you!'
'A vital one,' I said into her hair. 'I'll see he's useful.'
I was thinking, by the time she realized exactly how vital, I'd be a thousand miles away from Rome and in the clear. Like I say, sometimes I'm just too thick for words, but you can't be right all the time.
* * *
On the way to the Emporium for my late stint I popped into the church on the Borgo San Spirito. It's one of the churches still burning honest-to-God candles instead of those gruesome candle-shaped electric sticks they have in Rome nowadays which for a hundred lire give you a few minutes of electron-powered devotional flicker.
Feeling vaguely embarrassed by the novelty I lit five candles, stuck them in the holders and knelt down. I won't tell you everything I said, but I promised God I'd take Arcellano alive. Then, mumbo-jumbo done with, I emerged blinking at the sun—and saw Anna across the road and waved. To my relief, she was smiling and nodding, so I knew the clever girl had got it, that dark old-fashioned brownish bottle from the chemist's shop by the Via del Mascherino. All systems go.
That evening Adriana and I stayed at the Emporium. It was the oddest sensation, climbing the forbidden stairs and seeing Adriana move about the bedroom as if we'd been together there all our lives. Adriana tried to act casual but I saw her hand tremble as she hung up her stole and I realized that bringing me here was a big thing for her.
Another worry.
She insisted on making us both coffee and bringing it over to me. She'd taken my jacket and sat me on the couch, promising to show me around once I'd become accustomed to the idea of being alone with a rapacious woman. I smiled to show I too was solemnly concentrating on lightness of heart.
'New locks,' I observed.
'The stair door? Yes. There are so many thefts nowadays, darling.' She swept her hair from her face. 'I thought it was wiser.'
Which meant that Piero's key was now obsolete.
'Adriana. Will you get in trouble?'
She concentrated on not spilling the cream. 'With Emilio? Hardly. You saw, Lovejoy.
Him and that creature Fabio. It's beyond a woman's control.'
'Piero, then? He's the sort to play hell.'
She only had one lamp lit, that lovely minareted Garian case which dappled gold about the room. Her face was silhouetted in a deep bronze fire. She was sitting beside my chair, looking away. I'd never seen anything so wondrous in all my life as that miracle of line and form. Sorrow enveloped me. What a mess it all was, the whole fucking rip.
She said rather sadly, 'He can be got rid of.' The words were so matter-of-fact I hardly took them in at the time, especially as she continued talking with her head on my knee and her breast against me. 'Are you married, Lovejoy?'
That took me by surprise. 'Rescued.'
Her eyes deflected, all casual. 'A dragon?'
I thought a bit. 'A pretty laser.'
'So sometimes you too plan badly.' She continued, 'How could I have known about you, Lovejoy? You weren't here.' I suppressed exasperation at the bitterness in her voice. I hadn't known about her, either. Nor that Marcello would be murdered. 'A woman needs a man.' She turned quickly to loan me a half-smile, an on-account sort of expression.
'Not as badly as a man needs a woman. You've taught me that, Lovejoy. With you it's one hundred per cent yourself. The rest is incidental.' She indicated the apartment vaguely. 'This. The money, the firm. With Piero it was a percentage. And the others were the same.'
I returned her defiant look trying to smile. It was a hell of an effort. She was so lovely.
'People make allowances for men.' Bravely she explained, 'A woman taking a lover is a hedonistic bitch. A rich gentleman is merely a roue, a gay old dog. And it's women do the damage—at least, in Rome it is. They're on to you like wolves.'
'What now?' I asked after a pause.
'Now?' She raised her lovely head and smiled. 'You've come at last, Lovejoy.' She smiled gently and reached back to ruffle my neck. 'I don't care what you've done in the past, darling. I take you as you are. And you'll please forgive the measures I've taken while enduring the long, terrible waiting.'
Until then I'd been absolutely determined to go back to Anna's divan. Honestly, I really had. The trouble is, women can be very assertive. I'd be well-balanced and even-tempered all of the time if it weren't for them. So I stayed. I swear it wasn't anything in the way of a deal between Adriana and me. Honestly it wasn't. Adriana in her mind had simply given Piero the push, that was all there was to it. I knew divorce from Emilio was out of the question for Adriana. I sighed inwardly. I'd have to give Anna the excuse that I was working on the rip. Anyway, this couldn't last.
What a mess it all seemed. I'd have stopped to work it all out, but now there was no time left anywhere. The rip was upon us. Here. Now.
CHAPTER 22
Teaching Carlo the rip was like talking to a frigging wall.
'Repeat it,' I said wearily for the umpteenth time.
'Lissern, you guys,' Carlo ground out, flicking ash into his own coffee by mistake. 'This is the plan, see?' He did a Cagney hunch-up and chewed gum. 'We cruise into the saloon—'
