The Jealousy Man and Other Stories
- Автор: Несбё Ю
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Alfred A. Knopf
- ISBN: 978-0-593-32100-3
- Переводчик: Robert Ferguson
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «The Jealousy Man and Other Stories». Краткое содержание книги:
A detective with a nose for jealousy is on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a bereaved father must decide whether vengeance has a place in the new world order after a pandemic brings about the collapse of society; a garbage man fresh off a bender tries to piece together what happened the night before; a hired assassin matches wits against his greatest adversary in a dangerous game for survival; and an instantly electric connection between passengers on a flight to London may spell romance, or something more sinister.
With Nesbø’s characteristic gift for outstanding atmosphere and gut-wrenching revelations, The Jealousy Man confirms that he is at the peak of his abilities.
I felt a prickling between my shoulder blades. I already had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. It was something I hadn’t — and should have — thought of.
‘Gio is...’ She seemed to be looking for the words. And as well as not being weak, Judith Szabó didn’t strike me as a person who had trouble finding her words. When finally she did, she spoke quietly, and I had to lean forward to hear.
‘I’ve got no problem with the method as such — it’s our job, after all, and we do what we have to do. But there are limits. At least, there are for some of us. Like when that boy who lives with his mother at Sforzesco, Anton...’
The name made me jump. Paolo Giualli and his wife, twenty years younger than him, were good people. Good, at least, considering how rich and powerful they were. They had three well-brought-up children who treated me with a distant courtesy which I reciprocated. Things were a little different with Anton, the five-year-old son of the cook, who lived in one of the service flats below stairs and was so like Benjamin I had to make a conscious effort to control my feelings for him. Judith Szabó stopped, maybe noticing that the name had a particular resonance for me. She coughed before continuing: ‘So Anton is going to be the cat,’ she said.
I was already halfway out of my seat.
‘It’s too late, Lukas. Sit down.’
I looked at her. Her voice was steady but I thought I could see tears in those blue eyes of hers. I knew nothing. Only that I was, once again, the knight.
Several days would pass before the testimony of witnesses and forensic examinations revealed what had happened. The Giualli children were accompanied by bodyguards wherever they went — at home, at school, at ballet, at karate, visiting triends — but the same thing didn’t apply to children of the staff. All employees were searched on arrival and departure — for treachery is, after all, a part of human nature. But the chances of their being kidnapped were regarded as remote, especially since all employees had signed a contract which clearly stated that, in any such eventuality, their employer was absolved of any responsibility.
When Anton returned home from school that afternoon, an hour later than usual, he was in a state of exhaustion and told his mother how he’d been stopped by a man on his way through the Sempione Park. The man had held a cloth against the boy’s face, everything went black and Anton said he had no idea how long he’d been out before waking up beneath one of the bushes in the park. His neck and throat were hurting, but apart from that he was feeling as well as could be expected. When asked to describe the man all Anton could remember was that, in spite of the heat of the day, he had been wearing an overcoat.
His mother had straight away spoken to Luca Giualli who at once rang the police and the doctor. The doctor had said the pains and the swelling around the neck could indicate that something — he declined to speculate on what it might be — had been forced down the boy’s throat. But he couldn’t say any more until he had taken a closer look.
According to the police report, four officers had been approaching the entrance to the fortress when the explosion occurred. The charge contained in the gelatine bag in the boy’s stomach would not have been powerful enough to kill Luca Giualli and his wife had they been in their part of the fortress and Anton in the service flat. But they were — as we said — good people, and they were not merely close by but actually in the same room, so that there was little left of any of them once the police and the fire brigade had made their way through the ruins.
These details were still unknown to me as I sat that evening in one of Milan’s best restaurants looking into Judith Szabó’s blue eyes. What I knew for sure was that Anton was dead, and probably Luca Giualli too. That I had failed to do my job, and that it was now too late. I realised too that Judith Szabó had not been joking when she said I might be dead if I turned up late.
‘At that ball,’ I said, ‘I should never have let you go.’
‘No, you shouldn’t have. But you wanted to send a message to Greco, didn’t you?’
I ignored that. ‘You invited me here so I wouldn’t be at the castle when the boy came home. Why?’
‘At the ball I realised you were good. You would have smelled the fuse and possibly saved Luca Giualli.’
‘Was it Greco’s decision to get me out here tonight for this meal?’
‘Greco takes all the operational decisions.’
‘But?’
‘But this was my suggestion.’
‘Why? As you see, you’ve overestimated my ability to sniff out anything at all. When you invited me here, I thought—’ I stopped and pressed my thumb and index finger into my eyes.
‘Thought what?’ she said quietly.
I breathed out heavily. ‘That you were interested in me.’
‘I understand,’ she said, and laid her hand over mine. ‘But you aren’t mistaken. I am interested in you.’
I looked down at her hand. ‘Oh?’
‘The main reason I got you out of the way is because I didn’t want you to die too. You let me go the last time we met. You didn’t need to — I don’t even think it was something you planned. So it was my turn to show a little mercy.’
‘Showing mercy is not the same as being interested.’
‘But I’m telling you I am. I need a new client. I think I’ve just lost the one I had.’
She looked down without moving her hand from mine. With her other hand she lifted the serviette from her lap and held it out to me.
‘You’re crying,’ she explained.
That was how things started between me and Judith. With tears. Was that the way it was going to end too?
Six rings.
Seven.
Eight.
I was about to hang up.
‘Hey, lover boy. I was in the shower.’
As I breathed in hard I realised I had been holding my breath.
‘What’s up?’ she asked, worried, as though she’d read my silence.
‘I’m in a locked apartment with a mute boy—’
‘Gio.’ She said it before I’d finished my sentence.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I was afraid he’d traced you too.’
‘He can’t find me here, I’ve already told you that.’
‘Everybody can be found, Judith.’
‘Where are you?’
‘That’s not important, you can’t help me. I just wanted to hear that you’re OK.’
‘Lukas, tell me where—’
‘Now you know he’s trying to reach you by using me. Stay hidden. I...’
Not even now, in this situation, could I make myself say it.
Love.
That was a word reserved for Maria and Benjamin. Over the course of the year in which Judith and I had been together it had occurred to me that maybe one day I would be able to say it and mean it. But no matter how much Judith fascinated and interested me and in all sorts of ways made me happy, that was one door that seemed locked shut.
‘...am so fond of you, my darling.’
‘Lukas!’
I hung up.
Leaned against the wall.
Looked at my watch. It was working against me, that much I realised. But why had he given me all this time? Why run the risk of my calling up my allies and summoning them to come to my assistance, rescue me? Or perhaps even the police?
Because he knew I had no allies, or none willing to go up against someone like Gio Greco. As for the police, when was the last time they got involved in a stand-off between drivers, with or without an innocent boy as bait?
I beat the wall with the palm of my hand and the boy looked startled.