by April Smith
“I get it, but none of this has anything to do with me. The fact that I was there at that restaurant is totally random.”
“Maybe,” Dennis says. “Enjoy the Palio.”
The surface of the pool has stilled. I’m looking at my reflection, not recognizable, just a play of darkness and light.
IL PALIO
THIRTEEN
Palio, Day 1—FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 5:45 A.M. The reflection of the empty ironwork bed slides around me as I open the doors of the mirrored armoire and pull out a linen skirt Cecilia has loaned me, wrapping it around my waist and slipping on a white T-shirt and leather sandals. I tie an Oca scarf around my neck, letting the point of the triangle hang down the back. Day by day, I seem to be losing my L.A. edge and looking more like Cecilia.
She and Nicosa were leaving at dawn for the tratta, or “choosing of the horses,” that begins the festival, when I cornered her in the second-floor arcade. She was dressed with conservative elegance in an Oca-green suit with an opalescent sheen. I was still wearing pajamas with rockets on them.
“Cecilia, look. I know who he is.” “Who?”
“The man with no hands we saw outside Giovanni’s room. He’s mafia,” I said quietly. “It’s obvious.” She squinted at the soft light filling the archways.
“What are you trying to do?” she said at last.
“Protect you and Giovanni. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me he wasn’t the Puppet, a mob boss from the south.” She seemed very busy with the contents of her purse, so I went on.
“You don’t think the idiots who attacked Giovanni aren’t watching the abbey?” “Giovanni is safe in the hospital under police security, is he not?” she said, making an inventory of her makeup case, sunglasses, keys, cell phone.
“Yes, but believe it — now they’re watching you. They know every time you come and go. They are very capable of taking both you and your husband out in a heartbeat, and where would that leave Giovanni?” “I know they are capable. Every day in my work I see people capable of the worst possible things.” Her dark brown eyes, moist and troubled, met mine. “I will tell you the truth. When I started out to look for you it was because of my duty to honor my mother’s wish — to make sure Miguel Sanchez’s daughter had her rightful inheritance. When the detective found you in the FBI, I thought it was a sign from God. I know that my husband is under the thumb of the mafias, and I don’t see how he will ever get out. I thought you could help me. Really, I am still a stranger here. I didn’t know what to do. You see now why I have been desperate, especially now that this beast—” Her voice was trembling. “He comes to my son’s hospital room—” I wanted my notebook very badly to write down every word of her confession, but if I lost her, with Palio about to begin, it could be days before I got her back.
“Let’s sit down,” I said, indicating the carved wooden chairs along the terra-cotta-tiled corridor.
“I can’t. The tratta is starting.” “Just tell me — how is Nicoli under their thumb?” “I don’t know for certain. It must be that he’s paying bribes, like everybody else, and wants it to stop. He has tried to get out and they won’t let him.” “How do you know?”
“That is my belief. When his mistress went white shotgun, he changed. He was very distant, even frightened. I see that today, but at the time I was so angry I could not see anything. And now, with Giovanni — I am afraid one day they will just kill us all.” “What does Nicoli say? Have you talked about this?” “He won’t speak about it. He says not to worry, that we are protected.” “By whom?”
She shrugged, holding back tears. “I don’t know his connections.” “I can help you,” I said firmly. “But you have to tell me everything you know about your husband’s business. It’s possible this all traces back to Lucia Vincenzo. You know she was laundering drug money for ’Ndrangheta? Maybe he is, too.” “Yes. Okay. I will tell you what I know. Maybe we can get inside his computer.” “We can do that,” I say, almost choking with excitement.
“Will you go to the provincial police? You have to be careful. They are also in the pocket of the mafias.” “We’ll take it step-by-step. But I need more information. When can we talk?” “During the feast is impossible. Every hour is taken up with one ceremony or another, and Nicoli and I are always in the public eye. He is waiting for me now. I have to go.” “You need more protection than just his word. I’ll go with you.” “It is not necessary. We could not be safer than to be in public, surrounded by contrada members.” Composure back, Cecilia struggled to look confident.
An hour later, Sofri pulls up in the courtyard, steamy exhaust wrapping around his little black Renault. Excitement has been building in town all week — kiosks festooned with brilliant colors, drummers in medieval costumes calling men to arms, the unfathomable buzz among the Sienese. As we leave the abbey, the flare of day is just striking the hills.
My elderly guide is all decked out in an Oca-green blazer with a white shirt and a red bow tie. The white mustache and flowing hair make him look like a yachtsman for the green team, but today he is il professore. We’ve scarcely said “Buongiorno” before he launches into a monologue about the tratta, the arcane system by which each contrada receives its horse by random draw — just three days, mind you, before the big race. A veterinarian is at this moment checking out all the horses entered in the pool, because the rules say a contrada cannot give back its fated animal, even if it turns out to be lame. However, attempting to poison the steed of your enemy is an honorable tradition.
We park outside the walls of the city and hurry past Ethiopian traders opening their stalls of Chinese-made contraband handbags. There aren’t many tourists yet. It is barely 7:30 a.m. and the sun is already burning. We climb up hills, then down into the Piazza del Campo. Police are posted at the many entrances. After the empty streets, it is a shock to pass through the archways and discover a massive gathering of thousands of contrade members, as if the entire city had been herded into the plaza.
Sofri puts a hand at the small of my back, guiding us through the crowd to the doorway of one of the private palazzos that overlook the Campo. He unlocks a forbidding outer door, and then we enter a cool tiled lobby, climbing four stories to the top-floor apartment, a large open space dominated by an arch. Beyond is a fireplace with a window on either side from which you can see the square.
“Please. Be at home.”
Home it is, with warm yellow walls, mismatched wing chairs, a red-and-white-peppermint-striped sofa for rainy afternoons leafing through the books and journals on the coffee table. A brass telescope stands in silhouette against the brash white light coming through the open shutters; there are stag horns on the mantelpiece, above which a Napoleonic portrait stares out.
“Take a good look,” he calls from the kitchen.
The view is vertiginous and astonishing. The Piazza del Campo is shaped like a shell made of pink brick and gray travertine, rimmed with cafés at the foot of seven-story buildings that are joined together shoulder to shoulder. As the sun rises, their windows take on a glow like the amber eyes of the wolves that are the symbol of the city. Over the past few days, citizens have shoveled yellow earth off a truck and covered the outer ring of the Campo, transforming it into a racetrack. Sofri says it is good luck to touch la tèrra, the holy earth, which is as soft as powdered mustard.
“When you hold la tèrra in your hand, you hold the miracle of rebirth. Il Palio is about to begin. There is a saying, whenever we find ourselves fretting over something small and insignificant: ‘Don’t worry, because there will soon be la tèrra in piazza — earth in the piazza.’ The cycle of life will go on.” I find myself staring down at thousands of men surging toward a small arena where ten unsaddled horses held by grooms are pulling nervously. The crowd seems young — average age thirty — ordinary men in short-sleeved polo shirts with cowls of their contrada scarves, excited to a fever pitch. I can see TV cameras and the flat white caps of local policemen. But from an FBI point of view, the Campo is a security nightmare.<
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You have a ring of ancient, unreinforced structures filled with windows. An enclosed, bowl-like space with narrow exits and roofs galore, creating the potential for a catastrophic number of casualties. They predict that on the evening of the decisive race, on day four of Palio, over sixty thousand people will jam shoulder to shoulder in the center of the ring, totally transfixed by violent men riding unpredictable animals. Nobody will be looking up.
“I hope a well-trained military unit is minding the store,” I call back to Sofri. “Because this is an invitation to bad things happening.” “It is very emotional. There are always fights,” Sofri answers. “It is expected.” I join him in the kitchen for the coffee ritual. With the most sophisticated apparatusus in the world available to him — some of which he invented — Sofri prefers the classic two-cup stovetop espresso maker, which produces a crèma (the delicate layer of foam) that is almost sweet. He talks about balance of taste in the espresso liquor as if it were fine brandy. It would be an unforgivable transgression to dilute the essence with steamed milk.
“I have been working on a new coffee recipe,” Sofri says, pulling a plate from the refrigerator.
I hope it is not another species of wildlife rolled in coffee grounds. We escaped the coffee-roasted rabbit at the contrada dinner. This one I can handle: fresh dates covered with coffee cream made with egg yolks — sweet little bites to go with the espresso. Spearing seconds with a tiny fork, I ask if Sofri knows anything about a strange man who appeared outside Giovanni’s hospital room.
“What strange man?”
“He didn’t have any hands—” “Bleah! That’s terrible.” “—just weird old-fashioned wooden prostheses. He had a bodyguard who did everything for him. Well, hopefully not everything.” “You are making this up.”
“I swear.”
“You dreamt it, maybe.”
“No, it’s real.”
“Then why are you laughing?” he asks.
“I’m not laughing,” I say, quashing the smile reflex, which signifies deception. “It isn’t funny, not to have any hands.” “Of course not,” says Sofri, fussing with the gas flame, turning it up and then down. “It’s a sad situation for anyone.” “I thought you might know him.” “Me?”
“Nicoli knows him.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why. But we saw this man coming out of Giovanni’s room.” Sofri shrugs. “It’s a hospital. You are bound to see disturbing things,” he says, pouring thick, slightly licorice-scented liquor into two tiny cups. “The old man must have had the wrong room.” I never said the intruder was old. Now I am fairly certain that Sofri knows exactly who the Puppet is, and what he was doing at my nephew’s bedside.
A roar of exaltation goes up from the crowd, like the jubilant cry at the first strike in the first game of the World Series. We hurry from the kitchen to the windows. On the dignitary’s platform a man wearing an ascot is picking numbered balls from an urn and announcing the results over a microphone.
“That is the mayor of Siena. A horse has been assigned to Torre! Wait, let’s see …” Another cry, and Sofri slaps his knee with delight. “ Aha! Torre got a brenna.” “What is that?”
“A bad horse. Hear it? That is Oca shouting.” I see a mass of green and white contradaioli braying, “Beh! Beh!”
“What are they saying?”
“Torre got a sheep instead of a horse! Look — there’s the commissario of the police. He is a director of Torre. Cornuto!” he shouts gleefully.
The Commissario appears to be weeping and wiping his eyes.
“Is he crying?” “I told you. Emotions.”
The powerful commissario, who would go so far as to keep blood splatter evidence out of the police report in order to deny the attack on Giovanni, is crying?
“Ti faccio un culo così!” Sofri shouts deliriously out the window, making a ghetto move, fingers pointing down like pistols, which I guess means something like, “Die, asshole!” I don’t see what’s wrong with the poor horse of Torre, to be jeered at like a nerd on the schoolyard. All the horses look beautiful, with long delicate legs and lean hindquarters; mixed breeds with thoroughbred lineage who comport themselves like aristocracy, compared with the down-to-earth, spiritually attuned wild mustangs I saw on the terrorism case in Oregon. But when Oca’s horse is assigned — a gorgeous white one — Sofri reacts as if he has been pierced with a javelin. His hand slams his forehead and he drops dramatically to his knees — like just about everybody else down there in Oca, moaning and praying in a state of suicidal despair.
“What’s the matter? Did we get a bad horse?” “No,” he moans. “Worse! A good horse!” “What is bad about a good horse?” “If you lose with a good horse, it’s much worse than if you lose with a bad horse.” His cell phone rings and it turns out to be Cecilia, sharing this agonizing moment of having won the best horse in the Palio. After much crazed Italian back and forth, Sofri hangs up.
“She says everybody’s losing their minds!” He thrusts a pair of binoculars in my hand. “Look at the stand for dignitaries, and you will see your sister.” The torrential screaming of the crowd, the braying of horns and popping of unknown small explosions, maybe firecrackers, maybe guns, make it hard to hear the person next to you.
“Where?” I shout.
“In front of the Mangia Tower!” Panning the crowd, I find Cecilia and Nicosa standing on a platform with a group of officials at the foot of a square bell tower. The tower is several hundred feet high, tall enough to cast a shadow across the Campo to the fountain in the center, where Cecilia and I had stopped during a hot afternoon, on one of our first walks in the city, when we were still utter strangers. We sat on the edge in the cool mist, watching a pigeon drink from a braid of water pouring from the mouth of a she-wolf.
“This is historic.”
“It is called Fonte Gaia, the Fountain of Joy,” Cecilia said. I laughed. “No, I mean us. The first time we’re together.” “You’re not what I expected,” she admitted.
“In what way?”
“You’re easier to talk to. I was afraid you would be cold and buttoned-up, like they are in the FBI.” I smiled. “You’re different from what I expected, too. How can you live in high heels?” “My back hurts all the time.” “Why don’t you just take them off?” “I’m used to it. You have a boyfriend? Doesn’t he want you to dress up?” “Sure, but you look amazing just going to the market.” She liked that. “Can I ask you something?” She seemed almost shy. “Do you carry a gun?” “Yes.”
“Even if you’re not on duty?” I nodded. “It’s not required, but if you didn’t, that’s the one time something would happen, and you’d get in trouble because you didn’t have your weapon.” She eyed me suspiciously. “I hope you don’t have a gun right now.” “No worries, I left it home. I do have a boyfriend. I want you to see him.” I showed her the wallpaper on my cell phone, which is a photo of Sterling on a horse, all decked out in western gear, lassoing a calf. She looked shocked.
“Your boyfriend is a cowboy?” “In his spare time. That’s in Texas, where he’s from. That’s Wizzy.” “Wizzy?”
“The horse. My boyfriend’s name is Sterling.” She raised her eyebrows skeptically, and we both started laughing.
“Does this seem ridiculous?” I asked. “Like, if you’re American, of course you would date a cowboy?” “It might be fun to date a cowboy.” “Trust me.”
“Scusi.”
Her cell phone rang, and she answered with enthusiasm. A toddler ran in spirals in the middle of the Campo, trailing the white-and-black-striped flag of Istrice, the Porcupine. I found myself enthralled by the fountain, as if the sound had been turned up. The smell of damp stone took me back to winter rain outside my grandfather’s house, looking through the screen door and feeling oddly safe.
“I’m sorry,” said Cecilia, slipping the phone into her bag. “That was my husband’s business partner, Sofri.” “The scientist?”
“He’s more like the fami
ly adviser. The ‘secretary of state.’ I rely on him for everything. He’s very charming,” she confided. “A bachelor who loves the ladies. He’ll love you. Should we go?” “How are your feet?” I asked.
“Fine,” she sniffed. “There was never any problem.” Now, as I look through the binoculars, Sofri leans in close.
“Are you able to see Cecilia?” he asks.
“She’s right there. Near the tower.” “That tower has always reminded me of her,” he says thoughtfully.
“Why?”
“Do you think I am right? Does it resemble her?” I move the glasses along the graceful column of brick and examine the details of the white travertine belfry.
“It looks like a lily.”
He is delighted. “Your sister is a devoted Catholic. A believer to the core. I can see it, the white Easter lily,” he muses. “The resurrection. A wonderful analysis; she would like that.” “Why do you think it resembles Cecilia?” He takes a moment. “It stands alone,” he replies at last.
“It’s lonely?”
He shrugs. “Lonely, maybe, but look how it dominates the square.” “She’s not totally alone. Cecilia told me she depends on you.” “I love her like a daughter, but — you will see — it takes time to gain her trust.” “What do you think she wants from me?” I ask curiously.
“That’s a funny question. Wave!” he urges. “She knows we’re here.” I wave the Oca scarf, calling, “Cecilia! We’re up at Sofri’s. Look!” Even through the binoculars she is small and far away, the space between us large. She idly scans the buildings but doesn’t seem to pick us out in the mass of banners and faces in the windows. Eventually, she turns away.
FOURTEEN
Since the last time I saw Giovanni he looked like a corpse in a wax museum, it is a wonderful relief to find him sitting up in bed in the hospital. He is on painkillers, making him glassy-eyed and carefree.