Darren Shan - Procession of the dead

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."

"She calmed him?" I asked.

"No. She helped, as I had. But he went on killing people as if they were flies. His private life never distracted him. When the disease ruined her mind and drove her away from him, many people expected him to fly into a rage and take it out on the city. He did not. It was business as usual, no matter how much he was hurting inside."

" Did she hurt him?" I asked.

"I think so. It is hard to tell with Dorry. He was certainly sullen when she left, and distant on occasion. But he did not grieve for her. I think he is incapable of grief. I cannot say how close he came to loving Conchita, but he was as far from loving her in the way you or I can love as this planet is from the sun. He has no true human emotions except for hate and rage."

Leonora fell silent after that and by the way she concentrated on her pineapple I knew she didn't want to talk about this anymore. I didn't mind. I'd already learned more about The Cardinal than I expected to. I gazed around the restaurant as I mulled over our talk. "Have you seen any sign of the Lap man today?" I asked.

She laughed. "Who on earth is the Lap man? "

"Y Tse," I chuckled.

"Who?"

I stared at her, heart sinking. "Leonora," I said, voice shaking, "don't you dare sit there and-"

She raised a hand. "Quiet." She thought for a few moments. "I want you to tell me about this 'Lap man.' "

"But you know-," I began angrily.

"Please," she snapped. "Humor me."

Sighing, I described him, then went on, "He used to be The Cardinal's right-hand man. He spends most of his time here, a lot of it with you. He acts crazy but he's not. The two of you are close friends. I have a feeling you might have been more than that once, though neither of you has ever said anything. His real name is Inti Maimi. Shall I go on?"

She was staring at the table, quiet as a corpse. When she looked up, her face was haggard. "I cannot remember anything about him." When my lips twisted into a sneer, her hands shot across the table and gripped mine. "Capac, I swear that name means nothing to me. I am not saying he does not exist. I do not doubt your description. But I do not remember him." She released me.

"It has happened before," she said softly. "But never so strong a sense of it. When I woke this morning, I felt something wrong, that something was missing. Like when you go into a room and forget what you wanted when you get there. There was a gap in my mind that I could not account for. I now know what it was."

"What are you saying, that you've forgotten him? That's impossible. You don't just forget a person. You can't."

She smiled bitterly. "You have much to learn, Capac. I have forgotten him. And it is not the first time. Conchita often mentioned names that meant nothing to me, people she insisted I knew. This was a long time ago. I thought it was her illness, that she had concocted imaginary friends. But as the years passed, I began to think she was the only one who did not have a problem.

"Conchita berated others in our circle, insisting we knew people when we did not." She shook her head. "I am old and have seen many strange things in my life. The brain is complex, twisted. It can be manipulated. I have seen men walk on live coals, hold their breath underwater for an hour, recall events that occurred before they were born." She finished the last of her pineapple and waited for me to speak.

"Y Tse remembered people too," I said. "He sometimes argued with you about it. He thought you were playing along with The Cardinal. I thought that of Sonja when Adrian-one of my friends-went missing." I looked at her pleadingly. "What does it mean, Leonora?"