Free The Killer in My Eyes by Giorgio Faletti Page A

always looked in people’s eyes. He could tell when a person was lying or telling the truth, revealing their state of a mind or trying to hide it. And yet he couldn’t have given a name to what he saw now in Lysa’s eyes.
    ‘Considering you’ve already seen me
half
naked, I think finishing the job might help to avoid any further misunderstanding.’
    Lysa opened her robe. Beneath it, she was completely naked. Time seemed somehow suspended. Jordan had the impression that, if Lysa had let the robe fall to the floor, it would have stopped in mid-air, as if by magic. Then the moment came to an end and Lysa disappeared again inside the garment. When she spoke, her voice was as defiant as the expression on her face.
    ‘As you see, I’m Mrs Guerrero
and
Mr Guerrero.’
    Jordan searched frantically inside himself for words appropriate to the situation.
    Lysa seemed to read his mind. ‘You don’t have to say anything. Whatever you might say I’ve already heard at least a hundred times.’
    She bent to take a bottle of pills from the dressing case and went and placed it on the granite worktop in the kitchen.
    ‘Good night, Jordan. If it hurts at all, take a couple of these pills.’
    In silence, she walked along the corridor towards the bedroom. Jordan was alone, and the room where they had just been together went back to being a simple living room.
    From the floor below, music drifted up. It was the same track as before, that song full of longing and regret. It struck Jordan as the perfect soundtrack for that moment. As he listened to the lyrics, with a new interest in their meaning, he wondered how many times Lysa had looked at the sea and felt herself dying inside for something that had been denied her.
     
I stand here on this cliff
my eyes embrace the sea
,
I dream the same old dreams
these dreams won’t let me be.
The surface of the waves
like craters on the moon
like twisting trails of snakes
or trees cut down too soon.
     
And this strange old heart of mine
now sets sail across the sea
. . .
     

PART TWO
     

Rome
     

CHAPTER 10
     
I stand here on this cliff
look down upon the sea
,
I hear the mermaids sing
,
singing their song to me.
Their song is sweet to hear –
as honey on the tongue.
Their song strong as the wind
that blows down old and young.
     
There’s no glory or desire
that can tear my dreams apart.
There’s no grindstone known to man
Can crush this rock inside my heart
.
     
    A man’s bare arm emerged from under the duvet and stretched across the bed towards the control panel in the wall that worked the stereo and the TV. A slight pressure of a finger on a button, and the music – the melancholy, slightly old-fashioned sound of a bandoneon and a string band – was cut off as it drifted towards the open window and out over the roofs of Rome.
    Maureen Martini stuck her tousled head out from beside him. ‘No, let me hear it one more time.’
    ‘Darling,’ Connor Slave said, without taking his head out from under the duvet, ‘do you have any idea how many times you’ve listened to that song?’
    ‘Never as many times as I need.’
    ‘Don’t be selfish. And please don’t make me regret writing it. Just think how many times
I’ve
had to listen to it . . .’
    At last Connor’s curly head appeared. He yawned and rubbed his eyes in a way that made him look like a cat. Even though music was his medium, he had an instinctive knowledge of movement, which complemented the intensity of his onstage performances. But in private, he could be a real clown. Much to her surprise, Maureen had gradually discovered that the mysterious planet called Connor Slave had a bright side. Sometimes, he made her laugh until she cried, especially when he imitated a cat licking its own fur.
    ‘Go on, do it!’
    ‘Oh, no.’
    ‘Please, just for a moment.’
    ‘No, you’ll have me prowling the rooftops next.’
    Maureen shook her head, pretending to sulk.
    Connor got out of bed and, completely naked as he was,