'No,' said the old couple without a moments hesitation.
'I'm of the same opinion,' said Montalbano, 'precisely because it was Lillo who put the two bodies in a position, so to speak, to be hypothetically resurrected. No killer wants his victims to come back to life.'
'And so?' asked the headmaster.
'If, in an emergency, Lisetta had asked him to put them up, she and her boyfriend, at the Rizzitano house on the Crasto, how do you think Lillo would have responded?'
Signora Angelina didn't pause to think twice.
'He would have done whatever Lisetta asked of him.'
'Let's try, then, to imagine what happened during those days in July. Lisetta runs away from Serradifalco, with luck she makes it to Vig, meets up with Mario Cunich, and the boyfriend deserts his postor strays from his ship, let's say. The two now have nowhere to hide. Going to Lisetta's house would be like walking into the wolf's den; it's the first place her father would look. So she asks Lillo Rizzitano for help; she knows he won't say no. Lillo puts the couple up at his house at the foot of the Crasto, where he's been living alone since the rest of his family was evacuated. Who killed the two lovers, and why, we don't know, and perhaps we never will. But there can be no doubt that it was Lillo who buried them in the cave, because he followed, step by step, both the Christian and the Koranic versions of the story. In both cases, the sleepers will one day awake. But what did he mean, what was he trying to say by staging that scene? Was he trying to tell us that the two lovers are asleep and will one day awake or be awakened? Or was he hoping, in fact, that someone in the future would find them and wake them up? Purely by chance, it was I who found them and woke them up. But, believe me, I really wish I had never discovered that cave.'
He was telling the truth, and the old couple realized this.
'I could stop here,' he continued. 'I've managed to satisfy my own personal curiosity. I'm still missing some answers, it's true, but the ones I've found are probably enough for me. As I said, I could stop here.'
'They may be enough for you,' said Signora Angelina, 'but I would like to see Lisetta's killer before me.'
'If you see him, it'll be in a photograph,' her husband said wryly, 'because by now it's ninety-nine percent certain that the killer is dead and buried.'
'I'll leave it up to you two,' said Montalbano. 'You tell me: What should I do? Should I continue? Should I stop? Its' your decision, since these murders are no longer of any interest to anyone. You are perhaps the only link the two dead lovers still have to this world.'
'I say you should go ahead,' said Mrs. Burgio, bold as ever.
'Me too,' said the headmaster, seconding her after a pause.
...
When he arrived at the exit for Marinella, instead of turning and heading home, he let the car continue along the coastal highway as if of its own will. There was little traffic, and in just a few minutes he was at the foot of the Crasto mountain. He got out of the car and climbed up the slope that led to the Crasticeddru. A stones throw from the weapons cave, he sat down on the grass and lit a cigarette. He remained seated, watching the sunset while his brain was whirring: he had an obscure feeling that Lillo was still alive. But how would he ever flush him out?
As darkness began to fall, he headed back to the car, and at that moment his eye fell on the gaping hole in the side of the mountain, the entrance to the unused tunnel, boarded up since time immemorial. Right near the mouth, there was a pile of sheet metal and, beside it, a sign on two stakes. His legs took off in that direction before his brain had even given the order. He arrived out of breath, his side smarting from the dash. The sign said:
Gaetano Nicolosi & Son Construction Co.
Palermo. Via Lamarmora, 33
Project for the excavation of a highway
Tunnelworks manager: Cosimo Zirretta,
Eng.asst. manager: Salvatore Perricone.
This was followed by some other information of no interest to Montalbano.
He made another dash to his car and sped like a bullet back to Vig.
23
At the Gaetano Nicolosi & Son Construction Co. of Palermo, whose number Montalbano had got from directory assistance, nobody was answering the phone. It was too late in the day; the company's offices must have been deserted. Montalbano tried and tried again, eventually losing hope. Having cursed a few times to let off steam, he then requested the number of the engineer Cosimo Zirretta, assuming that he, too, was from Palermo. He'd guessed right.
'Hello, this is Inspector Montalbano from Vig. How did you manage the expropriation?'
'What expropriation?'
'The land that the road and tunnel you were building cuts through, outside of Vig.'
'Look, that's not my domain, I'm only responsible for the construction. That is, I was responsible until an ordinance put a halt to the whole project.'
'So who should I talk to?'
'Somebody from the company.'
'I phoned there but nobody answered.'
'Then try Commendatore Gaetano or his son Arturo. When they get out of Ucciardone.'
