Free Angelica's Smile by Andrea Camilleri

yourself.”
    She removed her hands from his lapels, let them wander up to his shoulders, then folded them behind his neck.
    From this position, her lips were dangerously close to his.
    The more he seeks to find a lasting peace,
    The more he finds just suffering and pain
.
    “If anyone found out about this room, you see, I would be ruined, you understand. I’ve been sincere with you. I realized at once that I could trust you . . . But if word were ever to get out, there would certainly be repercussions at the office. I might even get fired . . . Oh, please! I would be so grateful!”
    Montalbano quickly freed himself, unlinking her hands and taking a step back.
    “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll see you later.”
    He practically ran away.
    He was all sweaty and felt as numb as if he had drunk half a bottle of whisky.
    He told the whole story to Fazio. Naturally, he said nothing about how he himself had felt about Angelica.
    “Let’s take one thing at a time, Chief. Let’s start with the burglary of the love nest.”
    For whatever reason, Fazio’s choice of terms bothered him.
    “Do you have any idea why they leave behind the special tools they use to break into people’s apartments?” Fazio continued.
    “The telescoping poles? I’ve been thinking a lot about that. These guys don’t do anything without a reason. First of all, it’s a sort of bank shot that keeps being repeated in exactly the same way.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I’ll explain. The robbery always takes place in two phases. First they go into a house, a bedroom, wherever you like, when the owner is asleep inside. And they do this because they need the keys to the other residence, the apartment in town. And so they bank the shot off rail A so that the ball will come back and hit rail B. Is that any clearer?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “This is how I realized that the burglary of Incardona’s country house was a red herring. It didn’t correspond with their modus operandi.”
    “And what about the tools?”
    “I was getting to that. Leaving them at the scene of the crime means two things. It must be an idea of the mastermind’s. One the one hand, it means that they won’t be returning to that place, and on the other, it’s a way for the leader to tell us that he’s got other tricks up his sleeve. That he can always come up with other ways of getting his hands on a set of keys. The same as leaving the keys in the entrance hall of the burgled apartments. He’s saying: ‘We don’t need these any more.’ Make sense to you?”
    “Makes sense to me. But what do you think about the fact that Signora Cosulich doesn’t want us to say anything about her love nest?”
    “I’m of two minds about that. On the one hand, I’d like to do her that favor, and other hand, I’m afraid the guy she was with . . .”
    “There’s a remedy for that,” said Fazio. “When Signora Cosulich comes in to file her report, I’ll ask her what the guy’s name was, and then I’ll go and talk to him. I’ll convince him to be as quiet as a fish.”
    “But he’s not the only problem.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean that the fact that we’ve filed a report that doesn’t correspond with reality will also be known by the brains of the gang, whom we’ll call Mr. Z. And he could use this illegal omission against us at any time.”
    “That’s to be expected,” said Fazio. “But as you yourself pointed out, Mr. Z is a pretentious man.”
    “So?”
    “Maybe such an omission will bother him and he’ll make a false move. What do you think?”
    Montalbano didn’t answer.
    “Chief, did you hear me?”
    Montalbano was staring at the wall in front of him. Fazio got worried.
    “You feeling all right, Chief?”

7
    Montalbano shot to his feet and slapped himself in the forehead.
    “What an idiot I am! You’re right. We’ll write up the report the way La Cosulich wants. But you must do something for me right away.”
    “What?”
    “Take