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Joanna Truscott sounded promising .
    â€œShe must be quite a girl.”
    â€œI wouldn’t know—we’ve never met. Hoffer has business interests in Sicily. Something to do with the oilfields at a place called Gela. You know it?”
    â€œIt was a Greek colony. Aeschylus died there. They say he was brained by a tortoise shell dropped by a passing eagle.” He gazed at me blankly and I grinned. “I had an expensive education, Sean, remember? But never mind. What about the Truscott girl?”
    â€œShe disappeared about a month ago. Hoffer didn’t notify the police because he thought she was off on some binge or other. Then he got a ransomnote from a bandit called Serafino Lentini.”
    â€œAn old Sicilian custom. How much?”
    â€œOh, it was modest enough. Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
    â€œDid he go to the police?”
    Burke shook his head. “Apparently he’s spent enough time in Sicily to know that doesn’t do much good.”
    â€œWise man. So he paid up?”
    â€œThat’s about the size of it. Unfortunately this Serafino took the money then told him he’d decided to hang on to her for a while. He also indicated that if there was any trouble—any sign of the law being brought in—he’d send her back in pieces.”
    â€œA Sicilian to the backbone,” I said. “Does Hoffer have any idea where he’s hanging out?”
    â€œThe general area of a mountain called Cammarata. Do you know it?”
    I laughed. “The last place God made. A wilderness of sterile valleys and jagged peaks. There are caves up there that used to hide Roman slaves two thousand years ago. Believe me, if this Serafino of yours is a mountain man the police could chase him for a year up there without even seeing him and helicopters don’t do too well in that kind of country. The heat of the day does funny things tothe air temperature. Too many down-draughts.”
    â€œAs bad as that?”
    â€œWorse than you could ever imagine. The greatest bandit of them all, Giuliano, operated in the same kind of territory and they couldn’t catch him, even when they brought in a couple of army divisions.”
    He nodded slowly. “Could we do it, Stacey? You and me and the heavy brigade?”
    I thought about it. About the Cammarata and the heat and the lava rock and about Serafino who might already have handed the girl on to the rest of his men. When I replied, it wasn’t because the thought made me sick or angry or anything like that. From the sound of her, the Honourable Joanna might well be having the time of her life. I don’t honestly think I was even thinking of my end of the money. It was more than that—something deeper—something personal between Burke and me which I couldn’t have explained at that moment even to myself.
    â€œYes, I think it could be done. With me along it’s just possible.”
    â€œThen you’ll come?”
    He leaned forward eagerly, a hand on my shoulder, but I wasn’t going to be caught that easily.
    â€œI’ll think about it.”
    He didn’t smile, showed no emotion of any kind and yet tension oozed out of him like dirty water and in a second he was transformed into the man I’d always known.
    â€œGood lad. I’ll see you later then. Back at the villa.”
    I watched him climb the path and disappear. For the moment I’d had enough shooting. The sea looked inviting and I moved a little further along the beach, stripped and went in.
    At that point the cliffs merged into hillside sparsely covered with grass, and wild flowers grew in profusion. I climbed half-way up and lay on my back, the sun warm on my naked flesh, staring through narrowed eyelids at a white cloud no bigger than my hand, allowing my whole body to relax, making my mind a blank, another trick hard-won from those months in prison.
    The world was a blue bowl and I floated in it, drowsing in the