Day of Confession - Allan Folsom [125]
“I…” Danny touched a hand to his head. “Not thinking… too… clear…”
“It’s okay, Danny,” Harry said gently. “It’s going to be okay…”
“It’s not unexpected, Mr. Addison,” Elena said deliberately, her eyes going to Danny. “And I don’t mind talking in front of the father, because he needs to understand it, too—he has been seriously hurt…. He was making progress, all this has set him back…. Physically I think he will be all right…. But he may have trouble with his words, his cognizance, or both…. How much will return, only time will tell.” Now she looked to Harry.
“How far is the truck, Mr. Addison?” She was suddenly concerned with time, with the lengthening shadows outside the cave. “How far do we have to go to reach it?”
Harry hesitated, then looked to Danny. Afraid of upsetting or frightening him, he took Elena by the arm and led her toward the cave’s entrance, telling her he’d show her the way from there.
Outside, he pointed to the rocks that kept the truck from being seen from the lake, then turned to face her.
“The police have found the grotto. They had a helicopter circling the top of the hill by the elevator shaft. Maybe that’s the way the blond man got out—who knows? But they’ll know Danny was there and that he was alive….” Harry hesitated. “You left your things behind, Elena. They’ll know who you are… and probably that I was there, too, because I wasn’t very careful about what I touched.
“They’ll search the tunnels and corridors, and when they don’t find anything, they’ll saturate this whole area looking for us.
“The road up out of here is impossible, but if we can get out before they come this far, and do it before dark, before I need to use headlights, we might make it. At least to the main road where we can mix in with other traffic. Hoping that when it does get dark, we can slip through their checkpoints like we did this morning.”
“To go where, Mr. Addison?”
“With luck, the Autostrada at Como and then north to the Swiss border at Chiasso.”
Elena studied him for the briefest moment. “And then where, Mr. Addison?”
“—I’m not sure…” Suddenly Harry was aware of Danny watching them intently from inside the cave. For the first time Harry saw him at a distance, and for the first time saw what he had become. Emaciated, broken. But still with fight, the same way Harry had always remembered him. Bullheaded sometimes, but always tough. Nonetheless, right now he was all but helpless.
Abruptly, Harry turned back to Elena. There were things she needed to understand before they went anywhere.
“You know that I am wanted for killing an Italian policeman. And that Danny is a prime suspect in the murder of the cardinal vicar of Rome.”
“Yes.”
Harry’s eyes were suddenly intense and filled with strength. “It’s important you understand that I did not kill the policeman…. What my brother did or didn’t do, I don’t know and won’t until his mind is clear enough for me to ask him…. And even then, I don’t know what he’ll say, or won’t…. But whatever happened, someone wants him dead…. Because of what he knows, for what he might tell…. That’s why the blond man, maybe even the police…. And now they know he’s alive, they’ll not only come after him again, they will assume he’s passed on whatever he knows to the people with him.”
“You mean you and me, Mr. Addison…”
“Yes.”
“Whether he has told us anything or not—“
“They won’t ask.” Harry finished the thought for her.
Suddenly, and out of nowhere, came the chunky thud of a jet helicopter’s rotor blades slicing air. Taking Elena by the arm, Harry pulled her back into the cave’s overhang just as the machine swept over the ridge above them. Moving out over the lake, it made a wide turn, then swung