IM2 The Terra-Cotta Dog (2002)

by Andrea Camilleri

  inside with his back to me, still holding the revolver in his hand.

  The old man, who until this point hadnt once looked up at the inspector, now stared him straight in the eye.

  In your opinion, do I have the face of a murderer?

  No, said Montalbano. And if youre referring to the man in the room with the gun in his hand, you can set your mind at rest. You acted out of necessity, in self-defense.

  Someone who kills a man is still someone who kills a man. The legal formulas come later. What counts is the will of the moment. And I wanted to kill that man, no matter what he had done to Lisetta and Mario. So I raised the rod and dealt him a blow to the nape of the neck with all my might, hoping to shatter his skull. He fell forward, revealing the scene on the bed. There were Mario and Lisetta, naked, clutching one another, in a sea of blood. They must have been making love when they were surprised by the bombs falling so close to the house, and then embraced each other like that out of fear. There was nothing more to be done for them. Something perhaps could still have been done for the man on the floor behind me, who was gasping his last.With a kick I turned him faceup. He was some flunky of Uncle Stefanos, a cheap thug. Systematically, with the iron bar, I began to beat his head to a pulp. And then I went crazy. I started running from room to room, singing. Have you ever killed anyone?

  Yes, unfortunately.

  You say unfortunately, which means you felt no satisfaction. What I felt was not so much satisfaction as joy. I felt

  happy; I sang, as I said. Then I collapsed in a chair, overwhelmed by the horror, horrified with myself. I hated myself. They had managed to turn me into a murderer, and I hadnt been able to resist. On the contrary, I was pleased to have done it. The blood inside me was infected, no matter how hard I might try to cleanse it with reason, education, culture, and whatever else you want. It was the blood of the Rizzitanos, of my grandfather and my father, of men the honest people in town preferred not to mention. Men like them, even worse than them. Then, in my delirium, a possible solution appeared. If Mario and Lisetta were to go on sleeping, then all this horror had never happened. It was a nightmare, a bad dream. And so...

  The old man couldnt go on. Montalbano was afraid he would pass out.

  Let me tell the rest. You took the two kids bodies, transported them to the cave, and set them up there.

  Yes, but thats easy to say. I had to carry them inside one by one. I was exhausted, and literally soaked with blood.

  The second cave, the one you put the bodies in, was it also used to store black-market goods?

  No. My father had closed up the entrance to it with a dry wall of stones. I removed the stones and later put them back in place when I was done. I used flashlights to help me see; we had quite a few at our country house. Now I had to find the symbols of sleep, the ones from the legend. The jug and the bowl with coins were easy enough, but what about the dog? Well, the previous Christmas in Vig

  I know the whole story, said Montalbano. When the dog was sold at auction, somebody in your family bought it.

  My father did. But since Mama didnt like it, we put it in a storeroom in the basement. I remembered it. When I had done everything and closed up the cave with the great hinged boulder, it was pitch-dark out and I felt almost at peace. Lisetta and Mario really were asleep. Nothing had happened. And so the corpse I found upstairs on my return no longer frightened me. It didnt exist; it was the fruit of my war- ravaged imagination. Then utter pandemonium broke out. The house began to shake from bombs exploding just a few yards away, but I couldnt hear any airplanes. They were shelling from the ships at sea. I raced outside, afraid I might get buried under the rubble if the house were hit. On the horizon it looked as if day were breaking. What was all that light? I wondered. Suddenly, behind me the house exploded, literally, and I was struck in the head with a piece of debris and passed out. When I reopened my eyes, the light on the horizon was even brighter, and I could hear a continuous, distant rumble. I managed to drag myself to the road and started waving and gesturing, but none of the passing vehicles would stop. They were all fleeing. I was in danger of being run over by a truck. Finally, one stopped, and an Italian soldier hoisted me aboard. From what they were saying, I gathered that the American invasion had begun. I begged them to take me with them, wherever they were going. And they did. What happened to me after that I doubt is of any interest to you. Im very tired.

  Would you like to lie down awhile?

  Montalbano had to carry him bodily, then helped him to undress.

  Please forgive me, he said, for awakening the sleepers and bringing you back to reality.

  It had to happen.

  Your friend Burgio, who was a big help to me, would love to see you again.

  No, not me. And if you have no objection, you should act as if I never came.

  No, of course not, Ive no objection.

  Do you want anything else from me?

  Nothing. Only to say that Im deeply grateful to you for answering my call.

  They had nothing more to say to each other. The old man looked at his watch so closely he appeared to be sticking it in his eye.

  Lets do this. Let me sleep for an hour or so, then wake me up, call me a taxi, and Ill go back to Punta Ri.

  Montalbano drew the shades over the window and headed for the door.

  Just a minute, Inspector.

  From the wallet he had laid on the night table the old man took out a photograph and handed it to Montalbano.

  This is my youngest granddaughter, seventeen years old. Her names Lisetta.

  Montalbano went over to a shaft of light. Except for the jeans she was wearing and the motor scooter she was leaning

  against, this Lisetta was identical to the other, a perfect likeness. He handed the photo back to Rizzitano.

  Excuse me again, but could you bring me another glass of water?

  Seated on the veranda, Montalbano answered the questions his policemans mind was asking. The assassins body, assuming theyd found it under the rubble, certainly could never have been identified. Lillos parents had either believed that those remains belonged to their son, or that, according to the peasants story, hed been picked up by the soldiers as he was dying. And since they never heard from him again, he must surely have died somewhere. For Stefano Moscato, however, those remains belonged to his triggerman, who after finishing his workthat is, after killing Lisetta, Mario, and Lillo and disposing of their bodieshad returned to the house to steal a few things but was crushed under the bombs. Assured that Lisetta was dead, he had come out with the story of the American soldier. But a relative of his from Serradifalco, when he came to Vig, had refused to believe it and severed relations with him. The photomontage recalled to mind the photograph the old man had shown him. Montalbano smiled. Elective affinities were a clumsy game compared to the unfathomable convolutions of the blood, which could give weight, form, and breath to memory. He glanced at his watch and gave a start. Well over an hour had passed. He went into the bedroom. The old man was enjoying a peaceful sleep, his

  breathing untroubled, his expression calm and relaxed. He was traveling through the land of dreams, no longer burdened with baggage. He could sleep a long time, since he had a wallet with money and a glass of water on the night table. Montalbano remembered the stuffed dog hed bought for Livia in Pantelleria. He found it on top of the dresser, hidden behind a box. He put it on the floor, at the foot of the bed, then closed the door softly behind him.

  AUTHORS NOTE

  The idea for writing this story came to me when, as a courtesy to two Egyptian student stage directors, we studied The People of the Cave, by Taufik al-Hakim, in a class of mine.

  It seems therefore appropriate to dedicate this book to my students at the Silvio dAmico National Academy of the Dramatic Arts, where I have been teaching stage direction for over twenty-three years.

  It is boring to repeat, with each new published book, that the events, characters, and situations are purely fictional. Still, it is neces
sary. So while Im at it, I would like to add that the names of my characters come to me by virtue of their amusing assonances, with no malice intended.

  NOTES

  3 four large Saracen olive trees: Very ancient olive trees with gnarled trunks, tangling branches, and very long roots. The name suggests that they date from the time of the Arab conquest of Sicily, which began in earnest in the late ninth century, after more than a century of isolated raids, and lasted until the Norman conquest, which began in 1060.

  18 a man of honor: An epithet that stands for mafioso, used mostly by the mafiosi themselves. Tano the Greeks regret for the decline of honor among them is a common refrain among mobsters of the older generation, such as the repentant Tommaso Buscetta.

  21 to speak in what he called Talian: Many uneducated Sicilians, even in this day of mass media and standardized speech, can only speak the local dialect and tend to struggle with proper Italian. Oftentimes what comes out when they attempt to use the national language is a linguistic jumble that is neither fish nor fowl. In such speech the first syllable of the word italiano is often dropped to taliano, especially when the preceding word ends in a vowel, as in parlare taliano.

  23 notify the carabinieri: The Italian carabinieri are a national police force, bureaucratically separate from local police forces and actually a branch of the military.

  23 like Im running a chicken farm here: Gallo and Galluzzo both mean rooster, the second being a diminutive of the first.

  32 they think omerts on the decline: Omerts the traditional Sicilian law of silence, in force particularly among members of the Mafia.

  34 madunnuzza biniditta!: Blesslittle Madonna! (Sicilian dialect).

  35 caught in the net, the chamber of death: A reference to traditional Sicilian tuna- and sword-fishing and the mattanza, when the fish are slaughtered. Schools of the fish are caught in nets which are then gradually closed until the space holding them, the cammara della morte, becomes very small, like a death chamber.

  40 the testimony of Cavaliere Misuraca: The honorific title of cavaliere, bestowed on members of various orders of knighthood (e.g., Cavaliere di Malta, Cavaliere della Repubblica) and often awarded in the modern age to successful men in different areas of business and industry (such as il cavaliere Silvio Berlusconi), was given out wholesale during the Fascist period. Cavaliere Misuraca, as the unfolding episode implies, was probably a beneficiary of this Fascist largesse or earned his title for his efforts in war.

  43 government was red, black, or sky blue: Red refers to the Communist and Socialist parties, black to the Fascist (or now Post- Fascist) Party, sky blue to the now-defunct Christian Democratic Party.

  48 the repubblichini? These were the members and supporters of the so-called Republic of Salhe puppet government instituted in 1943 under the Nazi occupation in the North Italian town of the same name, after German parachutists boldly snatched Mussolini away from the anti-Fascist partisans who had captured him. The government was made up of die-hard Fascists under the recently deposed and now resurrected Duce.

  49 the first Fascist militias: These were the fasci di combattimento,an association of private militias that engaged in strike-breaking, street violence, and other forms of political action and intimidation. The Fascist movement was born from these groups.

  52 Asinara: A high-security prison on the island of the same name.

  58 ca e simenza: A mix of roasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds; sometimes peanuts are added.

  76 Il Mezzogiorno: This is an actual newspaper. Its name means The South (or, literally, Midday).

  78 Essere Donna: The magazine is purely fictional; its name means To Be a Woman.

  106 a traitor or repenter: In Italy, Mafia turncoats who turn states witness are called pentiti, or repenters.

  122 Ll di mort, alegher! Its the Day of the Dead, oh joy! (Milanese dialect). Delio Tessa (18861939) is a well-known Milanese dialect poet. The Day of the Dead, November 2, is commonly called All Souls Day in English.

  125 Customs Police: This is the Guardia di Finanza, a police force subordinate to the Ministry of Finance and responsible for overseeing customs, state monopolies, and taxes. Their duties include serving as the national coast guard.

  138 pasta ncasciata: A casserole of pasta cortathat is, elbow macaroni, penne, ziti, mezzi ziti, or something similartomato sauce, ground beef, Parmesan cheese, and bechamel.

  138 Give land to those who work!: In Italian, La terra a chi lavora! This was the rallying cry of the land-reform movement that, in the late 1940s, demanded the break-up of the large landed estates, much of whose vast territories (latifondi) lay fallow while the peasantry went hungry.

  159 ten thousand lire: About $6.50.

  159 podest The head of the municipal government, equivalent to the mayor, in the Fascist period. It was an appointed, not elected, office.

  168 Sex standing up...to a bad end: Fi addritta e caminari na rina / portanu lomu a la ruvina (Sicilian proverb).

  170 National Police: The carabinieri.

  170 outstanding corpse: The term cadavere eccellente is Italian jargon for the dead body of an important personage, especially when the death has occurred in shady circumstances.

  171 Falcone and Borsellino! Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were prominent investigating magistrates in the struggle against the Mafia in Sicily, both murdered by the mob in 1992.

  177 Epiphany of 43: In Italy the Christmas holiday lasts until the first day after the Epiphany ( January 6).

  178 Gentile: Giovanni Gentile (18751944) was a prominent Italian philosopher and politician of Sicilian birth (Castelvetrano, province of Trapani), author of many important works of philosophy from the turn of the century onwards and editor and organizer of the Enciclopedia Italiana (19251943). As minister of education under the Fascist government from 1922 to 1924, he instituted sweeping reforms of the national educational system; as president of two commissions for the reform of the Italian constitution, he also contributed to laying the institutional foundations of the Fascist corporate state in 1925. Though his political influence steadily declined thereafter, he remained loyal to the regime until the bitter end, even serving as president of the Accademia dItalia under the Nazi collaborationist Republic of Salstablished after the armistice of September 8, 1943. He was killed by anti-Fascist partisans in Florence on April 15, 1944.

  178 lyceums: The Italian word is liceo (sing.), which, like the French lyc harks back to the ancient Greek Lykeion, the Gymnasium near Athens where Aristotle taught.

  197 fresh anchovies allagretto: Baked in a sauce of lemon juice.

  211 half a million lire: About $650 at the time of the novels publication in 1996.

  227 La Vuccir The large, old market district in Palermo.

  228 ma: Calf s spleen sliced into thin strips and cooked in fat.

  230 Giovani Italiane: This was the compulsory Fascist youth organization (the Young Italians) for adolescents aged sixteen and seventeen. The groups for younger children were the Figli della Lupa (Children of the She-Wolf ) and the Balilla (named after the boy who incited the Genoese to rebel against the Austrian occupation in 1746). The girls uniform of the Giovani Italiane consisted of a black pleated skirt, a white blouse with an m (for Mussolini) on the front, and a black beret.

  252 forty thousand lire: About $25 at the time.

  265 pasta al forno: A casserole of pasta and a variety of other ingredients that may include meat, eggs, vegetables, tomato, or cream sauces, and so on. It is a typically southern Italian dish.

  274 sacred area of the Phoenicians: Early Phoenician settlements existed in coastal Sicily and its surrounding islands before the Greek era. The most important Phoenician centers were Panormos (modern Palermo), Soloeis, and Motya (modern Mozia). Later Carthaginian settlement (fifth and fourth centuries b.c.) in the southern and western regions of the island reinforced this Sicilian link to Phoenician civilization, opposing these regions to the Greek culture fast gaining prominence in much of the rest of the island. Follo
wing the Punic Wars, when Rome defeated Carthage, all of Sicily became Roman (after 210 b.c.). In the Middle Ages, the Arab

  rule of the island from the late ninth to the mid-eleventh century again revived Sicilys historic links to the cultures of North Africa and the Middle East.

  281 pasta con le sarde, and purpi alla carrettera: Pasta con le sarde is a classic Sicilian dish served usually with bucatini, broad spaghetti-like strings that are hollow in the middle. The sauce consists of fresh sardines, tops of wild fennel, pine nuts, raisins, garlic, and saffron. Purpi alla carrettera is octopus served in a sauce of olive oil, lemon, and a great deal of hot pepper.

  298 ten million lire: About $6,500.

  304 RAI regional news: The RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) is the government-owned national television network, which also has regional news broadcasts.

  308 Fininvest, Ansa: Fininvest is the financial and media conglomerate owned by Silvio Berlusconi; Ansa is an acronym for Azienda Nazionale Stampa Associata, the national news agency.