Читать книгу Puppies - Maurizio De giovanni - Страница 8

But what if nobody shows up? What if nobody stops, what if no one . . . ” “Cut it out. Stop it, I tell you. Someone’ll come.”

“Maybe so, maybe not, it’s really early, and there’s still a chill in the air, the night was damp. Maybe we shouldn’t have put her there. Maybe we’re killing her, too, and . . . ”

“Her, too? Her, TOO? Don’t you ever dare to say that again, you hear me? Never again! You shouldn’t even think such a thing, because . . . ”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, I just . . . ”

“You just what? You just fucking WHAT? You this, you that. Even when it’s just the two of us talking, you can’t ever say what just . . . ”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, it’s just that . . . ”

“ . . . what just happened, understood? You never can tell who might be listening, and how, and why. I mean, there might be a tiny recording device, a bug for . . . ”

“I know.”

“ . . . for tax reasons, for instance. You never know what they’ll do, for tax reasons. And there you are, caught with your hand in the cookie jar, just because you spoke a word that . . . ”

“I get it. Now just please calm down. It’s just that, seeing her there . . . I mean, what if, say, a dog went by . . . ”

“What dog are you talking about! And after all, we’re right here, aren’t we? We can keep an eye on her from here. There’s no dog. Any minute now someone will come along and . . . ”

“Don’t you think we should have taken her to the hospital?”

“Are you joking? To the hospital? Like, how? Wrapped in a blanket, dropped at the front desk, with a note pinned to the . . . ”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Of course, that’s not what I’m talking about. I know perfectly well that . . . ”

“You know perfectly well that what? That they’d ask us for our first and last names and our phone numbers? And most of all, they’d ask why we’re in possession of . . . ”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Nobody’s that dumb. I’m not saying to leave her inside the hospital, but, you know, outside.”

“Listen, we’ve already talked about this. Hospitals are jam-packed with security cameras. They’re worse than banks, hospitals. A couple of cameras at the front gate, another couple of them in the lobby, the courtyard. And that’s not counting . . . ”

“Yeah, you told me that, yeah. But still, maybe someone . . . ”

“ . . . that’s not counting the guards at the entrance, twenty-four hours a day. Sure, sometimes they nod off, but you can’t count on that.”

“Still, there we could have been certain. She’s sick . . . ”

“You really are a piece of work. With everything that’s going on, you worry about . . . ”

“There, you see? This time it’s you. First you tell me never to mention it, not even when we’re alone, because of the damned bugs and recording devices, and . . . ”

“Sure, sure. You have a point. It’s just that it strikes me as ridiculous to worry about certain things, don’t you think? Plus, we aren’t even sure that she’s really all that sick, maybe it’s just something physiological.”

“With a fever? And she never cries? Plus the way she’s been whining . . . She won’t even eat.”

“Right, I see your point. Let’s say she’s not well. That’s why we left her in the first place, right? You’ll see, someone will find her and take her in and make sure she gets the medical care she needs.”

“But what if . . . God, I don’t even want to say it . . . but what if she doesn’t pull through?”

“First of all, she’ll make it. But listen, if it went, you know, the other way, all it would mean is that it was meant to happen.”

“It was meant to happen, right. Blame it all on fate. Let’s just curse fate, because that’s so easy.”

“Oh, listen, don’t come preaching to me, okay? You of all people, don’t come preaching to me!”

“All right. Let’s not argue about it. That’s pointless, isn’t it? You said yourself that it was pointless. What I don’t understand, though, is why we chose this place. Frankly . . . ”

“Okay, I explained it to you once and I’ll explain it again. Do you see any security cameras? Tell me if you see any.”

“No, I don’t think so. Also because we’re . . . ”

“Exactly, we’re set back from the front entrance. The gate’s right there, the space for the garbage cans and dumpsters is across the way from us. In fact, there would have been two security cameras, one outside the gate where the bank used to be and another one next to the apartment house entrance across the street, but the first is focused down and doesn’t capture a view of the street, while the other one was torn down and stolen by vandals. Now it’s probably mounted in the courtyard of the villa of some fool around here. In other words, there’s no security footage.”

“Okay, but why right here? There are dozens of other places that . . . ”

“Because this is the same quarter as . . . as that other thing, you know what I mean.”

“Well, so what?”

“So we just hope that they connect the two things and arrive at that . . . ”

“Ah! Got it, now I understand. Well, at least I can follow that line of reasoning. But, unless someone comes by in the next five minutes, I don’t think that . . . ”

“You’ll see, someone will come by any minute now. How long have we been here, anyway? Ten minutes? At this time of the morning, it’s perfectly normal not to see anyone out and about.”

“And what if they come to collect the trash?”

“So? The trashmen would find her. Plus, as you know, I checked into it yesterday and they came at ten o’clock. I don’t see why they should come any earlier today. Let’s not worry about it. After all, that’s why we stayed behind to keep an eye out. And, even if I do say so myself, this choice of a lookout post was just perfect: we’re not so far away that we can’t see, but we’re not so close that we can be seen. We can . . . ”

“Look! There’s someone! He’s coming from the other direction, though. What if he . . . ”

“No, no. He’s stopped. He’s looking around. Maybe she . . . he must have heard something.”

“Right, look: he’s walked over to her. Who do you think he could be?”

“Who knows. Now let’s keep an eye out and see where he goes next. Anyway, he’s picked her up. There was no guarantee: somebody walks past a dumpster and finds . . . finds something like that, they might get scared and run away. This is a city where people are afraid of anything they’re not familiar with, and I can’t say I really blame them.”

“There. He’s taking her inside. Maybe he’s a . . . he’s one of them. So much the better, no?”

“That’s right, so much the better. They’ll know what to do. You’ll see.”

“I don’t know if we did the right thing. Maybe we should have acted as if . . . as if nothing had happened, and kept on according to plan. That way . . . ”

“I’m begging you, don’t get started again. This was the only solution. Now, enough’s enough.”

“Okay. Okay. Let’s get out of here, now, though. I can’t stand being here any longer.”

“Right, let’s get out of here. And we’ll never talk about this again. Never again. Right?”

“Right. Never again.”