Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum by eco foucault (important books to read .txt) 📗

man heard someoneringing erratically from room 27. Judging by the way he looked thismorning, though, he must have put away quite a few glasses by then,rotgut for sure. Anyway, the old man came up and knocked. Noanswer. He opened the door with his passkey. Found everything allmessed up the way it is now. The colonel was lying on the bed witha length of wire wound tight around his neck, his eyes staring. Theold man ran downstairs, woke the desk clerk, but neither of themfelt like coming back up. They tried to use the phone, but the lineseemed to be dead. It was working perfectly this morning, but we'lltake their word for it. The clerk ran out to call the police fromthe pay phone on the comer, while the old man hobbled across thesquare to a doctor's house. To make a long story short, they weregone for twenty minutes. When they got back, they waiteddownstairs, still frightened. Meanwhile, the doctor got dressed andarrived almost at the same time as the squad car. They went up totwenty-seven, and there was no one on the bed."

"What do you mean, noone?" Belbo asked.

"No corpse. The doctorwent home, and the police found only what you see here. Theyquestioned the old alcoholic and the clerk, and got the story Ijust told you. What of the two gentlemen who came in with Ardentiat ten o'clock? They could have left anytime between eleven andone, and nobody would have noticed. Were they still in the roomwhen the old man came in? Who knows? He stayed only a second,didn't look into the kitchen or the bathroom. Could they have leftwhile the clerk and the alcoholic were out calling for help? Didthey take the body with them? Not impossible. There's an outsidestaircase to the courtyard, and from the courtyard they could justwalk out the front door, which opens into a side street.

"More important, wasthere really a body? Or did the colonel go out with the two men¡Xatmidnight, say¡Xand the old alcoholic dreamed the whole thing? Theclerk says it wouldn't be the first time the old man saw thingsthat weren't there. A few years ago he saw a naked female guesthanged in her room, but half an hour later the woman came in, freshas a daisy, and on the old man's cot they found one of those S-Mmagazines. Who knows? Maybe he was peeping through the keyhole andsaw a curtain stirring in the shadows. All we know for sure is thatthis room has been searched and Ardenti is missing.

"But I've already talkedtoo much. Now it's your turn, Dr. Belbo. The only thing we foundwas a slip of paper on the floor by that little table, ¡¥2 P.M.Rakosky, Hotel Principe e Savoia; 4 P.M. Garamond, Dr. Belbo.' Yousay he did come to see you. Tell me what happened."

22

The knights of the Graalwanted to face no further questions.

¡XWolfram vonEschenbach, Parzival, XVI, 819

Belbo was brief. Herepeated what he had already said on the phone: The colonel hadtold a hazy story about discovering evidence of a treasure in somedocuments he had found in France, but he hadn't said much moreabout it. He seemed to think he was in possession of a dangeroussecret, and he wanted to make it public so he wouldn't be the onlyone who knew it. He mentioned the fact that others who haddiscovered the secret before him had disappeared mysteriously. Hewould show us the documents only if we guaranteed him a contract,but Belbo couldn't guarantee a contract without seeing somethingfirst. They vaguely agreed to get together again. The colonel hadspoken of a meeting with someone named Rakosky, describing him asthe editor of Les Cahiers du Mystere. The colonel wanted thisRakosky to write a preface for him, and apparently Rakosky hadadvised him to delay publication. The colonel hadn't told this manabout the appointment at Garamond. That was all.

"I see," De Angelissaid. "What sort of impression did he make on you?"

"He seemed an eccentricto us, and he spoke about his past in, well, an unrepentant tone.It included a spell in the Foreign Legion."

"He told you the truth,though not the whole truth. We were already keeping an eye on him,at least to some extent. We have so many such cases...First of all,Ardenti wasn't his real name, but he had a legitimate Frenchpassport. He started reappearing in Italy from time to time a fewyears ago, and was tentatively identified as a Captain Arcoveggi,sentenced to death in absentia in 1945. Collaboration with the SS.He sent some people to Dachau. They were keeping an eye on him inFrance, too. He was tried for fraud there, and just managed to getoff. We have an idea¡Xbut only an idea, mind you¡Xthat Ardenti atone point was calling himself Fassotti, that he's the Fassotti thata small industrialist in Peschiera Borromeo filed a complaintagainst last year. This Fassotti¡Xor Ardenti¡Xhad convinced theindustrialist that the treasure of Dongo, the legendary Fascistgold reserve, was still lying at the bottom of Lake Como. Fassotticlaimed to have identified the spot, and said all he needed was afew tens of millions of lire for a couple of divers and a powerboat. Once he had the money, he vanished. Now you confirm that hehad a kind of mania about treasures."

"And thisRakosky?"

"We checked. A VladimirRakosky was registered at the Principe e Savoia. French passport.Distinguished-looking gentleman. It matches the description theclerk here gave us. Alitalia says his name appears on the passengerlist for the first flight to Paris this morning. IVe alertedInterpol. Annunziata, anything come in from Paris?"

"Nothing so far,sir."

"And that's it. SoColonel Ardenti, or whatever his name is, arrived in Milan fourdays ago. We don't know what he did the first three, but yesterdayat two he presumably saw Rakosky at the hotel, didn't tell himabout going to see you¡Xwhich is interesting¡Xthen last night hecame here, probably with the same Rakosky and another man, andafter that your guess is as good as mine. Even if they didn't killhim, they certainly searched his room. What were they looking for?In his jacket...which reminds me, if he went out, it was inshirtsleeves, because the jacket with