The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

in by the sergeantmajor.
    The forged statement, which had been very carefully thought out, declared that, of his own free will ('flogging', thought Diego, 'flogging'), Rosario Pizzuco confessed to having met Marchica some time previously and told him confidentially of insults that he had received from Colasberna. Marchica had offered to avenge him; but he, being Rosario Pizzuco, a man of sound moral principles, allergic to any kind of violence and quite alien to vindictive feelings, had rejected the offer. Marchica had insisted, even blaming Pizzuco for his undignified attitude of forbearance in regard to Colasberna, adding that he, Marchica, also had personal motives for resentment against the same man, about a job or some money refused him by Colasberna, Pizzuco didn't quite remember which; and that, one of these days, he was going to astutare or 'snuff' Colasberna, meaning that he was going to snuff out his life as one snuffs a candle. This proposal he would doubtless have put into effect. But a day or two after Colasberna's murder, Pizzuco had gone to B. on a land deal, met Marchica by chance, and been told in confidence, without his even asking, an appalling story of a double murder. Marchica's exact words had been: 'I set off to snuff out one and found that I had to snuff out two,' which, in Marchica's underworld jargon, meant quite definitely that he had committed two murders: Colasberna, and the other, Pizzuco suspected, Nicolosi, whose disappearance was arousing comment. Pizzuco had been appalled at this dangerous revelation and gone home very upset. Of course, he had not mentioned the matter to a living soul, as, knowing Marchica's violent character, he'd feared for his own life. Asked why Marchica had confided such a dangerous secret to him, Pizzuco had replied that perhaps Marchica, who had been away from the district for a long time, thought he could take Pizzuco into his confidence owing to certain experiences in common - though only superficially so, added Pizzuco; both, during the confused period of the Separatist Movement, having served with the EVIS , the Volunteer Army for Sicilian Independence, Pizzuco for the purest of idealistic motives, Marchica for his own criminal ends. To the further question whether it was possible to discern the hand of other persons, of instigators, that is, behind Marchica, Pizzuco had replied that he did not know but that, in his own opinion, this was quite out of the question; he simply attributed the crimes to the violent character and the overwhelming criminal urge to prey on others' lives and property of which Marchica had always given ample proof.
    It was a masterly piece of forgery, a living portrait of men like Marchica and Pizzuco, and had been concocted by three sergeantmajors in collaboration. The wiliest touch was the last statement attributed to Pizzuco: the downright exclusion of complicity by a third party. To bring in the name of Mariano Arena would have struck a false note, and been too improbable; the whole card-castle would have come tumbling down under Marchica's suspicious analysis. But the technique of throwing all blame downwards, that is on to Marchica; the categorical denial of any on his own part; the rejection of any suggestion of a third party; all this made Marchica agonizingly certain that the statement was authentic. Not for one moment, in fact, did he doubt the voice of the sergeant which was now supplying the sound-track to that mute scene which he had watched through the window before.
    Demoralized, blinded by a rage which, had he been able to lay hands on Pizzuco, would have meant the end of the latter's career of crime, he sat for a long while in silence. Then he said that, if that was the way things were, all he could do was what Samson did. 'Samson died,' he said, 'and so did all his companions' ('Mori Sansuni cu tuttu lu cumpagnuni'), by which he meant that he was going to put the facts narrated by that filthy son of a bitch in their proper