He asks Mimi' Augello to dig into Grasso's Rome alibi. Mimi' returns with a photograph: Grasso having dinner with a younger woman. Not his wife. His mistress—who, by coincidence, wears a size 36 shoe.
The next morning, a frantic call comes in from Fazio. A woman, thirty-five-year-old architect named Laura Patanè, has been reported missing from Vigàta's new marina development. Her husband, a wealthy contractor named Rinaldo Grasso, claims she left for a walk three days ago and never returned. Grasso is building a luxury resort directly over an ancient Greek necropolis—illegal, dangerous, and very profitable. Il Commissario Montalbano S01-15 -720p Ita--Mir...
Grasso laughs. "Superstitious nonsense." He asks Mimi' Augello to dig into Grasso's Rome alibi
He returns to the necropolis at midnight with Fazio and a portable ultrasound device borrowed from the local hospital. Behind a false wall in tomb number seven, they find not gold, but a fresh concrete slab. Inside, wrapped in a tarp and sealed with a replica "Seal of the Fifth Moon" (placed there by Grasso as a sick, ironic gesture), is the body of Laura Patanè. She had discovered Grasso was using the ancient tombs as a dumping ground for toxic construction waste. His mistress—who, by coincidence, wears a size 36 shoe
Montalbano interviews Grasso in his glass-and-steel office overlooking the construction site. Grasso is too calm. He offers coffee, he offers a bribe disguised as a "donation to the police fund," and he offers an alibi: he was in Rome the night his wife disappeared. Montalbano accepts the coffee, refuses the bribe, and pockets a business card he finds under the saucer.
In the final scene, Montalbano confronts Grasso at the police station. The contractor sneers. "You have no direct evidence. The vase is a copy. The shoe could be anyone's."
Later, in the station, Catarella bursts in with his usual mangling of a name: "Commisa'! There's a... a 'signorina' callin' herself the Spoon of the Dead on the line!"
