The Villa of Mysteries by David Hewson

Author:David Hewson [Hewson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9780440335252
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2003-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

Falcone cast an interested eye at the bunch of men lurking on the first floor of Neri’s house. Then the fat old hood hurriedly ushered him and Rachele D’Amato upstairs.

“I didn’t realize you had guests,” Falcone said. “And you answer the door yourself these days. Servants getting too expensive?”

“I don’t need any damn servants,” Neri retorted. “Don’t give me any shit, Falcone. I could’ve turned you back at the door. You got no papers that give you the right to walk into a man’s home like this. And her—”

Neri looked right through D’Amato. “So you two are on speaking terms these days? I heard that ended when the sheets started to get cold.”

“This is business,” she said briskly, then followed Neri into a large living room furnished expensively with a minimum of taste: modern leather sofas and armchairs, reproduction paintings on the plain cream walls, and a big glass table at the centre.

Two people sat on the couch: a slim attractive woman in her thirties, with fiery reddish gold hair and striking, angry features, and a slightly younger man, slim, nervous, with dark, shifty eyes and a bad bleach job.

“I don’t have a lawyer on the premises,” Neri said. “So you can talk in front of my family. That way if you invent stuff I’ve got witnesses.”

Falcone nodded.

“You didn’t introduce us,” the woman said. “I’m Adele. His wife.”

“Current wife,” Neri added.

“True,” she agreed. “This is Mickey. My stepson. Say hello to the nice policeman, Mickey. And stop twitching like that. It pisses me off. Quit gawping at the lady too.”

Mickey ceased fiddling with his fingers and muttered, “Pleasure.”

Neri fell into a large, fat armchair next to them and waved Falcone and D’Amato to the table. “I’d offer you coffee but fuck it. Why are you here? What am I supposed to have done now?”

“Nothing,” Falcone said. “Just a social visit.”

Neri’s big chest heaved with a dry laugh.

“When we decide you’ve done something, Emilio, it won’t be just the two of us who turn up,” Rachele D’Amato said, amused by the way Mickey was still staring at her. “We’ll have lots and lots of people. And the TV crews, the newspapers too. I just know they’re going to hear of it.”

“Not gonna happen,” Neri muttered. “Never. There’s no reason for it.”

She nodded at his son. “Do we take him in too? Is he part of the family firm now?”

“You tell me. You DIA scum never give up spying on me. What do you think?”

She smiled at Mickey. He blushed a little and stared at his feet.

“I think he doesn’t look like you. Maybe he doesn’t act like you. I don’t know.”

“No,” Neri agreed. “You don’t know. Tell you what. If you want someone to keep your statistics up you can take him now. Take her too if you feel like it, so long as . . .” He took a good look at them when he said this. “. . . they get to share the same cell. She’s got more brains than him though.

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