The Disappearance of Signora Giulia by Piero Chiara Read Free Book Online Page A

and watched the moon throw its light over a park shrouded in darkness, then withdraw it as it disappeared behind a moving cloud formation. The bedroom lamps were off and Emilia stood silent for several minutes, as if drawn by the shifting moon, before abruptly gripping Carlo’s arm.
    ‘Look! Over there!’ she said. ‘Do you see that shadow stretching along the path?’
    ‘It’s the shadow of a branch,’ Carlo replied.
    ‘No,’ she insisted. ‘A minute ago it wasn’t there, and the path was completely lit up by the moon. The shadow moved forward while a cloud went by, darkening the grounds.’
    Carlo shook his head, smiling. But just at that moment the shadow moved, reappeared farther away, and then disappeared. A moment later he heard the distant crunch of dry leaves under the magnolia, as if someone were cautiously stepping over them. Emilia shivered again and Carlo led her into the room, quietly closing the shutters. She couldn’t get to sleep, and only much later did she allow herself to be persuaded that the shadow could have been thrown by a bit of cloud, and that a cat had surely made that sound in the leaves.
    Two nights later, after turning out the bedroom lights, Emilia felt like going out on the balcony again. Carlo followed her and found her intently focused on that bit of pathway where they’d seen the shadow two nights earlier. The balcony was dark, since the overhanging eaves hid it from the moon’s beams. For at least half an hour it would remain in shadow, invisible from the park.
    Though her husband tried to get her to go in, Emilia wanted to stay there till the bitter end, keeping watch below. Eventually Carlo brought her a shawl. As he placed it on her shoulders, he followed her gaze. She started, suddenly more alert.
    A black shadow was moving along the path that began at the gate. It came forward, disappeared under an arch formed by branches, reappeared, and again disappeared. Meanwhile, the moon had moved and a band of light nowfell across the garden façade of the palazzo. Emilia withdrew, but Carlo remained with the shutters drawn, watching through a crack.
    ‘Anything more?’ Emilia asked.
    ‘Not a thing,’ he said.

FIVE
    After that, Fumagalli hurriedly wound up his business in Milan and a few weeks later established himself in M——, taking on projects he could carry out by working at home, and going to Milan only very rarely.
    He was convinced now that someone was prowling around the grounds at night, and he suspected it was more than a petty thief. He’d walked through the trees, checked the lock on the gate – which seemed to have been shut for a century – inspected the railings and the surrounding walls. Not a sign. He hadn’t even seen anything interesting in the old coach house along the external wall; on the ground floor, where there were a few agricultural tools belonging to Demetrio, he saw the gate key hanging from a nail. Rusty and covered with old spiderwebs, it had certainly not been touched since it had aided Signora Giulia’s escape.
    Having made an inspection, he went to tell Sciancalepre about it. The Commissario looked as if he’d been woken from a long sleep. He listened attentively and asked if he could go out on the balcony on the next moonlit night.
    A few nights later, just before midnight, Sciancalepre and Fumagalli took up their posts on the balcony facing the park. Emilia had gone to sleep in another room. With a bottle of good cognac and two glasses set out on a coffee table, the two of them cast a glance every now and then towards the moonlitpaths. Sciancalepre, fearing the damp, wore his usual black cap pulled down over his eyes. Until midnight he sat smoking, hiding the burning tip of the cigarette in his hand. But he stopped when the hour struck, leant on the windowsill and didn’t take his eyes from the path on which Fumagalli claimed to have seen the shadow.
    Suddenly he put his right hand on Fumagalli’s knee beside him. He’d seen the