Lucifer's Shadow by David Hewson

Author:David Hewson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307423153
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T10:00:00+00:00

36

The dancing lesson

THE NIGHT WAS WARM AND HUMID. FEELING THE NEED to walk, Daniel turned away from the vaporetto stop and strode north, finding the narrow passage to the Accademia bridge, the single crossing over the canal before the Rialto, and climbed the steps. He stood in the centre of the gentle wooden arch, watching the traffic on the canal, thinking of Amy’s last remark. Then he set off on the long walk to San Cassian, past the Frari, where, close by in San Rocco, the eyes of Scacchi’s Lucifer would now be shining in the dark, through the backstreets of San Polo, until, by guesswork and accident, he found himself in the small campo of San Cassian. The old church looked less of an ugly hulk in the dark. The square was deserted. If it were not for the electric lights in the windows, he could have been in the Venice of two or three hundred years earlier. This was, he believed, what had made his mother come to love this city, and pass on the feeling to her son: the hint of ghostly footprints in the dust, a sign of successive generations puzzling over their lives. And such power in the dead. When he looked at the paintings in San Rocco or listened to that tantalising music which now, unfairly, bore his name, he found himself in awe of those who had walked these streets before. His own imprint seemed so tiny by comparison.

He stopped in front of the bar where he had passed the ransom over to the mysterious thief. It was now closed and shuttered. Venice went to bed early. Then, his mind still working, he walked the few paces over the bridge and let himself into Ca’ Scacchi. The loud, uncompromising sound of big-band jazz came from the front room on the first floor. He peeped cautiously around the half-open door, not wanting to be seen. Scacchi was seated on the sofa, looking exhausted, watching Paul dance, slowly and elegantly, with a phantom partner, making certain and accurate steps upon the carpet.

Slowly, feeling weary after the long day, he went upstairs. The music was so loud it drifted along the stairwell, filling the house, even on the third floor. He walked towards his bedroom. A noise behind made him turn. Laura stood there, looking bright and sober, back in her white uniform, back on duty.

“Daniel?” she asked, full of concern. “Why are you home so early?”

He paused on the landing, and for once, Laura seemed surprised by the set of his face. “Enough!” he declared. “I’m back, and that’s all there is to it.”

“I thought,” she said, not quite smiling, but not entirely neutral either, “that perhaps you and Amy... She is so very nice and pretty. And talented too.”

“I have never once, Laura, given you the slightest reason to believe that I wish anything between Amy and myself. Yet you insist...”

Her green eyes, all sudden innocence, laughed silently back at him.

“You seem upset,” she said.

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