Jack Higgins: Luciano’s Luck

Carter sat down in the Warden’s chair. ‘When the invasion starts, General Patton’s Seventh Army is going to have the task of hacking its way through some of the worst mountains in Sicily to reach Palermo. If Mafia can be persuaded to organize a popular uprising and make the Italian Army in the Cammarata surrender without firing a shot, then thousands of American lives could be saved. If not…’

‘Look, I’ve done everything they asked me to do,’ Luciano said.

‘I know, but as I said, I don’t think it’s enough. I was in Sicily myself only a matter of weeks ago and I can tell you this. There’s only one man with the muscle to achieve what we’re asking and that’s Antonio Luca. And he isn’t coming out of hiding for anyone.’

Luciano had stopped smiling. ‘Don Antonio? You know him?’

‘Not personally. Do you?’

‘Sure I do.’ Luciano shook his head. ‘I still get the word in here. I know about him getting out of that prison in Naples and going back to Sicily. But you’re wasting your time. Even if you could find him, he hates Americans. His brother went to the chair during Prohibition.’

‘I know about that but wasn’t there something special about his daughter?’

‘That’s right, Sophia. During the First World War while she was supposed to be at school in Rome, she joined the Red Cross as a nurse. Met an Englishman called Vaughan, an infantry lieutenant serving on the Italian front, and married him. He was killed in the last month of the war and she went back home to live with her father in Palermo. Had a daughter called Maria the following year. She was the light of Don Antonio’s life.’

‘What happened?’ Carter said.

‘July 1936. The kid must have been about seventeen. Her mother borrowed her father’s Ferrari one day so they could go shopping. When she put her finger on the starter, the car blew up. I guess whoever was responsible was after Don Antonio.’

‘So the mother was killed?’

‘That’s right. Maria was in hospital for a while then one day she just walked out. I think maybe she’d had time to think, lying there on her back for so long.’

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