Rose in Darkness Read Online Free

‘Look, love, people don’t go about murdering people. I mean, not just ordinary people—’
    ‘These aren’t just ordinary people. They’re very un-ordinary people. They’re in something called the Red Mafia, Mafia Rossa, which is about fifty times worse than any ordinary old Italian Mafia—’
    ‘Oh, come on!’ he said. ‘The Mafia. What secrets could you have that the Mafia wouldn’t want you to have?’
    ‘It’s not the Mafia themselves. They’re just carrying out orders. The real people giving the orders are very rich and grand.’
    ‘People don’t give orders to the Mafia.’
    ‘Those people do,’ she said.
    Just nuts, poor girl. On the other hand—she was frightened, he could see that, properly frightened. She really believed in all this tommy rot. All the same, soon he must turn her out. He glanced up at the clock; five minutes to Time, and anyway he was waiting for the doctor to come. He confided in her; he was proud of himself and his care for his wife. Baby coming more or less any time now and the specialist had promised to call in. Not the ordinary doctor, mind: the special gynaecologist, rooms in Harley Street and the lot. But he was on the staff of the hospital here in Wren’s Hill and had rooms in Wren’s Hill too and this was the first baby. ‘Nothing but the best,’ he said to Sari, telling her all about it. ‘My wife and my baby—nothing but the best.’
    ‘Well, I think that’s lovely,’ said Sari.
    And she was lovely too. He looked at her closely again. ‘Don’t mind me asking, but haven’t I seen you somewhere?’
    ‘If you’ve been in the town in the last few days, you may have seen my photograph. There’s an old film of mine, showing at the Cinema Club. That’s why I’m here.’
    ‘Don’t tell me,’ he said. ‘Some Indian name. The wife was talking about you only this afternoon.’
    ‘Sari,’ she said. ‘Sari Morne.’
    ‘Well, I’m damned! She was cursing herself, the baby coming a bit before its time or so they think, so she wouldn’t be able to go into town tonight to see you. Mad about you she is. You was in some Italian film; but three years ago or more, she says, and she never saw you again.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘That was my last. But you see—Italy: so it’s not so impossible about the Mafia, is it?’ And she put down her empty glass with a little clonk on the polished wood surface of the counter, glanced out uneasily at the blackness of the night and gave a little shudder. ‘I must go.’
    He followed her glance, saw where the heavy raindrops bounced and shimmered on a gleaming black rooftop. ‘Decent bus you seem to have, out there.’
    ‘It’s the new Cadmus, the Halcyon 3000.’
    ‘Ah, yes, very popular that is. We’ve got several right here in Wren’s Hill. All that advertising, I suppose. I must say, outwardly it looks much the same as anything else.’
    ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Inconspicuous.’
    For the first time he thought that this might, after all, be something serious. ‘You especially choose an inconspicuous car?’
    ‘That’s right,’ she said again, dully; and got down from the stool slowly, as though reluctantly, perched the big black hat on top of her head with a careless bang on the crown to push it down further over the glow of her hair, pulled on the soft leather gloves, slung the handbag over her shoulder. Beautiful. Beneath the brim of the black hat she looked more beautiful than ever, he thought, everything about her was beautiful, everything she owned, luxurious and beautiful. Only the fear in the shadowed blue-grey eyes was disturbing. He came round to the front of the bar and put a hand on her arm. ‘Don’t worry, love. They’ll have gone past now. They’ll be miles ahead of you.’ He didn’t believe in her followers but it was evident that she did; she was deeply afraid.
    ‘Unless they’ve realised and stopped somewhere and are—waiting.’ But she would have to go. He went with her to