you I needed an answer by last night! I'm no longer interested! You're too late. Everything's fucked now, fizzled out.'

'I couldn't have done it any sooner, believe me.'

'All right, all right. Let's have the title.'

'The Use of Macaronic Latin in the Mystery Play of the Seven Sleepers by an Anonymous Sixteenth-Century Author. Now you tell me what the Mafia could have to do with a title'

'It has a lot to do with it! It has everything to do with it! Except that now, because of you, I don't need it anymore and I certainly can't thank you for it.'

He hung up and burst into a high-pitched whinny of joy. Immediately a sound of breaking glass could be heard in the kitchen: in terror, Adelina must have dropped something. Taking a running start, he leapt from the veranda onto the sand, executed a somersault, then a cartwheel, then a second somersault and a second cartwheel. The third somersault failed, and he collapsed on the sand, out of breath. Adelina ran towards him from the veranda screaming:

'Madunnuzza beddra! He's gone crazy! He's broke is neck!'

...

To set his own mind at rest, Montalbano got in his car and drove to the Montelusa public library.

'I'm looking for a mystery play,' he said to the chief librarian.

The chief librarian, who knew him as a police inspector, was mildly astonished but said nothing.

'All we've got,' she said, 'are the two volumes of D'Ancona and two more by De Bartholomaeis. But these books cant be taken out. You'll have to consult them here.'

He found the Mystery Play of the Seven Sleepers in the second tome of the D'Ancona anthology. It was a short, very na text. Lillo's thesis must have centered around the dialogue between two heretical scholars who expressed themselves in an amusing macaronic Latin. But what most interested the inspector was the long preface by D'Ancona. It contained everything: the quotation from the Koranic sura, the legends itinerary through various European and African countries, in all its different variants and mutations. Professor Lovecchio had been correct: sura number eighteen of the Koran, taken by itself, would have proved a very tough nut to crack. It had to be complemented with the contributions of other cultures.

...

'I'm going to venture a hypothesis, and I'd like to have your approval,' said Montalbano, who had brought the Burgios up-to-date on his latest discoveries. 'You both told me, with a great deal of conviction, that Lillo saw Lisetta as a little sister and was crazy about her. Right?'

'Yes,' the two said in chorus.

'Good. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think Lillo would have been capable of killing Lisetta and her young lover?'