Jack Higgins – In the Hour Before Midnight

‘Everything to Joanna.’

‘Exactly, except that under the terms of the trust he was next in line if the girl died before coming into her inheritance. Once she came of age, he was finished. She could make a will on the spot, leave it to charity or some obscure cousin-anything. No point in even kill-ing her then.’

He got to his feet and moved to the window and stood there, a dark shadow again. ‘But he wasn’t simply motivated by greed in his desire to lay hands on his stepdaughter’s fortune. He was afraid. He faced a death sentence. He used our money, Mafia money, in various bullion deals, mainly in Egypt, hoping to make a personal killing. Unfortunately someone tipped off the authorities. On two occasions his boats were caught red-handed.’

‘Someone informed the authorities? Someone called Vito Barbaccia?’ I laughed until I started to choke and he hurried to my bedside and poured water into a glass. I gulped some down and handed the glass back to him. At least I’d made him look anxious.

‘It’s really damned ironic, isn’t it?’ I told him. ‘Didn’t you know that I was in one of those boats? That’s how I came to be in an Egyptian prison?’

For once in his life I’d stopped him cold. A hand stretched out towards me, there was utter dismay on his face. ‘Stacey,’ he stammered. ‘What can I say? I did this to you?’

‘Forget it,’ I said. ‘It’s too funny to be tragic. Now let me have the next thrilling instalment.’

He sank down into his chair again, obviously still shaken. ‘All right. Hoffer had to have his chance to re-coup so that the Society shouldn’t suffer. The Council met to consider his case. He confessed frankly, but tried to make out that the deals had been intended to benefit the Society. Not that it did him any good. Even if that was the truth, he’d had no authority from the Council to proceed. He admitted his liability and asked for time to get the money together.’

‘And time was given?’

‘There was no reason to refuse. He told the Council that under the terms of his wife’s will, he had been left substantial business interests in America. That he could realise these within two or three months and have more than enough money to put things right.’

‘And the Council believed him?’

‘Why should he lie? If he didn’t come up with the money he would be taken care of, no matter where he tried to run.’

‘But you knew he was lying?’

He nodded tranquilly. ‘The true measure of Hoffer’s stupidity lies in the fact that he can’t accept that an old Sicilian peasant is smarter than he is. I’ve always been one step in front of him-always. I saw a photostat of his wife’s will, even before he knew the terms.’

‘Why didn’t you tell the Council?’

‘I was interested. I wanted to see what he would come up with.’

‘And be one step ahead of him as usual? You knew that his solution was to get rid of his stepdaughter be-fore she came of age?’

‘Let us say that after having seen the actual will, it had occurred to me as a likely possibility. Later, I got wind of the business with Serafino, of how it had gone wrong.’

‘And then I turned up and brought you up to date.’ I was getting angry again. ‘If you knew the girl was with Serafino because she wanted to stay out of Hoffer’s way till her birthday, you must have known that the pur-pose of our little foray into the mountains as outlined to me was a lie. That the only reason there could pos-sibly be for going in there was to destroy her.’ My voice had risen slightly. ‘What in the hell did you think was going to happen when we got there and I found out, or did you think I was lying to you? Did you think I’d become a murderer of young girls?’

‘Don’t be stupid, Stacey,’ he said coldly. ‘You are my flesh-I know you. That kind of deed we leave to the Hoffers and the Burkes of this world. Men without honour.’

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