The fourth episode Mortally Wounded begins with our sharing that Livia and spent the night with Salvo but he does not appear enthusiastic about the relationship continuing as we suspect she would like, qualifying that he would visit her depending on his work commitments. Returning to the police station he sees a commotion over poster advertising a referendum whether the wife of a well known local politician is a lady of easy virtue! Fazio looking well returns to duty although Salvo is reluctant to place him on active duty but the man pleads to be able to work saying he became depressed at home. He has asked Mimi who knows the woman in question from the same gym he attends. There is a call to attend the Mayor at the Town Hall when ere is a riot. This in fact is only the husband of the woman demanding to see the Mayor for the failure to remove the poster quickly. The Mayor and his deputy explain that all three are members of the same party( or were members of the same party) but of different factions over the direction of policy.
The husband believed the two men were behind he campaign for political reasons. They have agreed that the posters should come down but because the tax has not been made but it will take a few days because of limited manpower who are already fully engaged. This could suggest to Salvo and ourselves that the husband is correct in his allegations, but we also know that the first solution is unlikely to be the actual cause, otherwise there would be no story.
However I have to admit that at this point I cannot remember the story so will run through the recording. The woman is 30 and the husband 45 year old shop keeper who is impotent, what is becoming a regular theme with the author. Mimi is now interested in the wife of his dentist!
This is not the main story of this episode and as suspected the investigation reveals something very different from the first appearance. It emerges that the wife wanted a neighbour who rejected her advances. To get revenge it was she who arranged with a young admirer at the gym to print the posters about herself. She had then pretended to be the subject of an attempted rape by the neighbour scratching her own legs which at one point she reveals to Salvo and Mimi. She claimed to have reluctantly revealed the truth of what happened to her husband who had shot the man, fortunately had survived been muttering some numbers which the police think is a number and then Salvo realises is the reference to a bible story. The woman and the poster maker are arrested. When the Inspector realises the significance the numbers and arranged to get a bible he calls at Mimi late at night only find that he is entertaining the wife of the dentist while the husband is away.
Salvo is at home about to enjoy food prepared by Adelina when Livia rings to say she has returned and he promises to contact his father whose call she and taken before leaving but he goes to bed without contacting. We now come to the main investigation when a 67 year old widower retired farmer of six years is found shot in bed by his niece who lives in the house him. The man is loan shark and there is a separate entrance to his office which customers use so she has no knowledge of who they are. There are records in the office but as is suspected not those involved with major loans. He is a nasty piece of work with 100 turning into 1000 within a short period of time. They are surprised about how little money is in the safe.
The parents of the niece died in a car crash and everything was OK with her uncle and his wife until the wife died when he commenced to take an interest in her. What also emerges is that the uncle required favours from the female client to whom he loaned money, thus widening the field of those who wanted him dead.
When the programme commenced Salvo complains to the delivery young man who can be described as a simpleton again the parallel with August Heat is noted. The young man has forgotten the Trapanese Pesto and when Salvo asks at the store when it is not brought round he is told they are out of stock and the firm making the sauce is on strike. The boy is missing and the store owner decides to report him as a missing person. Meanwhile Adelina complains about the use of Pesto when she can make a proper sauce which Salvo enjoys. The young man is found dead on the beach with a bullet in his back. The niece had said she fired at the intruder/murderer of her uncle so it appears this was the young which does not make sense to Salvo or his employer. The magistrate takes the view that the murdered man and the young man had a homosexual relationship, thy had argued and the young man had killed the loan shark, and when wounded he had been unable to go to hospital for help because that would incriminate him in the murder. The case could be closed.
However Salvo is far from satisfied. He tries to follow up who the loan shark used as a strong arm man and this brings him into contact with a school friend Gege, who has an attractive sister who Salvo was friendly with at one time. He has become a pimp on a beach site as well as a police informer. He introduces him to a woman who can name the man.
He advises the niece that she can return to her now that the case has been closed and arranges for the phone to be tapped. This results in her having contact with the strong arm man who will call at midnight ad that she has two things to give to him. Previously Salvo has met the father of the delivery boy who says that shortly before his death the boy had started to sing something he had not done before suggesting he had formed a relationship with someone. It is revealed that because the murdered ha attempted to sexually interfered with the niece she had planned revenge, first by having a relationship with the strong arm man who had killed his boss. She had befriend and used the young man getting him to call and therefore killing him as she was a good shot so that he took the blame for the murder. I cannot remember if she also planned to kill the strong arm man or they planned to jointly use the huge funds the loan shark had amassed.
Right at the end of episode Fazio retires following his latest check up and when he collects his things his son comes with him who is about to qualify and therefore Salvo agrees to support the request for the boy to replace his father as long as he promises not to be so thorough and pedantic with his researches.
This is not the final story as Livia has returned for a short stay and while Montalbano is out his father calls and they have a long chat but the stay is brief when the Salvo returns. The episode explains that when he was an adolescent his mother had died and he had been brought up by his uncle and aunt, this the parallel with the girl in the main story. His father was busy and had limited contact with him and one day he had not gone to school and gone to see his father and found that he had established a new relationship with a woman who had two boys of her own. Salvo felt his mother had been betrayed and that he had been betrayed hence the complicated relationship with his father. Livia comforts.
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