Adam's Rib Read Free Page B

another person. Rocco had already taken that walk once years ago, and his intentionsreally had been sincere, the very best intentions. He was going to spend the rest of his life with Marina, and that was that. But sometimes things just don’t go the way you expect them to, they break, they unravel, and you can’t stitch them back together again. But that was a secondary problem. Rocco belonged to Marina, and Marina belonged to Rocco. Everything else was an afterthought, branches that could be pruned, autumn leaves.
    While Rocco was thinking about Nora’s face, her curves and her ankles, a sudden crushing realization hit him square in the forehead. He’d just remembered the words she had whispered to him the night before, as they lay curled up in bed. “Tomorrow I turn forty-three, and on my birthday I’m the queen. So you have to behave like a good boy,” and she had flashed him a smile, with her perfect white teeth.
    Rocco had continued kissing her and squeezing her large luscious breasts without a word. But even while he was enjoying Nora’s nude body, he understood that tomorrow he’d have to buy her a gift, and maybe even take her out to dinner, and certainly miss the Friday peek-ahead to Sunday’s Roma-Inter match.
    â€œNo perfume,” she’d warned him, “and I hate all kinds of scarves and plants. I’ll buy my own earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, and the same goes for books. To say nothing of CDs. There, at least now you know what kind of presents not to get me, unless you’re actually trying to ruin my birthday.”
    What was left to bring as a gift? Nora had thrown him into a state of crisis. Or really she was forcing him to think,to reflect on what he should do. Giving presents, whether for birthdays or at Christmas, was one of the things that Rocco detested most intensely. He’d have to waste time on it, think of something, wander around from store to store like an asshole, and he didn’t feel like it in the slightest. But if he wanted to slip between the sheets and go on banqueting off that splendid female body, he’d need to dream up something. And he’d need to come up with it today, because today was Nora’s birthday.
    â€œWhat a pain in the ass,” he’d said under his breath, just as someone knocked at his office door. Rocco had lunged to yank open the window to air out the room, then like a bloodhound he’d sniffed at the ceiling and four walls to make sure you could no longer catch a whiff of cannabis, then he’d shouted “ Avanti! ” and Inspector Caterina Rispoli had walked in. The first thing she did was wrinkle her nose and make a face. “What’s that smell?”
    â€œI’m applying rosemary plasters for this cold I have!” Rocco had replied.
    â€œBut you don’t seem to have a cold, sir.”
    â€œThat’s because I use rosemary plasters. Which is why I don’t have a cold.”
    â€œRosemary plasters? Never heard of them.”
    â€œHomeopathy, Caterina, it’s serious stuff.”
    â€œMy grandmother taught me how to make plasters with eucalyptus nuts.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œEucalyptus PLASTERS.”
    â€œMy grandmother taught me how to make plasters too.”
    â€œWith rosemary?”
    â€œNo. With my own fucking business. Now, are you going to tell me what you’re doing in my office?”
    Caterina fluttered her long eyelashes for a moment and then, after regaining control of her nerves, she said: “There’s one crime report that might bear closer examination . . .” holding out a sheet of paper for Rocco to see. “In the park by the train station, somebody called to say that every night there’s a tremendous ruckus until three.”
    â€œHookers?” Rocco had asked.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDrugs?”
    â€œThat’s what I’m thinking.”
    Rocco gave the report a quick scan. “We ought