They stood up together, then headed off in opposite directions out of the little square. If the woman with the auburn hair noticed, she gave no sign.
After ten minutes, Rich was bored of wandering round on his own. He considered returning to the café, but that might spoil whatever Dad was up to. So instead he went looking for Jade. He remembered the street where she’d wanted to look at the designer clothes and sports stuff.
It was only a few minutes walk. Rich paused on a steep-backed, narrow bridge over a canal and admired the view. He liked the way the water and the streets seemed to exist in harmony. The tall, square buildings emerging from the water made everything seem even more narrow and closed in.
He found her in the second shop he tried. She was trying on running shoes, but hadn’t found any she liked. Jade was picky when it came to running shoes. Actually, Rich thought, she was picky about most things.
“Find any good churches then?” Jade asked as they walked slowly back along the street.
Rich shook his head. “Nothing worth mentioning.”
“There’s some weird stuff here,” Jade said. She paused outside what seemed to be an antiques shop. “I mean, look at all that.”
There were several chess sets in the window, laid out on marble boards. One of them was made of gold, and the tag hanging from the side of the board looked more like a telephone number than a price. On each side of the window display stood a figure, as if they were keeping guard. One was a woman in a brightly-coloured, flowing dress. The mannequin’s face was a smooth, white mask with a peacock painted on it in brilliant blue. Dark holes for the eyes formed part of the feathers of the peacock.
“That’s beautiful,” Jade said in surprise.
“That isn’t,” said Rich, pointing at the other figure. “It’s grotesque.”
The second figure was a man. He wore long, dark robes and held a stick as if it was a magic wand. His face too was a mask – but a plain, grey mask that jutted out like an enormous cruel beak. The only colour in the mask was the black outline of a pair of spectacles over and around the eyes.
“Who are they supposed to be?” Jade wondered.
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t fancy meeting them outside of a shop display.”
Once inside the café, John Chance asked if there was a back way out. There was, out past the waste bins and down a tiny alleyway alongside a canal. He made his way rapidly, ignoring the smell from the bins, and emerged into a side street just off the back of the square.
It took him only a minute to double round and approach the square from a different direction. He hesitated at the edge of the square, looking for the young woman Rich had described. He had taken a moment to case her out from inside the café – and it was definitely the woman he had noticed at the casino. A coincidence? It was possible, but highly unlikely. So who was she and why was she following him?
But the table where the woman had been was empty. He would not get the answer to his questions just yet. Chance walked slowly round the square, looking along each of the streets leading off it in turn. There was no sign of the woman with auburn hair. Satisfied that, for now at least, he was not being watched, Chance returned to the table outside the café. He’d had enough coffee for today, so he ordered a carafe of white wine.
He was halfway through it when Rich and Jade returned.
“So?” Jade asked as she sat down. She glanced disapprovingly at the wine. It was barely lunchtime and he’d started already. Still, at least he wasn’t smoking.
“Yeah, what happened to your girlfriend?” Rich asked.
Dad took a packet of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket. “She didn’t wait for me to introduce myself. I wondered if she’d followed either of you?”
“Not so we noticed,” Jade said. “You’re not going to smoke that, are you?” She was glaring at the cigarette between Dad’s fingers.
“No, I’m going to juggle with it.”
“Funny man.”
Dad pushed the cigarette back into the packet. He was getting better, Jade had to admit. He did actually seem to listen to what she and Rich said. That was a distinct improvement.
“Talking of jugglers,” Dad was saying. “What’s with the fancy dress party?”
Rich gasped, and Jade turned quickly to see what he and Dad were looking at.
It was like the shop display had come to life and followed them. A small group of half a dozen men was walking slowly into the little square from one of the side streets. They were all wearing dark business suits, and all had their faces covered by masks. The man at the front was wearing a savagely-beaked grey face – just like in the display.
Behind him came two men in golden gargoyle masks, then a man whose face was completely white save for a single black teardrop on one cheek. Another of them was Harlequin – like the joker from a deck of cards, a black and red face with spikes springing from his head.
The last man wore the blank-eyed grinning face of a skull. Jade shuddered. If this was someone’s idea of fun, it was pretty bizarre. And why wear the heavy, dark clothes in this heat?
“Some sort of parade,” Dad said. “Wrong time of year for Carnival.”
Rich looked at Jade and she saw how pale he was. “I don’t like this.”
“Nor me,” she agreed. At first, she’d thought, like Dad, that it was a bit of fun. Some sort of parade. Now Jade was sure it wasn’t. There was something sinister about the figures – about the way they moved, the way they had paused just inside the square. They swung slowly round, as if looking for something. Or someone. They all stopped at the same point – staring directly at Jade, Rich and their father.
Dad’s chair scraped backwards on the flagstones as he stood up. “Wait for me back at the hotel.”
“What are you going to do?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know. Get moving.”
“We can’t leave you,” Rich said. The men were walking slowly across the square towards them. The beak of the grey mask was aimed directly at Dad.
“Move it!” Dad urged. “And don’t worry. I’ll probably overtake you.”
Jade grabbed Rich’s hand and together they ran from the square.
‘We can’t leave him with them,” Rich gasped as they ran.
“What do you suggest?”
“We have to see what’s happening.” Rich slowed to a jog and Jade eased up as well. “We should go back.”
“That’s probably what they want.”
“So what – do nothing?”
“No.” Jade pointed to a small alleyway between two buildings. “If we cut through there, we can get back to the square on a different street. They won’t expect that.”
“You hope.”
“All right, Einstein – let’s hear your idea.”
Rich sighed. “Let’s try the alley,” he conceded.
Dad was talking to the man in the grey, beaked mask. He was shaking his head, turning away. Then the masked man said something which Jade and Rich couldn’t hear, but they heard their father laugh. He waved a hand as if dismissing whatever the masked man had said. Then he held up a finger – a ‘back in a minute’ gesture – and walked into the café.
“He’s all right,” Jade realised.