Cemetery of Swallows by Mallock;, Steven Rendall Read Free Book Online Page A

as Trujillo’s, it was still twelve years of undivided power for the dictator’s former right arm. And, once again, twelve years of good business deals for
el comandante
Darbier, who was always at his side. Amber, rum, sugar, coffee, cocoa beans, and tobacco, that was their gold.”
    â€œWas he finally assassinated?”
    â€œBalaguer? Absolutely not. Starting in 1978, they both worked behind the scenes, for eight years, in fact. Particularly under the presidencies of Guzmán and Blanco. And then, in 1986, guess what?”
    â€œI think I see . . . ”
    â€œYes, indeed: the people called the former dictator to power once again. And Balaguer, with his henchman at his side, was president until 1996. And everything started up all over again. Ten more years of exploitation and exportation of amber, rum, sugar, coffee, cocoa beans, and cigars:
para tabacos hechos a mano
.”
    â€œAnd now?”
    Cappuccino joined the conversation by pointing, with his left hand, to the mauve paint that covered many of the trees and fences:
    â€œWe play
los colores
. . . That
es el color
of Bosch’s party, but he has . . . retired. Peña Gomez and Jacobo, the two . . .
contradictores
, chose
blanco
and
azul
. They’re dead now. The people is a . . .
con
, that’s what you say, isn’t it?”
    â€œThe syntax is good, but as for public opinion, it can hold its own,” Mallock told a beaming Jiménez. “What about Balaguer?”
    Mallock, more and more curious, was discovering a whole world of corruption and bright colors.
    â€œHe’s blind and an invalid; he’s ninety-three years old,” Ramón said. “And you won’t believe it, but he’s running for president in the May 16 election.”
    â€œI suppose he has no chance of winning?”
    â€œDon’t count on it, he’s the king of alliances. I think he’s probably going to win again. Even if Hipolito Mejia, his new opponent, seems to be off to a good start.”
    â€œBut why?”
    In perfectly choreographed synchronism, Mallock saw the two policemen shrug their shoulders:
    â€œYou have to think that people are less afraid of an old dictator than change and the settling of political or ethnic accounts,” Ramón said. “And then a dictatorship always has two main actors: the dictator and the people that serves as his accomplice. Don’t forget that in Europe Hitler and Mussolini were elected democratically, Superintendent. Stalin and Lenin . . . a little less democratically.”
    The laughter in the car was interrupted by a sudden swerve. A few seconds in the ditch, and then back on the road. With a former choirboy’s reflex, Amédée surreptitiously crossed himself.

4.
Crossing the Island, from South to North,
from Santo Domingo to Cabarete
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Six P.M. : the car had left the embassy more than an hour earlier, and they still hadn’t covered even a quarter of the distance. Here the road was broad and for the last few miles, miraculously, paved. They were in the northern part of the San Cristóbal region.
    â€œVilla Altagracia,” Jiménez announced, like a good tourist guide. “
¡Admira!
”
    In fact, there was much to admire. The natural scenery was splendid. A sort of paradise. Mallock thought about Darbier again. He couldn’t believe that a criminal, brutal foreigner hated by a whole people had been able to walk the streets that way for so long. In the video that Julie had played, he didn’t look furtive. At this point it seemed clear to Mallock that Darbier and the old man crossing the square in that documentary were in fact one and the same person.
    â€œHave you really told me everything about this Darbier? I don’t understand how he was able to live to over eighty without someone taking care of him, settling his account once and for all.”
    A ponderous silence was