‘Okay, what do you suggest I do?’
‘I don’t know. Knock her up for Christ’s sake. That will slow her down, at least for a while.’
‘She’s on the pill Carl and will remain so. No going there; I’ve already tried.’
‘So, there will be no real Roses amongst the adopted ones in our garden nursery?’
‘Didn’t Sarah tell you? She’s changed her mind regarding adoption thanks in part to Patrick Turner. Apparently as their adoptive father I would gain control over them and their inheritances and we can’t have that, can we?’ He smiled wickedly. ‘I nearly had it all Carl and now what am I? Christ, we should take our act on the road. Sarah can be the organ grinder and I can be her monkey.’ He did a little grotesque parody; face contorted and arms waving. ‘All I’ll need is a collar and a chain but hey, wait a minute maybe it’s already there and I haven’t noticed yet.’
‘Oh for Christ’s sake Alan, stop it. Maybe if you had sat at the head of the table and …’
‘Oh please Carl, give it a rest. I’ve been in that dining room since I was six years old and the head of the table was always filled to overflowing with Richard’s presence. It still is.’ He brightened suddenly. ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll go through Cavendish Hall and piss in all the corners and, if I do a good job, a really good job then maybe Sarah will stop thinking of him, Sarquazi and, who knows Capritzo as well.’
*****
Jack frowned. ‘What do you think he meant by nearly having it all? Do you think he married her for her money?’
Carl shrugged. ‘If he did it’s all Richard’s fault. After Alan’s father died in a boating accident when he was six, Richard sort of took over the job of raising the boy. He was his godfather after all. Richard would send airplane tickets to Alan and sometimes his mother as well; all expense paid trips to exotic destinations. After Alan’s mother died of breast cancer when he was eighteen, Richard basically financed his education, accommodation - everything. Every month like clockwork, money would be deposited into his bank account and, if he needed more, he got it; no questions asked. Of course the trips continued. Fair to say I think that Alan grew up thinking of himself as someone special. Whatever salary he pulls down as Director of Develin Pharmaceuticals Research and Development in Boston, wouldn’t begin to satisfy his appetite for the high life.’
‘When did he arrive back in Boston?’
‘He left here two weeks ago and decided to have himself a little holiday in the U.K. Twice American Express called seeking expenditure authorization; isn’t that what it’s called when you spend up big? He got back to Boston three days ago. We know that for a fact because he promptly went out and bought a Mercedes 450SL just like Sarah’s. She was livid.’
‘Carl, Justine Benghazi is still at the Brownstone and she still has a major hate on for both you and Sarah. If she got it in her mind to … look, if I were you I’d give Alan a call and tell him to get the hell out of Boston as soon as possible. Send him down to Peru or somewhere, but get him out of Boston.’
Carl blanched. ‘Do you think that he’s … Christ almighty; I’ll give him a call right away.’
‘Good.’ Jack wasn’t quite sure how Carl was going to take this but there would never be a better time than right now. Besides, there are some things that are best said face to face.
‘The Benghazi will want her to marry again as soon as the divorce is finalized. Or Alan fetches up dead.’
Carl shook his head. ‘I very much doubt if she would be interested in ever marrying again.’
‘Carl, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t think she will have an awful lot to say about it. Muslims don’t like women of child-bearing age as divorcees or widows.’
‘They can’t force her.’
‘They’ll do a Godfather on her and make her an offer she can’t refuse. And that may happen sooner then you think Carl because Alan’s decision to abandon the security of Cavendish Hall has put him in grave danger.’
Stop it Jack; you’re just being paranoiac. ‘Get him out of there Carl – now!’
Almost as if he could read Jack’s mind, Carl changed the subject abruptly. ‘Speaking of marriage how is Mirah?’
Jack smiled. ‘She’s pregnant again.’
‘So, it was another dark and stormy night for you was it?’
‘Indeed it was a very dark and a very stormy night, for both of us.’ His smiled broadened. ‘She’s a fantastic wife and mother Carl and a great help with the business.’
‘What is it that you actually do Jack?’
Jack began to move away. He wasn’t prepared to go there because Carl just won’t understand. ‘Lots of things boyo.’ He checked the time. ‘Call Alan even if you have to wake him up. I’m just going to go and say hello and ah … to her and to him.’
By “him”, Jack meant Yusuf Sarquazi who was buried not far from the Develin mausoleum beside his mother and his uncle. Near by were the graves of Merhot Capritzo and his father, Charles Develin. Each grave had its own story.
3
Six months after giving birth to her twin boys, Shahana Maya Mauphet Benghazi and her youngest brother Yusuf Hassan journeyed to Cavendish Hall in secret. Proof of paternity was not an issue as Charles Develin readily admitted forcing himself on the then sixteen year old girl. It was when Shahana Maya insisted that he divorce his wife and marry her that things began to seriously unravel. When he made it clear that Develin men do not divorce - they usually murder their wives - she became angry; threatening to expose him as a rapist and despoiler of women. This was too much, so Charles Develin shot them both through the back of the head. Then he began searching for the child not realizing then or ever that there were two of them.
All this happened in early spring 1932. By then Charles Develin was a committed Nazi with friends in high places. The files locked away in the vault at Cavendish Hall were for the most part correspondence between Develin and Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Paul Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler. Charles Develin did not need a young Moroccan girl or her brother making waves.
No one in the Benghazi family knew what became of Shahana Maya or her brother Yusuf. Their uncle Omar Mauphet Benghazi took charge of the twin boys; sending the infant Yusuf Nessim to Italy to be raised by Maria and Giuseppe Sarquazi. Merhot met a similar fate in Switzerland with the Capritzo family. It wasn’t until the boys were twenty-five years of age that they were told the truth about each other and themselves. The boys were told that their mother had died in childbirth. Five years later Omar Benghazi died and Yusuf Nessim Sarquazi Mauphet Benghazi, age twenty-nine inherited everything including a half share in his brother’s business – the highly lucrative Brownstones.
*****
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