Ettore Balletto's suicide

Ettore Balletto’s suicide is confirmed in a quiet domestic scene, where Mario Satta reports that Ettore sat on the ledge of his eighth-floor office for half an hour before deciding to jump. The account also reveals that the police asked Rika Balletto to intervene and that she laughed instead. The contrast between the prolonged hesitation at the window and her abrupt response makes the death both a concrete fact and a measure of how far their relationship had changed.

The News at Dusk

The news reaches Mario Satta and Guido Arrellio at the end of an ordinary evening. They have been sitting on the terrace as the late-afternoon sun sinks toward the horizon, watching the colors change around the bay. Guido is due to prepare dinner; when the phone rings, however, he has gone into the kitchen to chop vegetables. The call comes from Milan for Satta, and he returns after a long conversation with the news that Ettore Balletto has committed suicide.

The setting gives the report an unceremonious stillness. The men had been sharing a quiet interval, and the call interrupts that pause rather than arriving amid a confrontation. Satta’s brief announcement prompts Guido to ask whether he is certain. Satta nods and answers that there is no question: Ettore sat on the window ledge of his eighth-floor office for half an hour before making up his mind. The detail makes the death a drawn-out decision rather than an instantaneous act, while the height and exposed ledge give the report its precise, irreversible setting.

The Police Call and Rika’s Response

Satta adds that, while Ettore was still trying to decide, the police telephoned Rika and asked her to come down and talk him out of it. According to Satta, she said nothing to them; she simply laughed. This revelation sharpens the scene’s central contrast: Ettore’s half-hour of hesitation is set against Rika’s refusal to answer the appeal in the way the police hoped. The account does not explain her laughter or claim to establish what she felt. Its force comes from the fact of the response and from the silence Satta places around it.

The news is discussed while Guido and Satta work together. After Satta tells him what Rika did, the two resume their task, and Satta describes her as strange and very beautiful. Guido looks up, apparently puzzled, begins to say something, then shrugs and returns to work. That small exchange does not resolve the meaning of Rika’s conduct; instead, it leaves the response open and unsettling. Satta’s description, Guido’s half-formed reaction, and the resumed work keep the account within the ordinary room and evening rather than turning it into a public declaration or a confrontation.

Significance of the Account

Satta characterizes Ettore as a man who was always vacillating. In the context of the death, that judgment echoes the half-hour on the ledge, but it remains Satta’s assessment, not an explanation of Ettore’s motive. The scene confirms the manner of death and supplies a final interval of indecision; it does not disclose what Ettore thought during that interval or why he chose suicide.

The episode’s restraint matters. Guido asks for confirmation, Satta supplies the time and place, and the police request and Rika’s laughter follow as reported facts. No rescue, reconciliation, or account of Rika’s intentions is added. The call from Milan therefore changes the tenor of the terrace scene without displacing its quiet rhythm: dusk, the unfinished meal, and work resumed after the news frame a death that cannot be undone, while the unanswered appeal to Rika leaves its personal consequences unresolved.