The Potter's Field

So how is it, then, that you’ve forgiven yourself?

Me? There’s nothing I have to forgive myself for!

Are you really so sure? Would you please be so kind as to backtrack a few evenings in your memory?

Why, what happened?

Have you forgotten? Have we repressed this little fact? What happened is that you felt every bit as dejected as you do tonight, and for the same reason, except that then you had Ingrid beside you. Who comforted you. And, boy, did she ever comfort you.

Well, that happened because—

Montalbà, the whys and wherefores for such an act are all well and good, but the act remains the same: It’s called betrayal.

You know what I say? I say that all this is happening because of that damned critaru, because of the potter’s field.

Explain what you mean.

I think that place, which is the place of the ultimate betrayal, where the betrayer betrays his own life, is cursed. Whoever passes near it, in one way or another, becomes contaminated with betrayal. I betray Livia, Dolores betrays Mimì, Mimì betrays me . . .

All right, then, if that’s the way it is, then get Mimì the hell out of that place. You are all—indeed we are all—in the same boat.

He got up, went inside, sat down, and resumed writing to himself.

14

And so, dear Salvo, as you see, such is the wonderful result I get by putting those two words together. But, if that’s the way it is, quite a few other questions still remain. Question number one. How did Dolores find out that Giovanni had been kidnapped and murdered by someone sent by Balduccio? Number two (with follow-up): Why is Dolores so certain that it was Balduccio who had Giovanni killed? What kind of relationship did Giovanni and Balduccio have?

Number three: Why does Dolores want to control the investigation through Mimì?

Possible answer to Question number one:

Dolores told us she fell asleep at the wheel on the way back from Gioia Tauro and didn’t get back to Vigàta until the next day, after spending the night at a motel. It’s possible, on the other hand, that what she said is not true. That is, that she remained in Gioia Tauro for reasons of her own, and thus found out that Giovanni had not been able to take ship because he’d been kidnapped by Balduccio’s men. But why, then, not tell us this? Perhaps because this would only be a conjecture on her part, if she had no proof. Or perhaps because she didn’t know how her husband had been killed and where the body was. She only learned this when Mimì told her about the dismembered corpse at

’u critaru.

Possible answer to Question two: