Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [23]
"Good." He smiled cheerfully. "We'll go back to my place and you tell me how we're going to do it."
I don't think I've ever felt so relieved in my life as I turned and followed him along the path. As we reached Langley he grinned, "Everything all right, old stick?"
Barzini looked him over. "And this is one of them, this girl-boy?" He shook his head. "Mother of God, what's the world coming to?" He took me by the arm, dismissing Langley completely and said as we moved away, "You know, my friend, there are days when I feel like climbing into one of my own coffins and pulling down the lid."
5
A Special Kind of Woman
I drove back to Palermo in the Alfa with Barzini, and when we reached the funeral premises in Via San Marco we found that Langley had beaten us to it and was standing waiting on the pavement beside the Mercedes.
"Ah, there you are, old stick," he said as I got out. "What kept you?"
Barzini remained unimpressed. "I don't like him," he said. "His smile--it's like a brass plate on a coffin. You're sure you want this pig along?"
For once Langley looked as if he didn't know what in the hell to say next. I said, "He's the banker, remember."
"All right," Barzini said grudgingly and prodded Langley in the chest with a stubby forefinger. "Only mind your manners and keep your mouth shut."
We followed him along the candlelit hall; he opened the door at the rear and we passed through into some sort of preparation room. There were corpses laid out, some of them being worked on by morticians. Most of them wore new clothes and the faces had been carefully made up to create some semblance of life.
Barzini paused briefly to make a suggestion to an old man who was working on the face of a little girl of perhaps seven or eight, then continued on his way calmly. Langley didn't look too happy and I wasn't exactly delighted with the whole thing myself.
But things were going downhill fast, for when Barzini opened another door, we followed him through into an immense arched room dimly lit, heavy with the scent of flowers. There were rows of coffins on either side, each with an occupant.
At the far end of the room wooden steps lifted to a small glass office. Barzini mounted them briskly and a uniformed man sitting at a desk inside stood to greet him.
"These gentlemen and I have business to discuss, Guido," he said. "Go and have something to eat. Take an hour."
Guido saluted and made himself scarce and Barzini closed the door after him. Langley gazed down through the glass window in fascinated horror at the rows of corpses below.
"You like it?" Barzini said. "You want I should find a place for you? We call it the Waiting Hall. You'd be surprised how many people have a pathological fear of being buried alive. They like to be certain, so we leave them here for a while. Notice the cord running into each coffin. One end connected to a bell, the other to a ring on the corpse's finger. The slightest movement and a bell sounds up here. That's why we have an attendant day and night."
There was a moment's silence when he finished and then, quite distinctly, one of the bells above his head tinkled.
"Good God Almighty!" Langley exclaimed, genuine horror on his face, and his hand dipped inside his coat and came out holding a Walther PPK.
Barzini laughed harshly. "And just what do you think you're going to do with that?" he demanded and pushed it aside with the back of his hand.
He opened the door and went down the steps quickly. We watched him cross to a coffin and examine a corpse. The bell tinkled faintly again, he turned and came back.
"Nothing to worry about. Those warning bells are so sensitive that the least movement of the corpse sets them going."
Langley's forehead was beaded with sweat and his eyes were wild. "Does it ever happen for real?" he whispered.
"Twice last year. A middle-aged woman sat up in her shroud in the middle of the night and started screaming." Langley's eyes almost started from his head and Barzini patted his cheek and grinned delightedly. "See, Oliver, he isn't so tough after all."
He sat