laden with the scent of herbs and flowers.
'… so sudden…'
'… just heard today…'
'… such a dangerous city…'
'… not any more than here…'
'… with no friends, no family…'
'… perfectly capable of looking after…'
'… attacked or robbed, perhaps even…'
'… in a very safe area right in the…'
'… won't see you for…'
'… only a few weeks '
Finally they fell silent. The men gripped their lovers' arms, the woman leaned forward to be held and kissed.
The dissonant rumble of a horn sounded outside in the car park.
'That must be for us!' cried Orestina, pulling free of Gesualdo's embrace. 'It's time to go.'
She sounded shocked, as though the reality of departure had only just come home to her. Zen walked out on to the terrace.
'Come on, girls! The taxi's waiting!'
The two young couples hugged each other protectively.
'The flight closes in thirty minutes/ Zen insisted.
'Pasquale says he can't guarantee getting you there in time unless you leave right away.'
Gesualdo grasped Orestina tightly.
'Promise you'll call me every day.'
'Of course!' she replied.
'Call me twice, if you can/ Sabatino told Filomena.
Watching from the doorway, Zen felt torn between a desire to laugh at the intensity of their emotion, and an inexplicable melancholy quite out of keeping with the realities of a situation which, after all, he himself had engineered.
It was only when the women finally extricated themselves from their lovers' arms and turned to go that he finally understood that what he was witnessing was not the callow amateur dramatics of four self-obsessed young people who have to part for a few weeks.
Although none of them was aware of it, they were saying goodbye not just to each other, for a while, but to something infinitely more intimate and precious, and for ever.
XI
Gesualdo and Sabatino sat quite still at their table, staring at the ground as though in shock. They were still there when Aurelio Zen returned, having escorted Orestina and Filomena out to the waiting taxi.
'Where are they?' muttered Sabatino, looking up with a start.
'They've gone/ Zen told him.
'It's all so sudden!' Gesualdo exclaimed.
He seemed to be talking to himself. Zen sat down between them.
'Pull yourselves together, lads! It's not the end of the world. In fact, it might even be helpful.'
'Helpful?' said Gesualdo aggressively, all his emotion bursting out. 'And what's your interest in all this, anyway?'
Zen handed them each one of the cards he had had engraved in the name Alfonso Zembla.
'If you drop by here this evening between nine and ten, I'll tell you. And I'll also tell you a really easy way in which you can get yourself into the good graces of your sweethearts' mother.'
The men took the cards, but it was clear that their thoughts were elsewhere. Silence fell. Over to the east, above the city, an airplane lumbered laboriously into the pale azure sky, its engines straining at the seemingly impossible task of lifting such a massive weight. Gesualdo and Sabatino followed it with their eyes, willing it to succeed. The plane climbed steadily up through the clear, still air, out over the calm waters of the bay, its lights winking brightly against the deeper blue of the gathering dusk, then turned slowly in a wide circle over the shadowy outline of the peninsula and islands, heading north.
Gesualdo rose, followed by Sabatino. Without a word to Zen, they walked off across and into the restaurant.
Zen clicked his fingers to summon the waiter.
'Bring me the same again/ he told him. 'And a phone.'
When the phone arrived, on a long white cable, he called Valeria.
'They're on their way/ he said.
'How did it go?'
'The two lads seem to be taking it very hard, but that could work to our advantage. People who exaggerate their emotions are usually the first to change them.'
Outside the restaurant, Gesualdo and Sabatino walked over to their parked cars.
'I still can't believe it/ said Sabatino, shaking his head slowly.
'Maybe because it isn't true/ suggested Gesualdo.
Sabatino stopped dead, staring at him.
'What do you mean?'
A shrug.
'I don't know. But I don't quite buy this. The girls take off without any notice, supposedly to study English.
How do we know where they've gone?'
'We can call them/ said Sabatino.
Gesualdo shook his head.
'They didn't leave a number, did they? Or an address.
Just the name of some school that may not even exist, for all we know.'
'Filomena said she'd call me twice a day!' protested Sabatino.
'Yes, but from where? They could be anywhere in the country, or abroad for that matter. This could all be a ruse to get them out of our influence. I sense the fine hand of their mother in all this. And this Alfonso Zembla character gives me the creeps. Where did he spring from?' ''A friend of the family,' he said. I've never heard Filomena mention him before. And what's he doing here in Naples? With that accent, he has to be from somewhere in the North/ He took out the card Zen gave him and inspected the address.
'You think we should go?' he asked his friend.
'Of course. If this is some kind of set-up, Zembla has to be in on it. Maybe we can worm it out of him. He didn't seem that bright to me.'
Sabatino unlocked his car.
'Maybe we're getting a little carried away here/ he said with a loosening-up gesture of his right hand. 'That's the trouble with being in this line of work. You end up thinking that everyone's as devious as the people we hang out with.' 'I hope you're right.'
Sabatino got into his car.
'I'm going round to Dario's to play cards for a while, put my ear to the ground about this other business. You want to come?'
Gesualdo shook his head.
'I've got an appointment.'
'Business or pleasure?'
