A Voice in the Night by Andrea Camilleri Page B

finds the burglar there waiting for him. And he has no reason not to trust him. He may even have accepted his offer for a ride. And so
he’s fucked.’
    ‘Poor guy,’ was Montalbano’s only comment.
    After a moment of silence, Fazio spoke up: ‘To conclude, if things are the way we think they are, this burglary has led to a murder and a suicide.’
    ‘Two murders.’
    Fazio stopped and stared at the inspector for a moment, speechless and open-mouthed. Then he got it.
    ‘The manager!’
    ‘Exactly.’
    The inspector then told him everything he’d learned from Pasquano.
    ‘There’s something about this whole thing that doesn’t convince me,’ Fazio said at the end.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I think the total amount of money stolen from the supermarket comes to under twenty thousand euros.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Isn’t that a little skimpy to justify two murders?’
    ‘What are you saying? Let me remind you first of all that people nowadays will kill just to snatch five hundred euros from a pensioner’s hands. And secondly, don’t forget that
if it had been any other supermarket that had been robbed, I would certainly agree with you. But robbing the Cuffaros is another matter. If they catch you, you’re dead, there’s no
getting around it.’
    ‘That’s true.’
    Montalbano had an idea. But he didn’t want to tell Fazio about it right away. He thought it over first, then made up his mind.
    ‘Listen, tell me something: is the supermarket still closed?’
    ‘Yes, until the day after tomorrow.’
    ‘Do you know whether anyone’s gone in after the suicide?’
    ‘Who would go in? Tommaseo had the place sealed off at my request.’
    Good man, Fazio!
    ‘And do you know where Borsellino’s copy of the keys ended up?’
    ‘No. Probably in one of his pockets. His clothes are all at Dr Pasquano’s lab at the institute.’
    ‘Call him right now. Oh, and listen: don’t speak directly to him – talk to his assistant. Otherwise Pasquano’s liable to go ballistic and never stop. Call from
here.’
    The answer was yes: everything that belonged to Borsellino was still with Pasquano.
    ‘Go there straight away, get everything, and bring it back to me here. I’ll wait for you.’
    ‘The clothes too?’
    ‘The clothes too.’
    *
    At the Institute for Forensic Medicine, Fazio found Borsellino’s shirt, vest, pants, socks, and shoes. In the trouser pockets they’d found a handkerchief, a set of
keys, and nine euros in coins of different sizes.
    ‘The jacket and tie are missing,’ Fazio observed to Montalbano.
    ‘I remember clearly that when he was hanging from the beam he wasn’t wearing either. The killers must have taken them off the body, since you can’t really hang yourself in a
jacket and tie. You’ve got more freedom of movement in shirtsleeves.’
    ‘So the jacket and tie should still be at the supermarket.’
    ‘They almost certainly are. I think I even remember seeing them hanging in the office. But look at this shirt. Do you remember the one he was wearing when he called us about the
burglary?’
    ‘Yeah, I think it was dark blue.’
    ‘I think so too. Whereas this one is white. Which means that there’s no way that Borsellino, as they want us to believe, hanged himself as soon as we left because he was upset over our
interrogation. Pasquano’s right. Borsellino went home, had a little something to eat – he wasn’t very hungry, given all the worries he had on his mind – changed his shirt
– remember how much he sweated in front of us? – and then went back to the supermarket.’
    ‘Then he must’ve got a phone call, or a knock at the door, at which point he let his killers in.’
    ‘Something like that,’ said the inspector.
    Then, looking Fazio in the eye, he added:
    ‘Maybe we should go and have a look at the office.’
    ‘We would need the prosecutor’s authorization.’
    ‘And what would I say to him? If Pasquano had written his doubts into the report, it would be