Chapter 20

Leonel Sullivan did not fail to notice his parents' effusive joy as he and his sister silently shared lunch. His father, cold, self-controlled and impersonal, manifested a joy he had not seen in years. His sister mechanically kept silent as she ate, his mother reminisced about their visit to London last year. And the city was at its best, now without the ruins of war.

He finished eating and went out to the front of his mansion. Everything was the same as usual. He saw the road and decided to take a ride in his luxurious convertible sports car.

Stupefied, he contemplated the commotion in the farmhouse. The news had spread like wildfire. It came from the sugar cane plantation. The Brazilian workers had commented that the police had reported a dead brunette girl found in the mining town 45 kms from the village. A pretty brunette.