Free The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri

surprise.
    6
    You thought of it, too?
    Me? Well, when I arrived at the scene, my men had already
been there for a while. And when Susannas father told
them she always wore a helmet, they looked for it everywhere,
not only along the road but also in the fields beyond the
walls.
    I just cant imagine the kidnappers forcing Susanna in the
car with her struggling and screaming with her helmet on.
    Me neither, as far as that goes.
    But do you really have no idea how things went? asked
Francesco, torn between incredulity and hope.
    The kids of today! thought the inspector. They put their faith
in us so readily, and we do everything we can to disappoint them!
    To prevent Francesco from seeing his emotion (but was
this not perhaps a first sign of senility and not an effect of his
injury?), he bent down to look at some papers inside a drawer.
He didnt answer until he was sure he could speak in a steady
voice.
    There are still too many things we cant explain. The
first is: Why did Susanna take a road shed never taken before
to come home?
    Maybe theres somebody around there
    Nobody knows her. And nobody even saw her pass by
on her motorbike. Of course its possible one of thems not
telling the truth. In that case, the person not telling the truth
is an accessory to the kidnapping, maybe only as a coordinator.
Maybe he was the only one who knew that on that specific
day, at that specific hour, Susanna would come driving
down that road. Do you follow?
    Yes.
    But if Susanna took that road for no particular reason,
then the kidnapping must have resulted from an entirely
chance encounter. But that cant be how it went.
    Why not?
    Because the kidnappers are showing that they planned
the job in advance and are therefore at least minimally organized.
We know from the phone call that this was not a rush
job. They seem in no hurry to get rid of Susanna. This means
theyre keeping her in a safe place. And its unlikely they
found such a place in a matter of hours.
    The young man said nothing. He was concentrating so
hard on the words he was hearing that the inspector thought
he could hear the gears churning in his brain. Francesco then
drew his conclusion.
    According to your reasoning, Susanna was very probably
kidnapped by someone who knew she was going to take the
dirt road that evening. Someone who lives around there. In
that case we need to get to the bottom of this, find out every-
bodys name, verify that
    Stop. If youre going to start calculating and forming hypotheses,
you must also be able to anticipate failure.
    I dont understand.
    Ill explain. Lets assume we conduct a careful investigation
of all those who live on that road. We come to know
every detail of their lives, down to the number of hairs on
their asses, and in the end we learn that there was never any
contact whatsoever between Susanna and any of them. Nothing
at all. What do you do then? Start over from the top? Give
up? Shoot yourself?
    The kid didnt let up.
    Well, what do you think one should do?
    Formulate and test other hypotheses at the same time,
letting them all play out simultaneously, without giving preference
to any single one, even if it appears to be the most
likely to prove true.
    And have you formed any others?
    Of course.
    Could you tell me one?
    If itll make you feel better...Okay, Susannas on that
dirt road because someone told her to meet him or her in that
very place, because theres never anyone around . . .
    Thats not possible.
    Whats not possible? That Susanna might have had such
an appointment? Can you really be so certain? Im not saying,
mind you, that it was some sort of amorous rendezvous.
Maybe she was meeting someone for reasons we dont know.
So she goes to this appointment unaware that shes walking
into a trap. When she arrives, she parks the motorbike, removes
her helmet, but keeps it in her hand, knowing that the
meeting is supposed to be brief. Then