The Templar Prophecy by Mario Reading Page B

don’t know what he read. I don’t know if he went to the cinema or to the theatre. I don’t know if he preferred dogs to cats. I don’t know if he was gay or straight or bisexual. Preferred classical music or rock and roll. Not to put too fine a point on it, Señora, I know fuck all about my father, and even less about you. You could be the person who killed him for all I know. Or you could be an escaped nutter with a passion for pimpmobiles and for picking up stray gringos on whom you will later conduct grotesque experiments in a bid to give yourself eternal life. Why don’t you tell me who you are and what you know about my father and let’s be done with it.’
    Colel Cimi laughed. Behind her the chauffeur rolled his eyes and pretended to clap his hands in polite applause.
    â€˜I was your father’s mistress, Mr Hart. If that is the correct word for the condition of a paid concubine. I am certainly not his killer.’
    â€˜My father paid you for sex?’
    â€˜He bought me this house. Settled a monthly allowance on me. Gave me presents.’ Her hand flicked towards her necklace. ‘So, to all intents and purposes, yes, I was paid for sex. But it was more than that in reality. Much more.’
    â€˜Are you telling me you were in love with him?’
    â€˜No. How could I have been? He was twenty-five years older than me. He bought me from my father when I was fifteen.’
    â€˜Bought you?’
    â€˜Came to an understanding. Does that sound better? My family was very poor. And your father wanted a virgin. A person he could shape to his will.’ She motioned Hart to a chair.
    Hart sat down with a thump. He huddled forward in his blanket and stared at the woman in front of him as if she might at any moment burst from behind a curtain in yet another elusive guise. ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me next that the house in Antigua belongs to you as well? That it forms part of some grotesque bride price? And that I’d better not be getting any wrong ideas about inheriting the damned thing? Is that what this is all about?’
    â€˜No. The house belongs to you. You are James’s only child. There are laws about such things. It is only proper.’
    â€˜You can take it, then. With my compliments. You can add it to your property portfolio. I don’t want charity from a man I never knew. A man who didn’t speak to me for thirty-six years. A man who bought virgins.’
    â€˜He loved you, Mr Hart. Your father thought the world of you.’
    That silenced Hart for a moment. He tilted his head to one side like a cat listening for birdsong. ‘He had a very curious way of showing it.’
    â€˜Still. He did. He followed your career. Got me to trawl the internet for mentions of your name. Endlessly planned on meeting you.’
    â€˜It was one heck of a meeting when he finally pulled it off. I’ll give the old man that.’
    Colel Cimi leant forward, her expression suddenly bereft. ‘I would have come to the funeral. You believe that, don’t you? I would have been there. But I am not liked by the Church. By decent people. Women like me are scorned in Guatemala. This is still a very Catholic country.’
    â€˜You weren’t the only one not to attend. The congregation consisted of exactly three people. The woman who cleaned his house, her elderly mother, and me. Oh, and the priest. Who I had to pay sixty dollars for the use of his church, and who was pissed off that I wouldn’t agree to a novenario .’
    Colel Cimi gave another of her laughs. They were curious eruptions that sounded more like coughs than laughter. ‘You and your father were more alike than you think. You were both prepared to pay to get the things that you want.’
    Hart was not in the mood to cut either himself or his hostess any slack. ‘Pay how? With the shakes? With what happened to me out there in the zocalo ? Maybe that is payment