Michael Dibdin: Cosi Fan Tutti

'This card identifies your younger daughter's suitor as Inspector Nino Rocco of the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia.' Gesualdo takes a second card from his wallet.

'And this one,' he continues in the same edgy tone, 'identifies your tenant as Dottor Aurelio Zen of the Polizia Statale.'

'Then who's Alfonso Zembla?' exclaims Valeria, completely bewildered.

Pasquale grabs Zen's identity card from Gesualdo's fingers.

'A cheap fake!' he exclaims. I'm surprised you were taken in for a moment.'

He palms the card and simultaneously produces another, at first sight identical, which he holds up like a priest displaying the consecrated host.

'Here is the genuine article which the duttb was unlucky enough to have stolen from him yesterday, and which I was able to trace thanks to my extensive network of contacts. As you see, it identifies him beyond any doubt as Dottor Alfonso Zembla/ Valeria jerks her thumb at Gesualdo and Sabatino.

'Are you trying to tell me that these two are actually policemen!' she demands.

'We were/ Sabatino replies laconically.

Dario De Spino finally understands the reason for the premonitions of disaster which have been plaguing him recently. Fortunately everyone's attention is directed to his former associates, the two engaging young men he befriended and trusted and boasted to, and who now probably have enough material to send him away to Poggioreale until well into the next century. Grabbing a fistful of sandwiches and pastries for the road, Dario sidles over to the door and leaves without ceremony.

'But you told me that they have a record of associating with known criminals!' Valeria protests to Aurelio Zen.

'You said they were linked to some of the worst elements intheCamorra.. / 'They wouldn't be much use as anti-mafia undercover agents if they didn't/ He turns to the two young men.

'What I still don't understand is why you have chosen to reveal the truth now. For months you refused to tell anyone, even your sweethearts, yet now you have broken cover in front of people you don't know and have no reason to trust/ 'It's all thanks to you, dottore,' Gesualdo returns, with a bow of mock formality.

'To me? How?'

'You didn't hear what I said a moment ago/ Sabatino replies. 'We were with the DIA. We no longer are.'

'We resigned today, with immediate effect.'

Zen stares at them.

'But what has that got to do with me?'

Gesualdo smiles.

'Tell me, dottore, why do you think you're still alive, instead of having being crushed by the ram of that garbage truck?'

Zen shrugs.

"I don't really understand the details, but apparently the whole thing was part of a long-term sting operation designed to trap the terrorists. The Questore said that his men had been following me 'We know what the Questore said/ Sabatino says bitterly 'We saw the show on TV. You gave a very good performance.'

Zen looks from one to the other.

'Are you saying it's not true?'

'You know perfectly well it isn't true!' retorts Gesualdo.

'All that stuff about you being brought down specially from Rome to infiltrate Strade Pulite…'

'That was just window-dressing to make the Questore look good,' Zen protests. 'The fact remains, if the police didn't save me last night, who did?'

'We did."

'You? But.. "

'We had our own reasons for being interested in you, Dottor Zen,' says Gesualdo. 'First we hear that someone of that name has tried to do a record search on our undercover aliases. Then we turn up a police identity card bearing that name but the photograph of someone we know as Alfonso Zembla, who has recently taken a personal interest in our activities. So we had a tap put on your phone, and were able to listen in to that intriguing call you received last night. As a result, we were in time to save your life.'

'Thank you,' mutters Zen.

Sabatino smiles sarcastically.

'Our real thanks has been the destruction of everything we've worked toward for months, laying our lives on the line every day, knowing that one slip or piece of bad luck and we'd end up like that poor bastard Marotta whom they tortured to death, not that he didn't have it coming/ "I told you he was in hell!' Professor Esposito puts in. "i was sure of it. The reception was faint, but quite clear/ 'For almost a year now, we at the DIA had been compiling a detailed study of the various factions and alliances within the Camorra clans/ Gesualdo explains in a flat tone.

'We were particularly interested in the internal fissures resulting from the massive quantities of money generated by the drug trade, and also the external pressures exerted by the political transition to the so-called New Italy/ 'But what has all this to do with those terrorists?' demands Zen.

"The terrorists never existed. The group calling itself Strade Pulite was simply one element in a classic power struggle between opposing wings of the Vallifuoco clan, cleverly disguised as a political movement. The young guard wanted to purge the old leadership, as well as various of their associates and clients who knew too much and could prove an embarrassment in the new judicial climate/ 'And just when we were on the point of putting together a case which might stand up in court,' Sabatino continues, 'you come along and offer yourself as living proof that this was an act of fanatical ideologues who have been thwarted by the brilliant efforts of the Naples police department! If those bastards at the Questura had done their job properly in the first place, there would have been no need to set up the DIA. So as soon as it was set up, the Questore tried to undermine its authority, and, thanks to you, he's just achieved a major victory. Well, enough is enough. What's the point in Gesualdo and me risking our lives and losing the women we love, all to no purpose? So we've requested to be transferred back to normal duties/ He turns to Valeria.

'I also request the hand of your daughter Filomena in marriage. My character is impeccable, I have a secure job and good career prospects. I don't suppose it matters to you, but we are also madly in love/ 'Allafollial' echoes Filomena.

Valeria Squillace heaves a heavy sigh.

'Clearly I have misjudged the situation. This I regret, although the fault is not mine but that of Signor Zen, or whatever his real name may be, who provided me with information which now turns out to be completely false.

Needless to say, I withdraw all my former objections.'

She raises her glass.

'Here's to my daughter Filomena and Signor Nino…'

'Rocco, signora.' '… and to Orestina and, er…'

She looks enquiringly at Gesualdo, who looks at Orestina.

"I can't. I'm sorry, but I can't.'

A smile appears and vanishes on Orestina's lips.

'That's all right.'

Valeria Squillace looks from one of them to the other.

'Would someone kindly tell me what's going on? All I want to know is who he really is.' "I think he's only just found out himself,' her daughter replies with the same fugitive smile.

Gesualdo walks over to where the two ex-Albanians have been standing, on the fringes of these ceremonies from which they are excluded. He takes Iolanda's hand.

'You look great. There's something very sexy about a woman in male clothing/ 'But he is a man!' exclaims Valeria. "I saw his…'

Orestina covers her face with her hands.

'For the love of God, mamma!'

'Old people are so gross,' comments her sister, clutching Sabatino protectively.

'Who are you calling old?' her mother shouts furiously.

Aurelio Zen holds up his hands.

'Perhaps we should try and concern ourselves less with which body parts those present may or may not possess as with what they choose to do with them.'

'That's not the point!' insists Valeria. 'Whatever those two may do — and one shudders to think — the whole thing is unnatural! It's just based on sexual thrills. It can't last.. / 'Aurelio!'