A Quiet Provincial Town

VERONICA…

VERONICA…

It’s dark. While honest citizens are enjoying a well-deserved rest in the tranquility of their apartments, in some areas of the city people are living an alternative life. They are the homeless, d**g addicts, drunks, prostitutes, viados, immigrants who are more or less illegal and characters without a permanent job or fixed address. In Jesi the beating heart of this type of society is the area between the railway station and the bus terminal, and the sinkholes of this human scum, able to welcome it without vomiting it, are represented by the al fresco areas of the bar in Piazzale Porta Valle and the benches under the trees that are almost totally in darkness, where the light from the street lamps barely arrives or not at all. It is not uncommon to see a drunken p********e there, sprawled on a bench with her bare butt on display, in the same position she was in after the encounter with her last client, who has perhaps left her like that without even paying her.

It is well past midnight and the shutter of the pizzeria bar has been halfway down for over half an hour. Veronica, forty-year-old Police Superintendent, a glorious past as an Olympic fencing champion, is leaning against the side of her black sedan. The smoke of the cigarette joins her condensed breath and the fog of the late autumn night that softens the silhouettes of people and things. A black p********e approaches her.

"For 20 Euro I can give you an o****m, better than a man."

"Piss off!" she replies, showing the badge. "You're lucky that I’m busy tonight, otherwise you’d be spending the night in a cell."

"Give me a cigarette, then."

Veronica throws away the butt, searches in her pockets, lights the last of the pack, and then crumples it and throws on the ground.

"As you can see, I don't have any more. Get lost!" and emphasizes these last words by blowing smoke straight into her face and staring at her with the fiercest look she is able to muster.

One of the few working street lamps turns on and off intermittently, almost as if it is controlled by a strange clockwork mechanism; the light bulb has arrived at the end of the line but it will be some time before a municipality worker comes by to replace it. Taking advantage of the darkness and fog, the gypsy with long gray hair and wide-brimmed hat unloads his bladder behind the silhouette of a parked bus, then returns under the awning of the bar, drains his glass and starts staggering towards his bicycle. Three turns of the pedals and he falls head over heels to the ground, gets up and is lost in the fog. Every evening, no one knows if he manages to get to his caravan unharmed, down at the bottom of the industrial area, but the following day he turns up punctually to beg for money, alcohol and cigarettes.

Veronica pulls her leather jacket tighter to protect herself from the cold and damp. And suddenly, her attention is now focused on the two figures that are coming out from under the shutter of the bar. Leonardo, engineer Leonardo Albini, is in the company of a tall amber-skinned girl, miniskirt, long legs and breasts so puffed up with hormones and silicone that they could explode at any moment.

The beanpole, rather than a she, is still a he. He has something dangling between his legs for sure! Veronica thinks, but is not too interested in it. The one who interests her is Leonardo, that construction engineer with the pretense of becoming a private investigator. And of course, he’s always in contact with the local underworld, who better than him could nab criminals?

Leonardo says goodbye to the viado, who goes off in the direction of Via Setificio, while he heads towards Porta Valle and into the historic center. Veronica follows him trying to stay at a distance, but the man disappears into the meanders of the alleyways.

A man with a strong Eastern European accent approaches her from behind and triggers a switchblade.

"It’s not a good idea for a woman to wander around here alone!"

Not at all intimidated, the policewoman performs a pirouette and, thanks to a well-aimed kick, disarms her potential aggressor.

"And not for a man either, especially if he harasses the wrong people!"

And for that night it’s done, she has lost sight of her target, she hasn’t been able to verify his connivance and complicity with the criminals of the southern area of Jesi, which was once considered a quiet provincial town. Might just as well go back to the base. With the certainty that sooner or later Leonardo will slip up. Pure fantasy? Or maybe she is secretly and unknowingly in love with him, who knows!

The local newspapers the next day, a day characterized by a pale sun peeping through the blanket of fog, report the news of yet another crime

Jesi. In the Porta Valle area a viado was attacked and stabbed. Promptly rescued by Engineer Albini, who happened to be passing by, he will need 10 days to recover. But where is the Police?