The driver was out of the cab, showing his card to the Customs guard.
Montalbano was blind with terror and rage.
In the twinkling of an eye, and cursing all the while, he opened the car door, jumped out, and, taking the pedestrian crossing, started running towards the Ace of Hearts.
And at once he saw, in the distance, something he wished he hadn’t seen.
One of the cruiser’s sailors had just lifted the mooring cable from the bollard and was climbing back on board. And was the dull, incessant thumping he heard his own blood or was it the rumble of the Ace of Hearts’ powerful engines?
He sped up as much as he could, feeling a sharp pain in his side.
Without knowing how he got there, he found himself at the top of the gangway that had been left attached to the wharf, with the deck of the cruiser at the same level as him but already a good two feet away. They were escaping.
He closed his eyes and jumped.
He realized he had his gun in his hand, though he couldn’t remember when he had taken it out of his pocket. He was acting purely on instinct.
He landed on the aft deck, entirely out in the open. The first shot they fired from the cabin whizzed by his head. He reacted by firing two shots blindly, come what may, in the general direction of the wheelhouse, as he ran and hid behind a large spool of cable that was pretty useless as a shield.
Then he realized he was very close to the hatch leading below decks.
He had to get there. They were still firing at him from the cabin, but as the cruiser rapidly gained speed, it danced about on the water, making it hard for them to take aim.
Then, after firing three rapid shots in a row, the inspector took another great leap and ended up rolling down the steps of the little staircase leading below.
As he picked himself up, he froze.
There before him, back against a wall, was Laura, staring at him in silence, eyes popping in terror.
What was she doing still on board?
For a moment he drowned in the blue of her eyes.
That brief moment sufficed to allow the man behind him to stick the barrel of a revolver into the middle of his back.
“Make a move and I’ll kill you,” said a voice with a slight French accent.
It must be Petit, Zigami’s secretary. Who was not, however, aware of just how much desperate courage Laura’s eyes had inspired in Montalbano.
Without his body showing the slightest sign of turning, the inspector’s left foot rose as if by its own will with animal speed and forcefully, ferociously struck the Frenchman square in the balls, making him double over, groaning and dropping his weapon. Just to be sure, Montalbano dealt him another swift kick square in the face. Petit collapsed.
Then in a single bound Montalbano was beside Laura and pushed her by the shoulders as far as the little staircase. He bent down and grabbed the Frenchman’s pistol. Now he could fire away without needing to save any shots.
“I’m going to go up to the top of the stairs and start firing at the wheelhouse. When you hear the first shot, run across the deck and jump into the water. But from the side of the boat, to avoid the propellors. Got that?”
She nodded yes. Then, making a great effort to speak, she asked:
“What about you?”
“I’ll jump in after you. Here I go.”
But then she laid her hand on his arm. And Montalbano understood. He leaned forward and kissed her, ever so lightly, on the lips.
He crawled up the six stairs and started firing. Laura streaked by him and disappeared. But they were returning his fire from the cabin and there wasn’t a second to lose.
He stood up and, jumping like a kangaroo across the deck, reached the ship’s side, stepped over it, and plunged into the water.
At once he realized that Laura was nowhere in sight. At the high speed the cruiser had reached, the few seconds between one jump and the next had sufficed to put a great distance between the two of them.
On top of everything else, night had fallen. Taking his bearings, however, from the lights he could see in the distance, he realized he was right in the middle of the harbor.
Letting go of the pistols, which he no longer needed, he took off his jacket and shoes and started swimming against the foaming wake the cruiser had left behind.
He called out loudly:
“Laura! Laura!”
Silence. Why didn’t she answer? Maybe her violent landing in the water had temporarily deafened her?
He was about to call out to her again when all at once, at the mouth of the harbor, there was a tremendous burst of automatic weapons fire. It sounded like a veritable naval battle. Apparently the cruiser was trying to force its way through the Coast Guard’s blockade and reach the open sea.
Then there was a tremendous explosion and the water all around turned red, reflecting the flames of a great fire.
So much for the Ace of Hearts, he thought. Perhaps it had been hit in the fuel tanks.
And it was by the continually changing light of that blaze, which made the water look as if it might itself turn to flame, that Montalbano spotted Laura’s body floating, about twenty yards away, moved only by the gentle rippling of the sea.
“Oh my God, my God… Oh please, God…”
Was he praying? He didn’t know, but if he was indeed praying, it was for the first time in his life.
He swam over to her. She was floating on her back, eyes open as if watching the night’s first stars, and barely breathing, her mouth wide open.
She didn’t even realize that Montalbano was now beside her and holding her head above the water with his arm under her shoulders.
With that same hand he touched the terrible wound that had rent Laura’s flesh.
They must have hit her as she was jumping into the sea.
But the important thing was that she was still breathing, and therefore he had to bring her to shore immediately.
He went underwater, swam under her body, then resurfaced.
Now they were shoulder to shoulder, and Montalbano held her tightly against him with his left arm and started swimming with his free arm and his feet.
After less than five minutes of this, a searchlight spotted them, and at once a motorboat was rumbling beside him, motor idling low, and Fazio’s voice called out.
“You can let her go, Chief. We’ll get the lieutenant ourselves.”
Later, at the station, he changed into the clothes and shoes that Gallo had gone to fetch for him in Marinella. And he’d already guzzled half of the bottle of whisky that he’d had Catarella buy for him, before Roberta Rollo came in, happy and triumphant.
Congratulations, Inspector. Thanks to your courage…
Everyone on the Ace of Hearts died in the explosion.
Why hadn’t they let him get into the ambulance with Laura?
The suitcase with the uncut diamonds was recovered by the Customs Police. Livia Giovannini, Captain Sperlì, and Maurilio Alvarez have been arrested.
Was she suffering a lot? Would they manage to save her?
We have delivered a very harsh blow to the illegal war-diamonds trade. They won’t easily recover from it.
I intend to highlight your invaluable contribution, Inspector, in my report to the United Nations.
She’d wanted him to kiss her. Perhaps she had a premonition of what was about to happen to her?
Tomorrow we’re going to hold a press conference here, at the police station.
The look she’d given him when he suddenly appeared on the Ace of Hearts!
Things really couldn’t have gone any better than this.