The breakthrough didn't come from DNA or forensics, but from Massimo’s memory of a specific jar of pickled mushrooms he’d seen in the back of the local parish priest's kitchen—mushrooms gifted by a disgruntled local fisherman whose land was being seized for the developer’s parking lot.

Commissario Vittoria Fusco arrived, looking like she hadn’t slept since the late nineties. She immediately banned the elders from the crime scene, which, naturally, meant they spent the afternoon spying through high-powered binoculars from the bar’s terrace.

In the sleepy, salt-crusted town of Pineta, the morning air was usually filled with the scent of espresso and the rhythmic grumbling of the "four horsemen" of the BarLume. But today, the atmosphere was as stiff as a day-old focaccia.