Cosi Fan Tutti

XIX

'It worked, didn't it?'

'Oh, sure! If you'd held her feet over the gas burner, that would have worked too. Jesus!'

'The woman was obviously frightened/ "I don't blame her, with some maniac holding a gun to her son's head!'

'For Christ's sake, Gesua! I mean she was frightened of talking, frightened of getting involved. So I gave her something to be even more frightened of, and it worked. As for the kid, he never even knew what was happening. He thought it was all a big game.'

Gesualdo shook his head and said nothing.

'Anyway, since when have you been so particular about the methods we use?' demanded Sabatino. 'We shouldn't be driving around in this goddamn Jaguar, for a start-off.

It's about as conspicuous as a carnival float, and we now know that it's hot as well. The last thing we want is someone tying us into the Vallifuoco hit/ 'On the contrary, that's exactly what we want.'

Sabatino shrugged and stared out of the window.

'She said it was a refuse truck, right?' he said at length.

'What?'

'The vehicle that rammed them from behind before Don Ermanno got a chance to do the same or worse to her.

They did a nice job fixing the damage, by the way/ 'Lorenzo only hires the best. He has to, given his clients and turn-around times. Anyway, what about the truck?'

'Two things. First off, what the hell was a city garbage crew doing around there at that time of night? Those guys knock off strictly at six, even assuming they bother to show up for work at all.'

Gesualdo considered this in silence.

'And the second thing?' "That shooting last night on Via Duomo/ said Sabatino.

'We damn nearly got caught up in that ourselves, you know. Talk about luck. We must have passed the spot just before it happened. Anyway, that was a refuse truck too.'

'So?'

'So, what's this new terrorist group calling itself?'

Gesualdo snapped his fingers.

'"Clean Streets". Christ, I think we may be on to something!'

He frowned.

'But we won't be the only ones. The police are bound to make the same connection. It's just too obvious.'

'It is just too obvious/ murmured Sabatino. "I wonder why.'

Gesualdo didn't seem to hear.

'And meanwhile/ he said, bringing the car to a halt at the top of the Scalini del Petraio, 'instead of following this thing up and grabbing a piece of the action while we can, we have to drop everything to go and hold Dario's hand.

Jesus!'

Sabatino sighed and got out of the car.

'You were the one who took the call, Gesua. If it'd been me, I'd have told him to look after his own problems.'

'He sounded so desperate. Said it was a matter of life and death/ * If he's pissing us about, it will be. His.'

They ran down the steps three at a time, through the little square where a boy was chasing a chicken which had escaped from its wire enclosure, and on down the final precipitous alley to their temporary home. Dario De Spino was standing at the door, rubbing his hands anxiously.

'Thank God you're here!' he blurted out. 'They're threatening to kill themselves! I would have called the cops, but I didn't think you'd want them snooping around. Besides, their papers aren't in order and I don't want to make matters worse.'

'Who?' demanded Gesualdo.

'Why, your new neighbours on the first floor, of course!'

Sabatino blasphemed loudly.

'You dragged us all the way over here for that? Let them kill themselves, if that's what they want.'

'Of course they won't kill themselves!' snapped Gesualdo.

'That's all talk. Your problem, Dario, is you don't understand women.'

'Certainly not these ones,' De Spino replied with a touch of pique. 'Albanians aren't flexible like us. Everything's gloom and doom, blood and guts. They scare the hell out of me, to tell you the truth.'

'That's your problem,' returned Sabatino. 'You're the one who decided to take them under your protection. If they've gone hysterical, you deal with it. It's got nothing to do with us.'

De Spino shook his head pityingly.

'You're trying to ingratiate yourself with the Squillace family by keeping an eye on the property, right? Well, how do you think it's going to look if two illegal immigrants top themselves in the place on your shift, eh?'

Gesualdo pushed impatiently past.

'Well, since we've come all this way, we may as well take a look/ He led the way upstairs and knocked on the door of the lower apartment. There was no reply. He tried the handle, but the door was locked. Sabatino leant out of the window at the end of the landing. A narrow ledge ran from this to a balcony outside the rear bedroom. With the air of someone to whom such feats are part of the job, he climbed out of the window and stepped out along the ledge, pulled himself over to the balcony and looked in through the window.

'Holy Christ!'

'What is it?' demanded Gesualdo. 'Break the door down!' Sabatino yelled urgently, clambering back in through the window.

They put their shoulders to it, and when that didn't work Gesualdo pulled his pistol and shot the lock off.

Then he kicked the door open, ran across the room and threw open the door to the bedroom. Libera and Iolanda were lying stretched out on the floor, each grasping a length of wire bared at one end and plugged into a wall socket at the other. Their eyes were closed and their mouths agape, tongues extended.

Gesualdo circled the bodies cautiously and unplugged the lengths of wire from the wall. The other end was still grasped tightly in the victims' fingers. He pried these open, revealing extensive blackening. Meanwhile Sabatino was feeling for a pulse.

'This one's alive!' he said, bending over Libera.

Gesualdo put his hand on Iolanda's bosom, then leant down and proceeded to administer the kiss of life.

Sabatino did likewise with Libera. After a long interval, the victims began to show feeble signs of animation. The two men immediately redoubled their efforts, squatting astride the women's supine bodies and pumping their chests vigorously.

Dario De Spino, all this while, had been looking on from the doorway. He appeared to be holding his breath, for some reason, as a result of which his face had turned bright red.