“No.” Bettina shook her head. It was a bit despondent, but definite. “I’ve written to my folks I’d be on the afternoon plane today. I can’t disappoint them; they’re expecting me.”
“Call them!” Valadares was suprised by his own vehemence.
She smiled again, pityingly this time, for his lack of understanding. “They have no telephone.”
“Tell me where they live,” Joaquim said, suddenly determined not to let this girl out of his life. “I’ll call my — my office and have one of the girls — one of the secretaries, that is — get in touch with your people and tell them—”
“No.” Bettina shook her head. “You don’t know my mother. No.” She came to her feet, obviously reluctantly, and looked around at the luxury of the pool and its surroundings as if savoring it for future enjoyable memories. She turned to him and held out her hand. “It’s been a real pleasure, Joaquim; you’ll never know. And thank you for a lovely lunch.”
For a moment Valadares was speechless. Then he came to his feet quickly, taking her hand and squeezing it. “I’ll go with you,” he said, quite surprised to hear the words come from his lips. And yet it was so obviously the thing to do he wondered at his surprise.
“To the airport?”
“To Paraíso.” The devil with the reception that evening! He’d apologize tomorrow and say he’d had a cold.
Bettina was staring at him. “To Paraíso?”
“That’s right.”
“But... but that’s ridiculous.”
“Not to me it isn’t,” Joaquim said, and felt more alive than he had for years. “Having an office here and there always gives a man an excuse for traveling.” He took her arm possessively. “Where are your bags?”
“They’ll be... they’ll be sent on by the girl I room with. She... she knows I’m going.”
“Fine!” Joaquim said, and squeezed her arm affectionately, feeling the familiar stirring in his loins as he did so. What a woman! “Then there’s nothing to stop us leaving right now...”
“Just a phone call I have to make.” She gave him a smile that melted him. “I’ll have my roommate call some friends of mine in Paraíso. They’ll get word to my mother I’ll be home on time, and that they don’t have to plan on meeting me...”
It was dusk when the twin-engined prop plane settled itself on the main runway of the Paraíso airport, and quite dark by the time Valadares had completed the renting of a car. He was careful to avoid the acceptance of a Volkswagen, although his plans at the moment were extremely hazy. He was familiar with the Airport Hotel, adjoining the terminal building, but Bettina had made it clear that she was known there — as well as in any other hotel in town — and that her reputation was important. As it was to Joaquim, too, he suddenly realized.
He felt like a boy on an adventure; he could not recall ever having felt this feeling of lightheadedness, although somewhere in his youth, he felt, he must have. He got behind the wheel of the rented car and drove around the corner to where Bettina had insisted upon waiting for him. She seemed a bit pale and looked about before entering the car, clutching her handbag nervously, but they were quite alone. The rest of the passengers on the last flight from Rio had long since disappeared. Joaquim smiled to himself. Was it possible she was a virgin? Very doubtful, but this certainly did not make her any less desirable. He looked at her, sure of the answer before he even asked the question.
“Do you have to go right home?”
Bettina wet her lips and hesitated. Then she drew a deep breath. “No,” she said. “Not right away.”
“Good,” Joaquim said, and leaned across her to reach her door and close it. His arm with intent pressed against her full breasts; she gasped involuntarily. Joaquim closed the door and sat back, looking at her intently. Her head was bowed, staring at her hands clasped in her lap. She seemed to be thinking.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to a hotel?”
“I’m sure,” Bettina said in a low voice.
“All right,” Joaquim said. He put the car into gear and pulled from the terminal building. He drove the length of the driveway at slow speed; Bettina moved closer and placed her hand on his thigh. “I’m sorry. It’s just as I told you, though. I’m too well known in this town. There would be a lot of talk.”
Valadares nodded; it was an argument he could understand. He brought the car to a full stop at the intersection with the main road, braked to keep the car motionless, and looked at Bettina. She tightened the grip on her handbag.
“To the left,” she said in a muffled voice. “I know a deserted road down by the lake...”
Joaquim swung the wheel, feeling a sense of fulfillment almost unique in his vast experience. Just that morning he had been in Rio de Janeiro with no thought of being elsewhere, with plans for the day and the evening, and here he was in a car in a town a thousand miles away with a girl he hadn’t known before but who he expected to know very well in the future. Who would have dreamed it? It was the sort of fantasy he used to indulge in as a boy when the thought of having a woman was the biggest thing he could think of. But that was a long time ago. It was also a long time since he had made love in a car, but with this girl any time and anyplace would be fine. And if she was anywhere near as good as he knew she’d be, he’d clear up this nonsense of her family in short order and take her back to Rio with him. He put his free arm about her, steering with one hand, allowing his other hand to creep up from her waist to her bodice, first gently touching and then fondling the full breast, wondrously soft and yet firm. He felt her shiver and press against him, knowing she was as anxious for the union as he was. Suddenly she pointed.
“There.”
Valadares nodded and turned the wheel. The road exhibited in the steady beam of the headlights was unpaved but seemed to have been recently scraped. A series of towers ran beside the road, steel skeletons carrying high-tension wires aloft. To the left of the road, across from the towers and their invisible burden, water shimmered. The lake, Joaquim thought, and felt a surge of passion. Soon, soon... He turned to look at Bettina for further instructions and found to his amusement that she seemed to be counting the towers.
“Here,” she said suddenly, and pointed.
Joaquim smiled and pulled from the road. He drew to one side, behind the tower and out of sight of anyone driving along the deserted road. He cut the ignition and turned off the lights. In the darkness he turned to her, putting his arms around her, drawing her close for that first, most important kiss. Their lips had barely brushed when Bettina drew back.
“Wait,” she said in a whisper, squeezing his hand. “I’ll be right back...”
“Of course,” Valadares said in understanding, and released her. She pressed his hand again in silent promise and slid from the car, clutching her purse. She closed the door softly behind her, causing the dashboard light to go out, and disappeared into the darkness. Joaquim Saldanha Valadares took a deep breath of anticipation and loosened his necktie. Several minutes ticked by; to Joaquim they seemed an eternity. And then there was a fumbling at the car door and he turned with a broad smile on his face. The door swung open and the dashboard light came on. Joaquim froze.
Two men faced him; both with guns. One was looking down at his wrist.
“You have one minute to say your prayers,” the man said.
Chapter 5
From the top of the long sloping hill, the caatinga surrounding the city of Paraíso spread itself before the two men in panoramic fashion. With the rains of the recent weeks, the brown earth had sprung to life; the ground was carpeted with amaryllis, umbú and colorful mulungú, startling with their large vermilion flowers, dotting the rolling terrain. In the distance the city itself could be seen, ancient red-tiled roofs competing with flat apartment-building water tanks for precedence; the gardens surrounding the Hospital das Clínicas a green oasis on the east end of the town, the spire of the church in the Praça Miguel Couto, the highest point in the city, reflecting back the sun. People moved in the cobbled streets like ants at that distance; beyond the town the lake ran in a westerly manner, the tall transmission towers skirting it like matchstick construction when seen from that far away. To the south, above the distant airport, a small plane droned incessantly in the clear pale sky like a tiny angry bird.