The Darkest Heart (38 page)

‘That's what we all want.'

While Sister Beckett and her companion collected their belongings, I went to Leonardo and squatted in front of him. I leaned close and spoke quietly. ‘Who are the guns for?'

‘You know I'm not going to tell you that.'

‘For the kind of people who do things like we saw back there in that settlement? Is that who?'

‘What do you care? You'll get paid, that's all that matters. You want to come all this way for nothing?'

I watched him, wondering if it
was
all that mattered. Those guns could kill a lot of people. Would all those lives lie on my conscience?

‘I'm going to cut you loose,' I said, ‘so you can make contact with your people.'

‘You coming?' Leonardo looked past me, watching Sister Beckett and her companion.

‘No. I'm staying here with your guns. You come back to this jetty tomorrow morning, bring the money, and you can have the guns.'

‘You're a smart man, Zico. Smarter than I thought.'

‘Hmm. We'll see about that.' Maybe a smart man would have let Sister Beckett die out there in the settlement. Take Costa's money for nothing. But, instead, I had protected her.

‘That woman,' Leonardo said. ‘Who is she?'

‘Her name is Dolores.'

‘Yeah, but who is she? I mean, why do you have a picture of her in your pocket?'

‘Mind your own business.'

‘I've seen her somewhere else, too,' he said. ‘I've seen her before.'

‘I'm going to cut you loose now. Don't give me any reason to take out my weapon. No one wants that.'

‘What about my clothes? You're not going to make me go into Mina dos Santos in just my shorts?'

I took out my knife and leaned across to cut the cable tie that kept him connected to the upright. He then offered me his hand so that I could cut the other tie, and I slipped the blade under the plastic and looked at him. ‘Don't give me any reason to kill you.'

He stared at me. ‘If I were you, I would do it now. You don't kill me now, you'll be looking back every day.'

‘You don't frighten me,' I said, pulling the knife upwards and cutting the tie.

‘Yes I do. Not because you think I might kill you, though, but
because you think I'll do something to her.' He looked over at Daniella standing by the wheelhouse.

I dragged Leonardo to his feet and followed him to the gunwale, waiting for him to climb over before I threw down his clothes and backpack. He didn't offer to help with Sister Beckett's bags, so I dropped them onto the jetty for her and Kássia and I helped her down.

Leonardo pulled on his shirt and trousers and waited for the two women, as if his intention was to go with them into Mina dos Santos and hide behind their respectability. I might have been wrong, but Sister Beckett didn't seem to look at Leonardo in the same way as she had when she'd first come aboard. There was an edge of suspicion in her eyes now. She had seen something she never expected to see, and she had learned a new lesson.

Words were not always enough.

As they were about to walk away, Sister Beckett came back to me and looked up, beckoning with one hand.

‘Are you not going to come ashore with us? Send help for Santiago?'

‘No one will go out in the dark,' I said. ‘He knows that. For now, Daniella and I are going to have some time alone.'

‘Don't you think she needs to get off the boat?'

‘What she needs is a bit of calm.' I nodded my head at the path into the trees. ‘And there's not much calm to be had in there.'

Sister Beckett smiled. ‘I was looking at the name of your boat and thinking it's appropriate. God and the Devil. Which one lives in your heart?'

‘Maybe both.'

‘Can I ask you something, Zico?'

I nodded.

‘Why do you have a photograph of me in your pocket?'

Without thinking, I touched a hand to the place over my heart. The cotton under my fingers was soft and I could feel the outline of the folded newspaper. ‘I told you, I don't have—'

‘Are you sure? Is there something you want to tell me? In all
the time I was on your boat, you never once asked me why I was here or who I was.'

‘Daniella asked. You told her you work for FUNAI.'

‘That's right, Zico, I do. But you know a bit more than that, don't you? You called me by my name.'

‘I must have recognised you.'

‘From the photograph? The one in your pocket?'

‘You shouldn't be here alone,' I told her.

‘I'm not alone. I'm
never
alone.'

‘Kássia won't always be able to protect you. Not on her own.'

‘Even without Kássia,' she said looking up, ‘I am never alone.'

‘He
can't help you. Not from bullets.'

‘But that's just it, Zico, don't you see? He can. He provides his own protection. He sent
you.'

48

Daniella and I climbed down onto the jetty and sat on the sand for a while, positioning ourselves so we could see the cut into the trees bordering the narrow strip of beach. The barrier of forest that hid the mine from view was deep and thick and impenetrable. If anyone were going to come, they would have to use the path.

Two hundred metres upriver was a tributary, too small for any boat to navigate, flowing from the mine. That small stream was poisonous with the pollution running down from the operations, contaminated with mercury and sure to kill everything that lived in the water there. If the mine were to expand, that tributary would be widened and the volume of spoiled water would increase. It was just the kind of thing someone like Sister Beckett would try to fight. But maybe the Indians would fight too, and it might require a lot of guns to keep them down.

Beyond the narrow inlet, the approaching night had swallowed the river and the trees.

It felt good to be off the boat, to be alone. My mind was still burdened with countless worries, but at least Leonardo was gone and Sister Beckett was out of sight.

‘You don't think he'll come back?' Daniella asked.

‘Leonardo? I don't think so, not tonight. The light's almost gone; it'll be too dark. He won't be able to see if he comes back.' I sat up and moved so I was behind her. I slipped my legs either side of her and reached out to loosen her hair, arranging it around her shoulders. ‘Anyway, he'll be tired and sore. If I were him, I'd want to rest, think about what I was going to do.'

‘And what would that be?' Daniella tilted her head back towards me.

I watched the line of trees as I ran my fingers through her hair. ‘Exactly what I told him; come back tomorrow with the payment. It would be the easiest thing for him.'

‘You're not worried he might try to—'

‘No,' I said, moving her hair to one side and kissing the back of her neck. ‘He's got no reason to do anything. He just wants his stuff. We're safe tonight.'

‘So who do you think all those guns are for?' she asked.

‘It doesn't matter.' But my mind went back to the settlement. If those men had been armed with rifles like the ones on the
Deus
, they would have cut us down. ‘We have to take the money and leave. The old man deserves to be paid for this, otherwise we came all this way for nothing.'

And there was another job left to do; for Costa. Sister Beckett was still alive and I had to change that.

Just one more life.

‘Maybe we should—'

‘Don't think about it,' I said to her. ‘Just don't think about it. Forget them. It'll make you crazy. Think about something else.'

‘Like what?'

I turned Daniella's face so our mouths were close together and pressed my lips to hers, soft and warm. She put a hand to the back of my head and pulled me against her, kissing me hard before she broke away and looked at me. Our eyes were close, and I could feel her warm, heavy breath on my mouth. She pursed her lips, still tasting our kiss, then smiled.

We washed upriver from the creek, away from the mine's waste, keeping our movements soft as we scrubbed away the grime of the past days. I had reassured Daniella, telling her we were safe, but I wasn't going to lower my guard too far. We stayed quiet so we wouldn't be heard, but would hear the movements of others if they chose to approach in the darkness.

‘We should get back on board,' I told Daniella when we were clean. ‘Come on.'

As the last light left the sky, I dragged my trousers over my wet legs and collected my pistols while Daniella stepped into her skirt and pulled on her top. I watched her struggle with the cotton on her wet skin, the vest rolling and sticking.

When she was done, we climbed back onto the
Deus
and loosened the rope that moored us to the jetty.

‘There's still a few things to eat in the back,' I said. ‘I'll get us moving, you see what there is.'

‘Where are we going?'

‘Not far. Somewhere we won't be noticed in the dark.'

‘But you said—'

‘Don't worry. We're going to be safe.'

‘You promise?'

‘Yes,' I kissed her. ‘I promise.'

I went to the wheelhouse and started the engine, taking the
Deus
away from the jetty and out onto the water. We drifted to the far side of the river, about a hundred metres from bank to bank at this point, and nosed west past the poisoned tributary.

By the time I cut the engine, the light had completely gone, and the moon was already hanging in the cloudless sky.

‘This should do,' I said, leaning over the gunwale to release the anchor. ‘You all right back there, Daniella?'

I tugged at the rope, checking it was secure, expecting to hear Daniella reply.

The night was silent but for the insects.

‘Daniella?'

No answer.

‘Daniella?' I released the rope. ‘You find anything to—'

‘Not yet.' She spoke from just behind me, making me turn around with a start.

Daniella was standing naked on the deck. In the minimal light from a crescent moon, I could see little of the detail of her body, but her shape was outlined and there were places where the shadows rose and fell.

‘Something we need to finish.' She stepped forward to kiss me, running her nails down my naked back, sliding her hands into the waistband of my trousers. ‘Take them off,' she said, still kissing me, and I fumbled with the button, breaking off only to stoop while I kicked the trousers away.

‘That was fast.' She moved closer, backing me against the bench seat where Sister Beckett had been sitting earlier that day.

‘No time to waste.'

Daniella smiled and pushed me down onto the seat.

She came forward, stopped, slapped at her arm.

‘What?'

‘Mosquito,' she said.

‘Oh.'

She squatted in front of me and ran her fingers across my thighs, down to my calves and back up again, then she stood and watched me for a moment.

‘What's wrong?'

‘Nothing,' she said. ‘I'm just looking at you.'

‘You never look at me like that.'

‘I do now.' She put her legs either side of me, her knees on the seat, and reached down to take hold of me, put me inside her before lowering herself. We held our breath together for a moment, and then she began moving, putting her hands on either side of my face.

‘You need to shave,' she whispered.

I ran my hands along her thighs. ‘So do you.'

‘Cheeky.' A gentle slap on my shoulder, then she let her head hang back and she smiled, her long hair falling around her shoulders. I could feel her tightening around me, her muscles contracting and loosening as she moved, and in that instant everything was forgotten.

Leonardo. The guns. Sister Beckett. The old man.

All of it was gone.

My mind was nowhere else but right here in this tiny fragment of time.

I pulled Daniella towards me and kissed her once before she
broke away and stopped moving. She had the remnants of the smile on her face and she looked alive with it. Her eyes sparkled, her mouth was still turned up at the corners.

‘Ask me now,' she said. ‘It's the right time.'

I stared at her, the moment even more arousing than before. I was inside her, a part of her now. Her warm flesh around me and on me. I could taste her on my lips, feel her on my skin. But the sensation was beyond physical now. She was asking me to give myself to her. Lay myself open and give everything.

‘Ask me,' she said again.

I swallowed hard and looked into her eyes. ‘Marry me,' I whispered.

‘Yes,' She began moving again. ‘Yes.'

Night had settled beyond the weak, cocooning light of the barbecue, and the wilderness made its music around us. The insects sang and the frogs chorused, creating a single sound that seemed to have a shape. Within that sound, though, were a thousand million individual flutters and creaks that laced through the night.

Above us, the moon and stars winked in the passage of the clouds as the world moved on regardless of our concerns. And, in the trees, burning lights flickered as if the
boitatá
patrolled the forest. They were not the smouldering eyes of the protecting snake, though, they were the encroaching lights of human progression. They were the lamps that glowed in Mina dos Santos.

‘Where will we live?' I asked Daniella. ‘I can't live with your parents.'

‘Their house is big enough, you could be best friends with my mother ...'

I looked at her and saw the smirk so she nudged me and leaned over to kiss me. ‘Don't worry, I'd never make you live there.
I
don't want to live there.'

I stirred the rice, taking out a few grains on the tip of a wooden spoon and testing them.

‘We could live at your place,' Daniella said.

‘It's small.'

‘It's good enough.'