to us over the last few years—the subsidies from Rome and Brussels that you fixed. Money for wind turbines that don’t generate any power, for instance.”
“It can’t be done without the arms deals,” he said categorically. “You may have to look around for someone else.”
Rosa had seen that coming, and realized that she had to make some concessions. “Where do the arms go?”
“Africa. South America. Southeast Asia. Most of the stuff comes from Russia, but some of it from the USA, Germany, France. Where do you suppose that helicopter of yours was made? It certainly isn’t branded ‘Made in Italy.’”
“How about the drugs?”
“That trade’s not what it once was. Too much competition from Russia and the Balkans. My heart’s not set on it. But you can never be one hundred percent sure it’s not going on, with some of the soldati doing deals of their own.”
“If that happens, I should hear about it.”
“You won’t make friends that way.”
“I know.” She smiled. “That’s why I want you to do it for me.”
“You think you’re making it easier for yourself, but you’ll soon see it’s exactly the opposite. It’s not the law you want to guard against; it’s your own people.”
“Then I’d better begin with you, right?”
“I swore to your grandmother, on oath, that my life belongs to this family. And I’m a man of my word.”
“You haven’t done badly up until now.”
“And as we happen to be discussing it, I have one condition. Lampedusa.”
“Florinda’s favorite project?”
“Some of her signatures still have to be honored. I have, shall we say, a personal interest in the business with the refugees on that island. We can forget about the drugs, we can reduce the arms deals, but Lampedusa must stay as it is. You will not place any obstacles in my way in that respect.”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
“We’re of the same mind, then?” he asked.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be of the same mind, avvocato. But we have a deal.” A pact is more like it, she thought, grinding her teeth.
He offered Rosa his hand, and she shook it without hesitating.
As she left, she gave Contessa di Santis a charming smile, and as they said good-bye to each other, she held the contessa’s hand a little too long. On the way back to the helicopter Rosa threw the diamond ring she had been holding in her clenched fist into the sea.
COSTANZA’S LEGACY
ROSA FOUND IOLE IN the greenhouse. The glazed annex was like a long arm reaching out from the north wall of the Palazzo Alcantara. The walls and the vaulted ceiling were made of glass panes that creaked dangerously in high winds. Rust and verdigris covered the iron framework. Like everything else in the palazzo, the place was in urgent need of restoration.
“They like me,” said Iole proudly.
She had a snake draped around her neck like a shimmering stole. Iole was caressing its skull. The other end of the reptile was coiled around her waist. More snakes were winding around her feet, darting their tongues in and out and hissing.
Rosa closed the door of the greenhouse behind her and entered the sultry jungle inside. Palm trees, giant ferns, exotic shrubs, and climbing plants had merged into dense thickets over the years. The humid heat that clouded the glass with condensation took her breath away at first. But in a moment her body adjusted to it. In fact it felt like she could breathe freely in the palazzo for the first time in months. Part of her duties, those that had lent a leaden heaviness to the place, had been left behind with Trevini in Taormina. She felt better—but at the same time she was confronting new anxieties.
“Would you like to see it now?” asked Iole, carefully trying to lift the snake off her shoulders. The creatures were remarkably trusting. Iole was not a Lamia, indeed not an Arcadian at all, yet the reptiles accepted her as one of their own.
“Would I like to see what?” Rosa dismissed the image of the captive Valerie that had superimposed itself on Iole’s cheerful face.
“The freezer!” Iole made a reproachful pout. “Hello? The keypad working the door, remember? Days and days working away down in the dark cellar? Me, the genius with numbers!”
Rosa smiled, and helped her to put the snake down on the floor with the others. The sound of hissing and spitting came from all directions. More and more snakes came winding their way out of the undergrowth and formed a wide circle around Rosa, not as