Chapter 20: Let Him Speak Now

Massimo heard his father's voice come out of the roof of the church.

It was not loud.

It came from a pearl in a veil comb, small and tinny.

It filled the stone nave all the same, because no one was breathing.

"Fabrizio will do it Friday," Aurelio's voice said.

"You will be at lunch on Sunday, Rosanna, and say nothing, only that she bruises like a peach."

Nobody moved.

"I want my son to see it. I want to know what he does."

At the altar rail, Wynne stood with her thumb on a lace cuff and her chin up.

Her mother held her arm.

Massimo's eyes went to the front pew.

His father was still smiling.

It was the same smile he used at christenings, and it had stopped being a smile some seconds ago.

Ice rang in a glass on the recording.

"And dear. Tomorrow, take off that bracelet before bed. I've noticed you wear it to sleep."

The recording ended.

The silence after it was the loudest sound Massimo had heard in his life.

"That," said the old widow, from the front pew, "is Aurelio."

She planted her cane on the flagstones.

"That is Aurelio, in his own house, ordering a girl hurt so he could watch his son."

The oldest capo, a huge man in a tight collar, stood up.

Then the second, then the third.

"It's a trick," Aurelio said.

He had risen too, and his voice had lost its softness.

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