“I didn’t tell him about the other girl who disappeared from the camp a few months ago. I let him assume that it happened in Siena. I didn’t tell him about the tall man with glasses either.”
Abedi looked more serious, he looked straight into Elaji’s eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell the stuttering man about him, Elaji?”
Elaji stared back into Abedi’s eyes coldly.
“Because you have to be the man who finds him, don’t you?” Abedi spoke again.
Elaji’s voice had become a cold hiss. “I’ll find him, before the police do.”
Abedi looked away, he remained silent for a few seconds, he was unsure of what to say.
“I was at the camp this morning,” he said eventually.
“I did it for you, Elaji.”
Elaji felt the blood suddenly rush to his head.
“Did you find somebody I can talk to?”
“Yes.”
Abedi hesitated, then he carried on talking.
“Somebody who saw something.”
*
As soon as he had driven out of the town, Claps parked in a large open area near the woods. He took his mobile phone and called Sensi. Then he closed his eyes.
“So you’re still alive, Claps. Everything okay?” Sensi sounded excited. “I have some important news!”
“Yes… now listen… to me… first. I need… information… and some search… about somebody… I also need… a blueprint of his… house.”
“A blueprint? Do you think I’m an architect? Listen to me, Claps. We have a name, a name!”
“So do I… Bench.”
“Bench? Another Englishman as well as Beattie?”
“It’s a nickname… the real name… is Benci… venga.”
“Bencivenga? Fuck… Tommaso Bencivenga?”
“Yes…?”
“It’s the same name that we have, Claps. The same fucking name!”
*
“It was summertime,” Abedi began. “It was a warm July, when the streets are full of tourists and sales go well. When you just have to keep working until late at night. This story isn’t very different from all the others. Her name was Meeka and she was beautiful, like a little princess. She disappeared one night in Follonica, near the skating track… it’s behind the pine trees, if you know the place.”
Elaji shook his head.
“It’s a very crowded place during the summer, there’s a mini golf area nearby, a casino, a promenade along the sea front. Everybody wants to buy stuff there. The sun had gone down a few hours ago but the air was still sticky and warm when Meeka ran off to go and buy some ice cream from a bar near the pine trees. She used to do it every night, it was her reward for having behaved all day. She had to walk through the pine trees to get to the bar. But she never made it to the bar, and of course she never made her way back.”
Elaji saw himself coming home that November night, when only little Alissa ran to him. He closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed, the pain was overwhelming.
He struggled to speak again. “You told me that the person who told you this saw something.”
“That’s right, Elaji.”
“Tell me, Abedi, what did he see?”
Abedi shook his head. “He didn’t tell me what he saw. He wanted to know why I was asking about Meeka. I told him about Ami, and then about you. He will talk to you in person. He’ll wait for you this afternoon, near the large square in town. I’ll take you to him.”
16
“She spoke! She spoke for the first time today!”
Trevis sounded incredibly excited.
“It’s a huge step forward – Elisa has begun to perceive the world around her and she’s beginning to feel the need to connect with people through speech. She’s never been able to speak so far, words have always failed her. She’s been unable to express her thoughts through speech… maybe only partly by drawing. Speaking allows her to connect the representation of things to the representation of words.
To connect the representation of things to the representation of words: that was an exercise that Claps knew very well. How many times, during his rehabilitation exercises, had they laid a blank sheet in front of him? How many times had he tried to connect his thoughts with language?
The sunlight coming through the office window was fading as the sky clouded over. Claps leaned over the desk towards the Professor as shadows took over the office. “What did… she say?”
“Just a couple of words, she asked me to give her the blue crayon and then she completed a drawing that we began yesterday. Here…”
Professor Trevis handed the drawing to Claps.
“We drew this together,” he continued. “Half each, an attempt to communicate. I began by drawing the sun, and she replied by shadowing everything off. She left a sun with no sunshine, a world immersed in shadow.”
“Maybe… she’s the… shadow.”
The Professor nodded, then he carried on talking. “I drew a clump of trees this morning on the grey area… a thick clump of trees.”
“Something symbolic?”
Trevis nodded again. “Yeah, most often a thick clump of trees represents the impenetrable mind of the patient, their confused psyche. In a way, I asked Elisa to tell me more about that, but not only that. Denise was taken in the woods – I wanted to give her a way to remember, to tell me about that moment, if she wanted to.”
Claps was staring at the drawing thoughtfully.
“She drew a pond instead, a pretty, blue pond. I still can’t put my finger on it.”
“You… never… saw… the place… where Denise… was taken… right?”
“No.”
“There’s a… pond… trees and a pond… Elisa is trying… to tell you… about the kidnapping.”
Claps breathed in deeply, he felt excitement vibrating through his facial muscles.
“You have to… insist… make your way… through… if necessary.”
“Insist…” Trevis leaned back in his armchair, almost as if he wanted to maintain a certain distance between Claps and himself. “Elisa has spoken for the first time in ages, today. It’s a momentous event for our therapy. If I insist now, I would really put her at risk this time.”
“It was Elisa… who chose to… communicate… through the… drawing… it’s important that you… insist… please.”
“Do you have any other routes of investigation? You had promised me that you would keep me posted. Did you speak to Cellini?”
Claps tried hard to conceal the fact that he was about to lie. “I’ve talked… with him… and I’ll talk with… others… but for now… Elisa… is our only real chance.”
“Insist…” Trevis repeated.
“The monster… could strike again… really soon.”
Professor Trevis sighed. He paused for a second, then he hissed. “Okay, I’ll do something.”
*
The clouds became thicker early in the afternoon and the sky was now fully covered; it would rain very soon. The air had become almost cold in town. Abedi and Elaji walked across the large square silently, before taking an alley which led them to the ancient town walls. Abedi indicated a small porch which was the entrance to a restaurant with rolled down shutters. A man sat on the steps outside – he looked thoughtful, as if he was meditating.
“His name is Bechir. Go and talk to him.” Abedi said. Then he began to walk away. “You can tell me all about your conversation with him tonight, if you want.”
Bechir was from Magreb and, although he looked around fifty years old, he was probably a lot younger. He was overweight and he wore a long tunic under an old fabric coat and a white hat.
They greeted each other with kindness and mutual respect.
“No-one deserves to experience so much pain, I’m sorry about your daughter.” Bechir lifted his eyes to the sky – they were big and brown. “That was God’s will.”
Elaji lowered his eyes without saying a word.
“I’ll tell
you what I know, Elaji. Listen to me.”
They sat next to each other on the steps; Elaji felt his heart pumping faster and his mouth getting drier.
“It was a warm night and I was walking through the pine woods to get to the promenade. I walked past a man who was a little more than a shadow in the darkness, about twenty metres away from my right hand side. The man was carrying something that looked like a bundle on his shoulder. He was walking very fast, which I thought was a little unusual when it’s so warm and when you’re carrying a bundle on your shoulder. I walked a little further and then I turned round to look at him, I don’t even know why. He passed under a lamp post on his way to the promenade. I can see very well from a distance, Elaji. I saw that there was a young girl wrapped up in a cloth, a black girl. I thought that she was asleep and he was taking her home. She was still and apparently asleep on the man’s shoulder. But something inside – perhaps the fact that he was a white man – told me that I should stay and watch. He came to a car which was parked close to the promenade. He didn’t head to the car door… instead, he opened the boot quickly and placed the little girl in there, then he closed the boot again. He stood still for a few seconds and looked around. I instinctively went towards him. He saw me – he jumped into the driver’s seat, turned on the engine and set off. I ran after him but the car disappeared with the headlights off before I could get to it.”
Bechir remained silent for a few seconds and then he concluded with a grave tone. “That’s what I saw that night, Elaji. A short while later I learned that the little girl was called Meeka.”
Elaji’s heart was aching with anger.
His muscles were trembling again.
“Did anybody else see anything?”
“Just me.”
“Do you remember the man’s face?”
“He wasn’t that close, it was dark and he walked past that lamp post for half a second maybe.”
Bechir lowered his eyes, he was racking his brain. “I lived those moments again and again for many nights. Every time that I walk through the pine woods, every time that I hear a child cry. All that I can tell you about him, Elaji, is that he wasn’t a young man and he didn’t have a beard. He was wearing a light coloured hat… the type of hat that men from this part of the world like very much, they call it a Panama hat. He looked to be tall and thin. He moved with ease but not like a young man.”
Bechir lifted his eyes towards Elaji. “Allah’s will was that I couldn’t do anything for Meeka that night. May He want you to find that man and punish him for the evil that he’s done.”
Elaji almost said something, but Bechir stopped him with a hand gesture. “I haven’t told you everything yet, Elaji. I haven’t told you about his car. I worked in a garage for a long time back in Sfax, the city where I was born and where my family wisely educated and raised me – that man was driving a white Volvo, an estate car. It had a diesel engine, the noise was unmistakeable.”
Elaji barely let Bechir finish. “The number plate? Did you note down the registration number?”
“If I had,” Bechir smiled gently, “that man would already be in jail for a long time and he wouldn’t have killed anyone else. It was dark, Elaji, and he didn’t turn the headlights on. It was impossible to read the number as he drove away. I can tell you one thing though… the image of that man driving away is imprinted in my memory, the rear windscreen had some stickers on it, I wasn’t able to see what they represented but they were all around the windscreen, they almost looked like a frame.”
*
“Regarding… my meeting with… Mr Cellini.” Claps had only just sat down in the armchair in front of Trevis’ desk. “He told me that… he found you… through one of your patients… he said that his name… is Bench.”
“Yes, he told me about Elisa. I had him as a patient a few years ago.”
“The therapy… worked really well… or that’s… what Cellini… said.”
“It wasn’t a difficult case but the results are excellent, yes.”
“Schizo… phrenia?”
“Yes.”
“Healed?”
“Healed.” Trevis pulled a face to indicate that that word was inappropriate. “He’s healed from the phase that didn’t allow him to relate to others socially. He’s become able to make decisions now and he has become fully independent… he even takes care of others sometimes.”
Claps looked into Trevis’ eyes intensely. “Can you… explain… to me… what you… mean?”
“Bench has connections with the community, but he’s emotionally insensitive, he’s unable to feel empathy towards others; in other words, he’s unable to build meaningful relations with others. Everything that happens around him leaves him completely indifferent.”
“Okay… when did… Bench… begin to undergo… the therapy?”
“Three years ago, he’d just come back to Italy.”
Claps thought carefully about the connections between this piece of news and what he knew already – he had come back two years after Denise’s kidnapping.
“Why do you want to know so much about Bench?”
“He used to live… near Denise… back then… I wondered… if I could… talk to him.”
“I don’t know what he would say to you, or if he would even remember anything. He was sedated back then, or maybe he was in hospital.”
“Yes… but it would still… be useful to see… what he says.”
Claps looked away.
*
Elaji was feeling disheartened for the first time in a long while.
After hearing Bechir’s story, the weight of the terrible series of events was almost crushing him.
How could he have thought that, all by himself, he could find the man who had killed his daughter?
What was he doing so far away from home? Why wasn’t he close to what remained of his family?
A tall man, a white car with stickers on the rear windscreen – that was all the information that he had managed to get.
It was impossible for Elaji to hope to find the man by himself.
Perhaps Claps would be able to make the most of that information with the means at his disposal – Claps was a man of honour.
Maybe he could convince Claps to keep him informed, but nothing more than that. Of course, Claps wouldn’t let him catch the man all by himself.
Elaji was overwhelmed by anger – he was disorientated.
No, it couldn’t end like that…
He had to be the one to kill the man.
He had to find a way.
He found Abedi waiting for him at home.
“I need better clothes please, Abedi… and a car. Do you have one?”
*
Claps found Sensi and Maiezza waiting for him in the hotel lobby.
“I didn’t think… it would take you… so little… to come.”
“A little longer than three hours, Maiezza put his foot down a little on the motorway.” Sensi smiled. “You know, we don’t have to pay any speeding tickets. Shall we take a seat? We have a lot to talk about… and I want to hear what you have to tell us.”
Claps pointed to a small room with more privacy; it took him about an hour to explain everything. He told them how he had found some links between the monster and Denise Cellini, the importance of Professor Trevis’ therapy and how this could enable the surviving twin sister to make her statement. He also spoke of Elaji’s trip to Tuscany and, finally, his visit to the Cellini family and how they had talked of Bench.
“Bench…” Sensi looked excited, like a hunting dog that had just detected the scent of his prey. “He lived in the area where young girls were taken, he was close to Ami when she was kidnapped and we could say the same for Denise Cellini. He’s tall, exactly like the man who stole Mr Beattie’s identity and he was living in Siena when the Englishman had a stroke and was hospitalised.”
“We still… have no… clear… evidence… though.”
“No, we can’t arrest him just yet, but we c
an consider him a suspect. I still can’t quite figure out why you want to have a blueprint of the man’s house?”
“There’s something… that doesn’t… sound quite… right to me.”
Claps remained silent for a few seconds, he was trying to sort out his memories to enable him to speak more fluently. “I think… I’ve been basing my…theory… on the wrong…assumption.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve always thought… that Elisa… saw… her sister’s kidnapping… but…”
“But?”
That thought had taken shape in Claps’ mind a few days earlier. Elisa had drawn her sister without her little finger – she had to know, maybe she had even seen the moment of amputation. Now, even though no traces of blood had been found on the scene, was it possible that the monster had cut off the girl’s finger on the spot, while Elisa and the girls’ father were so close? That was difficult to believe. Claps was more convinced that the amputation was part of a ritual, the last event before he dug the grave.
“What if… Elisa… didn’t see the… kidnapping… but she witnessed… the amputation… later on?”
Sensi frowned. “Are you saying that—?”
“Elisa was… traumatised.” Claps didn’t let Sensi finish his sentence. “After… her sister was… taken… she wouldn’t have… gone far away… from home.”
“Bench lives next door.”
“Cellini has… confirmed… that Bench… was at his house… during that time… he wasn’t… at the hospital.”
Claps inhaled deeply. “I wondered… if his house… had a cellar.”
“Where he could hide Denise?” Maiezza asked. “Where he could abuse her any time he wanted?”
“The creature’s hide-out!” Sensi exclaimed.
Claps nodded.
“But if Bench really had taken Denise down to the cellar and had kept her locked inside, how could Elisa have seen anything?”
Claps explained that the two houses were only separated by a low fence, which anyone could step over with little effort. If there really was a cellar, it was likely that there were also some basement windows from which Elisa could have seen inside without actually entering the house.
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