A Sorority of Angels (10 page)

Since leaving the estancia, two men followed Tomayo wherever he went on Monday, on Tuesday to and from work. He noticed. Financially, the visit on Sunday may prove promising receiving a call in the morning inviting him to solicit a fourteen million dollars contract without a guarantee his company would win. Steinerman complied with his president’s request.

Tomayo carried a gun, alert to danger. Pilar offered good advice concerned for his safety. Possibility of Steinerman arranging an accident increased with Steinerman’s paranoid state when he and the President left. To Tomayo, the private war had begun. Driving home tonight, Alejandro executed deceptive maneuvers to lose a Mercedes that followed.

If Tomayo had an accident, who’d be blamed? Steinerman? Tomayo didn’t think so. Steinerman would never do anything subversive himself. Tomayo’s phone conversation regarding the President with committee members ended inconclusive. He tried these past two days to find the elusive solution to save the presidency. He’d devote the coming weeks on directing the committee’s focus on Steinerman instead. Steinerman lost control on Sunday. Tomayo knew it as the last time. He told Quintero his uncle’s private number hoping his arguments persuaded. Uncle Rafael proved stubborn; he needed to investigate his way.

At eight o’clock, Tomayo prepared to visit his mistress on 9 de Julio. The doorbell rang. He expected no one and changed to suspicious and defensive. Cautious, he pulled out the gun and turned out lights. The doorbell rang again. He didn’t answer. It rang again, and again with urgency.

Then he heard what sounded like a familiar voice call his name, a woman’s voice. He strained to listen again. The bell rang. Would she call out again? She did. With recognition, he relaxed, put the gun in a drawer, and turned on lights. He unlatched and opened the door.

Pilar panicked thinking he was out after driving in to see him. She held Roberto’s hand. Roberto held the volleyball from the pool set.

“What are you doing here? Come in.”

“I thought you weren’t home.” She and Roberto entered and Tomayo locked the door. “You’re dressed. Are you going out tonight?”

“I was. But no longer.”

“Mistress night?”

Tomayo smiled. “Excuse me. I have to make a phone call.” He left. Roberto, half asleep, curled up on the sofa and prepared for sleep. Pilar looked around the familiar apartment, a perfect bachelor’s apartment masculine and seductive with soft rugs. Tomayo came out. “Pilar, I’m all yours.”

“Sorry to disrupt your plans. I had to see you. I brought Roberto because he wouldn’t let me leave.”

“Did anything go wrong?” They sat.

“I tried again with Uncle Rafael yesterday and again today. It’s hopeless. We must act to help him.”

“We already talked about that. Control yourself. You’re acting flighty.”

“I came up with a solution, a good solution. I’ll need your help.”

“What solution?”

Pilar then checked Roberto, asleep. She stood, walked around the sofa, and faced Tomayo. She said it calmly.

“I’m going to assassinate Steinerman and that’s final.”

Flabbergasted, Tomayo said, “What are you, crazy? You are crazy!”

“I’m serious. I can’t do it alone.” Pilar remained calm.

“There is no way that I’ll help you. Good God!”

“Do you want Uncle Rafael dead?”

“No, and you’re not committing murder, not for him, not for Argentina. Your children are more important. Why am I having this discussion with you? Why am I acting as if you’re serious, sane?”

“I’m serious. We won’t get caught. I figured out a way that will work, an unsolved mystery, a permanent cold case.”

“We? Who’s we?”

“You and me.”

Tomayo tried to settle his temper. “All right, all right. I’ll be patient and hear you out to end this stupid discussion. Why do you need my help?”

“Because the way it’s to be done. I can’t do it alone.”

“Meaning that if I don’t help you, you can’t go through with it?”

“Yes. I need you.”

“I refuse to help you. What now?”

She shrugged, hopeless. “I can’t do it.”

“You haven’t lost all logic. Case closed.” He shook his head in awe. “For the hell of it, what was your grand design, your mad scheme?”

She reached over and removed the volleyball from under Roberto’s arms.

“Every morning Uncle Rafael, Steinerman, and Marichal begin the day with a swim, their routine for the last three mornings. I thought I’d call Uncle Rafael from my balcony to come over and talk to me. He should. It’s far enough away from the pool so he’ll be safe.”

“Safe?” Curiosity wrinkled his face as he looked at her askew. “Safe from what?”

“From the explosion’s impact when we blow up the pool.”

He leaped to his feet at the same time he exclaimed, “What!”

Pilar talked unfazed by his reaction.

“Steinerman and Marichal will dive in without Uncle Rafael, to swim without him, and when he reaches my balcony, boom! It’s easy. Goodbye Steinerman and Marichal end of problem. Whom will they blame, a mother of three, the President’s niece? No, Tomayo, no! It will be an unsolved mystery. Uncle Rafael, in time, may suspect us. By then he’ll realize Steinerman and Marichal were traitors and Carlos’s murderers. Nothing will be done.”

Tomayo remained rattled and astounded.

“I cannot believe I’m listening to this. Please, tell me your plan to blow them up. Where will you get the bomb, the explosives? Who’ll set it off?” He sat again.

“That’s where you come in.”

His hands slapped his knees in exasperation.

“I am going to sit here calm, cool, and collected. I must hear the rest when I still have my sanity.”

“It’s simple. You won’t have to be there when it happens.”

“You mean you will blow them up yourself? You’ll set off the explosion?”

“Yes, from my balcony.”

“I see. You’re going to run wires to the pool from your balcony. Then push the plunger and off they go straight to hell. Somebody will see the wires hanging from your balcony. How do you explain your sweet innocence?”

“What wires? Come on Tomayo. For an electronics engineer your thinking is primitive. Don’t mock me.”

He shrugged. “I tried.”

“Don’t say anything, wise cracks or theatrics. Listen and I’ll explain how simple it is.” She held up the volleyball. “This is the weapon.”

“That!” He raised his arms in mock surrender. “I’m sorry for interrupting. Go ahead.”

“Here’s what I need done. Have the ball cut open along the seam wide enough to insert a powerful explosive. Don’t know the name, but seen it numerous times in movies. A remote unit will detonate the explosive device, or maybe a cell phone. When the explosive attaches to the sides, you reseal the seam and refill it with air. We put the ball back in the pool. When Uncle Rafael is a safe distance away, I press the remote unit, which should be small, and that is that. What do you think?”

Tomayo nodded, thinking. He strolled to the refrigerator behind the bar and pulled out a champagne bottle. He poured two glasses and brought them to the cocktail table by Pilar. Then he walked to Pilar, raised her chin, and kissed her.

“You taste good.” Tomayo kissed her again. He sat, handed a glass to her, and raised his glass to toast.

“I believe you can get away with it. It should be easy to dispose of a small remote unit. My compliments, it is not as harebrained as I thought, clever, ingenious. Cheers.” He jabbed the glass in the air and drank.

Excitement overtook Pilar.

“Then you’ll help me?”

“No.”

“But why? You know it will work!”

“How about the chance of something going wrong? I don’t want to risk that.”

“Nothing will go wrong. They’ll never know we did it. There won’t be anything left of the ball to yield a clue.”

“I will do anything for you, anything…but that. If you can figure out how I can do it alone, I will do so because you asked me to. I don’t want you involved.”

“I’m already involved, up to here.” Her hand touched her throat.

“You know I’m stubborn.”

“As a mule, no less.”

“My answer is an irrevocable, no!”

Pilar turned on the radio to soft music. She switched off the lamp near Roberto then stared out the window. She expected Tomayo’s reaction, surprised if he agreed, but encouraged he thought the plan could work. She came with determination and had no intention returning to the estancia without Tomayo’s commitment to help. He could handle the electronics, with explosives obtained through his committee. She had to ease Tomayo into acceptance.

The sadness that naturally filled her eyes for months appeared upon command. The look of suffering had been her partner at the same time and it came running when she called for symptoms. She ordered it to surrender her appearance. Without hesitation, the tears came when beckoned. Her gentle muted sobs provided her shoulders a familiar lift and her knees participated by weakening forcing her body to go limp against the open weave drapes.

Their message reached Tomayo. He hurried to hold and comfort her. He kissed her eyes, mouth, and neck.

“Please don’t cry.”

She sniffled. “I want to save Uncle Rafael.”

Pilar leaned against him, her body pressing; raised her arms and held him around the neck and pressed tighter against his jacket; gazed into his eyes and mouth then her lips covered his; kissed him tender increasing pressure as a moan of contentment escaped from her in rhythmic intervals. Her fingers furrowed through his hair; long dormant sensations of passion seared through her veins with an abrupt awakening screaming for freedom.

Her rhythm was patience.

Pilar felt his tongue probing her lips. She parted them to let him enter. His tongue rolled within as her lips pressed tighter. She pulled away. Her sleeping body frightened her with its craving, determined to tempt Tomayo to help her although losing control. Pilar forced a smile and a deep breath to regain her lost inner composure.

To Tomayo her response was ecstasy, reciprocation from the one you love, rewarding because he was unsure how she felt about him, how much she loved him if at all – no need to tell him now. He held her face and kissed her.

“Many things I have never told you. I have thought about them often and the ideal setting and atmosphere to tell them to you. This discussion is the wrong setting. I want you to know I love you more than life. I loved you always. When you left for America, I died. When you returned, I found my need for you greater than I imagined. I love you. So please don’t ask me to do anything that may hurt you. Or take you from me.”

Pilar prepared to open the prison gates that guarded her emotions but she hesitated. The prison stayed closed. She left him for her glass of champagne then to the bar and sat on a stool. He sat next to her, their knees interlocked. She filled both glasses.

“Here’s to you, Tomayo.” She drank the champagne without stopping. “That’s to tell you my feelings for you are endless.”

“And mine for you.” He drank the same way. She refilled the glass.

“If you can’t help me maybe Quintero will.”

His silence made her uneasy.

“Did you lose your tongue?” she asked.

He continued, his curiosity aroused by the Achilles Heart. He held and examined the Heart.

“Forget Quintero. Only I can help with your plan. What an interesting necklace. What is it? Do you have someone in New York?”

“No one in New York. A few friends and I bought similar ones. It’s my favorite neckpiece.” Then she added after looking at it upside down as he held it, “There’s a legend that goes with it.”

“What’s the legend?”

“I’m embarrassed to say.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“It’s said that when a man holds it and kisses the arrow it means that he wants to make love to you. If you kiss it then you accept. It’s called the Heart of Fertility.” She was impressed with her fairy tale. Tomayo kissed the arrow. “Boy, you didn’t hesitate at all,” she added.

Tomayo raised her hand and handed the Heart to her encouraging a kiss. Pilar held and rubbed the Heart and hesitated.

“The legend doesn’t say one has to kiss it right away in return.”

“Touche, you slippery eel.”

“Slippery eel? What poetry. Whatever happened to – and as I gaze into your eyes and sail to yonder star are dreams the magic vessel or is it my Pilar?”

Funny, the laughter lightened the atmosphere.

“What time is it,” she inquired.

“Eight forty-five.”

“I shouldn’t stay long. I have to go back. I told them I forgot a few things in packing.”

“Were you followed?”

“No, I checked.”

Tomayo decided to withhold that he was. Pilar held him and pleaded.

“Please help me.”

“I can’t. I won’t.”

“Please.” Her voice sounded desperate her eyes pleading. “If you don’t help me, I may wind up doing something stupid.”

He refused to buy.

The actors came back on stage: Remorse and Sadness. Suffering and Knees. Tears waited in the wings.

“Help me if you love me.”

“My love for you is unconditional, except that. Erase the madness.”

“I can’t.” Pilar put the glass down. “If I sit here and drink I won’t be able to drive home. Come and dance. A dance might make you more agreeable.”

“You refuse to ease up.”

About to begin dancing, she hesitated.

“Now wait a minute. No reason why you can’t take off your jacket and loosen your shirt.” He did.

They flowed with the rumba. Their lips met and locked, their bodies maintaining tempo. Their breathing grew heavier. Tears came on stage. Tomayo kissed their flow. She whispered passionately, “You must help me.”

She pressed tighter. When Pilar opened her eyes, she realized they drifted by the bedroom door. She tried again whispering, “Please, for me. For me.”

They stopped dancing. She sensed a turning attitude in his eyes, needing another push.

She kissed him and stepped back. Her hand came up and fondled the Achilles Heart. She raised the Heart towards her mouth then hesitated. His eyes begged her to continue the movement. She hedged. He nudged her hand.

Then with eyes fixed on his lips, she raised the Heart to her mouth and held it with her lips.

The sirens wailed and the inmates of Emotion and Passion shouted with joy as the prison gates started opening, running in exhilaration and perspiration shouting the news to every inch and vein and nerve. Freedom ran rampart penetrating her body as Tomayo encouraged everything and everyone out of every corner flowing without restrain, without reservation, warming and floating in the sudden reawakening.

He herded and nudged them to move faster. Pilar joined in that urging to empty the prison faster, urging hands and mouths until the impact of the sudden surge forced the main gate wide open. Their bodies pulsated then collapsed. The prison nearly emptied…and the rush to freedom completed. The successful effort was total and exhausting accomplished together as a team.

When the prison emptied, they were one.