It was the middle of the night, yet Lucas Ebran’s mother answered the doorbell at the first ring. She looked uncomprehendingly at Massimo, then remembered the context in which she had first met him and slammed the door in his face.

“Please!” he said, trying to stop her. “It’s important.”

The windows of the house were completely black, but he knew she was still there. He looked around: the road was deserted. The man Massimo had brought with him was standing a few feet away, with his back against the wall and his head bowed almost down to his chest. He hadn’t spoken a single word since Massimo had forced him to follow him.

He knocked again.

“I’ve come to hear you out. To find out the secrets of the valley,” he said, raising his voice.

A few moments later, the lock clicked, and a pair of hostile eyes peered at him from around the edge of the door.

“What do you want?” she asked him.

“What I said: I want to know who the sinners are, and how they have sinned. Have I come to the right place?”

“Maybe,” she snapped, “but I don’t talk to people like you.”

“Aren’t we talking now?” he asked her with a half-smile.

She made as if to close the door, but Massimo was quick to block it.

“Go away!”

She flung the door open once more, but this time she was brandishing a hatchet.

Massimo immediately let go of the door.

“Hold on, hold on! I have a gift for you,” he blurted out.

The woman stared at him, more intrigued now than angry.

Massimo turned toward the man he’d brought with him, who had kept his eyes fixed on the cobblestones as if there were nothing else in the world. The woman followed Massimo’s gaze.

“Lucas!”

As soon as she’d caught sight of her son, her voice had turned sweet.

Viola was a fragile being trapped inside a gargantuan form. As she made them coffee in the kitchenette her thighs kept bumping against the furniture, knocking her off balance.

“My legs don’t work anymore, and my back’s about to give up on me, too,” she told him, noticing his expression. “This body won’t carry me for much longer.”

Massimo didn’t know what to say to that, so he decided to change the subject.

“I was surprised to find you awake at this hour,” he said as she opened a pack of cookies and placed some on a saucer between their two coffee cups. She poured the coffee and handed Massimo another cup, which served as a sugar bowl.

He thanked her.

“I was waiting for Lucas,” she said, sitting down with some difficulty. “I hadn’t seen him since he was released. He likes to disappear, to get away from the world. And from me. Everything is difficult with him.”