Adam's Rib by Antonio Manzini Page B

tenderness. “How long will he have to stay here, Doctor?”
    â€œWe’ll keep him here for a couple of days, then send him on bed rest. Those ribs have to heal up.”
    Just then, D’Intino opened his eyes. “Deputy Police Chief . . .” he said in a faint voice, “have you seen what happened to me?”
    â€œI sure have. At least now you can stay at home and rest up. You and Deruta were certainly on the job yesterday.”
    â€œThanks. But did you catch them?”
    â€œJust one. Can you remember anything about the one who attacked you?”
    D’Intino tried to change his position and a grimace of pain appeared on his badly dinged-up face. “Not much, Dotto’. That guy came straight at me and gave me a head butt right to the nose. It hurt so much that I saw literally all the stars in the sky, you know that?”
    â€œEvery last one?”
    â€œNot one was missing. Then I hit the ground, and I think that must be when I fractured my ribs. Because I broke my ribs too.”
    â€œDid you get a look at his face?”
    â€œJust barely. It was all dark out. When it’s dark out, everybody looks the same. He had a hood over his head. He was dark. I think he was part black.”
    â€œWhat does it mean that he was part black?”
    â€œThat he wasn’t black. But he wasn’t white either.”
    D’Intino was dragging him into a nonsensical conversation, so the deputy police chief immediately changed tactics and spoke to the doctor. “That cut on his forehead?” He pointed to a slice about four inches long.
    â€œI dunno, what can I tell you? It’s a narrow cut, and it looks like someone did it with a metal object of some kind.”
    â€œA knife blade?”
    â€œCould be.”
    Rocco snapped his fingers in front of D’Intino’s face to get his attention. “Hey, D’Intino, look over here! Did your attacker have a knife?”
    â€œNo. No knife. Ran away.”
    â€œI understand that part.”
    â€œFast, he was so fast. Teneva lu foche a li pidi ,” he said, slipping briefly into dialect. “He truly had flames on his feet.” And he dropped off into sleep as if a sudden bout of narcolepsy had swept over him. They wouldn’t be getting any more information out of that man.
    Rocco shook the doctor’s hand, added “thank you very much,” and then left the room that D’Intino was sharing with two young men with their legs in traction. “Break a leg!” Rocco called out to the two teenagers, and they both replied with their middle fingers held up in plain view.
    As he was walking downstairs, he remembered that he still hadn’t called Nora. To do that now would be a mistake, because he’d find her royally pissed off at him. But not to do it would be even worse, because it would mean putting an end to their relationship once and for all. As he was caught in that morass of Hamletic indecision, his cell phone rang. It wasn’t Nora; the switchboard number from the office appeared on the display. “Hello?”
    â€œThis is Italo. We’ve had a piece of luck.”
    â€œWhat in particular?”
    â€œThere was a security camera running in a pharmacylast night, and it filmed what happened to D’Intino and Deruta. I’ve got it here at headquarters.”
    â€œI’ll be right there.”
    â€œOkay, but get ready.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œI’ve never laughed so hard in my life.”
    BLACK-AND-WHITE, WITHOUT A SOUND TRACK: THAT’S how the video recorded by the pharmacy security camera appeared on the deputy police chief’s computer screen.
    EXTERIOR NIGHT.
    Darkness. A street. Traffic barriers surrounding an excavation site. Signs reading MEN WORKING . In the distance, a low wall, with two young men seated, chatting. A third young man sits astride a moped.
    â€œHOLD ON A SECOND,” SAID ROCCO. CATERINA STOPPED the video.