doubtful, but in any case she hadn’t put in another appearance in Ca’ Tarino until she was twenty, for her mother’s funeral. Picked up in Milan one evening and subjected to a medical examination, she had been found to be suffering from gonorrhoea. Later, the Carabinieri in Buccinasco recorded that she had been hiredby Signor Ulrico Brambilla for his butcher’s shop in Milan. But what did the authorities, what did the law know about her sinister links with the sinister Silvano Solvere?
It was all so nasty as to be quite nauseating. ‘The usual settling of accounts,’ Carrua had said, almost throwing the files at him. ‘Take this stuff and study it, and you’ll see what it amounts to, some kind of stupid feud. Turiddu receives orders to execute that couple, Vasorelli and Ghislesi, for something or other that they’ve done, and he drowns them in the Lambro, but the couple must have had friends, they can’t do anything to Turiddu while he’s in prison, but after he’s been out for a while they throw him in the water as well, along with his lady friend. Ah, say the others, Turiddu’s friends, you killed our Turiddu. In that case, we’ll kill your Silvano and
his
lady friend. And what do you think will happen now? I’ll tell you. Someone will say: Oh, so you killed our Silvano and his lady friend? Then we’re going to kill somebody or other. And you know what I say? I say, let them carry on. Why should I go to the bother of tracking them down and arresting them when all they’ll get, thanks to their powerful masters, is a six-month suspended sentence, whereas if I let them carry on they’ll kill each other? Let them get on with it, the Naviglios, the Lambros, the ditches, the Conca Fallatas are all theirs, in other words, long live the feud!’ He hadn’t laughed, that would have been vulgar and he hated vulgarity, he had simply smiled at his scurrilous witticisms. ‘Are they rival gangs?’ Duca had asked.
‘I never said anything about rival gangs,’ Carrua had said, irritably. ‘You’re an intelligent man, you should have realised we’re not dealing with rival gangs, but deviant individuals. In a big gang, people do all right, they make a lot of money, but some are tempted to set up for themselves, to do a bit of work outside the syndicate. It’s a suicidaltemptation, because a boss can’t allow any kind of deviation, and when it comes to punishment he has no truck with half measures, his penal code has only one article in it:
Kill them.
It’s the shortest code in the world and its only article doesn’t allow for objections. So why should I bother about them? You deal with it, you can be a one-man crime squad if you like. If you succeed, I’ll get you a job here, that’s what you want, isn’t it? But if you do succeed, what will the gang do to you? Which canal would you prefer to drown in? Well, you’ve chosen your path, you’re a visionary like your father and I can’t change you, bring me some of the gentlemen and ladies who make up this fine community and I’ll reward you well.’
He needed a good, solid, concrete reward, so he would bring Carrua all the gentlemen and ladies he could. It shouldn’t even be too much of an effort, all he had to do was stay here and wait. Of course, waiting could sometimes be more of a bother than running around, yelling, doing things, but he was capable of anything, even of waiting. He got up from the kitchen table, nauseated by all those documents, and went into the hall. The only thing he was happy about was that the green case was still there in the hall, he had put it where it could be seen by anyone, even if they were just standing in the doorway, they wouldn’t even need to come in. Beautiful case from far away and which would like to go further still, stay here and we’ll see who comes looking for you, I really need to know who’s looking for you.
2
On 8 May, Mother’s Day, a very serious-looking young lady appeared, obviously honest,
It was all so nasty as to be quite nauseating. ‘The usual settling of accounts,’ Carrua had said, almost throwing the files at him. ‘Take this stuff and study it, and you’ll see what it amounts to, some kind of stupid feud. Turiddu receives orders to execute that couple, Vasorelli and Ghislesi, for something or other that they’ve done, and he drowns them in the Lambro, but the couple must have had friends, they can’t do anything to Turiddu while he’s in prison, but after he’s been out for a while they throw him in the water as well, along with his lady friend. Ah, say the others, Turiddu’s friends, you killed our Turiddu. In that case, we’ll kill your Silvano and
his
lady friend. And what do you think will happen now? I’ll tell you. Someone will say: Oh, so you killed our Silvano and his lady friend? Then we’re going to kill somebody or other. And you know what I say? I say, let them carry on. Why should I go to the bother of tracking them down and arresting them when all they’ll get, thanks to their powerful masters, is a six-month suspended sentence, whereas if I let them carry on they’ll kill each other? Let them get on with it, the Naviglios, the Lambros, the ditches, the Conca Fallatas are all theirs, in other words, long live the feud!’ He hadn’t laughed, that would have been vulgar and he hated vulgarity, he had simply smiled at his scurrilous witticisms. ‘Are they rival gangs?’ Duca had asked.
‘I never said anything about rival gangs,’ Carrua had said, irritably. ‘You’re an intelligent man, you should have realised we’re not dealing with rival gangs, but deviant individuals. In a big gang, people do all right, they make a lot of money, but some are tempted to set up for themselves, to do a bit of work outside the syndicate. It’s a suicidaltemptation, because a boss can’t allow any kind of deviation, and when it comes to punishment he has no truck with half measures, his penal code has only one article in it:
Kill them.
It’s the shortest code in the world and its only article doesn’t allow for objections. So why should I bother about them? You deal with it, you can be a one-man crime squad if you like. If you succeed, I’ll get you a job here, that’s what you want, isn’t it? But if you do succeed, what will the gang do to you? Which canal would you prefer to drown in? Well, you’ve chosen your path, you’re a visionary like your father and I can’t change you, bring me some of the gentlemen and ladies who make up this fine community and I’ll reward you well.’
He needed a good, solid, concrete reward, so he would bring Carrua all the gentlemen and ladies he could. It shouldn’t even be too much of an effort, all he had to do was stay here and wait. Of course, waiting could sometimes be more of a bother than running around, yelling, doing things, but he was capable of anything, even of waiting. He got up from the kitchen table, nauseated by all those documents, and went into the hall. The only thing he was happy about was that the green case was still there in the hall, he had put it where it could be seen by anyone, even if they were just standing in the doorway, they wouldn’t even need to come in. Beautiful case from far away and which would like to go further still, stay here and we’ll see who comes looking for you, I really need to know who’s looking for you.
2
On 8 May, Mother’s Day, a very serious-looking young lady appeared, obviously honest,
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