The drummer began laughing, an irascible laugh, squeezing all the air from his lungs. Mangin cowered. The man laughed precisely as his father had. He looked at the red uvula of the opened mouth, saw a shadow moving in it. The gypsy lowered his head. Mangin shivered when he noticed how the man’s eyebrows met each other like two hairy caterpillars above the bridge of his nose.
“Your sister…”
“Yes,” the gypsy said. The mockery had vanished from his eyes. “My sister, Mangin.”
Once again, Mangin lowered his eyes from the metallic lustre in the man’s gaze. He looked down on the diamond between them. It was impossible to look up again – the stone swallowed him and, far away, he heard the drummer laugh again.
ixIn L’Enfer’s w***e room, the Fox’s golden necklace was close to Mangin’s face. The
