Not after Midnight and Other Stories (NYRB Classics) -

Daphne du Maurier

NYRB

1971

221 páginas

7h 22m

ISBN-10: 0575007656

John and his grief-stricken wife Laura take a holiday in Venice following the death of their daughter, Christine, from meningitis. They encounter middle-aged identical twin sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to be psychic and that she can 'see' Christine sitting with her parents. Meanwhile, Venice has been plagued by a series of murders and during a night out John briefly spots what appears to be a small girl wearing a pixie-hood leaping across some moored boats and almost falling into the water before disappearing into one of the houses along the canal. They also run into the sisters again at the restaurant they are dining in; they tell Laura that Christine is trying to warn them that they are in danger if they remain in Venice, and that John also has the gift of second sight but does not realise it. On arriving back at their hotel a message has been left for them by the headmaster of their son's preparatory school informing them that their son, Johnnie, has been taken ill with appendicitis. Laura immediately books a flight back to England but later in the day John is convinced he has seen her on a vaporetto with the sisters. Unable to locate Laura or the sisters he reports her disappearance to the police. Upon his return to the hotel, John decides to call his son's school to check up on Johnnie and is astounded to find that Laura is in fact in England after all. Meanwhile, the sisters have been arrested and are being held in police custody so John makes his way to the police station to sort out the mix-up. He escorts the sisters back to their pension, but upon arrival the psychic sister falls into a trance. John leaves hurriedly and, disoriented, stumbles upon the alley from the previous evening. Once again, he catches sight of the pixie-hood wearing childlike figure leaping across moored boats, but this time he sees a man in pursuit. Horrified that the man is the murderer terrorising Venice chasing his next victim, he follows her into a room she has run to and proceeds to bolt the door shut to keep out the assailant. As the pixie-hood drops to the floor, the 'child' is revealed to not be a little girl at all, but a middle-aged female dwarf. Grinning, the dwarf pulls a knife from her pocket and throws it at John, piercing his throat. As John slumps to the floor, he has a vision of Laura on the vaporetto with the sisters, and this time realises it is a premonition of his funeral.