trim and fel on their sides.
And in the wardrobe where he'd emptied his jacket - bundles of high denomination notes! A suitcase ful. Pounds, deutschmarks, dolars, in fifties and hundreds. And the Krugerrands: twin burlap sacks weighing at least thirty pounds each! Sixty pounds of solid gold!
And al of this money here in his room, in the night, in Sicily. Harry broke out in a sweat again. He wasn't a thief - but he was now! But so were the Francezcis.
And what the hel, he'd known what he was doing. And what it was for. But...
... He had to get it out of here!
He did, to the old house in Bonnyrig. Then returned to the Hotel Adrano, and lay tossing and turning al through the rest of the night, unable to sleep.
Rising with the sun, Harry checked out of the hotel. He didn't dare simply disappear, for that would be to invite investigation. But having checked out, then he disappeared - back to his home in Bonnyrig, where at last he would be able to set the wheels of a real search in motion.
In his house - which felt unaccountably strange and empty now, as if he'd been away for a week at least - Harry secreted the money away and began to feel a little easier. And then, to make up for the deficiencies of last night, he slept...
... But only for an hour, until the sun rose again for the second time in just sixty minutes.
It was the telephone that brought him awake; Bonnie Jean's husky voice inquiring oh-so-knowingly, 'Is that mah wee man?'
And oh, yes, it was him. And he was hers, beyond a doubt:
The full moon, its golden light streaming down ... B.J.'s strange eyes, undergoing an even stranger metamorphosis ... and a wolfs head in silhouette, dark against the disk of the moon.
Harry said nothing, because her words hadn't been a question but a trigger. On the other end of the line BJ. understood his silence, smiled at it and asked him:
'Wel, did you get your finances sorted out? You can answer normaly, Harry.'
'Er, yes,' he said. 'I'm al fixed up now.'
'And ready for a weekend's climbing?'
'Ready as I ever wil be,' he answered.
'Good!'
She arranged a meeting for lunch: 12:00 noon, at a little place she knew outside Falkirk, about half-way to where they'd be climbing. And she finished by asking him, 'How wil you get there?'
Til bike it,' Harry answered. 'Looks like a nice day. I should enjoy the ride.' It was no lie; he would bike it - some of the way, anyhow.
He sensed B.J.'s surprise. 'But that's -1 don't know - maybe fifteen miles?'
'I'l be seting out about 9:30. Plenty of time.'
Til have my car. I could pick you up?'
'I ... think I'l enjoy the fresh air.'
At last he sensed her shrug. 'Wel, okay, just as long as you save some of your energy. Er, for the climbing, I mean ...'
'Oh, I'l have enough of energy.'
'Very wel then,' she laughed. Til see you around midday. Afterwards, when we're done, we can always put your bike on the roofrack and I'll drive you home ... mah wee man.'
Which left Harry feeling as if the world had blinked and for a moment he'd felt the darkness. But al he could remember was that he had a date with Bonnie Jean, and that she was innocent, of course.
But innocent of what ... ?
* * *
At Le Manse Madonie there was hell on. There had been hell on all night. And unheard by the brothers' lieutenants and common thralls (their servants or 'soldiers,') and ignored for now by the Francezcis themselves, because they were busy, the ancient thing in the pit had wailed piteously, continuously to itself for hours now.
And one by one the interrogations went on: the 'household staff were called forward one after the other into Francesco's private rooms; he and Anthony talked to them, threatened them, required them to admit responsibility for last night's damage and robbery.
Or if they weren't directly responsible, to admit that they'd been seduced by some outside agency, and were part and parcel of the break-in. To no avail; but the brothers had known that from the start; it was simply something that had to be done.
Finally it was done. Le Manse's staff, sufficiently cowed but all perfectly 'innocent' - or as innocent as vampires can be - were back at their duties; the Francezcis could now begin to consider, or at least attempt to consider, the mechanics of