The Nostradamus prophecies

23

‘It’s perfect.’ Sabir looked around the interior of the Maset de la Marais. ‘The brothers are crazy to have abandoned a place like this. Look over there.’

Alexi craned his neck to where Sabir was pointing.

‘That’s an original Provencal cupboard. And look at that.’

‘What?’

‘The bergere suite. Over there. In the corner. It must be at least a hundred and fifty years old.’

‘You mean these things are worth money? They’re not just old junk?’

Sabir suddenly remembered who he was talking to. ‘Alexi, you leave them alone, huh? These people are our hosts. Even though they may not know it. Okay? We owe them the courtesy of letting their stuff alone.’

‘Sure. Sure. I’m not going to touch anything.’ Alexi didn’t sound convinced. ‘But what do you think they’re worth? Just at a guess?’

‘Alexi?’

‘Sure. Sure. It was only a question.’ He shrugged. ‘I suppose they would interest one of those antique dealer guys in Arles? If they knew they were here, that is.’

‘Alexi.’

‘Okay. Okay.’

Sabir smiled. What did the pundits say? You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. ‘How far is it to Saintes-Maries?’

Alexi’s eyes were still straying towards the furniture. ‘You know something, Damo? With you finding stuff for me and me selling it, we could make a Hell of a good living. You could even buy yourself a wife, maybe, after a year or two. And not so ugly as the first one I offered you.’

‘Les Saintes-Maries, Alexi. How far?’

Alexi sighed. ‘Ten kilometres as the crow flies. Maybe fifteen by car.’

‘That’s a heck of a long way. Is there nowhere nearer that would be safe to stay in? That would give us easier access?’

‘Not unless you want every policeman within sixty square kilometres to know exactly where you are.’

‘Point taken.’

‘You could always steal a horse, though.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘On the next farm. They’ve got dozens of horses scattered about. Over maybe a couple of hundred hectares. They can’t possibly know where they all are at any one time. We simply borrow three. There’s harness and saddles in the buanderie to ride them with. Then we keep them in the barn when we’re not using them. Nobody would know. We can ride cross-country into Sainte-Maries whenever we want and leave them with some gypsies just outside town. That way the gardiens don’t recognise their own horses and get pissed off at us.’

‘Are you serious? You want us to become horse thieves?’

‘I’m always serious, Damo. Don’t you know that yet?’

‘Look what I’ve got.’ Yola set down a wooden crate stuffed with farm produce. ‘Cabbages, a cauliflower, some courgettes… I’ve even got a marrow. Now all we need is some fish. Can you sneak over to the Baisses de Tages and catch us something, Alexi? Or steal some tellines from the cages?’

‘I haven’t got time for any of that nonsense. Damo and I are going to ride over to Les Saintes-Maries and check out the Sanctuary. See if we can figure out any way to come at the statue of Sainte Sara before the eye-man gets here.’

‘Ride? But we haven’t got a car any more. We left it in Arles.’

‘We don’t need a car. We’re going to steal some horses.’

Yola stood watching Alexi – weighing him up. ‘I’m coming with you then.’

‘That’s not a good idea. You’d just slow us up.’

‘I’m coming with you.’

Sabir stared from one to the other of his two ad hoc relations. As usual, where the two of them were concerned, there always seemed to be some hidden tension in the air that he wasn’t picking up. ‘Why do you want to come, Yola? It could be dangerous. There will be police everywhere. You’ve already had two run-ins with this man – you don’t need a third.’

Yola sighed. ‘Look at him, Damo. Look at his guilty face. Don’t you realise why he’s so keen to go into town?’

‘Well, we need to prepare…’

‘No. He wants to drink. Then, when he’s had enough to make himself ill, he’ll start looking around for Gavril.’

‘Gavril? Jesus, I forgot about him.’

‘But he hasn’t forgotten about you or Alexi. You can count on that.’