IM11 The Wings of the Sphinx (2009) Read Free Page B

saying that, according to Pasquano, the girl was killed at another location.”
    “Right. There was practically no trace of blood anywhere around the body. Whereas there should have been, and a lot. In addition, Pasquano noticed that the body was scuffed and bruised in a number of spots, likely because when it was thrown from the clearing, it got banged around as it rolled down the slope.
    “Couldn’t these scuffs have been sustained during a struggle prior to the killing?”
    “For the moment Pasquano rules that out.”
    “And he’s seldom wrong. Was any blood found in the clearing where the cars pull up?”
    “No, not there, either.”
    “That would confirm Pasquano’s thesis that she was brought there after she was killed. Maybe in the trunk of a car. Could the doctor tell how long she’s been dead?”
    “That was the best part. He says he won’t know with any certainty until after the autopsy, but at a glance, he would say she was killed at least twenty-four hours before she was found.”
    Which was strange enough in itself.
    “But why would anyone keep a corpse hidden for an entire day?”
    Mimì threw up his hands.
    “I really couldn’t tell you, but that’s what it looks like. And there’s another thing that might—I say, might—be important. The body was lying on its back, but at a certain point Pasquano flipped it over.”
    “So?”
    “On the left shoulder, near the shoulder blade, she had a tattoo of a butterfly.”
    “Well, that might help identify the body. Did Forensics get some shots of it?”
    “Yes. And I told them to send us the photos. But it’s not like I have a lot of hope.”
    “Why?”
    “Salvo, do you remember how, before I got married, I used to have a different girlfriend every couple of days?”
    “Yes, you would have made Don Juan die of envy. And so?”
    “The most popular tattoo among girls these days is butterflies. They have them tattooed in every imaginable part of their bodies. Just think, one time I actually discovered a butterfly tattooed right in the—”
    “Spare me the details,” the inspector implored him. “Say hi to Beba for me and send me Catarella.”
    Who showed up ten minutes later.
    “ ’ Scuse me, Chief, but Cuzzaniti wasted a lotta time wit’ the prototol. He coun’t figger out if the nummer he was as posta give the file was treetousandsevenhunnert and five or treetousandsevenhunnert and six. Then me ’n’ Cuzzaniti found the solution.”
    “What number did you give it?”
    “We gave it both nummers, Chief. Treetousandsevenhunnert and fifty-six.”
    There was no way that file would ever be found again, were they to look for it for a hundred years.
    “Listen, Cat. Check the list of missing persons on the computer and see if there’s a report on a girl of about twenty with a butterfly tattooed near her left shoulder blade.”
    “What kind of butterfly, Chief?”
    “How the hell should I know, Cat? A butterfly.”
    “I’m gonna go ’n’ come back, Chief.”
    Fazio arrived. He came in and sat down.
    “What have you got to tell me?” asked Montalbano.
    “Dr. Pasquano is convinced that the girl—”
    “—was killed somewhere else, I know. Augello already told me. And what do you think?”
    “I agree. I’ve even come to the precise conclusion that the girl was stripped naked after she was murdered.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    “Because if she’d been killed when she was naked, her neck and shoulders and tits would have been covered in blood. Instead they were clean. And bear in mind that it hasn’t rained for a week.”
    “I see. So the blood ended up on the clothes she was wearing at that moment, but not on her skin.”
    “Right. The body also had some abrasions, contusions, and lacerations from having been thrown down naked into the dump. If she’d been clothed, she would have suffered less damage. On top of that, she’d been bitten.”
    Montalbano gave a start. He immediately felt a wave of nausea in the pit of