Sciascia Leonardo — The Day of the Owl [169]

For some minutes, ever since the woman had shown sudden alarm, the sergeantmajor’s face had been frozen into an expression of baleful incredulity. That, according to him, had been the moment to put on the screw, to frighten her enough to force it out of her, that name or nickname. Sure as God, she had it stamped on her memory. The captain, on the other hand, was being kinder than ever. … ‘Who does he think he is? Arsene Lupin?’ thought the sergeantmajor, whose reading days were so far behind him that he mistook burglar for policeman. — Sciascia Leonardo, The Day of the Owl, 169

Note

The colliding methods of the two investigators in a single passage: the sergeantmajor reads the moment as an opportunity for coercion, the captain as one for patience; the Arsene Lupin joke doubles as a comment on how each man’s professional literacy shapes what he can see.