VIA CERISE WAS A NONDESCRIPT STREET. ONLY A FEW HOUSES, none of them tall. He liked it. Above all, he liked the arch under the building where Via Archet ran through. He hoped that the street number with the apartment that the police chief had found him was right in that building. He walked up to the front entrance. On the large wooden door there was a “For Rent” sign, prominently displayed. Rocco Schiavone smiled. “So it seems this may be the exact building. We’ll come take a look tomorrow, eh? Do you like it? It’s nice. Look, there are mountains over there, and there are mountains over there, too. Not bad, not bad at all!” And he made a smart about-face and headed back to the residential hotel. But then he noticed that the street was directly behind the courts building. “What? Come live right next to the prosecutor’s office?” he mused into the night. “Entirely out of the question!” He would be subject to every whim of Baldi and the rest of them, every minute of his life. “They’re not getting me on this street, not if I was a cold, dead corpse!” Lupa barked in agreement.

Someone was waiting for him in front of the wrought-iron and glass door of the residential hotel. The shadow was that of a man. And he was smoking a cigarette. He would have expected Anna. And deep down, he was glad that it wasn’t her; at that hour of the night he couldn’t have withstood a heated argument about the future of monogamous relationships and couples in the society of the twenty-first century. In an automatic, instinctive reaction, Rocco put his hand underneath his loden overcoat. But he hadn’t carried a pistol for years now. The shadow stepped forward, and under the glare of the pub sign it took on the semblance of Italo Pierron.

“Ciao, Rocco.”

“Ciao, Italo. What are you doing here at this hour of the night?”

“When are you coming back to the office?”

“I don’t know.”

Lupa went over to sniff at the trouser legs of the officer in civilian clothing, who shooed her away with a faint lurch of annoyance. Italo didn’t like dogs. “That business at the prison. It’s serious.”

“How serious?”

“Plenty serious.”

“Give me a cigarette.”

Italo pulled out his pack and Rocco’s eyes lit up. “Camels? You bought Camels?”

“I was out of my usual smokes.”

While he was lighting one, the deputy chief looked Italo in the eyes. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

“No, I’m not kidding around. I was at the cigarette machine, I was free to choose, and I said to myself, since I’m going to see Rocco anyway, why not just get the brand that he likes best?”

“Thanks. It’s a very feminine thought.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“How did you know that I would be awake?”