'You stay here and mind the luggage’ Gemma told Zen. 'I'll take the groceries and open up the boat, then come back with a cart for our friend in the back.'
She turned away into the shadows leading down to the dock. Zen lit a cigarette and watched her walk along the pier and board one of the motor cruisers moored there. What a piece of luck, he thought. What an incredible piece of luck! Whoever would have thought it?
'Look at the moon!' said a voice behind him. 'Quant'e bella!'
He turned to find the scruffy youth gazing at him with an ecstatic expression. Zen did not reply.
'If s always beautiful’ the youth went on earnestly, 'but we can't always see it'
'No’
'And even when we can, half the time we don't' 'How very true’
The youth strode up to him and grasped his right arm tightly.
'Just imagine if the moon only came out every fifty years, like an eclipse of the sun. People all over the world would stay up all night to look at it, dancing and singing and weeping for joy!'
'Quite possibly.'
The rapt expression vanished from the youth's face like a patch of condensation off glass.
'But if s there all the time,' he continued in a voice drained of all emotion. 'It's staring us in the face, so we take it for granted’ Zen threw away his spent cigarette. 'An interesting thought,' he said.
The youth was now gazing in through the rear window of the car. The shrouded body seemed to glow in the moonlight.
'If s right there in front of us, so we don't even see it’ he murmured in the same affectless tone.
'Mmm’
He turned to Zen with a piercingly intense stare.
'Maybe that’s why we don't see God either.'
Zen heard a rumbling sound. Gemma was wheeling a small handcart along the dock. He peeled off some money and handed it to the youth.
'Listen, I've just realized that we forgot to bring any matches with us. Stupid mistake, but ifs the kind of little thing that can ruin your holiday. Do you think you could find us some? Or a lighter. Keep the change.'
The youth nodded dolefully and headed back to his hut as Gemma emerged from the shadows.
'I forgot to tell you about Piero,' she said. 'He's a bit odd.'
'He's a lunatic, in the literal sense of the word, and he'll be back any moment. Let’s get the stiff on the cart, then I'll take it down while you deal with him. Tell him you're Astarte. He'll obey your every command’
He opened the hatchback and hauled Lessi's body half out of the car, then lifted it on to the trolley. Piero was already on his way back. Zen grabbed the handles and started to make his way down the path to the dock. Unfortunately the baggage cart, although built to carry heavy loads, was not designed to accommodate anything long and unstable. Halfway down the slope, one of the wheels hit a rock, the body slewed to one side and the whole thing overturned.
Before Zen could react, the youth had bounded up and started to lift Lessi's feet.
'Turn the cart over’ he said. 'I'll help you load it back on.'
'That s all right, we can manage.'
'No, no! It’s nothing.'
Zen set the cart back on its wheels, then lifted Lessi's head.
Together they set the bundle back in place. 'Whew, that’s heavy,' said Piero. Zen nodded distractedly.. 'What’s inside?' the youth enquired.
'A human corpse. My late brother-in-law. We're going to take him out to sea and throw him overboard. Saves a fortune on the funeral expenses.'
Piero gazed at Zen with a look of growing anger.
'You think I'm crazy, don't you?'
'No, I think you're brilliantly sane, but who cares what I think?'
Gemma materialized between them and turned the youth away, her arm around his shoulders.
'I'm sorry, Piero,' Zen heard her say. 'We've both had a long hard day planning this trip and we haven't slept. It was very kind of you to prepare the boat and give us the keys, and I'll tell the management what a good job you did when I…'
As she led Piero back towards his hut, Zen hefted the handles of the cart and continued down the path and on to the dock, where Gemma rejoined him.
'Are you out of your mind?' she hissed in a hoarse whisper.
'Probably we both are. If s just that you're handling it better.'
'If he tells anyone what you said, we're each facing a life sentence.'
'I'm sorry, I just snapped. But don't worry, no one's going to pay any attention to what Piero tells them.' "They'd better not' 'Of course they won't'
Once again, he was a lot less sure man he sounded.
Gemma didn't reply, and for a while Zen thought that she was furious with him, or understandably scared at the magnitude of what she had got herself into. But when she did speak, it was in a mild, relaxed tone.
'This one,' she said, nodding towards a huge teak motor cruiser bristling with chrome and brass fittings. Zen pushed the cart along the dock, stopping beside a short set of metal steps leading up to the afterdeck.
'Ready?' he said.
Gemma nodded. Together they lugged the increasingly stiff body of Roberto Lessi off the cart and up to the steps. Gemma went aboard while Zen lifted the cadaver so that it was vertical then hoisted it up by the feet while Gemma hauled it over the side. They had just succeeded in getting the centre of gravity inboard when the sound of splashing water drew their attention to the yacht in the next berth, where a man dressed only in a nautical cap, a blue blazer with brass buttons, and the lower half of a woman's bikini was urinating off the stern.
'What you got there?' he asked in a slurred voice.
'Freshly killed meat,' Zen replied.
He heard Gemma's intake of breath, and glanced quickly up at her as he raised himself up on the first of the steps and heaved the bundle over the side. He turned back to their neighbour with a broad smile.
'A whole porchetta. Some friends of ours are having a party at their villa up the coast and this is our contribution. Slaughtered a couple of days ago and then slow-roasted over a wood fire by a real artisan up in the mountains.'
The man adjusted the bikini bottom and sniffed loudly.
'Mmm! I can smell the stuffing from here. Wish I had friends like that. All mine have passed out, one of them on the lavatory. Hence the public display. Care for a drink?'
'No thanks, Arnaldo,' Gemma replied. 'We want to make an early start.'
'Suit yourselves.'
He pointed an admonitory finger at Zen.
'She tends to slew to one side a bitwhen the revs are low. Can make getting in and out tricky. Get all lined up and then give her all you've got. A word to the wise. Buon viaggio.'
He staggered down the companionway and disappeared.
Zen climbed aboard and looked at Lessi's body lying collapsed on the deck.
'Let’s get this stowed inside,' he said.
Gemma opened the doors to the main saloon. They carried the body through and laid it out on a row of bench seating. Zen placed Lessi's pistol in a knife drawer in the galley, and they returned to the afterdeck.
'All right,' said Zen. 'Time to go. Tell me when to cast off.'
Gemma regarded him with a puzzled expression.
'Me? I told you I don't know how to drive this thing. Tommaso always did that, when he did it at all. He would never let me near any of the little knobs and levers.'
Zen gave a world-weary smile.
'Wonderful’ he said.
Gemma leant over and kissed him on the cheek. 'Never mind! You'll do just fine. You're from Venice, remember? If s in your blood. You drank it in with your mother's milk.' Zen glared at her.
'Give me the keys and let go the mooring ropes.'
In the end, handling the boat turned out to be quite simple. All the controls in the cockpit mounted above the aft deck were marked with large metal plates clearly designed with the sort of people who bought these floating mobile homes in mind. Zen turned on the navigation lights and then the engine, which started immediately and settled into a low, reassuring growl. Gemma threw the lines on board and then scampered up the ladder, hauling it up after her. Once they were clear of the dock, Zen applied just enough reverse thrust and port wheel to bring the bow round, then engaged forward gear and minimal throttle while they glided slowly down the twin lines of moored boats. Once they were in the channel beyond, he brought the vessel round and revved up slightly. He didn't notice any tendency to slew to either side. Or had Arnaldo been referring to something else?