Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri

Author:Andrea Camilleri [Camilleri, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Andrea Camilleri
ISBN: 9780143112037
Publisher: Viking Press
Published: 2003-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

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10

A sudden pang of jealousy. Absurd, of course, but he couldn’t help it. Could Livia be melancholy because Mimì lay in a hospital bed?

“How is he?”

“He’s got two broken ribs. They’re discharging him to morrow. He’ll have to take care of himself at home.”

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes, I couldn’t wait any longer,” said Livia, getting up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to warm up some—”

“No, that’s all right. I’ll get some stuff from the fridge.” He returned with a dish covered with green and black olives and Ragusan caciocavallo. In his other hand, a glass and a bottle of wine. The bread he’d slipped under his arm. He sat down. Livia gazed at the sea.

“I can’t stop thinking about that girl who was kidnapped,” she said without turning, “and something you said to me the first time we talked about it.” In a way, Montalbano felt reassured. Livia’s melancholy was not for Mimì but for Susanna.

“What did I say?”

“That the day she was kidnapped, she went to her boyfriend’s apartment to make love.”

“So?”

“But you told me that normally it was always the boy who had to ask; whereas that day, Susanna herself took the initiative.”

“What does that mean, in your opinion?”

“That maybe she had a premonition of what was going to happen.”

Montalbano said nothing. He didn’t believe in premonitions, prophetic dreams, or things of that nature.

After a brief silence, Livia asked:

“Are you getting anywhere?”

“Just two hours ago, I had neither compass nor sextant.”

“And now you’ve got both?”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

He began telling her what he’d learned. When he’d finished speaking, Livia looked puzzled.

“I really don’t see what conclusions you can draw from the story this Dr. Mistretta told you.”

“No conclusions at all, Livia. But it provides many starting points, many indications that I didn’t have before.”

“Such as?”

“Such as the fact—and I’m convinced of this—that they wanted to kidnap not the daughter of Salvatore Mistretta but the niece of Antonio Peruzzo. He’s the one with the dough. And there’s no saying she was kidnapped only for the ransom money; there’s also the revenge motive. When Peruzzo went bankrupt, he must have messed up many people’s lives. And the kidnappers’ strategy is to drag Antonio Peruzzo slowly into the middle of this. Slowly, so that nobody realizes that they wanted to get to him from the start. Whoever organized this kidnapping knew what had happened between Antonio and his sister; they knew that Antonio was beholden to the Mistrettas, and that, as Susanna’s godfather, he was responsible . . .” He trailed off, wanting to bite his tongue. Livia cast a placid glance at him; she looked like an angel.

“Why don’t you continue? Did you suddenly remember that you yourself want to become the godfather at the baptism of a criminal’s son, and that you may soon have some serious responsibilities of your own?” “Can we please drop that subject?”

“No, I think we should explore it.”

They explored it, squabbled, made peace, and went to bed.

At three twenty-seven and forty seconds, time’s mechanism jammed again. But this time the clack sounded far away, and only half woke him up.

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