Inspector Lynley 18 - Just One Evil Act

with her great dark eyes so solemn and confused.
    “Of
course
you may,” Angelina said. “She’s your daughter.”
    Azhar nodded, even managing a small and formal bow. He strode across to Hadiyyah and she jumped from her chair. He swung her up and into his arms, and the child buried her face in his neck. Angelina watched this, as did everyone.
    “
Serpente
,” Lorenzo hissed at Angelina, indicating Azhar with a scornful jerk of his head in the Pakistani’s direction. “
L’uomo è un serpente
,
cara.
”
    She turned to him. She examined him in a way that suggested she was only seeing Lorenzo Mura for the very first time. She said, “Renzo, my God. What are you saying?”
    “
L’ha fatto
,” he said. “
L’ha fatto. L’ha fatto.
”
    “He did what?” she asked.
    “
Tutto, tutto!
”
    “He did
nothing
. He did nothing at all. He’s been here to help find her; he’s made himself available to the police, to us; he’s suffered every bit as much as I have suffered and you can
not
, Lorenzo, no matter how you feel and what you want, accuse him of anything but loving Hadiyyah.
Chiaro
, Lorenzo? Do you understand?”
    The Italian’s face had flooded with colour. One hand knotted into a fist. “
Non è finito
” was what he said.
    VICTORIA
    LONDON
    Barbara was in the midst of planning out her next confrontation with Dwayne Doughty when the call from Lynley came. She was at her desk, she was reorganising her notes, and she was ignoring the baleful glares from John Stewart that the DI was firing at her from across the room. He’d not stopped his ceaseless observation of her despite being warned off by their guv. He seemed to be turning his mania for ruining her into a form of religion.
    “We have her, Barbara” was how Lynley began. “We’ve found her. She’s fine. You can set your mind at rest.”
    Barbara was unprepared for the explosion of emotion inside of her. She said past something that occluded her throat, “You have Hadiyyah?”
    They indeed had Hadiyyah, Lynley told her. He spoke of a place called Villa Rivelli, of a young woman who thought herself a Dominican nun, of the same young woman’s delusions about having the care of Hadiyyah placed into her hands, and of an aborted “baptism” of Hadiyyah that had frightened the child enough to raise the alarm and gain the notice of the Mother Superior inside the cloistered convent. When he was finished, all Barbara could say was “Bloody hell, bloody hell. Thank you, thank you, sir.”
    “Thanks go to Chief Inspector Lo Bianco.”
    “How’s . . .” Barbara thought how to phrase it.
    Lynley kindly intercepted her question. “Azhar’s fine. Angelina is a little worse for wear. But she and Azhar have made their peace, evidently, so all’s well that ends well, I daresay.”
    “Peace?” Barbara asked.
    Lynley explained the scene at Lucca’s hospital, where Hadiyyah was taken after her rescue from the convent. Post a number of accusations from Lorenzo Mura on the matter of Azhar’s putative involvement in Hadiyyah’s disappearance, Angelina and her former lover were able to reach a rapprochement with each other. For her part, Angelina had admitted to doing Azhar a grave injustice in leading him to believe she’d returned to him while all the time planning the disappearance of his daughter. For his part, Azhar asked forgiveness for having been unwilling from the first to give Angelina what she had so wanted: marriage or a sibling for their daughter. He’d said that he was wrong in this. He said he understood that it was too late for them now—for Angelina and himself—but he hoped that she could forgive him as he fully, wholeheartedly, and freely forgave her.
    “Did Mura hear all this?” Barbara asked.
    “He’d already departed in something of a temper. But I have a feeling things aren’t finished there. He indicated as much before exiting stage left. He’s convinced that Azhar’s at the bottom of everything that’s gone on. I must tell you that chances are you’ll be hearing from Chief Inspector Lo Bianco or whoever’s replaced him.”
    “Was he pulled from the case?”
    “He was, so he tells me. And Hadiyyah explained that . . .” He stopped for a moment. He spoke to someone in Italian. Barbara caught
pagherò in contanti
and a woman’s voice in the background saying “
Grazie, Dottore.
” He continued, “Hadiyyah told me that she went with a man who told her he was taking her to her father. She said he had a