The last game Read Free Page A

“It´s a blank sheet.”
    Dante finished reading and dropped the sheet
of paper on the table. He crossed the meeting room without looking
back at the lawyer and disappeared.
    Two minutes later, he left through the front
door of the building with his coat on.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    When Alvaro arrived at his destination it
was already night. He
felt completely disorientated.
    He´d left the hospital only a short while
before, a half an hour at the most. He´d only gone three subway
stops. He remembered having shielded his eyes from the sunshine
shortly before starting down the stairs. So how was it possible
that it was already night time?
    He looked up at the large moon in the sky
while he walked along the street. There was no one else around. The
sound of his steps echoing as he went, breaking the overwhelming
silence around him. He stopped under the intermittent light of a
bent streetlamp, that looked as if it was about to collapse, and
checked the number of the house.
    It was i mpossible to mistake. The address had been
engraved in his memory in red fire from the color of the ink with
which it had been written.
    The house that stood in front of him had
nothing in common with the rest of the houses along the street. Or the whole suburb
for that matter Flanked by two enormous blocks of concrete, at
least ten floors high, the small simple wooden building in between
seemed to come from an older, different time. A wooden cross, that
seemed to have been carved by hand, and which hung at a dangerous
angle, crowned the roof. The house stood on its own rather small
block of land, framed by a rusty wrought iron gate, overgrown with
a wild tangle of ivy, that looked on the edge of collapsing at any
minute.
    Alvaro walked to the gate and pushed it
open. He crossed the garden, treading on a line of smooth stones,
covered here and there by grass, which formed a rough path to the
main door of the house. His steps echoed strangely against the
stones beneath his feet. When he was halfway to the door, something
caught his attention. The silhouette of something that didn´t go
with the rest of the garden was to his left. The dim light didn’t
help him make out what the shape was, but after observing it for a
few seconds, Alvaro realized that it was a very large stone cross
on the top of a tomb. And that wasn´t all there was to see in this
garden. He looked behind him and heard something that sent a sharp
chill up his spine.
    “I thought you would like this.” A voice
said.
    Alvaro stopped in his tracks and stared in
the direction the voice had come from and saw an old man on the
stone cross. He was short and had long white hair tied in a
ponytail. As close to normal as anything could be in this strange
garden, except for the fact that no one had been there a half a
second before. Alvaro didn´t know what to say. The old man was
looking at something that he was holding in his right hand, leaning
on a black walking stick with the other hand.
    “ Yes, it´s definitely appropriate.” The old man said. Then he
lifted his head and looked at Alvaro. “Well, look who´s here. You
don´t know how happy I am to see you. Listen, I need an opinion. Do
you think this flower is the right choice for a woman who´s just
lost her husband?“ He asked extending his hand in front of
him.
    Al varo looked at the ugly wild flower in his hand.
    “ A rose would be better.” He suggested,
looking at a rose bush.
    The old man thought about
it .
    “ I think I´ll take your advice, boy.” He
said throwing the wild flower down on the ground and cutting a
striking long stemmed yellow rose from the bush. “Yes, I think you
are right. It´s perfect and my sweet Gema deserves the very best. I
owe you a favor. And Tedd always pays his debts. Now I´ve got
return to the morgue." And he disappeared.
    Alvaro blinked several times to make sure
that he wasn´t dreaming. After a few seconds he convinced himself
that he had imagined the whole