Mark Mills - The Information Officer

Also by Mark Mills

The Savage Garden

Amagansett

For Caroline, Gus, and Rosie

You have killed a sweet lady,
and her death shall fall heavy on you.

from Much Ado About Nothing
by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

M ARIO WAS IN A GOOD MOOD .

This wasnt saying much; he was often in a good mood. It was a legacy from his fathera simple, hardworking man who had drilled into his children the value of giving daily thanks for those things that most people took for granted.

Mario cast an approving eye around the restaurant. A prime site a stones throw from the Ritz, and after just four short years, a reputation to match the very best in town. Not bad for the son of a shoemaker from a small village in northern Italy. Not bad at all.

The place was empty, just one lone customer at the bar, but the restaurant would be heaving within the hour, even in these austere times. He checked over the reservations book, memorizing the names and the table allocations. He prided himself on not having to refer to it once the first diners had arrived. There was the usual smattering of household names with strong views about where they sat. Juggling their wishes was about as hard as his job got.

Table 7 was the first to show. The mans face wasnt well known to Marioone of the birthdays-and-anniversaries-only crowdbut Mario remembered him as a generous tipper. He wore a good-quality suit, its looser cut suggesting one of the new tailors just off Savile Row. He informed Mario that his wife would be arriving separately and requested a dry martini to keep him company in the meantime.

The wife was obviously a romantic, because a special order had been placed earlier in the day for a bottle of wine to be brought to the table as a surprise. It was a white wine from a small French house, and it had arrived by taxi along with written instructions and a generous contribution toward corkage.

The bottle was already on ice, ready and waiting behind the bar. Mario tipped Gregory the wink before taking up a discreet position behind a bushy palmetto to observe the reaction.

The man smiled at the appearance of the ice bucket, but the moment Gregory revealed the bottle to him, he fell absolutely still, the blood draining from his face. He looked up at Gregory, speechless, and then his eyes darted wildly around the restaurant. They came to settle on the only other customerthe gentleman seated at the bar. The mans back was turned to table 7, but he now swiveled round on his stool.

It was impossible to read the look that passed between the two men, but it crackled with a strange intensity. Poor Gregory was flummoxed. He offered to pour the wine, was ignored, then wisely chose to retire as the gentleman at the bar made his way over, clutching his cocktail. He was tall and balding and walked with a lazy grace.

Another thing Mario prided himself on was his absolute discretion, but this was a conversation he wanted to hear. He drifted toward table 10, out of sight behind the high banquette but just within earshot. He arrived as the balding man was taking a seat.

You look like youve seen a ghost.

There was a soft but unmistakable American lilt to his accent.

Wheres my wife? said the other man.

Dont worry. Shes just fine.

Where is she?

At home. She thought we should talk.

I dont believe you.

Its true. Call her if youd like. Cigarette?

I have my own.

Try one of thesetheyre Russian.

Mario heard the cigarettes being lit and then the balding man say, Whats your secret?

My secret?

Youve barely aged in ten years.

Nine.

It feels longer.

Does it?

I miss Malta.

I doubt that.

You dont seem very pleased to see me.

What did you expect? The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me.

Mario almost toppled a wineglass on table 10.

Is that what they told you? asked the balding man.

They didnt have to. I was there, remember?

Youre wrong. I could have killed you. Maybe I should have. I chose not to.

The other man gave a short snort of derision.

Mario was well out of his depth now and regretting his decision to eavesdrop. Help came in the form of a large party of diners who blew in through the door on a gale of laughter. Mario couldnt see them from where he was lurking.

Isnt that the actor everyones talking about? said the balding man.

I think so.

Im not sure a fedora and a cloak suit a fellow that short. He looks like a kid playing at Zorro.

Definitely table 2, thought Mario, swooping from his hiding place to greet the new arrivals.

S HE KNEW THE CEMETERY WELLNOT EVERY GRAVESTONE , tomb, and mausoleum, but most. She certainly knew it well enough to tread its twisting pathways with confidence, even on a moonless night such as this. Before the blackout restrictions, she would have been assisted on her way by a constellation of flickering candles, but with the deep darkness as her only companion, she still walked with confidence and purpose.

The mellow scent of pine sap came at her clear on the warm night breeze. Tonight, however, it did battle with the rank odor of decay, of putrefaction. Two wayward German bombsor possibly Italian, now that the cicci macaroni were backhad smacked into the hillside the previous night during a raid, reducing family tombs to rubble and wrenching coffins from the thin soil. Corpses in various states of decomposition had been scattered in all directions, their rude awakening like some dress rehearsal for Judgment Day.

It was Father Debono who had drawn this parallel for their benefit at early-morning Mass, and while it was the sort of observation for which he was known, and the sort that endeared him to the younger members of his flock, his willingness to flirt with irreverence was a source of ongoing distrust among the more elderly. Many had furrowed their brows; some had even tut-tutted from their pews.

She knew where her sympathies lay, though. She knew that it was Father Debono, not old Grech and his wizened holier-than-thou sister, who had spent that day in the thick of it, toiling through the pitiless heat and the inhuman stench to ensure that all the corpses were recovered and reburied with all the proper rites.

Judging from the smell, Father Debono and his small band of helpers had not been able to complete their grim task before nightfall, and she picked up her pace a little at the thought of the rats feasting on flesh nearby. She had always hated rats, even before the war, before the stories had begun to circulate about what went on beneath the rubble of the bombed-out buildings.

She saw a light up ahead: a flickering flame the vague contours of a face a man lighting a cigarette. Then darkness once more.