The air began to feel cooler and damp. Claps could smell a mixture of rust and water.
The cage moved slowly, jolting disconcertingly every now and again. Claps felt suffocated by the dark walls of the well, unable to breathe.
His hands began to shake slightly; the air was definitely more difficult to breathe.
He closed his eyes and broke into a cold sweat he could feel on his forehead. How long was the descent going to take?
Once again, Cellini seemed to read his mind.
“We’ll get to the first station soon, it won’t take long, it’s only twenty-eight metres down. After that, the well goes down for hundreds of metres, down to the extraction tunnels.” Claps inhaled deeply. Twenty-eight metres, a little less than a ten-storey building. Underground.
“Are we… going to stop… at the first… station? Do we… have to… carry on… going down?”
“We’ll stop there. Don’t worry, I won’t force you to go further down.” Claps thought he’d seen a smile on Cellini’s face in the darkness.
A few minutes later – which to Claps seemed an eternity – the cage stopped abruptly and opened. Claps was glad to see that the station, which occupied about a hundred square metres, was well lit. Two corridors in semi darkness branched out from the station.
“Basically, the descent to the mines begins here. This was the gathering area – you see those corridors? They lead to large storage rooms for all the equipment, the engine, the fans, and even the infirmary and an office.”
Claps managed to regulate his breathing and his hands stopped shaking; but his legs were still trembling a little.
He turned towards the cage. “What… if… it breaks?”
“You mean how would we manage to get back to the surface? We won’t get stuck waiting for help – there’s an emergency shaft down one of the corridors but there’s no cage. It’s a twenty-eight metre long ladder, you’d better not slip off while you climb it.
“Fuck…”
Cellini looked at Claps, he was still pale.
“Please don’t worry,” he sounded very gentle. “It’s normal to feel like that the first time you go down the mineshaft.”
Claps nodded, he wanted to reassure him that everything was okay; the realisation that Cellini had noticed his emotions while they were going down in the cage annoyed him. He was also annoyed with himself for having felt that way – he had survived much more dangerous situations in his life.
“So you wanted me to talk about Elisa and the time when she got ill… what exactly would you like to know in particular?”
“What was… she like… just before… who were her friends… who did she know…”
“Elisa has always been a little reserved… I mean, perhaps reserved isn’t the right word. She and Denise were always together, it was like they were a couple… they were – what’s the word… reserved, I can’t think of a better one. They were always happy, I never saw them grumpy or sad, but it was like they were the only ones to enjoy their own happiness and everyone was excluded. Nobody was allowed to step into their own private world.”
“Including… you… as parents?”
“Of course it wasn’t quite as extreme with us as with everyone else, but they had even begun to be more reserved with us as they grew up. My wife didn’t like it.”
“Your… wife…”
“She died a year after Denise was taken. She had become ill two years earlier. She had leukaemia.”
“Did Elisa… struggle… with this?”
“The twins didn’t know anything while Denise was still with us. Soon afterwards, my wife’s condition deteriorated, but Elisa wasn’t able to notice any more. She didn’t struggle, seeing her mother die slowly.”
Claps remained silent for a few seconds. Cellini’s face appeared to have faded.
“There’s often… a more dominant… twin… of the two.”
Cellini nodded. “It was Denise. She was the first to talk, she always took the decisions. Elisa followed her.”
“Did they ever have a disagreement? Did Elisa ever show any form of rebellion?”
“Only very occasionally, during the last few weeks, but they had to be the first signs of the illness – she would be aggressive with her mother, yet a moment later it was as if she didn’t remember saying or doing anything.”
“Who… did the girls… see… who… did they… spend time… with?”
“Almost nobody, I would say.” Cellini spread his arms. “Did you notice how small the town is? Even at school, they didn’t have many friends. As I said, they tended to exclude everyone else; we never had any of their classmates sleeping over at ours, and they never went to anybody else’s house.”
“The school… where was it… and how did… they get to… it?”
“In Prata. It’s a few kilometres away from here. There’s a school bus service, but they never used it. Me and my wife took them to school and then picked them up every evening.”
Claps made a mental note that he would have to ask Sensi to run a search on the school staff and, as a second step, all the other pupils’ parents. Somebody among them might have noticed Denise…
“They never… used… the school bus?”
“No.”
Cellini looked puzzled. “I’m sorry, but what’s the school bus got to do with Elisa’s illness?”
Claps couldn’t tell him that it was to make sure that he could exclude the bus driver from the list of all the people to investigate.
“Nothing… in particular… it’s for a better… overview.”
Cellini looked a little suspicious. Nevertheless he carried on talking. “Ask me anything you want, Mr Claps.”
“Going back… to their friends… did they really… not have… any friends… at all? Did they ever… meet with… relatives… or family friends?”
“Yes, just as in every family.”
“For… example?”
“Their uncle, my brother. He had a short, unhappy marriage with no children. He loves his nieces and he’s still very close to Elisa. He helps me out with her. He took her to meet Professor Trevis this morning, for example. There’s also Auntie Mira, who’s not her real aunt but she used to work as a baby sitter for us. She helps me out an awful lot. We used to have a few friends come over to visit us, longstanding friends, hunting mates, and if it wasn’t too late for the girls, they would be with us.”
“Do you… hunt?”
“Almost everybody does here. Our parents and our grandparents were hunters. We’re surrounded by the woods, the trees. We organize hunting sessions for boar, pheasant, hares and even wolves.” Cellini closed his eyes. “Are you perhaps one of those World Wildlife Fund supporters?”
“That’s… not… important.” Claps said.
“Do you… think… I might be able… to talk with…”
“You can talk to my brother and Auntie Mira today if you want, but I don’t think they’ll be able to tell you any more than I have already.” Cellini’s tone sounded a little hostile, now.
“I’d like to… talk to them… anyway… and if it’s possible… I’d like to see… your house… Elisa’s room if it’s the same… as back then… and photos… all the photos that you have.”
Cellini seemed to struggle to understand the reason for this request. “As you wish,” he replied curtly, as he walked towards one of the corridors.
Claps started to follow him, but Elisa’s father stopped him with a quick hand gesture. “Wait for me here, it’s best you don’t follow me. I’ll do a quick inspection and then I’ll show you Elisa’s room.” he said, then he disappeared - swallowed by the darkness.
*
Professor Trevis took a few minutes to finish off his drawing. He sensed Elisa’s eyes on him.
He drew a bunch of trees on the same sheet that he had used the day before, covering Elisa’s black lines. They were oak trees – chubby trunks, knotty branches. Green and brown. They covered about half the sheet – the other half was for E
lisa.
As he had the previous day, Trevis turned the drawing towards Elisa when he had finished it.
A yellow sun, a bunch of green and brown trees, half of the page was covered in grey.
The young girl remained still for only a few seconds, then something completely unexpected happened. Trevis almost jumped out of his armchair. Elisa pointed to the crayons. “The blue one,” she said, in the most faint, expressionless tone.
It was as if those three words had exploded and echoed throughout the room. Trevis felt shivers run through his body – she had spoken! Elisa had spoken!
That was the first time he had heard her voice.
It was the first time he had seen her attempting to connect with the surrounding world actively, with another person.
Trevis forced himself to look impassive, he took the blue crayon and handed it to her.
She almost snatched the crayon out of his hands without looking at him, and she began to draw on the grey area that she had made the day before.
15
The Cellini family lived in the higher part of the town, the area that had once been middle class and which was inhabited by the mine’s managers. There weren’t any anonymous, identical blocks of flats, but humble detached houses and a few two or three storey buildings scattered around. The house where Denise had lived was reasonably comfortable, clean and tidy; however, Claps immediately noticed the absence of a female touch in her room. There was a background scent of damp in the room, a vaguely stale smell, but not so much because nobody had let any fresh air into the room – it was almost as if time had suddenly stopped in there; frozen in a moment where life had suddenly disappeared for good.
Elisa’s room was large and painted with bright colours, there were two beds, a large multi-coloured wardrobe and two small desks, shelves full of books, notebooks, soft toys and posters of singers who had been popular a few years before on the walls. Again, time was frozen even for Elisa.
“Was this… a shared… room?”
Cellini pointed to one of the two beds. “Yes, it’s all like it was when she disappeared.”
“Can I… take a… look?” Claps asked, as he pointed to the notebooks on the shelves.
Cellini shrugged. “You’re not the first one – when Denise disappeared, the whole room was sifted through in search of clues. Anyway, that’s Denise’s desk. I’ll leave you to it.” he said, then he left the room and closed the door behind him.
Claps stood still for a long time.
He touched Denise’s notebooks.
He looked at a framed photo in which the twins smiled at the camera – they looked identical. He couldn’t really tell them apart, but one of them smiled more brightly and obviously, while the other one’s smile was a little weaker.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the vertigo.
He pictured that smile again, he heard the laughter, the joy of that moment.
That was Denise’s smile, he was sure of it.
The dominating twin, the most extrovert, the one without shadows in her mind.
The one who didn’t have secrets to write in her notebooks.
The one who had been observed, desired for a long time, without her even noticing.
No, he wouldn’t have found any hints in her notebooks.
The vertigo became stronger.
Denise’s smile wore off.
Her breathing faded away.
The predator’s heavy rasping breath.
The cold, hard snap of the clippers as they crushed the bone.
Claps snapped his eyes open.
It took him a few minutes to take control again.
He walked towards the window – it was wide and let a lot of sunshine into the room. He pulled the curtains open. A small garden, the woods behind the houses, a neighbouring house with the shutters rolled down, similar to the Cellini’s house.
Claps frowned and half closed his eyes. There was something in what he was looking at that somehow alarmed him although he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
What couldn’t he see, even right in front of his eyes?
His mobile phone vibrated in his pocket, Claps ignored it as he was focused on trying to disperse the shadows in his mind.
Eventually he shook himself awake. He walked to the door and glanced at his phone. The call was from Sensi, it could have been important, he would return it when he was back in his car and alone.
When he touched the handle, however, he suddenly froze. The shadows had disappeared and let him connect some of his thoughts from the previous day. He turned back and picked up the photo.
It had been taken at night in that same room. The twins were smiling in front of the large, open window. Behind them, in the neighbouring house, a window was lit. The background was out of focus but he could see a shadow through the window – was it just a coincidence or was somebody observing them?
Claps leaned out of the window again, the neighbouring house was just a few metres away, the shutters rolled down; if they hadn’t been, it would have been easy for him to see anyone in the house and to follow their movements… and of course, vice versa.
He stared at the photo again – was that really the shadow of a person looking at the girls’ window?
He walked out of the room, Cellini was standing in the small garden.
“I’m done… thank you for—”
“No need to thank me.” Cellini didn’t let him finish the sentence. “I just hope it will help,” he added with a bitter, disenchanted tone.
Claps forced himself to smile.
“My brother should be here with Elisa in a minute or so, do you want to stick around to meet them?”
“Maybe… another time.” he answered, and then he glanced again at the neighbouring house.
The two houses were separated by a chain link fence which was less than one and a half metres high. Blades of grass from the two gardens intertwined with one another – those from the neighbouring house were much taller and wilder.
“Does anybody… live there?”
“Not for a few years now. The owners died some time ago and their son used to live there. He still comes around every now and then and stays for some time.”
“Do you… know him?”
“Bench? Of course I do.” Cellini didn’t make any effort to hide how silly he thought Claps’ question had been. “He grew up here. It was him who helped me to decide to take Elisa to Professor Trevis.”
Claps looked at Cellini questioningly.
“Bench suffered from the same illness as Elisa, although not as badly as her. He was young when he began to show some problems, he was happy, extroverted and he loved to play the trumpet. Then all of a sudden he became lethargic, sometimes even aggressive and evil. I remember that his parents feared him. He closed in on himself within a few months. For years, medicine and specialists made little improvement – they helped him manage on his own, but made him passive and absent most of the time. Then he met the Professor and began therapy with him. He’s forty years old now and he leads a normal life. He’s a little weird, but he’s definitely better than he used to be.” Cellini lowered his eyes and the tone of his voice. “I don’t have so much hope for Elisa now, but I wish that she would at least show some improvement, that she could manage to become more independent. She needs full nursing now and I’m not going to live forever. I don’t want her to end up in some kind of hospital in the future.”
Claps lowered his eyes, too, trying to find something to say.
“Professor… Trevis… told me that… Elisa… is making some… progress… we need to have… faith… and patience.”
“Yeah.”
A few seconds of silence, then Claps spoke again.
“Bench… as you called him… wasn’t he…”
“Bench is a nickname,” Cellini interrupted him. “That’s how everybody knows him. His real name is Bencivenga. Tommaso Bencivenga.”
“Yes… I wanted to say… did Bench… come here… even during his
… illness?”
“Yes, as I said, he was able to manage on his own. He was hospitalised several times during his illness, but he returned home when the doctors said he was doing better.”
“Even… when… the parents… weren’t there?”
“Yes, then he moved to Siena about three years ago, he still comes round to stay over every now and again.”
“Did he… speak to… the girls?”
“He didn’t speak to anyone. Bench didn’t even wave back at people. He stayed there alone and sometimes he looked out of the window for hours.”
Claps pretended to glance at his watch.
“Was he here… during the days… when Elisa… had the fits?” he asked, pretending to look unconcerned.
Cellini paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then he spoke again. “Yes, he was here when Denise disappeared. But even then he didn’t have any connection with Elisa or with anyone else in the family, if that’s what you want to know.”
Claps’s phone vibrated again in his pocket – probably Sensi again. Claps quickly took his leave of Cellini. He needed to talk to Sensi, now.
*
When Abedi got back home, he found Elaji waiting for him, sitting on the steps outside the front door. He greeted him warmly.
“You don’t need my permission to go in, Elaji. You have the keys.”
“Thank you for being so welcoming, Abedi. This is your house and I’ll only walk in with your permission.”
Abedi nodded kindly and opened the door with a quick gesture.
“Please make yourself at home.”
“Did you see Mudiwa and little Djara?” Abedi asked, once they were both inside.
Elaji saw Ami’s smile for a moment and Djara running to him with her smile.
“I saw them but I couldn’t give them your clothes.”
Elaji quickly told him what had happened to him that morning. Abedi listened quietly but he looked distracted, as if he was thinking of something that worried him.
“So the stuttering man now knows that I lied to him.”
“He knew it already, Abedi. That’s why I came here.”
“Did you tell him everything that I said to you?”
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