Days of the Dead by Barbara Hambly

Author:Barbara Hambly [Hambly, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense
ISBN: 9780553897708
Google: MLEBKg3x1vcC
Amazon: B000FBFO1E
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2003-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

It took Cristobál four days to locate Werther Bremer in the mazes of the capital’s back-streets and barrios. During those intervening, nerve-racking days January tried patiently to track down every other fact he could about Don Prospero’s household on the eve of Fernando de Castellón’s murder, in the hope that—if they could not find the valet—they might at least find some clue that would lead to some answer other than the staringly obvious fact of Hannibal’s guilt.

“The poison may not have been swallowed, you know,” remarked Rose the day after the bull-fight—Monday—as Consuela’s carriage inched along the tree-lined causeway that stretched from the city across the brackish western marshes. “It would be an easy matter to smear curare poison on the thorn of a maguey-leaf, palm the thorn, and give Fernando a smart slap on the shoulder with it. The puncture would never be noticed by candle-light as they were cleaning the body, and of course after this much time in the grave I doubt it could be detected at all.”

Around them, every carriage and cart in Mexico City and about half its pedestrians as well streamed sluggishly along the causeway, bound for the Bosque de Chapultepec and Santa Anna’s grand review of his Army. The pedestrians at least had the option of walking between the gray stone arches of the aqueduct that stretched from the city, across the acres of reeds and sedges and the gleaming sheets of what had been Lake Texcoco, to the freshwater springs on the granite height of Chapultepec Hill. The roadway lay along the aqueduct’s feet, less than a yard above the level of the squishy lake-bed; more than one driver glared enviously at the market-women and Indians who picked their way past the clogged traffic by leaping from grass-tuft to grass-tuft. Farther out on the lake-bed, where the water was deeper, small reed boats could be seen where Indians fished as they had fished when the pyramids of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli towered against the sky instead of the Cathedral’s gilded towers.

January sighed. “Leaving out the thickness of the average military uniform coat,” he said, “who would have done this, and when? Curare kills almost instantly. The door from the sala into the study was bolted, and there wasn’t a time when someone wasn’t in the sala, either clearing up after dinner or playing cards. The door from the corredor into the study was within sight of Consuela and others from the moment Hannibal emerged until Werther went in and found his master dead . . . and cold.”

“This was much easier when we were on the Belle Marquise.” Rose’s light tone covered the real unhappiness in her eyes. “I think I preferred speculating about whether or not Fernando wore armor to bed. Even if Natividad does attend this review, how good are our chances of getting to speak with her?”

“Oh, we should have little trouble if we can get to her when she is not with Santa Anna,” replied Consuela. She turned—gratefully, January

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.