"He was awful, Capac," she moaned. "He didn't mean to be. He was trying to help, like you are now, only he doesn't know how. He wanted to prepare me." Her eyes were brimming with tears. She shook her head sadly and some of the tears trickled out. "Poor Ferdy. He always tried to do what was best for me. He was just never very good at it."
"He's still alive?"
"Of course," she sniffed. "Ferdy will never die. He'll go on forever and ever, horrible and helpless as always."
"I thought he was dead."
"No. It was Ferdy. He'd lost some weight but otherwise he didn't look so different."
"What did he say to make you do such a… a foolish thing?"
She stared at me coldly, the maturity of her age in evidence for once. "He told me you were a gangster."
My face fell. "Conchita, I… I was going to tell you. I didn't want-"
"It's all right," she said. "I don't mind. I had my suspicions anyway. But he also said you were an Ayuamarcan." That word again! It shocked me coming from her lips. "He said getting close to you would be a bad idea, but I knew that anyway."
"Why would it be a bad idea, Conchita?" I asked quietly.
"Because almost all the Ayuamarcans end up dead," she replied. "A few get to live-the chosen few-but the rest… By telling me, he hoped to soften the blow." She snorted. "Stupid monster of a man."
"I don't understand," I said, letting her go, moving away.
"Don't worry," she said, following me. "I'm not going to listen. He frightened me when he came. I tried to kill myself because I was scared. I couldn't face losing you. But you're different. You're not like the others. You can beat him, I know you can. You're not like them… or me." She nodded when I looked sharply at her. "I'm one too. I'm weak like the others. But you can turn the tables on him, Capac. You're stronger than the rest of us."
"I still don't understand," I said. "What does Ferdinand Wain have to do with this? How can a nobody who's supposed to be dead wield so much influence? How does he tie in with this Ayuamarca list? What power does he-"
"Ferdinand who?" she interrupted.
"Ferdinand Wain," I groaned. Was she forcing him out of her thoughts already? Shutting reality out again?
"Who's that?"
"He's…" I reached across and touched her hand. I didn't want to continue but I couldn't let her retreat, not until I had the information I needed. I had to push her, much as I might hate myself for it. "He's your husband. Ferdinand Wain." She stared at me numbly and shook her head.
"No, Capac," she whispered.
"Yes, Conchita."
"No!" she screamed. Then grabbed my face and stared at me, horrified. "I thought you knew. I thought that was why… God. I'm not married to Ferdinand Wain, Capac. My husband is Ferdinand Dorak."
"Who…?" My mind reeled. I knew the name but couldn't admit it.
"Dorak," she repeated. And then, sitting back, face ashen, eyes starting to well with tears, she said, "I'm married to The Cardinal."
ama situwa
I sat alone in Shankar's, as far removed from the morning regulars as possible, and brooded over the events of the previous night. I had no appetite. I'd ordered a glass of orange juice but lost interest in it after a couple of bitter sips.
Ferdinand Wain didn't exist. The name was a cover, something toserve up to doctors, nurses, hotel staff and gullible fools like me. Conchita was married to The Cardinal.
I still had trouble accepting it. How could that old monster have won the hand of sweet, innocent Conchita? Then again, maybe she hadn't always been this way. The fragile, defenseless woman holed up in the Skylight might be a result of the illness which wrecked her body. What was she like before?
Conchita said nothing of importance after hitting me with the bombshell. I asked a few more questions about the Ayuamarcans but she waved them away with exhausted mumbles, saying only that they were dead people. She fell asleep in my arms. I held her for a long time, staring off into space, feeling her weak heart beating softly. She didn't stir when I left.
Three people had now mentioned this Ayuamarca file. The killer, Paucar Wami-I'd recalled this morning that he'd said Adrian and I were Ayuamarcans, and realized that was why I'd instinctively linked him with Adrian's disappearance. Ama Situwa, who claimed to have invaded Party Central. And The Cardinal's diseased wife. An unlikely trio, unconnected in any other way as far as I could see. But who were the Ayuamarcans? What linked them? And why did so many wind up dead?
A thin hand tapped my shoulder and disturbed me. I looked up,startled, expecting the angel of death, but it was only Leonora. "May I sit with you?"
"Sure." I stood and pulled out a chair. She thanked me and sat, setting down a plate with a sliced pineapple on it.
"You look like a man with too much on his mind," she said. "Islife with Dorry getting you down?"
"It has its darker moments," I confessed. "I never guessed it would be this complicated. I thought I'd take a few months to settle and after that it would be easy. I'd be told what to do, I'd learn and rise through the ranks, same as any other business. I wasn't prepared for the intrigue, the uncertainty, the madness."
She laughed. "You face the same maze as all Dorry's favorites. The higher one flies in this city, the stranger things get. If it is any consolation, it is a sign you are going places. He is testing you."
"I wouldn't mind a test but some days I feel like I'm being set up for a fall. Like he's planning to exploit me and toss me aside when he's finished."
"It is possible," she admitted. "I do not think those are his plans, but I have been wrong before."
"That's a big comfort," I said sarcastically.
She touched my arm sweetly. "There are no safety nets with Dorry. You knew that when you came aboard. It is too late to complain now."
"You're right. Sorry. It's been a hard week."
"They will get harder," she said gloomily. She ate a slice of her pineapple and glanced around the restaurant. A tiny flicker of doubt crossed her face. Then she dismissed whatever was troubling her and smiled. "I love this place. It is my home. In many ways my life began the day I opened for business. I have watched the great men and women of this city sweep through, seen history in the making. Dorry was a nobody when I established this restaurant and only guttersnipes came. Then, as his power grew, this became the place to be. I remember the night he brought the president here. He looked so happy, the most powerful man in the country on one arm, Con-"
She stopped and grimaced.
"Conchita on the other," I finished.
She blinked, surprised. "You know about Conchita?"
"I met her in the Skylight. We're good friends."
"Does Dorry know?"
"He does now." My face blackened as I thought of her almost killing herself. "What's the story with them?" I asked, moving my glass to one side so I could lean closer. "Did he really love her?"
"As much as he could, yes." She sighed unhappily. "I thought Conchita would be the saving of him. He was so violent in the early days. When I first met him, he was a common thug, a brutal bully. He'd never learned to suppress his rage. He lashed out like a hyperactive child. He was an animal. I spent years coaching him. I saw the potential, the man he could become. I devoted myself to him. I am not sure why. There was simply something about him which drew us together.
"He was suspicious. He had never trusted anybody before. I do not think he knew his parents. He grew up on the streets, sleeping in garages and deserted houses. He could not read, could barely talk coherently. I changed that. I taught him how to speak, read, reason, act. The one thing I could not teach him was how to love. He had no interest in companionship. Then Conchita came along."
Leonora was lost in the world of the past. I hardly dared breathe lest I disturb her. "She was so lovely. Petite but full of life. She persevered with Dorry as I had, put up with his tantrums, overlooked his rages, loved him wholly. They were like Beauty and the Beast. He roared at the world and she laughed. In public she would tickle his stomach and rub her nose across his neck. Nobody dared smile."