The Darkest Heart (33 page)

I ordered him to the seat where he had kept my belongings and took a couple of cable ties from my pack, the kind electricians use to keep things tidy.

‘I didn't want all this,' Leonardo said.

‘You should have thought about that before you pointed your gun at us.'

‘Please,
Carioca.
Zico. I just wanted to make you get there on time. I just—'

I took his chin in one hand and lifted his face so I could look into his eyes. ‘You killed two men, and you tried to kill my friend's dog – you were going to kill him, too.'

‘No.' He tried to shake his head.

‘You pointed a gun at my girlfriend, and I saw the way you were watching her last night. I know what you are, Leonardo.' I raised my other hand as if to hit him, clenching my fingers into a tight fist around the handle of my revolver.

Leonardo flinched away, turning his head, but I stayed my hand and straightened up. ‘Put one round his wrist.' I handed the ties to Daniella and pointed the gun at Leonardo. ‘Make it tight.'

She did as I asked, putting the tapered end through the locking section and pulling it closed with a clicking sound.

‘Put another one through it and round the post.' I said, indicating the roof support bolted to the deck beside the seat.

When Daniella was done, Leonardo was, more or less, handcuffed to the boat. ‘Now he's not going anywhere,' I said to her. ‘Now he's safe.'

Leonardo pulled once at the plastic ties and slumped his shoulders in resignation. If he struggled too much, the plastic would tighten and cut into his skin.

‘So what do we do now?' Daniella asked. ‘We can't just leave them.'

I looked over at the
Estrella
, Sister Beckett and Santiago waiting, and I considered my next move. I knew Daniella wanted me to help them and I didn't see that I had any other choice.

‘Right, then.' I went to the side of the boat and looked across at the others. ‘Let's see if we can pull you off the sand.'

42

Sister Beckett watched me throw the rope over to the
Estrella
, stepping back when the coils landed with a thump near her feet. She glared at me as if I had aimed it at her, then moved back into the cabin and disappeared from view. I knew she was there, though, disapproving, and already we had made a connection I had not wanted to make.

Santiago and Matt grabbed the rope before its weight could drag it back into the water, and they tied it off to the railing at the stern of the
Estrella.
Any cleats that might have once been there were long gone.

‘Will it work?' Daniella asked me.

‘Who knows?' I put the engine into reverse and slid backwards over the water until the rope tightened, but the
Estrella
didn't budge from the sand.

‘That woman?' Daniella said over the sound of the engine. ‘You know her?'

‘No. Why?'

Daniella shrugged. ‘Don't know. The way you looked at her. The way she talked to you. It's like there was something going on.'

‘Something like what?'

‘I don't know. Nothing, I suppose.'

Beneath us the engine grumbled, and behind us the River of Deaths churned into foam, but we remained stationary and the
Estrella
remained on the sand.

‘It's not working,' I said, looking at Daniella sitting beside me.

‘And if we do this too long we'll damage the
Deus.
Then we'll
all
be stuck out here. We don't want—'

‘Stop! Stop!'

I looked up to see Santiago and Matt waving their arms, but it was too late. With a sudden release, and the sound of shearing metal, the railing came away from the stern of the
Estrella
, ripping out and flicking out into the water.

The
Deus
lurched and began trawling backwards, dragging the metal railing like an anchor.

I stopped the boat and went to the bow to pull the rope back in, straining against the weight of the railing until I could pull it no longer. ‘It's stuck,' I shouted to Santiago. ‘Caught on something.'

‘Time's running out,' Leonardo said.

‘I'll have to cut it.' I ignored him and lifted my shirt, taking the knife and sawing at the thick rope.

‘You had that the whole time?'

I stopped sawing and turned to look at Leonardo. He was leaning back on the seat, trying to find a comfortable position. ‘You had a knife the whole time and you never tried to use it?'

I didn't reply.

‘There must've been times,' he said. ‘Times when you could've done it. How long has it been? Two days? And in all that time you never saw a moment to use it?'

‘Maybe I should use it now.'

‘Now that I'm tied here, you mean? You'd like that? To kill me like a pig that has its feet tied? You said you're not like me, Zico, and you know what? I think you were right. But the difference is that you're softer than me. You don't have the same edge.' He smiled as if he knew something that made him better than me. ‘I know why you didn't use it.'

I turned back to the rope, cutting through another strand of it.

‘It's because of her,' he said. ‘That's why you didn't use it. Because you were afraid of what might happen to her.'

I continued to cut.

‘Me?' Leonardo went on. ‘I
would
have used it because I was afraid of what might happen to her. You chose to protect her by doing nothing. I would have chosen to do
some
thing.'

The blade went through the last strand of the rope and I let it slide overboard and sink into the River of Deaths as I turned to Leonardo and put the knife to his throat. Then you should be glad I'm me and not you.' I said. ‘Otherwise I'd be pushing this through your neck right now and dropping you in there for the piranhas.'

Leonardo tried to back away, but the ties prevented it, and the most he could do was turn his head. He raised his free hand in submission. ‘But I didn't harm you, did I?' he said. ‘I didn't touch her. I could have, but I didn't.'

‘Not so tough when the knife is at your throat, are you?'

‘Zico.' Daniella stood up behind the wheel. ‘Don't—'

‘I'm not going to.' I released pressure on the knife. ‘I'm not going to.'

‘Everything OK over there?' Santiago's voice.

I stayed where I was, wavering with the blade at Leonardo's throat, my face turned towards Daniella, then I relaxed and took it away, wiping it once on my trousers before slipping it out of sight.

‘I don't think this is going to work,' I called back to Santiago, noticing that Sister Beckett was in the doorway again, like she was a guardian angel for the killer I had seized. She had no idea what the man had done. She knew only that I had threatened him. ‘We're never going to pull you out of there.'

Santiago nodded in agreement.

‘You're too deep,' I said. ‘You were going too fast.'

He rolled his eyes at me. ‘The sand will shift. It'll let us go when it's ready.'

‘And if it doesn't?'

‘Where are you headed?'

‘Mina dos Santos. We can send help from there. A couple of other boats should be able to pull you free.' It was just as I had
wanted it. We'd have time to get to Mina dos Santos, go ashore and wait for Sister Beckett to come to us.

The nun leaned close to Santiago and spoke to him. I could hear the sound of her voice carry across the hot, still air, but I couldn't make out the words. Santiago seemed to think about something, running his eyes over the
Deus
as if assessing her, then he spoke to me. ‘You'll be in Mina dos Santos by nightfall?'

‘Probably. Depends how long we stay
here,'
I said.

‘By the time you get there it'll be too dark. No one will come,' Santiago said. ‘Anyway, there's never any boats there, just a few canoes.'

‘They'll be fast,' I said. ‘And they can come right into the shallows. Maybe they can dig you out.'

‘No. When are you coming back?'

‘Tomorrow.'

Santiago spoke to Sister Beckett and she pursed her lips, looking across at us, her eyes on Leonardo. She thought for a while, then stepped forward to the gunwale where the railing had been. ‘We'll come with you,' she said. ‘You can take us to Mina dos Santos. Help Santiago on your return in the morning.' She made it sound like she was giving us permission to take her further on her journey; as if it would be a privilege for us to have her on board.

It was a strange moment. Almost dreamlike. The woman who had been my obsession for these last few days was standing in front of me, wanting to board my boat. Until this meeting, she had been a pervasive presence, but now she was a reality, coming closer and closer, as if to test my nerve.

‘I ... No. He's a dangerous man.' I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. ‘You won't be safe.' I didn't want her on board; I didn't want any connection to her at all. When she disappeared, someone would come looking for her, and I didn't want them to come to me.

‘He doesn't look so dangerous,' Sister Beckett replied.

I turned to Leonardo, pathetic and fearful, trussed like an animal waiting to be slaughtered. Half naked, bleeding and bandaged, he
presented a beaten image, but when I caught his eye, there was a twinkle under the false exterior, and the corner of his mouth turned up in the tiniest hint of a smirk. He was taking a small victory from his defeat.

‘Time's wasting,' he said.

I put a hand to my pocket and felt the folded paper that nestled in the darkness, softened by the warmth of my chest and the sweat from my body.

‘I need to get to Mina dos Santos,' Sister Beckett called. ‘Will you take me or not?'

I withdrew my hand as if it had touched something living, and stared at my fingertips. ‘I need to get there too.
Today.
And if I waste any more time—'

‘Then let me come aboard now and we'll be away.'

I rubbed my fingers on my trousers and looked at Sister Beckett.

It should have been easy for me to refuse her. I had to do nothing more than take the wheel and move on. I would have to explain to Daniella why I'd made that choice, but I could lie. I could tell her it was because I wanted to make Leonardo's delivery, secure his pay. I didn't have to tell her I wanted as little to connect me to the nun as possible.

‘Well, Zico? Are you going to take me?'

‘We'll take you,' Daniella said, making me look round at her in surprise.

‘What?'

‘Come on, Zico, it's the right thing to do.'

Sister Beckett nodded. ‘It is, but I need to hear it from Zico.'

‘All right,' I said, shaking my head in exasperation. ‘We'll take you.'

I looked up at the sky and wondered, once again, if someone was watching over Sister Dolores Beckett.

The nun stood on deck, hands on her hips, and watched me approach in the smaller boat.

When I reached the
Estrella
, I stretched out to take hold of the fixed ladder, and Matt leaned over and looked down at me. ‘Who's
the guy?' he asked. ‘The asshole on your boat.' He made a circle with his forefinger and thumb.

‘We're doing a job for him.'

‘What kind of job?'

‘Delivery,' I pulled the boat against the
Estrella.

‘OK, OK,' he said, ‘I get it. Too many questions. One of Raul's special jobs, eh?'

‘Something like that.'

He lifted a bag over the edge of the
Estrella
where the railing had once been. ‘You look like shit, Zico, you need anything? Some kind of help? That fire back there was tough going.'

I glanced down at myself, seeing the dirt and sweat patches on my shirt. My face would be pale from lack of sleep, and streaked with soot. My bloodshot eyes were tired, my muscles ached and I needed some sleep.

‘I'll be fine. You know who this woman is?' I asked him.

Matt shook his head. ‘Dolores is all she said. Speaks good Portuguese but I think she's a
gringo.'

‘Yeah, why?'

Matt grunted and lifted another bag down to me. ‘Just one of those things. Accent maybe, not sure.'

I took the second bag and put it beside the first. ‘Is that everything?'

‘Apart from the passengers.'

‘More than one?'

‘She has a friend with her. Quiet woman.'

‘Yeah?'

‘Mmm.' Matt leaned towards me and beckoned for me to come closer. ‘There's something about her “friend”. She has a look about her.'

‘You mean like they're
together'

‘No, I mean like she
watches.
She doesn't talk much, she stays out of the way, but she watches. Everything. It's like, maybe this woman is someone important pretending not to be.'

I dismissed his comment with a wave of my hand. ‘Well,
whoever she is, she can stay on the
Deus
until we get to Mina dos Santos. After that she's on her own.'

‘You know what?' Matt said, glancing behind him and lowering his voice further. ‘I thought you were going to let that guy drown. Just let the river suck him right down.'

‘So did I. For a moment that's exactly what I thought, but ...' I let my words trail off. ‘So where's this damn woman then? I need to get going.'

I'm here.' Sister Beckett leaned over beside Matt. ‘Are we ready to go?'

‘Just waiting for you.' I let her see my false smile. She needed to know we weren't going to be friends.

‘I'd better get down there, then, hadn't I?' She put her hands on the ladder, about to climb down, when another face appeared at her side. The woman Matt had spoken about. She put her hand on Sister Beckett's shoulder, looked her directly in the eye and Sister Beckett moved to let her climb down first.

I waited as she descended the four or five rungs and stepped into the vessel. She nodded once at me, then stood to one side so she would be between me and Sister Beckett who now put her feet on the ladder and came down. Before she joined us, though, the nun motioned to her companion, asking her to step aside so that she could confront me herself.