The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

Author:Leonardo Sciascia [Sciascia, Leonardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Contemporary Fiction, Crime Fiction
Amazon: B00HFUH9W0
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 2014-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

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The twenty-four hours of preliminary arrest had already expired for Marchica and were falling due for Arena and Pizzuco too. At nine o'clock sharp Marchica started pounding on the guardroom door to insist on his rights, of which he was well aware, and was told by the sergeantmajor that the Public Prosecutor had extended his detention for another twenty-four hours. Marchica, more or less reassured as to the form, resigned himself to the substance, or the plank bed on which he lay down again with a certain relief. The sergeantmajor left him, mulling over the fact that Marchica had started agitating exactly at nine o'clock when he had no watch, as this, together with his wallet, tie, belt and shoe-laces, were in a drawer of the office.

At ten o'clock the sergeantmajor woke Marchica again and returned his belongings. Marchica thought he was about to be released; the combination of sleep, worry and stubble on his face broke into a triumphant grin. But outside the barracks was a car into which the sergeantmajor shoved him. There was already one carabiniere in the back and another one followed Marchica, who found himself squeezed tight between two carabinieri in the back seat of a Fiat 600. He at once invoked the highway code, and the sergeantmajor, already seated beside the driver, was so taken by surprise that he merely changed the subject with an amiable: 'Anyway, you're all thin.'

At C, Pizzuco and Arena were already in the cells of the Carabinieri Company H.Q. The captain had thought that if he let them stew in their own juice for twenty-four hours, they would be riper for interrogation; a day and a night of discomfort were bound to have their effect on all three men. He began with Marchica.

Company H.Q; was in an old convent, rectangular, each side with two rows of rooms divided by a corridor, one row with the windows facing inwards on to a courtyard, the other outwards on to the streets. To this unharmonious building the Sicilian statesman Francesco Crispi, and his even more harassed ministry, had added another, ugly and shapeless, which attempted to reproduce, in smaller proportion, the original layout. The result was something like a child's copy of an engineer's design. In place of the courtyard there was a kind of shaft; and the two buildings were connected by a maze of passages and staircases which made it difficult to find one's way about until one knew them really well. It had, though, the advantage of providing larger rooms than the old building. The first floor was used as offices and the second as the C.O.'s quarters.

The C.O.'s office had a large window opening on to the shaft; opposite, with an equally large window, was his lieutenant's office, the two windows being so close that, by leaning out, papers could be passed from one to the other.

The desk was arranged for Marchica to sit facing the window, with the office door on his right. 'Were you born at B.

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