Chapter 21
Elia’s class was always the last to be released into the courtyard, not because the teacher was too dedicated to heed the bell, but because she was too deaf and distracted to hear it.
School was supposed to be let out at 2:15. At 2:25, Caterina and the other mothers formed several huddles so that they could share their dissatisfaction and lament the passing of the afternoon and their lives. Then all of a sudden the children came tumbling out. The teacher, two years shy of retirement, but still shell-shocked like it was her first day, gave the courtyard trees a vague salute and wandered off.
Half the class formed a quick knot, then scattered like escaping fish to every corner of the yard. Soon they had organized a raucous game kicking a rolled-up wrapper around the concrete. The fatter kids clung onto their parents and demanded food. Caterina turned around looking for Elia, but could not make him out in the chaos. She went back to listening to a mother talking about having to pay for parking outside her own house. The class representative came by collecting money for toilet paper for the school bathrooms.
Elia’s friends were called to order and went on their way. The number of players in the ball game began to decrease. The janitor shouted at the remaining ones to stop and at the parents to get out of the yard. Elia was still nowhere to be seen. She called his name, twice. Then a third time, louder. The pools of chatting parents were breaking up, and she started asking around. No, no one had seen him.
Caterina’s next heartbeat seemed to cause a sudden change of pressure in her inner ear. For a moment she could not hear properly. Nor think.
Where is he? She checked her own memory. Her mother had taken Elia to school that morning, right? Right. Was it this morning she had gone to Pistoia and met Emma’s mother? Was that relevant? No. Maybe. Something to think about later, when she had Elia in her arms.
She grabbed a child from Elia’s class who was on his way out with his mother and fired questions. Yes, yes, he told her, Elia had been at school today.
She stood still until she could again hear the logical side of her mind underneath the loud bullying panic in her head. Clearly, he had forgotten something and gone back to the classroom to get it. That was it. The stupid, stupid child was always forgetting things. Caterina waited by the door, setting her face to stern for when he appeared. The school yard had almost emptied now, and the hubbub and noise were moving slowly up the street as the children were whisked away to one another’s house, the park, dance lessons, catechism.
She went inside and was stopped by a woman with a massive bosom.
“You can’t come in.”
Caterina explained her case.
“No children are allowed back in after the last bell. If the child forgot something, he can get it tomorrow.”
Caterina realized talking to this caretaker woman was merely putting off the thing she dreaded. She pushed her way by, dimly registering some sort of protest, and increased her pace as she reached the stairs. She took the steps two at a time, reached the third floor. It smelled of paper, glue, leather, wood polish, poster paints, shoes, sweat, felt pens, children. He was not in his classroom, and the corridors were empty. One wall was covered in photos of all the children in the school. She knew exactly where Elia was among them. She glimpsed his wavy hair and his brown eyes as she rushed by, heels clacking and echoing as she headed back to the stairwell. Her skin prickled and something icy mushroomed in her solar plexus. As she came back down the stairs, her phone rang. She grabbed it and saw Blume’s name. No. She did not need him now.
Get off the line. Get off the line. I need this line to be free.
The phone rang on and on. Fuck off. Fuck off, fuck off. Please, leave my line free. She flipped the phone open and snapped it shut. There, it had stopped.
She reached the front of the school again. The yard was deserted: the janitor was closing the gates.
Oh, Elia.
Anything but this. Dear God, let nothing have happened to him. Please, God, listen, please-wait, logic. Could he have gone to a friend’s house without asking, without the friend’s mother telling her?
Her phone rang again. No. This line: it had to be kept free. That was essential. She was not sure why. It just was. But if Blume didn’t talk. If he just listened-She flicked it open. “Alec, listen to me! Something terrible-I think…”
“I’m not ‘Alec,’ dear,” said her mother’s voice. “Are you all right?”
“No. No. You need to get off the line. Oh, Christ.”
“Caterina!” her mother’s voice was sharp. “What’s the matter?”
“Elia…”
“Elia’s here with me,” said her mother.
Caterina made her repeat it. Then again.
“Now tell me, what’s going on,” said her mother. “Do I need to call someone?”
Every drop of moisture in her body seemed to come suddenly out of her pores, leaving her throat dry. She found it difficult to talk.
“He’s there. With you?”
“Of course he is. If you couldn’t make it, all you had to do was call me. I don’t see why you had to send a car around to pick him up.”
“What car?”
“Are you sure you’re all right? Your colleagues. They brought him straight here, though I think they might have arrived a bit early at the school, they took him out of his last lesson. Next time, just call me if you can’t make it on time.”
“Can I talk to him?”
She heard her mother call Elia, and then he was on the line, his voice the clearest, purest, sweetest sound she would ever hear.
“Mamma?”
Caterina felt her legs wobble, so she just sat down in the middle of the yard. The janitor watched uncertainly from the gate, showing his impatience from a distance, but not daring to come over.
“Who took you home? What did I tell you about strangers?”
“They weren’t strangers. They were police. Two men.”
“Did you know them?”
“No, but they said you had sent them, and they showed me a badge, and… it was like the other day when the Commissioner drove us.”
“The other day I was with you, Elia. What did they do?”
“They drove me home. Straight here. But they came too early, so the janitor had to call me out of class.”
“I’m coming right over, Elia. I need to talk to you about this.”
“OK. Can I go to Giacomo’s today to play on the Wii?”
“How can you ask that? No, you’re not going anywhere today. I’m coming right over.”
Caterina rose unsteadily to her feet, and noticed the woman with the bosom watching, making no effort to hide her satisfaction at her distress.
“Did you release a child to the care of two adult males this afternoon?” said Caterina, coming over.
“Certainly not.”
“All right. Did a police patrol come by today to pick up a child?”
“Yes, but they were Carabinieri.”
“Look, let me tell you something about how easy it is to forge an ID…” Caterina stopped as her phone began to ring, the number withheld. As she answered the woman walked away.
“Inspector Mattiola, I hope we didn’t have you worried there. It seems there was some sort of mix-up about the pickup time from school.”
“Who is this? Who are you? I know your voice, you bastard. I can identify you.”
“It’s simpler if I identify myself, Inspector, takes the guesswork out of it. Colonel Farinelli. Commissioner Blume and I are working closely together, but I don’t think he’s being entirely open with either of us. I would like us
