Death and the Olive Grove Read Online Free PDF

she’d just noticed him at that moment. Piras blushed and started biting his lips.
    â€˜Let’s make this snappy,’ said Bordelli, looking bored.
    â€˜A routine check … You call this a routine check! You’re worse than the Germans!’ the woman whined, pulling her flower-print dressing gown tightly around her. She started saying the usual things … That her boarding house was a respectable place, frequented by important people, high-ranking politicians, even an undersecretary …
    â€˜Bring the girls down,’ said Bordelli, tired of all the chatter. He could still feel Totò’s fried chicken churning in his stomach.
    â€˜If you shut me down you might as well shoot me!’ the fat lady said, stamping her foot and making the floor shake.
    â€˜Go and get the girls, Ortensia. All of them. And if there are any clients up there, bring them down too,’ said Bordelli, his patience wearing thin.
    Ortensia looked at a crucifix on the wall and made the sign of the cross.
    â€˜You want to ruin me. If word gets round, nobody will come here any more!’ she said in an angry whisper, forcing herself not to shout, so as not to alarm the clients.
    â€˜Never mind, we’ll go and do it ourselves,’ said Bordelli. He gestured to Piras, and they sidestepped the fat lady. Once upstairs, they started opening doors.
    â€˜Police. Everybody downstairs.’
    Shouts and curses rang out, and in the semi-darkness they saw men pulling the covers over their heads. Bordelli and Piras went back downstairs to wait, ignoring Ortensia’s protests. Nobody could escape. Bordelli knew there was only one exit. A few minutes later various girls and a few men came down.
    â€˜Are they all here, Ortensia? Because if I go up and find somebody hiding …’
    â€˜They’re all here, General,’ said Ortensia, eyeing him with hatred.
    Bordelli gestured to Piras, and they lined them all up against the wall. The few clients huffed and smoked with an indignant air. Only one of them had the repellent look of guilt, eyes lowered and face sweaty. The girls all wore the same plush slippers with pompons. They sniggered and held their dressing gowns provocatively open to fluster Piras, who was casting surreptitious glances at them. Bordelli felt ridiculous concerning himself with such things when he still had young Valentina’s dead body before his eyes. But he could do nothing about it.
    They finished checking everyone’s papers. There were no fugitives among them, and no underage girls.
    â€˜Ortensia, does the name Merlin mean anything to you?’ 1 asked Bordelli, looking straight into her eyes, which were drowning in fat.
    â€˜It’s all so easy for you, copper, but what am I supposed to do? Eh? Can you tell me what I’m supposed to do at sixty years of age?’ asked Ortensia, swelling with hatred. She gave Piras a dirty look, as the Sardinian stared at her in disgust.
    â€˜Let’s go, Piras,’ said Bordelli, putting a cigarette in his mouth. They left the Pensione Aurora and came out on to the street. A few drops were still falling, but the worst was over. A number of people had been lined up against the wall outside, all men. It really did look like a German round-up, and it was hardly surprising that nobody liked it. Bordelli wished Inzipone could have been there to see the looks on all their faces.
    Among them was Romeo, a poor wretch from the Case Minime 2 who kept pretty busy: robberies, receiving stolen goods, counterfeiting and other similar activities, though always very low-level. He often found his way into bigger circuits and regularly got a good thrashing. He had a moral code of his own, however: no blackmailing and no pimping. Everything else was fair game. He was short, skinny as a beanpole, with a round, shaggy head always tilted to one side, as if it weighed too much. He always wore a dirty bandana round his neck and coughed more and more