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Peter blinked and said no more, turning again to walk away. He was glad the inspector did not see him swallow hard.

THIRTY

When Valentina arrived home, Maria in tow, the policeman sitting with a silent Danjel made his departure with a polite nod.

‘Did you say anything to the policeman about your father?’ she asked him as soon as the man was gone.

‘I said nothing to him about anything,’ he answered. He was in shock, she saw, his usual energy sapped from him and his complex-ion strangely pale.

‘Did he ask you questions?’ Valentina moved to sit next to him, glad he didn’t move away. She stroked his hair. He looked so much older suddenly, but he was still just a boy.

‘Yes, lots. But I refused to answer.’

‘Good,’ Maria said before Valentina could say more.

‘Peter told me to say nothing. I was just following his instructions.’

‘Well done, Danjel. I’m going to make us some coffee, although I feel I need a drink, truth be told.’ The older woman moved to the kitchen and started opening cupboards.

So that’s what Peter had whispered to her son, Valentina realised. It was right… and yet it was wrong too, wasn’t it? ‘Do you want to go to your room?’ she asked Danjel.

‘I want to play with my football.’ He looked up at her. ‘I’ll just be downstairs. I won’t go anywhere far.’

‘All right. Even if your friends come along, you stay close. And Danjel, say nothing to anyone about this. The police will not like us talking yet.’

He nodded once and got up, grabbing his new football as he left. For all his height and already broad shoulders, he looked suddenly small and vulnerable to her.

After the door had closed behind him, she began. ‘Maria…’

Maria didn’t pause what she was doing in the kitchen; she didn’t even turn around. ‘You know this is the best solution.’

‘But we’re lying,’ Valentina said. ‘I don’t want Danjel to think that is permissible.’

‘Oh, really?’ Now the older woman swung around. ‘Haven’t you been lying to him all his life? And haven’t you been lying to yourself? And aren’t you lying right now to all of us?’

‘What?’ Valentina felt knocked off balance, so unexpected was the attack. ‘Lying about what?’

‘Valentina, you have loved Peter Fox since the day you saw him fall from the sky. You have harboured that love throughout the marriage your parents should turn in their graves for forcing you into. Even though you tell me some things and hide others, don’t think I don’t see the bruises you try to hide. Don’t think I can’t recognise a woman who lives under constant threat, and puts up with it because she is trying to protect her child. I saw him attack you in the gardens, and so casually, as though it was normal. And I know there’s something going on between you and Peter now that you’re a woman. I can see it in the way he looks at you, Valentina, and you can be sure Lawrenz saw it the moment he arrived. Worst of all, child, you’re lying to yourself – nothing about your life is tolerable other than Danjel. Stop lying that you can live it.’

She was pointing the coffee spoon at Valentina with each sentence, and now she advanced on her.

‘Today, I saw a different Valentina, or, rather, I saw the old Leni, who knew how to laugh, how to tease, how to have fun, how to dress, for heaven’s sake. You’re the most beautiful woman in this city, and yet you walk around in shapeless clothes so no one can see you, all because of Lawrenz’s jealousies. But today I saw you step out of that cruel man’s shadow and simply enjoy life.’ Now she took hold of Valentina’s slim shoulders and shook her. ‘Be honest to yourself at last. No one will miss Lawrenz. His family will bury him with all due ceremony, but his presence will not be missed, will it?’

Valentina shook her head.

‘Not by them, not by the people of Valletta – you know how miserly he was at the bar – and not by you or Danjel.’

‘But—’

‘But nothing, Leni! A horrible thing happened today. Your husband was drunk. He could have slipped and fallen off that wall at any moment. The fact that Danjel kicked him is not irrelevant, but it simply sped along what was probably inevitable.’

‘You really believe that?’

‘I do, stupid girl! Think!’ Maria let go of her shoulders, and took Valentina’s hand instead, squeezing it. ‘This was a blessing from the angels. They decided this. Fate stepped in and settled the greatest problem of your life. Now you are free. Now you can breathe, Leni. If this hadn’t happened, you’d have been told at some stage in the future that Lawrenz had been killed in some back alley in Marseille. We know he was up to no good, whatever he was doing there, even if the bars were run legitimately. Am I right?’

Valentina nodded, allowing the realisation that everything Maria had said was true to wash over her. But she didn’t want Danjel to think that he could use violence to solve problems.

That was how his father had lived. ‘Do you think Danjel planned it?’ she asked quietly.