Back at the office, Inspector Rollo was already waiting for them. Montalbano introduced her to Augello and Fazio and explained who she was.
Mimì then turned to Montalbano.
“But, earlier today, did you come aboard the Vanna?”
“Yes. I wanted to make them a little nervous, so that when you arrived around five, they-”
“Well, you certainly succeeded! Talk about nervous! Livia…”
It had slipped out. He stopped in midsentence, blushed, and looked at Roberta Rollo, who smiled amicably.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Montalbano.
“At a certain point, La Giovannini told Sperlì she was positive you’d figured everything out and that they mustn’t allow you any time to act. But what did you say to him?”
“I didn’t say anything. I just let him notice, as if by chance, that I had some printouts on the Kimberley Process, which you’d mentioned to me, in my pocket. And so it must have looked to them as if I knew more about it than I actually do… But tell me what happened.”
“Well, as soon as I got there, La Giovannini was already very upset and told me she had changed her mind.”
“They’d decided not to take you on?”
“No, they’d changed my function, but only temporarily.”
“In what sense?”
“I was to carry a suitcase to Paris, taking an itinerary that they were going to explain to me tonight, shortly before they left. They plan to set sail at dawn. Then, after turning over the suitcase, I was to take a flight to Sierra Leone.”
“And what did you say?”
“I said okay.”
“What excuse did you use for leaving the ship?”
“I said I had to go to the police station to get my passport before the office closed at six.”
“Did they specify whether the suitcase was actually a suitcase and not an overnight bag?” Roberta Rollo asked.
“Yes. It was a rather large and heavy suitcase whose contents I was supposed to transfer later to two smaller suitcases.”
Inspector Rollo whistled through clenched teeth.
“Apparently they put all the diamonds that were on both boats into a single suitcase. And they were going to have Inspector Augello do what Lannec was supposed to have done. That much is clear. However… They were entrusting him with a cargo of immense value… a suitcase full of uncut diamonds… with no guarantee. Seems strange to me.”
“Just a minute,” said Mimì. “Giovannini told me I was going to leave for Paris late tomorrow morning. A car would come and pick me up, with another person besides the driver.”
“So you were going to go all the way to Paris by car?”
“Yes.”
“So, to conclude,” said Inspector Rollo, “we know for certain that the diamonds are still on board. We must take immediate action.”
She looked at her watch. It was quarter to seven.
“Now let me tell you what we’re going to do.”
18
At eight o’clock sharp, when there was still sufficient light, a Harbor Office car was going to stop in front of the Ace of Hearts’ gangway, and an officer, using some pretext or other, would go aboard to see how many crew members were present and then relay this information to Inspector Rollo via his cell phone.
Rollo, meanwhile, would direct the operation from a car parked on the wharf, far enough not to be seen but close enough so she could see everything. The information the officer was to give her would be very important, because the crew of the Ace of Hearts had already killed at least two people and were criminals capable of anything. There was no need to do the same with the Vanna, since there were only three people implicated in the illegal traffic: Giovannini, Captain Sperlì, and old Alvarez.
Rollo, in turn, would then communicate the number of people on board to Montalbano, who would be in the first of the two Vigàta police cars, driven by Gallo. The first as well as the second car-the latter directed by Fazio-would each have four policemen inside.
The two cars were then supposed to drive into the port through the north entrance at high speed but without sirens. The first would pull up in front of the Ace of Hearts, the second in front of the Vanna. The men would then pour out of the cars, weapons in hand, climb onto the boats in every way possible, like pirates, and take control of the two craft.
The greater the element of surprise, the better.
The more difficult task would fall to the first car, since they would have to deal with the crew of the cruiser and would likely encounter some resistance.
Once everyone on board the two boats was immobilized, Inspector Rollo would call the Customs Police, who would already be waiting at the north entrance, and tell them to search for the large suitcase with the uncut diamonds.
Not knowing how things would really play out, however, Montalbano had arranged for Mimì Augello to go with two men to all the bars and taverns in Vigàta and arrest any sailor from the Vanna or Ace of Hearts that they encountered. All of them, even those who Inspector Rollo said had nothing to do with the plot. It was best to play it safe.
On paper, everything looked as if it should work out to perfection.
But with each minute that passed and brought him closer to the start of things, Montalbano felt a great sense of agitation growing inside him. And, without knowing why, he fidgeted and fretted inside the car, huffing as if he couldn’t breathe.
There were four of them: Gallo beside him, and in back, Galluzzo and Martorana, an alert young officer. The inspector had his pistol in his pocket, while the other three were armed with machine guns. Gallo kept the engine idling, ready to break into a Formula One dash.
Montalbano opened the car door.
“What, you want to get out?” a flummoxed Gallo asked him.
“No. I just want to smoke a cigarette.”
“Then it’d be better if you shut the door and opened the window. If I have to suddenly take off…”
“Okay, okay,” the inspector said, forgoing the cigarette.
At that moment his cell phone rang.
“Lieutenant Belladonna has just now gone aboard the Ace of Hearts,” Roberta Rollo told him.
Laura! Matre santa, it had never occurred to him they would stick her in the middle of this!
Why her, of all people?
“What did she say?” Gallo asked.
And what if those thugs reacted violently? What if they hurt her? What if-
“What did she say?” Gallo persisted.
“She said… La… La… she said Lalala… has boarded. What the fuck! What a stupid fucking idea!”
The inspector seemed so enraged that Gallo decided to let it drop, not daring to ask any more questions.
How on earth could they send a girl like Laura to carry out so dangerous an assignment? Were they crazy?
The cell phone rang again.
“There are five on board, two at the engines, and three on deck, but the lieutenant-”
Montalbano didn’t wait to hear any more.
“Go!” he shouted.
He yelled it so loudly that his voice made his own ears ring along with those of the other three in the car. As Gallo shot off like a rocket, he looked in the mirror: Fazio’s car was right behind, practically stuck to his bumper.
Inspector Rollo had calculated that they would need less than four minutes to get from the north entrance to the Ace of Hearts, but Gallo had laughed at this, saying he could get there in less than half the time. But Rollo had also decided that, to avoid arousing suspicion, the normal traffic in the port should be allowed to continue.
As a result, no sooner did Montalbano’s car fly out from the alleyway in which it was hidden and come to the north entrance, than it found its path blocked by a tractor-trailer.