Valerio Manfredi: The Ancient Curse

‘Good morning, Castellani,’ Balestra greeted him, extending his hand with a certain cordiality. ‘Welcome to Volterra. Have you found a place to stay?’

‘Good morning, sir. Yes, thanks to my father. A nice little house on the Semprini farm in Val d’Era. It’s not far from the city but very peaceful. I think I’ll like it very much.’

‘I’ve had a look at your request. I see you are interested in a very important piece. That’s fine with me. It’s only right that a young man like yourself should aim high; do something that will get you noticed. I just hope you’ve taken a careful look at the existing bibliography. There’s quite a bit of high-calibre material, as I’m sure you’ll have realized.’

Fabrizio had the impression that Balestra was feeling him out; trying to understand what was behind his request.

‘I’ve been working on this for quite some time and I’ve thoroughly examined all the material I’ve found,’ he answered. ‘I’m eager to begin my own personal research. I don’t foresee any problems and, with a little bit of luck, I should be able to complete my studies in no time. If everything goes smoothly, of course.’

Balestra offered him a cup of coffee, a very good sign indeed according to the grapevine, and after drinking it and exchanging a few more pleasantries Fabrizio made to take his leave.

‘The permit I’ve given you is quite wide-ranging, Castellani, allowing you to remain in the museum even after closing hours. Mario, the security guard, will show you how to set the alarm and turn it off, and he’ll give you an emergency number for the Carabinieri, just in case you should need it. I hope you realize what a privilege this represents. I’d ask you to respect this show of trust and to be as responsible and careful as possible.’

‘This is quite an opportunity for me and I can’t tell you how grateful I am, sir. You have my word that I’ll take every precaution and won’t cause any problems for you. When I’ve finished, if my research produces the results I’m hoping for, you’ll be the first to know.’

Balestra gripped his hand and accompanied him to the door.

Fabrizio spent the rest of the morning organizing his files and settling into the little office they’d set aside for him, all of three by two and a half metres, a tiny space carved out of a blind archway that must have been part of an ancient structure adjacent to the museum. He then consulted the museum library to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything that had been written about the young lad of Volterra.

At closing time, five o’clock, Mario painstakingly repeated everything there was to know about the alarm system. ‘Just between the two of us, even if you should forget to set the alarm as you’re going out, there’s a backup system that sounds directly at my house, which is just around the corner. For when I’m not at home, I’ve rigged a receiver that I wear around my neck. If it goes off, I’ll rush right over. Obviously, I’d prefer not to be rudely awakened at one or two in the morning by a false alarm, that’s all.’

‘Can I ask you something, Mario?’ Fabrizio said after listening to the man’s lengthy explanations.

‘Of course, Professor.’

‘I’ve heard that the director left Florence a while ago and that he plans on staying here another two or three weeks. If I’ve understood correctly, it’s a little unusual, isn’t it, for a man in his position, with all the responsibilities he must have back in Florence, to leave his main office for such a long time? Do you have any idea why?’

Mario gave him a knowing look, as if to say, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be in on this, my boy?’ but he answered, ‘You know, the director makes his own decisions. We on the staff aren’t often privy to the whys and wherefores. What I do know is that he’s always in his office and we’ve been told not to interrupt him unless there’s some urgent paper that needs signing. He only takes phone calls from eleven thirty to noon, unless it’s the Minister himself on the line.’

‘There must be some pressing business that’s keeping him here,’ mused Fabrizio. ‘Well, Mario, you take it easy, then, and have a good evening. Oh, and if you know of a nice trattoria near here that’s not too pricey, I’ll take a break at about seven and then come back here later to finish up.’

Mario recommended Signora Pina’s place, not far from the ring road. Pina served all the local specialities, made with her own hands, mind you, and at a good price to boot. He said to be sure to tell her that Mario had sent him and he’d get a special deal, just like everyone who worked at the NAS.

Fabrizio thanked him and plunged back into his work. There was nothing better than being completely on your own, without phones ringing or people bustling in and out of offices. By seven he had finished checking the library files that contained publications on the lad of Volterra. All he’d turned up was a couple of articles by local scholars, the kind of thing that you’d expect to find in a museum collection. Nothing new in terms of information.

SIGNORA PINA found him a table in the courtyard behind the trattoria, hemmed in between the back of an old convent and an L-shaped portico that had once been part of the cloister. An archway in the portico led to a little square that was closed off at the opposite end by the striking and rather imposing bulk of a very ancient building, probably a fortified house partially restructured during the Renaissance.

‘What is that place over there?’ he asked as Signora Pina brought him a plate of pasta e fagioli.

‘What, you don’t know anything?’ said the woman, speaking in a strong local accent.

No, he didn’t know anything, explained Fabrizio, because he’d just arrived and moved on to the Semprini farm only last night. So Signora Pina, seeing that it was low season and her regulars wouldn’t show up for at least an hour or so, sat down to keep Fabrizio company and began to tell him the story of the palace of the Caretti-Riccardi princes, empty for the last forty years except for a brief period when the current owner, Count Jacopo Ghirardini, had moved in, four or five years ago. He had taken in a woman, a cleaning lady supposedly, but everyone said she was more of a witch, and then he’d vanished. Just like that. Into thin air. No one had heard of him since. The woman, she was still around, she’d opened a tavern outside of town at a place called Le Macine. Since the count’s disappearance, not a living soul had set foot inside. A pity, wasn’t it, a sin, such a big, beautiful palace with no doubt a fabulous view from the top floor of the entire valley?

‘Must be full of ghosts, then,’ suggested Fabrizio, giving her a little rope.

‘It’s no joke, Doctor,’ replied Pina with a touch of indignation. ‘I, who have lived here since I was born, can tell you that anyone who has gone into that building has heard things and seen things. And how! Why, ages ago, there was a porter working at the mill over at La Bruciata, strong as an elephant and built like an ox. Well, he was always boasting about how he was afraid of nothing, and one day he made a bet with his friends at the local tavern that he could spend the night there-’

‘And when he came out in the morning his hair had turned white overnight,’ suggested Fabrizio, interrupting her story.

‘How did you know that?’ asked Pina with genuine surprise.

Fabrizio would have liked to tell her that stories such as hers were told in every region of Italy, tales of hidden treasure, of secret passageways stretching out for kilometres underground that linked one building to another, of golden goats that appeared at night to solitary wayfarers in the vicinity of a crossroads. An entire arsenal of stories and legends invented over the centuries before television started muddling people’s minds.