‘A little-when I move.’
Behind him the door opened. I could sense his presence even before I became aware of the distinctive aroma of his Havana and then he moved into the light, his face dark and brooding, calm as always, Caesar Borgia sprung to life again, eternal and indestructible.
‘Do you think you’ll ever die?’
As if following my thought processes perfectly, he smiled. ‘So, he’s going to live on us, this grandson of mine, eh, Tasca?’
‘Oh, he will survive the bullet although much work will be needed on the shoulder if he is not to suffer some permanent stiffening.’ Dr. Tasca looked down at me in a kind of mild reproof. ‘You should not have used the arm, young man. That was unfortunate.’
I didn’t bother to argue and he turned back to my grandfather. ‘No, it is his general condition that worries me. Physically speaking he is balanced on the edge of a precipice. A slight nudge and he goes straight down.’
‘Hear that?’ My grandfather just prevented himself from prodding me with his stick. ‘You want to die young, eh?’
‘Can you make me a better offer?’
I tried to sound gay and flippant, but Tasca obvi-ously didn’t approve at all. ‘I understand you have been in prison.’
I nodded. ‘Of a kind-Egyptian labour camp variety.’
‘With the chain gang?’ His face for the first time registered some kind of concern. ‘Now we know.’ He turned again to my grandfather. ‘When he is on his feet he must come to me for a thorough examination, capo. He could well have tubercular lesions and there are definite signs of incomplete recovery from blackwater fever which could mean kidney damage. Not only will he need treatment, but careful nursing and rest- several months of complete inactivity.’
‘Thank you, Doctor Kildare,’ I said. ‘You’ve made my day.’
Tasca looked completely mystified by the remark, but in any event, my grandfather dismissed him. ‘Back to the girl now. I want to talk to my grandson alone.’
To my shame, it was only then that I consciously gave her a thought. ‘You’ve got Joanna Truscott here, too? How is she?’
He pulled a chair forward and sat down. ‘She’s doing all right, Stacey. Tasca’s a specialist in brain surgery- the best in Sicily. He brought a portable X-ray unit with him and gave her a thorough examination. She’s lucky-the skull isn’t fractured. She’ll have a bad scar, probably for life, but a good hairdresser can fix that.’
‘Shouldn’t she have gone to hospital?’
He shook his head. ‘No need. She couldn’t have better treatment if she did and it’s safer here.’
I tried to sit up, my stomach hollow. ‘Hoffer knows then?’
He pushed me gently back against the pillow. ‘Only that his stepdaughter is dead. Not officially, of course, so that the world can be told, but he’s spoken to me already on the telephone.’
‘And told you?’
He shook his head. ‘He asked for a General Council meeting tonight. He’s due here in half an hour.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘What General Council?’
‘Did you think I was Mafia all on my own, Stacey?’ He laughed. ‘Sure, I’m capo-capo in all Sicily-but the big decisions are made by the Council. We have the rules and they have to be obeyed. Even I can’t break them.’ He shrugged. ‘Without the rules we are nothing.’
The Honoured Society. I shook my head. ‘All right, maybe I’m not thinking too clearly, but I still don’t see what Hoffer is doing coming here.’
‘First you tell me what happened in the mountains. We go on from there.’
‘Are you trying to tell me you don’t know?’
‘Some only. Now be a good boy and do as I say.’
So I told him, in detail, including my various sus-picions about things from the beginning and he took it all without a sign, even my deliberately graphic de-scription of the massacre.
When I was finished, he sat there in silence for a mo-ment. ‘Why did you go, Stacey, that is what I can’t understand? You knew this man Burke was not being honest with you, you distrusted Hoffer, you knew that even I was not telling you the whole truth and yet you still went.’