* * *
Marek parked between the same two white vans, now being unloaded of decorations and tableware. They followed a man bearing flowers into the hotel lobby. The bouquet, a generous spread of cream-coloured lilies and green ferns, swayed a little obscenely as the man scampered up the steps. Marek, out of place in combat shorts, waited at the entrance and phoned the brothers. All about the lobby and the entrance staff prepped tables, windows, carpets, cleaned and arranged with practised focus. A wedding, without doubt.
A man came out of the hotel, brisk and direct, hand extended and asked Marek if he was the driver from Naples and was this the doctor. Marek shook the man’s hand and the man indicated that he should come with him.
* * *
They drove in silence down the mountain. Once they joined the autostrada Lanzetti began to ask questions.
‘Did he say how this happened?’
‘His nose? A fight.’
‘A fight?’
‘In a bar. I think he said.’
‘Did he say where?’
Marek said no. ‘It was broken?’
‘Yes, but not so bad. There is a bruise, a small swelling.’ Lanzetti unfolded his arms. ‘And how do you know these men?’
‘I don’t. They’ve asked me to drive them.’
‘You work for them?’
‘I will. They need a driver while they’re here.’
‘And you know what they do?’
‘I only met them today.’
‘So you know nothing about the fight? Because there were scratches. It would unusual for a man to scratch.’
‘He said it was a man.’
‘Perhaps he didn’t want to admit.’
Perhaps, they agreed, perhaps. Marek dropped Lanzetti at the palazzo then returned the car to English Tony. He walked back along via Tribunali, a small and indirect detour, but he wanted to think. It wasn’t his business what the brothers were doing, now they had guaranteed a steady two weeks of work.
* * *
When Lila woke she found herself at the Stromboli lying on her side on the mattress, the T-shirt twisted about her midriff, a clear enough memory of the journey back but nothing after they arrived. An argument swelled about her. Arianna’s voice rose hard above Rafí’s, insistent on one question. ‘My money. Where is the money? My money. I want my money. Where is my money?’
Rafí shouted back, face to face. ‘You think you can work now? You think anyone wants you?’
Why had they gone to the hospital without coming first to him? It was the wrong day for this. The men he owed money to would not be happy to know that he wasn’t in control of his women. ‘Do you have any idea what this means? How this makes me look?’ The difference between having something or nothing now depended on them.
Arianna settled on the bed, one argument streamed from her. Wasn’t he supposed to watch out for them? Wasn’t that the one small thing he was supposed to do?
Hands dug deep into his pockets, Rafí slipped back to the doorway.
Lila couldn’t work after the beating. Arianna insisted. ‘She can’t. It isn’t possible.’
Slumped back on the mattress Lila let the argument fly and felt the small room collapse about her.
* * *
She woke a second time to see Arianna lunge from the mattress and spit at Rafí. Rafí cowered and blocked her blows with his forearms. Arianna flailed, untiring. The dressing flapped loose from her wrist.
Throughout, awake or gone, Lila could feel the unending arrhythmic cough of Rafí’s dog. She’d let that dog free sometime. She and that dog would go separate ways. She’d rather see it dead than live out on the rooftop.
* * *
When she woke a third time the argument had shifted pace, and Arianna sat on the floor hugging her knees and Rafí leaned over her, swearing that he would find these men. He was emphatic. If Arianna knew where these men, these brothers, were now, where he could find them, he would kill them, he swore. He would find them and he would castrate them.
* * *
And later still Arianna sat with her head in her hands, sobbing, saying this is crazy, crazy. Alongside this, Rafí talking. It was the wrong day, entirely the wrong day, he had somewhere else to be, he was in default of a debt, the total, by default, now doubled. Lila and Arianna needed to understand this, because he couldn’t run around after them, waiting on them, doing the things that needed to be done for them all of the time. In any case the Stromboli was closing down, in two months they would be out of a place to live.
In her sleep Lila pawed at her arms, wanting to wake but unable to rouse: she recalled details of the assault with a terrifying clarity — the sour breath of the younger brother as he beat her and how boyishly happy her fear made him, how bold he became, how certain. How he drew on the cigar before he stamped it onto her skin. When she held up her arm to protect her face he grabbed her wrist and bit deep.
* * *
She woke with Arianna crouched over her, whispering, sobbing, eyes an unreadable black: ‘I can’t stay here. I’ll find somewhere. I will come back.’ Arianna stroked Lila’s hair, a roll of cash in her hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry.’ A kiss and a promise to return.
* * *
Peña returned the boy’s trophies: the small soldiers, a racing car, the diver with the yellow aqualung. She set them in a single line close to the door then returned to her apartment to call Salvatore to find out who these men were and exactly what had happened. But Salvatore was not at work and refused to answer her call, although she left message after message. ‘I’m not happy,’ she said. ‘I was very specific that there should be no trouble with the residents. Tell them that I want to speak with them.’ But she knew, even as she spoke, that these words were nothing more than a gesture.
* * *
The toys remained in place for the entire day. Afterward, the only sounds to come from the apartment came from Arturo Lanzetti, and slowly Peña came to realize that Anna Soccorsi and her son Sami were gone.
FRIDAY: DAY F
Paola wasn’t sure she could find the time. Today? Tonight? This weekend, she excused herself, she had plans, work to complete. He could see for himself. All of that, that right there. All of those clothes needed stitching, they weren’t going to do themselves. And when she was done it would start again on Monday. Marek couldn’t believe his ears. He laid out the brochure, pointed to the hotel. Was she crazy, or being deliberately stupid? This was a five-star hotel with a spa, a swimming pool, a gym, a chef of international renown, with three fully-staffed restaurants one of which sat on a promontory with a view of the entire gulf, and all of it was for free. The brothers were away for the weekend, and they could use their room. Why was she was turning her nose up at the opportunity, except to be spiteful?
He expected a denial, but no, Paola admitted, if that’s how he chose to see it, that’s probably how it was. But think about it, she said, whoever gives anything away for free? Things that looked too good to be true, as a rule, are pretty much always too good to be true. ‘We aren’t the kind of people who get given things for nothing.’
* * *
Out of his building Marek saw the magistrate’s driver again waiting beside the car. The car was parked in almost the same place and the man adopted the same position — leaning against the car door with his arms folded. The difference this time was that the man faced Marek’s building, and not the magistrate’s. The driver’s expression appeared stern and focused, expectant. Aware that he was being watched Marek stepped into the café and decided to take a coffee.