Street of the Five Moons (26 page)

I didn’t dare open my eyes, but my ears were tuned to their highest pitch. After a suspenseful moment Luigi trotted out of the room; his light, athletic footsteps could not be mistaken for anyone else’s. As soon as he was gone, the principessa began to speak soothingly, as if she were trying to bring me out of my faint. But she spoke German.

“There is only one hope. We must fetch the count here. He is at the palazzo, in Rome. Think.”

I groaned artistically, and muttered in the same language,

“The boy hates his father. What good—”

“These thugs — there is another man, in the hall — they will obey their master. All this happened last night after I had drugged Pietro. It was a mistake, I admit it; but they were willing to take orders from me until the boy defied me. It is a feudal feeling, you understand. He is the heir. If we can reach Pietro, he will not—”

In her distress she slipped, and mentioned a name. “Pietro” sounds the same in any language. Bruno cleared his throat.

“Why do you speak of the master? Do not speak. I do not trust you.”

“She is delirious,” Bianca said. “She asked for the count; she could not believe he would let this happen. You know, Bruno—”

“I obey the young master,” Bruno said sullenly.

“But he has not told you to injure the signorina,” John said suddenly. “He has gone to get medicine to help her. Hark — I think she calls me!”

“John,” I moaned obediently. “Oh, John—”

“There, you see? Don’t shoot, Bruno, old chap, I’m just going to hold her hand.” He dropped to one knee beside the couch. At close range his face looked even worse. “The
Fernsprecher
, you bloody idiot,” he said tenderly. “
Mio tesoro, mein Liebchen
…”

He broke off abruptly as Luigi came trotting back.

“What is going on?” he demanded. “Bruno, you let them speak, you let them—”

“You did not tell me they could not speak together,” Bruno exclaimed.

“Never mind. You, Smythe, back to your chair. Here are the smelling salts. Is she—”

“I’m better now,” I murmured. The incredible young creature was bending over me, looking genuinely worried. I smiled at him. “Thank you, Luigi. You are kind.”

He helped me to sit up and hovered anxiously while Bianca waved the smelling salts under my nose. I sneezed.

“You are very good,” I said, blinking at Luigi. “I know you don’t want to hurt me, Luigi. I can’t lie to you. I respect you too much. That call to Munich… it wasn’t the important call. There is someone else I must reach. If I don’t call him, he will open the envelope I left with him.”

“Who? A lawyer?” Luigi asked. “The police?”

“A lawyer,” I said.

“Then call him. Now. Quickly.”

I dragged myself up off the couch and went with faltering steps toward the phone. Then a thought hit me, and I really did falter. I didn’t know the number of the palazzo.

I turned a horrified face toward John, who had returned to his chair and was watching me intently.

It might not have been ESP, just plain common sense. But ever since that moment I’ve had a sneaking, half-shamed belief in thought transference. John folded his arms and began holding up fingers.

Thank God we’re on the decimal system. I don’t know how we would have managed with a system of twelves, like the Babylonians used. All eyes were on me, so nobody noticed John’s contortions, which were done with considerable skill. The only number that gave him any trouble was nine.

The system worked fine, but I dialed slowly, because I needed time to think. There were so many obstacles to be overcome. The first one was the fact that Pietro probably wouldn’t answer the phone himself.

He didn’t. The voice was that of his butler, very smooth and impersonal. Obviously I couldn’t ask for Pietro.

“This is Signorina Bliss speaking,” I said slowly. “I am calling for Sir John.”

Luigi, who had recovered his gun from Bruno, looked at me suspiciously. I smiled and nodded at him. After all, he couldn’t know what arrangements I had made with the fictitious lawyer. It was not surprising that I should mention John’s name.

The butler might or might not be in on the plot, but he certainly knew about John.

“Sir John?” he repeated, forgetting his dignity. “Is it Sir John Smythe that you speak of, signorina?”

“That’s right.”

“But then you will wish to speak to his Excellency.”

“That’s right too.”

“I will call him. Please to wait, signorina.”

“Thank you,” I said, trying not to gasp with relief. I turned to Luigi. “The secretary is calling him to the phone.”

“Be very quick,” said Luigi suspiciously. “No tricks.”

He pointed the gun at John, who folded his arms and tried to look inconspicuous.

Then the familiar high-pitched voice came on.

“Vicky? Vicky, is that you?”

“Yes, that’s right; Signorina Bliss. I am with Sir John.” Pietro started to splutter. I raised my voice and went on talking. This was the dangerous moment. There was a chance Luigi might recognize the familiar paternal shout. “No, everything is fine; we’re having a drink with Bianca and some people she knows, having a nice time…. You must meet her some time, she’s anxious to meet you. I can’t talk now; my friends won’t let me.”

I hung up and smiled brightly at Luigi.

Perhaps he had half recognized Pietro’s voice, or perhaps he was affected by the tension that gripped the rest of us. He scowled.

“That did not sound right,” he said. “If you have tricked me, signorina…”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “I admire you too much. Luigi, I wish you would tell me how you learned to do goldworking. You are such an all-around genius; just like Cellini, only better.”

This time the flattery didn’t work.

“There is no time to talk,” Luigi said. “I must — I must act.”

The trouble was, he didn’t really know what to do. He didn’t have Bianca’s experience or intelligence, he had simply flipped his lid and flown into action, and a bizarre combination of circumstances had put him in temporary control of a situation he could not handle. He would be caught sooner or later, but by the time the police or his father stopped him, a lot of people would be dead — including me.

I’m sure the Freudians could glibly account for Luigi’s breakdown. His father’s dislike and contempt, his mother’s death (I assumed she was dead, since nobody even mentioned her), the succession of cheap women who had replaced her in his father’s life…. It doesn’t matter; nobody really knows why some people crack and some don’t.

“What are you going to do?” John asked, nervously eyeing the gun that was waving around six inches from his head.

“I suppose I will have to kill you,” Luigi said uncertainly. “I regret, Signorina Bliss; you have been
simpatico
, but you understand—”

“There is an alternative,” I said. “You’ve been so busy you probably haven’t had time to think about it.”

“What is that?” Luigi asked.

How long would it take Pietro to get from the palazzo to the Gianicolo? It was after five, rush hour in Rome; the traffic would be appalling.

“We could make a deal,” I said, with my most engaging smile. “Bianca is already involved; she doesn’t want to go to the police. I’m sure she would be happy to continue in her present role — under your direction, of course. The same thing applies to — er — Sir John.”

“And you, signorina?” Luigi asked. “You are a scholar, an honorable lady. You came here to stop us. My father told me so.”

Here we were, back on the rotten ice. The wrong word, the false step… I couldn’t be too obvious about my change of heart. Paradoxically, the boy’s respect for me depended on that honorable facade I had presented to him.

“It is difficult for me,” I said truthfully. “But there are circumstances where the ordinary rules of conduct do not apply. There are men who stand outside the conventions of society. You are such a man, Luigi. How can I presume to judge you?”

“You are right,” said Luigi modestly.

He stood pondering. I risked a glance at John, and what I saw made my breath catch. He hadn’t forgotten the gun, which was now dangling in perilous proximity to his body; but his eyes were narrowed with amusement. As I caught his eye it closed in a wink, and the corners of his no longer well-shaped mouth quivered.

“But the woman,” Luigi said suddenly. “I killed her, you know. The filthy whore, she took my mother’s jewels — lived in her room…. She had no right. And when she came to me, laughing at me, and yet touching me, stroking me, as if she wanted…” His lips curled in savage disgust. “I killed her and she deserved it. But… I didn’t mean to, you know. I only meant to stop her, shut her dirty mouth. She was saying such things….”

I forgot discretion in sheer pity.

“Luigi, I understand. You won’t have to go to prison. There are doctors. You are sick, you can’t help—”

“Foul,” John said suddenly.

It was too late. I had seen my mistake too, but I couldn’t take the words back.

“So that is what you think,” Luigi whispered. “You think I am mad. You want to lock me up in a… They had my mother in one of those places. I remember. I remember how she wept when she came home for a visit, and my father forced her to go back….”

Well, there it was. A nice facile textbook explanation. I had thought the dowager’s concern for Luigi’s health was only grandmotherly fussing. She had reason to worry. Whether his problem was congenital or not, having a mother who had to be confined in an institution hadn’t done the boy’s mental health any good.

Poor old Bruno was staring at the boy in bewilderment. Luigi’s face was unrecognizable. He was crying, but the tears didn’t dim his vision. The gun was pointed straight at me.

It wavered when we heard an automobile horn blare and the crunch of gravel as a heavy car screeched into the driveway. I had just time enough to damn Pietro — why hadn’t he brought a couple of police cars, with sirens? — when John came up out of his chair like a jack-in-the-box. His shoulder knocked the boy’s arm up, and the bullet whined over my head. Not for the first time, I regretted my inches.

The room exploded into chaos. I hit the floor, Bruno hit John, the principessa streaked toward the front door, and Luigi fumbled wildly for his gun, which he had dropped. I got to it before he did, but I needn’t have worried. The boy slumped over in a sobbing heap before I plucked the weapon from under his fingers.

I pointed the gun at Bruno, who had John in a bear hug.

“Let him go,” I gasped.

“Don’t shoot,” said Bruno and John in chorus.

The front door banged and an outraged miniature fury came stalking into the room. Pietro must have been changing when my call came. He was still in his dressing gown, a gorgeous heavy green silk affair; and I knew then why even the fatter, funnier-looking Caesars had been able to command an empire.

“Bruno,” he thundered. “Drop him!”

So Bruno did. John hit the floor like a sack of wet cement. It had not been one of his better days. He was unconscious when I crawled over to him and lifted his head onto my lap.

“Where are those smelling salts?” I asked.

II

Thanks to his kindly disposition, and a five-thousand-lira bribe, the little man at the door of the terminal let me go out onto the field to make sure the crate was loaded properly. There was no mistaking which one it was; it was the biggest box on the truck, and as it passed me I heard a low grumbling sound coming from it. The vet had given Caesar a massive dose of tranquilizers, to prepare him for the flight, but even in a semiconscious state Caesar had his doubts about the whole thing.

Standing beside me, one hand in his jacket pocket and the other arm supported by a black silk sling, John looked dubiously at the crate.

“What the hell are you going to do with that monster?”

“Take long walks,” I said dreamily. “Late at night. Through the slums of Munich. I can hardly wait.”

“I’m glad you warned me. I shall try to limit my nocturnal activities to other cities.”

“I don’t suppose you would consider getting a job. An honest job.”

“What, go straight? Me, the local successor to Raffles and the Saint and all those other debonair, gallant British adventurers?” John started to smile and then thought better of it; his lower lip was still a peculiar shape. “Anyhow, I can’t very well quit now, with the police of at least three countries after me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Oh, that’s quite all right. I’d hate to have your little conscience harassing you because you had failed in your duty. Are you at peace with yourself, my child?”

“Luigi is under treatment, so that’s all right,” I said, refusing to be baited. “My poor little conscience will be at rest once restitution is made to those stupid millionaires. But Pietro is going to weasel out of it, you watch. He’ll say—”

“That he sold his jewels through an intermediary, in good faith, and had copies made because he was embarrassed to admit to the world that he had been forced to sell his family treasures. He had no idea his emissary would cheat his customers! He was quite candid about it,” John said. “I was the intermediary, and I am therefore the logical scapegoat. I’d be in for it anyway, so why not take all the blame?”

“I suppose he sweetened his candor with a considerable bribe,” I said.

“Oh, quite. You must admit he has behaved rather well.”

“I guess I can’t blame him for anything except being dishonest. Bianca was the one who wanted to have us put down.”

“Oh, didn’t she explain that? She never intended any such thing. Pietro misunderstood her.”

“So she says. I can’t think too fondly of dear Bianca. She helped us with Luigi, but only because he threatened her. I feel sorry for Pietro, though. He’s awfully upset about Luigi. And with reason.”

“I think the boy will be all right,” John said gently.

“I wish I thought so. But everything possible will be done. Pietro really loves the kid. Too bad he didn’t realize it until the damage was done.”

“Didn’t he offer you a little present?” John asked.

“Yes, he did. The most gorgeous necklace — emeralds and opals. Of course I couldn’t take it.”