"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 01" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

and the sense of power which this had given her had
remained, even now that her charms were visibly wilting.
Her inane comments had commanded total attention for
so long that Rita had at last come to believe that she had
more to offer the world than her legs and breasts, which
was a consolation now that the latter were no longer quite
first-division material. Opposite her sat the Sicilian archi-
tect's wife, a diminutive pixie of a woman with frightened
eyes and a faint moustache. Maria Pia Vianello gazed at
the spectacle of her hostess in full career with a kind of
awestruck amazement, like a schoolgirl with a crush on
her teacher. Clearly, she would never dream of tryin8 to
dominate a gathering in this way.
Despite these superficial dissimilarities, however, the
Vianellos and the Burolos basically had much in common.
No longer young, but rich enough to keep age at bay for a
few years yet, the men ponderous with professional gra-
vitas, like those toy figurines which cannot be knocked
over because they are loaded with lead, the women
exuding the sullen peevishness of those who have been
pampered with every luxury except freedom and responsi-
bility. The remaining couple were different.
Zen reversed the tape again briefly, hauling the swim-
mer up out of the water once more, and then froze the
picture, studying the man who had dominated the news
for the previous three months. Renato Favelloni's sharp,
ferrety features and weak chest and limbs, coupled with
greasy hair and an over-ready smile, gave him the air of a
small-town playboy, by turns truculent and toadying, con-
vinced of being God's gift to the world in general and
women in particular, but quite prepared to lower himself
to any dirty work in the interests of getting ahead. At first
Zen had found it almost incomprehensible that such a man
could have been the linchpin of the deals that were
rumoured to have taken place between Oscar Burolo and
the senior political figure who was referred to in the press
as '1'onorevole', the formula reputedly used by Burolo in his
secret memoranda of their relationship. Only gradually
had he come to understand that it was precisely Favel-
loni's blatant sleaziness which made him acceptable as a
go-between. There are degrees even in the most cynical
corruption and manipulation. By embodying the most
despicable possible grade, Renato Favelloni made his
clients feel relatively decent by comparison.
His wife, like Renato himself, was a good ten years
younger than the other four people present, and exactly
the kind of stunning bimbo that Rita Burolo must have
been at the same age. This cannot have recommended
Nadia Favelloni to Oscar's wife any more than the younger
woman's habit of wandering around the place half-naked.