The Patience of the Spider (24 page)

Did you say...hope?

Yes. The hope that a great capacity for hatred might turn
into a great capacity for love.

From the bench where the girl was sitting he heard a kind
of sob, which was immediately stifled. He lit a cigarette and
saw, by the lighters glow, that his hand was trembling slightly.

Want one? he asked the doctor.

I said no.

They were firm in their resolutions, these Mistrettas. So
much the better.

I know there was no kidnapping. That evening, you, Susanna,
took a different road home, a little-used dirt road, where
your uncle was waiting for you in his SUV. You left your motorbike
there, got in the car, and crouched down in back. And
your uncle drove off to his villa. There, in the building next to
the doctors villa, everything had been prepared some time

before: a bed, provisions, and so on. The cleaning woman had
no reason whatsoever to set foot in there. Who would ever
have thought of looking for the kidnap victim at her uncles
house? And that was where you recorded the messages. Among
other things, you, Doctor, in your disguised voice, spoke of billions.
Its hard for people over a certain age to get used to
thinking in euros. That was also where you shot your Polaroids,
on the back of which you wrote some words, trying
your best to make your handwriting legible, since, like all doctors
handwriting, yours is indecipherable. Ive never been inside
that building, Doctor, but I can say for certain that you had
a new telephone extension installed

How can you say that? asked Carlo Mistretta.

I know because the two of you came up with a truly brilliant
idea for averting suspicion. You seized an opportunity on
the fly. After learning that I was coming to the villa, Susanna
called in the second recorded message, the one specifying the
ransom amount, as I was speaking with you. But I heard, without
understanding at first, the sound a phone makes when the
receiver on an extension is picked up. Anyway, it wouldnt be
hard to get confirmation. All I need to do is call the phone
company. And that could constitute evidence, Doctor. Shall I
go on?

Yes.

It was Susanna whod answered.

I also know, because you told me yourself, Doctor, that
there is an old winepress in that building. Thus there must be
an adjacent space with the vat for the fermentation of the
must. I am willing to bet that this room has a window. Which
you, Doctor, opened when you took the snapshot, since it was

daytime. You also used a mechanics lamp to better illuminate
the inside of the vat. But theres one detail you neglected in
this otherwise elaborate, convincing production.

A detail?

Yes, Doctor. In the photograph, right below the edge of
the vat, theres what appears to be a crack. I had that detail enlarged.
Its not a crack.

What is it?

The inspector could feel that Susanna had been about to
ask the same question. They still couldnt figure out where
theyd made a mistake. He sensed the motion of the doctors
head as it turned toward Susanna, the questioning look in his
eyes, even though these things were not visible.

Its an old fermentation thermometer. Unrecognizable,
covered with spiderwebs, blackened, and so encrusted into the
wall that it looks like its part of it. And therefore you couldnt
see it. But its still there. And this is the conclusive proof. I
need only get up, go inside, pick up the phone, have two of
my men come and stand guard over you, call the judge for the
warrant, and begin searching your villa, Doctor.

It would be a big step forward for your career, Mistretta
said mockingly.

Once again, youre entirely wrong. My career has no
more steps to take, neither forward nor backward. What Im
trying to do is not for you, Doctor.

Are you doing it for me?

Susanna sounded astonished.

Yes, for you. Because Ive been spellbound by the quality, the intensity,
the purity of your hatred. I am fascinated by the fiendish nature
of the thoughts that come into your head, by the coldness and

courage and patience with which you carried out your intentions, by
the way you calculated the price you had to pay and were ready to pay
it. And Im also doing it for myself, because its not right that theres
always someone who suffers and someone who benefits from the
others suffering, with the approval of the so-called law. Can a man,
having reached the end of his career, rebel against a state of things he
himself has helped to maintain?

Since the inspector wasnt answering, the girl said something
that wasnt even a question.

The nurse told me you wanted to see Mama.

I wanted to see her, yes.To see her in bed, wasted away, no longer
a body but almost a thing, yet something that groaned, that suffered
horribly...Though I didnt realize it at the time, I wanted to see
where your hatred had first taken root and grown uncontrollably with
the stench of medications, excrement, sweat, sickness, vomit, pus, and
gangrene that had devastated the heart of that thing lying in bed.The
hatred with which you infected those close to you...But not your
fatherno, your father never knew a thing, never knew that it was all
a sham...He anguished terribly over what he believed was a real
kidnapping...But this, too, was a price you were willing to pay, and
to have others pay, because true hatred, like love, doesnt balk at the
despair and tears of the innocent.

I wanted to understand.

It began to thunder out at sea. The lightning was far away,
but the rain was approaching.

Because the idea of taking revenge on your uncle was
first born in that room, on one of those terrible nights you
spent taking care of your mother. Isnt that so, Susanna? At
first it seemed like an effect of your fatigue, your discouragement,
your despair, but soon it became harder and harder to

get that idea out of your head. And so, almost as a way to kill
time, you started thinking of how you might make your obsession
a reality. You drew up a plan, night after night. And
you asked your uncle to help you, because . . .

Stop.You cant say that. It just came to you now, this very mo-
ment.You need to think it over before

Say it, the doctor said softly but firmly. Because Susanna
realized that I had always been in love with Giulia. It
was a love without hope, but it prevented me from having a
life of my own.

And therefore you, Doctor, on impulse, you decided to
collaborate on the destruction of Antonio Peruzzos reputation.
By manipulating public opinion to perfection. The coup
de gr came when you replaced the money-filled suitcase
with the duffel full of scrap paper.

It began to drizzle. Montalbano stood up.

Before leaving, to set my conscience at rest . . .

His voice came out too solemnly, but he was unable to
change it.

To set my conscience at rest, I cannot allow those six billion
lire to remain in

In our hands? Susanna finished his sentence. The
money is no longer here. We didnt even keep the money that
was lent by Mama and never given back. Uncle Carlo took
care of it, with the help of a client of his, who will never talk.
It was divided up, and by now most of it has already been
transferred abroad. Its supposed to be sent anonymously to
about fifty different humanitarian organizations. If you want,
I can go in the house and get the list.

Fine, said the inspector. Im leaving.

He indistinctly saw the doctor and the girl stand up as
well.

Are you coming to the funeral tomorrow? asked Susanna.
I would really like

No, said the inspector. My only wish is that you, Susanna,
do not betray my hope.

He realized he was talking like an old man, but this time
he didnt give a damn.

Good luck, he said in a soft voice.

He turned his back to them, went out to his car, opened
the door, turned on the ignition, and drove, but had to stop almost
at once in front of the closed gate. He saw the girl come
running under the now driving rain, her hair seeming to light
up like fire when caught in the glare of the headlights. She
opened the gate without turning around to look at him. And
he, too, looked away.

On the road back to Marinella, the rain started falling in
buckets. At a certain point he had to pull over because the
windshield wipers couldnt handle it. Then it stopped all at
once. Entering the dining room, he realized hed left the
French door to the veranda open, and the floor had got all
wet. He would have to mop it up. He turned on the outdoor
light and went outside. The violent rainstorm had washed
away the spiderweb. The shrubs branches were sparkling
clean and dripping wet.

AUTHORS NOTE

This story is invented from top to bottom, at least I hope it is.

Therefore the names of the characters and business, and
the situations and events of the book, have no connection to
reality.

If anyone should find some reference to real events, I can
assure you this was not intentional.

A. C.

NOTES

5 he couldnt bring himself to go see the notary: In Italy a
notary (notaio) performs functions of probate and contract law, among
other things.

7 The poor man, not knowing how much hed bled, / kept
on fighting when in fact he was dead: Il poveruom, che non se
nera accorto,/ andava combattendo ed era morto. Two lines from a traditional
Italian song.

16 a triumphant member of the party in power: I.e., the party
called Forza Italia, the right-wing political entity created by media tycoon
Silvio Berlusconi, who was still in power when this book was written.

19 Go see if it was the traffic police!: In Italy the jurisdiction
of the Vigili Urbani (the municipal police), which includes the traffic
police, is separate from that of the Commissariato di Pubblico Sicurezza
(Commissariat of Public Safety), the branch of the police for which
Montalbano works. The Carabinieri (the national police), the Guardia di
Finanza (here translated as Customs police), and the Polizia Stradale (or
road police) also have separate jurisdictions, which often leads to petty
rivalries and bureaucratic confusion.

32 Matre santa!: Holy mother! A Sicilian invocation of the Blessed
Virgin.

38 will be handled by Inspector Minutolo, who, being a
Calabrian . . .What? Minutolo was from Alin Messina

province: Messina is in Sicily, not Calabria. The region of Calabria,
across the Strait of Messina from Sicily, is notorious for its kidnappings.

38-39 that would make him the Po, whereas I would be
the Dora, the Riparia or the Baltea...: The Po is a major
river in the north of Italy, of which the Dora, Riparia, and Baltea are
tributaries.

39 the Valley of the Temples: Probably the finest group of Ancient
Greek ruins in Sicily (and there are many), the Valley of the Temples
is just outside of Agrigento, the city on which the fictional
Montelusa is based.

39 The number you have reached does not exist: The recorded
response for nonworking numbers in Italy indeed says Il numero selezionato
da lei nesistente.

61 cornuto: Italian for cuckold, cornuto is a common insult throughout
the country, but a special favorite among southerners, Sicilians in
particular.

78 the private television station where Nicolto worked:

In Italy there are three state-owned television stations, Rai Uno, Rai
Due, Rai Tre and their local subsidiaries, and countless private stations.

82 a cacocciola: Sicilian expression used to denote the interrogative
gesture, common throughout Italy, where one holds the hand palm-up,
fingertips and thumb gathered together and pointing upward, and
shakes it lightly. Cacocciola is Sicilian for artichoke (carciofo in Italian).

85 Totd Peppino: Tots the stage and screen name of Antonio
de Curtis (18981967), perhaps the most celebrated comic actor of the
twentieth century in Italy. Also a poet and writer of Neapolitan songs,
he was born a marquis and later granted a whole series of noble titles,
including Count Palatine, Exarch of Ravenna, Duke of Macedonia and
Illyria, and Prince of Constantinople. He was known affectionately as
the Principe della Risata, or the Prince of laughter. Peppino de Filippo

(19031980) was a Naples-born comic actor of the screen and stage
and brother of comic playwright and actor Eduardo de Filippo. He
teamed up with Tot the early 1950s on a series of madcap comic
films that became wildly popular.

91 spaghetti allaglio e olio: That is, with garlic and oil, and usually
a bit of hot pepper and parsley. Because its considered a light dish,
spaghetti allaglio e olio is often served to people who arent feeling well.

91 aiole: Aiola is the Sicilian name for a kind of sea-bream (Pagellus
mormyrus or Lithognathus mormyrus) common to Sicilian waters. In Italian
its called mormora.

99 Madonna biniditta!: Blessed Virgin! (Sicilian dialect).

103 hes liable to have us searching all the way to the Aspromonte:
The Aspromonte (literally, harsh mountain) is in Calabria,
the last stretch of the so-called Calabrian Alps, which are a
continuation of the Apennine chain that runs down the Italian peninsula.
Augellos quip is predicated on the commissioners confusion of
parts of Sicily with Calabria (see note to page).

114 that class of shopkeepers who think a thousand lires
the same as a euro: To the great dismay of many consumers, when
the Italian currency was changed from the lira to the euro in 2002,
many shops, restaurants, and other small businesses began charging a
whole euro for what had previously cost one thousand lire, which in
fact was equivalent to barely more than half a euro. Thus a hotel room
that had previously cost 100,000 lire (about $50) now cost 100 euros
(about $100, at the time of the conversion), and a plate of pasta that had
gone for 12,000 (about $6) suddenly went for 12 euros. By merely
moving the decimal point over three places on their prices, many businesses
ended up charging their customers twice as much as before.