One Step to You (The Rome Novels #1)(63)

But then something happened. Babi blocked his hand.

Step looked at her in the dim half-light. “What’s wrong?”

“Shh.”

Babi rose up, resting on her side, and froze in place, ears pricked for a sound from outside that room, outside the shutters, down in the courtyard…a sudden sound, a revving engine that she knew very well. She heard the car put into reverse, that tense driving style. All doubts were banished.

“My mother! Hurry up, we need to get you out of here.” In a moment they were more or less presentable. Babi pulled the bedcovers up. Step finished tucking his shirt back into his trousers. Someone knocked at the bedroom door. For a second, they froze.

But it was Daniela. “Babi, Mamma’s home.” She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence before the door swung open.

“Thanks, Dani. I know.”

Babi left the room, dragging Step behind her. He put up a small show of resistance. “No, I want to talk to her. I want to clear up this situation once and for all!” Once again he had that mocking smile on his face.

“Quit kidding around. What are you, an idiot? You can’t imagine what’ll happen if my mother catches you.” They went into the living room. “Hurry, leave this way so you don’t run into her.”

Babi undid the lock of the main door, and she stepped out onto the landing. The elevator ran directly down to the courtyard. She summoned it while they exchanged a hasty kiss.

“I want an appointment with Raffaella.”

She shoved him into the elevator. “Disappear!”

Step pushed the button marked G and, with a smile on his face, obeyed Babi’s advice. At that very moment, the other door swung open. In came Raffaella. She laid bags and packages on the kitchen table. Then she had a suspicion as if perhaps she heard the click of the other door. “Babi, is that you?” She went straight to the living room.

Babi had turned on the television. “Yes, Mamma. I’m watching TV.” But a faint blush on her cheeks gave her away.

That was all Raffaella needed. She hurried into the other bedroom and leaned out the window that overlooked the courtyard. There was the noise of an engine going away, leaves of ivy in a corner that were still rustling. Too late.

She shut the window and ran into Daniela in the hallway. “Did anyone come to the house?”

“I don’t know, Mamma. I’ve been in my room studying the whole time.”

Raffaella decided to let it slide. It was pointless to insist with Daniela.

She went into Babi’s bedroom and looked around. Everything seemed fine. There was nothing strange or out of place. Even the bedcovers were perfectly tucked. But the bed could easily have been tidied and remade. And so, with no one there to see her do it, she laid her hand atop the covers. They were cool. No one had been lying on them.

She heaved a sigh of relief and went into her bedroom. She took off her skirt suit and hung it neatly on a hanger. Then she got out an angora sweater and a soft skirt. She sat down on the bed and put them on. Blithely unaware, relaxed, unable to even imagine that right there, inches away, her daughter had been lying, just minutes before on that blanket still warm with young and innocent excitement. With her arms around that boy that Raffaella couldn’t stand.

Later, Claudio came home. He had a long discussion with Babi on the subject of the forged excuse, the ten million lire he’d had to lay out, and her behavior in the past several days. Then he sat down in front of the television set, his mind finally at ease, waiting for dinner to be ready. But just as he got comfortable, Raffaella called his name from the kitchen.

Claudio immediately went to answer his wife’s summons. “Now what?”

“Look at this…” Raffaella pointed at the kitchen sink.

There stood the two empty beer cans that Step had drank.

“Well, it’s beer, so what?”

“It was hidden in the trash can, under a handful of paper towels.”

“Big deal, someone drank a few beers. What’s so bad about that?” Without really knowing why, he felt as if he was in a television commercial.

“That boy was here this afternoon. I’m sure of it…”

“What boy?”

“The one who beat up Accado, the one who convinced your daughter to skip school. Stefano Mancini. Step, Babi’s boyfriend.”

“Babi’s boyfriend?”

“Can’t you see how she’s changed? Is it possible that you never notice a thing? It’s all his fault. She sneaks out to go to motorcycle races, she counterfeits notes for her absences…Plus, did you see that bruise under her eye? I think he must be beating her too.”

Claudio stood speechless. More problems. Could that young man seriously have beaten Babi? He needed to do something, intervene somehow. He’d have it out with him. Yes, that’s what he’d do.

“Here.” Raffaella gave him a sheet of paper.

“What is it?”

“The license plate number of that boy’s motorcycle. Call our friend Davione, give him the number. He’ll get us the address, and you can go talk to him.”

Now this would mean he’d actually have to do it. He clung to one last shred of hope. “Are you sure that it’s the right one?”

“I saw the bike in front of Babi’s school last time. I remember it perfectly.”