Inspector Lynley 18 - Just One Evil Act

to Carina without trouble.
    And so it was. As if guided by the angel Gabriel, Sister Domenica Giustina made her way to the sunken
giardino
with its splashing fountains. Carina wasn’t in sight, but that was of no account. For at the far end of the garden, the Grotta dei Venti stood. This
grotta
offered a chamber of stone and shell along with four marble statues from whose feet water flowed continuously into a channel from a spring far below. This made the air within the grotto cool and inviting in the heat of the day. And here it was that Sister Domenica Giustina saw the little girl, as if waiting for her.
    She was sitting on the stone floor of the place, her knees drawn up to her chin and her thin arms holding her legs in place. She was tucked into the deepest cool shadows, and as Sister Domenica Giustina entered the grotto, she saw the child shrink away.
    “
Vieni, Carina
,” she said softly to the child, extending her hand. “
Vieni con me
.”
    The girl looked up, her face like a haunted thing. She began to speak, but the words she used were not in Italian, so Sister Domenica Giustina understood from them only a few words. “I want my mummy,” Carina said. “I want my dad. I was s’posed to see him and
where
is he and I
want
him and I don’t want to be here anymore and I’mscaredandIwantmydadnownownow!”
    Dad
was the word Sister Domenica Giustina caught among the rush of language. She said, “
Tuo padre, Carina?
”
    “IwanttogohomeandIwantmydad.”
    “
Padre, sì?
” Sister Domenica Giustina clarified. “
Vorresti vedere tuo padre?
”
    “
Voglio andare a casa
,” the little girl said, her voice growing stronger. “
Voglio andare da mio padre, chiaro?
”
    “Ah,
sì
?” Sister Domenica Giustina said. “
Capisco, ma prima devi venire qui
.”
    She held out her hand once more. If the child wanted to go to her father’s home, as she said, there were steps to be taken and those steps could not begin in the Grotta dei Venti
.
    The child looked at the hand extended to her. Her face wore an expression of doubt. Sister Domenica Giustina smiled softly to encourage her. “
Non avere paura
,” she told her, for there was indeed no reason to have fear.
    Slowly, then, Carina got to her feet. She put her hand in Sister Domenica Giustina’s. Together, they left the cool confines of the grotto. Together, they climbed the stairs out of the sunken garden and began to approach the great shuttered villa.
    “
Ti dobbiamo preparare
,” Sister Domenica Giustina murmured to the little girl. For she could not meet with her father unprepared. She had to be ready: sweet and clean and pure. She explained this to the child as she urged her forward, past the villa’s wide and empty loggia, past the sweeping steps that led up to this, round the corner of the building itself, and in the direction of the vast cellars of the place.
    It was on the approach to the steps leading down to the cellars that Carina’s footsteps began to falter. She began to pull back in obvious reluctance. She began to speak words that Sister Domenica Giustina could not hope to understand.
    “Mydadsnottherehe’snotinthecellaryousaidmydadyousaidyouwouldtakemetomydadIwon’tgoIwon’tIwon’tit’sdarkinthereitsmells I’mafraid!”
    Sister Domenica Giustina said, “
No, no, no. Non devi
. . .” But the child did not understand. She tried to pull away with all the strength she had, but with surpassing strength Sister Domenica Giustina pulled back. “
Vieni
,” she said. “
Devi venire
.”
    Down one step, down two, down three. An enormous effort and she had the child within the damp, dank darkness of the cellar.
    But there the little girl began to scream. And the only way to silence her was to drag her far, far inside the rooms of the cellar until she could not be heard by the world outside the forbidding walls of that terrible place.
    LUCCA
    TUSCANY
    Salvatore knew that the possibility of Roberto Squali’s having arranged the kidnapping of the English child on his own was remote. Although his past clearly identified him as a player on the field of illegal activities, there had for years been no hint of scandal or law-breaking on his part. The logical conclusion was that although the child had been with him, she had not come to his attention as a kidnap victim via his own inspiration. The business card of Michelangelo Di Massimo within Squali’s
portafoglio
suggested that there was a substantial link among the private detective,