The Darkest Heart (42 page)

I had endangered the old man, too. Costa would know I had travelled with him.

The devil would be waiting for my return and then he would tie up all the loose ends.

Me, Daniella, the old man. Maybe Carolina too.

Perhaps he'd even started already.

52

I clenched my hands into fists and remembered the old man as I had last seen him. Burning with fever, shivering and racked with pain. I had put him on a boat with a man he hardly knew and sent him to his death in Piratinga. Perhaps there was no reason for me to return there now, and I should take Daniella onto the
Deus
and do as I had suggested.

Just keep going.

On and on, putting Piratinga behind us.

But perhaps the old man still lived, and Costa was waiting for me to return. There was Carolina to think of, too. And no matter how much I disliked Daniella's mother, I wouldn't wish Luis and Wilson upon her.

I had never felt fear like this, and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't see a way out. The only thing I knew for certain was that I needed to get back to Piratinga and go to Raul. Leonardo's money didn't matter any more.

As soon as it was light enough, I would leave.

‘ ... could do, Zico.'

‘Hm?'

Sister Beckett cleared her throat. ‘I said there is one thing you could do. Give me their names. Tell me who they are and I will have them arrested. I have some influence.'

I shook my head.

‘Already we've had prosecutions,' she said. ‘But if we could get to the people at the top; if someone like you were to—'

‘No.' I stared at her without really seeing her. I was picturing
the old man and thinking about how I had put his life in danger. ‘There's nothing you can do.'

Sister Beckett leaned forward and put her hand on mine. ‘Let me try.'

‘There's something you should know before I leave,' I said, pulling away from her. ‘I don't know why you're here, but I know your reputation, so—'

‘I'm here to talk to the miners,' she said. ‘Or the people who've taken over.'

‘You're meeting them here? The owners?' It couldn't be the Branquinos, they did their business from offices far away and unconnected. They would never come to a place like this.

‘Not the owners.' Sister Beckett shook her head. ‘We don't know who they are, but we're hoping to find out. That's why I need to know who hired you. The miners found a lot of gold a few weeks ago and now they're planning to expand the mine. It's going to be huge, Zico, and the Indians are angry about the push on their land, worried it will end up like Serra Pelada. There is talk of violence. I will be going to them next – to persuade them it isn't the answer. What we saw in the settlement might be a part of this – militias pushing people out of their smallholdings. The Indians are talking about retaliation, Zico. I'm here to stop a land war, so—'

‘You might be too late. The man on my boat, Leonardo, he's bringing guns. That's why he's here in Mina dos Santos.'

‘How many guns?' asked Kássia. It was the first time she had spoken since I sat down. She had done nothing but watch me, seeing every twitch of my hands, every turn of my head. Every breath I took.

‘Enough for a small army. And they're not just any kind of gun. They're soldiers' guns. With a lot of ammunition.'

‘That's why I need to know who hired you,' Sister Beckett said. ‘It could be the people who now control the mine. They have a good reason to want me dead – if I get my way, this mine will not just stop growing, it will shut down. Tell me who it is, Zico, I
might be able to do something more. There has to be a connection. Who was it?'

I hesitated.

‘If you tell me, I might be able to help you.'

‘If I tell you, it could make things a whole lot worse for me. All I want is to get married and have a quiet life but now ...' I shook my head and hoped Raul was safe.

‘Married?' she asked. To Daniella? I wish you lots of luck.'

‘And you, too,' I said, pushing back my chair. ‘But it's time for me to go.'

‘Where are they now?' She stopped me. ‘These guns?'

‘On the boat.'

‘Deus e o Diabo,'
she said. ‘Which will it be for us, I wonder? God or the Devil? Will you do something for me, Zico? Will you make sure those guns never come ashore?'

‘You don't want them for your own cause? For the Indians? It could make their life easier.'

‘Guns don't make anyone's life easier, Zico, they only make things worse. If you want to do something good, you'll get rid of them. Throw them overboard. Burn them. Anything to make sure they never touch human hands.'

I nodded. ‘I'll do what I can.'

Sister Beckett smiled at me, but there was no happiness behind the smile. She looked tired, and I wondered what it was that made someone like her do the things she did. She had such faith in what she was doing. She really believed it was the right thing and she did it regardless of any personal threat. She lived to help others and I wondered if that was a kind of insanity.

‘Who was it?' she asked again. ‘Who sent you?'

‘I ...'

‘Please. You could save a lot of lives.'

I took a deep breath and stared at the tabletop, thinking about all the trouble it could cause me if anyone found out I had told her. But, then, if Costa was planning to kill me anyway, maybe it didn't matter. If I told Sister Beckett who had hired me, then at
least someone would know what had happened to Daniella and the old man and me if we disappeared.

‘Branquinos,' I said, looking up at her.

The way she nodded, I knew she had heard the name and that it confirmed something for her.

To me, though, it was like a riddle. If the Branquinos had taken ownership of this mine, it explained how Costa knew that Sister Beckett would be here. But it also meant they had hired me to come here to kill Sister Beckett while paying Leonardo to deliver guns. Both jobs could have been done by one man, but they must have wanted to disconnect everything; make everything harder to trace. There was no way they could have known that we would all end up together, but what if they had hired me to deliver the guns and Leonardo to kill Sister Beckett? If they had done that, the guns would probably have been delivered.

And Sister Beckett would probably be dead.

Maybe God really was watching over her.

‘They used a man called Costa to hire me,' I said. ‘That's the only name I know. He works in Piratinga.'

‘Costa.' She repeated the name as if to help remember it.

‘I have to go.' I put my hand on the newspaper cutting. ‘Can I keep this?'

‘Of course.' Sister Beckett watched as I folded it back along the creases and slipped it into my pocket, then she reached out and took my hand in both of her own. ‘Bless you, Zico,' she said. ‘You're a good man. I can understand now why you were so angry with Leonardo.'

I was confused for a second, not sure what she meant.

‘Bringing guns—'

‘No,' I said. ‘It wasn't anything to do with the guns.'

‘It wasn't?' She waited for an explanation, her hands still encasing mine.

‘He killed two men,' I told her. ‘Not long before we saw you.'

‘Oh.' But she wasn't looking at me any more. There was some kind of commotion behind me, and she was looking over my
shoulder. Something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked a lot like fear.

Beside her, Kássia began to push out of her seat. She moved in front of Sister Beckett, raising her left hand.

I started to turn but flinched at the two loud bangs that came in quick succession.

Kássia fell back, dropping the small pistol she had hidden beneath the table. Her body lurched twice as bullets tore through her and took away her life.

I ripped my hands away from Sister Beckett's and moved to one side, ducking and reaching for my pistol as I turned, but Leonardo smashed the butt of his pistol into my face with enough force to twist my head to one side and send a white flash of pain firing through my skull.

I dropped my weapon and stumbled to my knees, both hands going to my head. Leonardo kicked me to the floor before coming closer and putting a foot on my pistol.

‘Where are my guns?' It was clear he had found something to fuel his drug habit. His eyes were wild, his whole face contorted in anger. But there was something else there, too; the same glint of pleasure I had seen the day he killed the men on the boat.

He leaned forward, placing the barrel of his pistol against my forehead, tapping it hard with each word he spoke. ‘Where. Are. My. Guns?'

‘Don't tell him, Zico,' Sister Beckett said from behind me.

‘Shut up.' Leonardo didn't even look at her. ‘Where are they? I saw you at the store, you know. Thought I'd go down to the river and take my cargo while you were busy – except the boat's gone. How do you make a whole fucking boat disappear? Only reason you're not dead yet is because I need to know where you put it. Where are my guns?'

‘Don't tell him,' Sister Beckett said again. ‘Think of all the people who—'

‘Shut up.' Leonardo raised his pistol over my head and fired two shots.

I flinched with each deafening report, the noise so close to me
that I felt it reverberate in my head. When Leonardo looked back down at me, he began to lower the pistol to point it at me once more.

And that's when Daniella killed him.

53

The first shot hit Leonardo in the back of the neck and punched out through his throat.

His muscles contracted and he squeezed the trigger of his pistol, the bullet slamming into the floor just a few centimetres from my head. Wood splintered close to my ear, and the sound of the explosion numbed me. For a moment, it drove all thought from my mind. There was nothing but the noise of that gunshot and the sharp sting of the wood against my cheek.

Standing over me, Daniella continued to fire. Again and again. She worked the trigger, emptying the small pistol into Leonardo as he fell forward, stumbling to the table.

The gun popped and Leonardo jerked as the bullets entered his back, smashing his ribs, tumbling through his flesh.

Even when the pistol was empty, Daniella continued to dry fire, clicking the hammer down against the spent cartridges.

Regaining my senses, I stood and went to her, putting my hand on the pistol, making her lower her arm. ‘Good,' I said. ‘Good.'

Leonardo's body was hitching with the last of his laboured breaths. He uttered a quiet moan and there was a sigh as he released the stale air that had been held deep in his lungs. His blood emptied onto the table, running to the edges and dripping to the dirty floor until he became nothing.

Daniella stared at him as I scanned the room, checking for possible accomplices, but everyone was stunned into silence, stationary in their seats. No one dared move for fear they might be next.

Outside, the music had stopped, and one or two people had
come to the door to see what was going on. There were faces at the windows.

I pulled Daniella down into a crouching position, wanting to keep her low, make her a small target from anyone else who might come. Before he died, Leonardo said that he had gone to find the
Deus
, to retrieve his guns, and I was sure he wouldn't have done that alone. He would have needed help to lift those crates from the deck. What I didn't know was who that help would be. A couple of men hired just for that job would not step forward to join this fight, but the men who were here to take delivery might do anything to protect their cargo.

‘We have to go,' I said, taking the small pistol from her hand and tucking it into my pocket. I retrieved my other weapon from the floor, then took Leonardo's pistol and put it into Daniella's hands. Take it,' I told her. This isn't over yet. There might be others.'

‘Others?' The shock was clear in her eyes and in her voice.

‘You're going to be OK, Daniella. We're going to be fine.'

She managed to nod.

‘We have to get out of here, though. Do you understand? It's not safe for us here.'

The crowd was slowly coming to life around us. The first voices had begun to murmur, and people were getting out of their seats for a better look. The door creaked open and more began to come inside, edging closer as their curiosity took hold of them.

I watched them, trying to see each one, looking for any sign of threat, but it became more difficult as the number of faces grew.

‘Come on,' I said, helping Daniella to her feet and then grabbing my pack. ‘Let's go.'

‘What about them?' she said, turning to look at the two women.

I risked glancing behind us, taking my eyes off the encroaching crowd to see Kássia with her head back, her mouth open and her eyes wide. I had seen enough of the dead to know that she had joined them.

Sister Beckett was still alive, but she was bleeding, and her
breath came in palsied gasps. Her eyes rolled as she tried to focus on us.

Leonardo's bullet had punctured her beneath the collarbone, and already much of her chest was soaked and her life was ebbing away.

‘We can't help them,' I said. ‘We have to help ourselves. We have to go.'

Even as I spoke the words, Sister Dolores Beckett stopped moving. The rasping breaths ceased. Her eyes became still and her body relaxed.

She was with her God now.

‘Stay where you are.' A voice behind me. ‘Put your guns down.'

I turned to see Fernanda pointing a shotgun at us, the stock tucked into her shoulder, her eye looking along the barrel.

Two men flanked her, each of them armed.

‘I didn't do this.' I wiped the blood from my face. ‘You saw what happened. You have to let us go.'

Fernanda held her shotgun steady. ‘Put your guns down.'

The bar was full now. Everyone who had been at tables was standing, and many of the revellers from outside had crowded in to see the drama being played out.