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that particular character trait left him puzzled now.
    “I’m surprised he’d want to take this on,” he said. “I mean … better men than him have had to give up on it when the trail was hot, as you might say, but now … and there was never a scrap of evidence as far as I’ve heard. He didn’t strike me as a man who would care for such a public failure.”
    “No, he wouldn’t like that.”
    Their coffee was brought and the Marshal stirred sugar into his thoughtfully before saying, “In that case I suppose the Chief Public Prosecutor’s dumped the thing on him and he’s got no choice. That won’t improve his temper.”
    “The Chief Public Prosecutor and Simonetti,” replied the Captain, apparently addressing his pen, “are old friends. They hunt together, I believe. Simonetti has ambitions. The Chief has a thorn in his side and that thorn is the Monster. This coming year will be the Chief’s last year in office. Then he retires. He’s made a name for himself; you know that he’s had a lot of success in kidnapping cases which, as they often involved foreigners, made him something of a reputation abroad as well as here. He also had a lot of success against terrorism. It’s been an energetic and, if you like, aggressive battle against crime and he’s enjoyed every minute of it, no doubt.”
    “But you don’t like him.”
    “Let’s say he appears too often on television for my personal taste. Well, it’s not my place to criticize the man and I’m sure he could hardly care less what I think. Even so, he’s made enemies along the way, chiefly because his steamroller tactics leave a lot of walking wounded amongst his colleagues, as many as among the criminal fraternity, I would imagine. At any rate, when the Prosecutor General opened this Judicial Year his speech included some lengthy and unpleasant comments on the failure to apprehend the Florentine serial killer known as the Monster. All the Chief’s years of success go for nothing if he retires as the man who failed to solvethe case that’s sold more newspapers than any other crime in his lifetime.”
    “I see. Well, that’s understandable, of course …”
    “He set up a specialized squad for this case some time ago, but its activities weren’t much publicized in case nothing resulted.”
    “And now something has?”
    “Apparently. He wants a rather bigger team. Six men. Three from the civil police and three carabinieri.”
    He was reciting again. He clearly wasn’t going to explain why the Marshal had been chosen.
    “Can I at least ask … even if you don’t want to—who made the choice, of the three carabinieri, that is?”
    “It was made here. We made it.”
    “Thank you. I’d no right to ask, but thank you.”
    “There’s no reason why you should thank me. The business will be a nuisance to you, I’m afraid, but I wouldn’t ask you to be so much absent from your station did you not have Lorenzini, who I know is extremely competent.”
    “Yes. Yes, Lorenzini …”
    “And however this business goes, I want you to know that I think a lot of you. You’ve done some good work in the past and I appreciate it. I’m sounding apologetic, but it’s certain that you won’t enjoy being under the authority of the civil police and Simonetti’s preference means that’s how it will work even though you are three and three.”
    Well, that perhaps explained the Captain’s embarrassment and his anger also.
    “I’ll do my best not to let you down.”
    “Do your best to cope and don’t worry about letting me down. You won’t be required to work any miracles, you can set your mind to rest about that.”
    “I’m glad to hear it, given how little I know about such things. I wasn’t even here when it began.”
    “We all know very little, Marshal. The last time anything remotely resembling this happened in Italy was in nineteen twenty-seven and the police put up a poor show then.”
    “So you’re not very hopeful that