The Fallen Angel (4 page)

“Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence at all,” said Metzler. “Perhaps she chose the time intentionally so there would be no video recording of her death.”

“How would she have known about the cameras being shut down?”

“It's common knowledge around here.”

Gabriel shook his head slowly. Despite numerous outside threats, terrorist and otherwise, security inside the borders of the world's smallest country remained startlingly lax. What's more, those who worked behind the walls enjoyed extraordinary freedom of movement. They knew the doors that were never locked, the chapels that were never used, and the storerooms where it was possible to plot, scheme, or caress the flesh of a lover in complete privacy. They also knew the secret passageways leading into the Basilica. Gabriel knew one or two himself.

“Was there anyone else in the Basilica at the time?”

“Not that we're aware of,” replied Vitale.

“But you can't rule it out.”

“That's correct. But no one reported anything unusual.”

“Where's her handbag?”

“She left it up in the gallery before jumping.”

“Was anything missing?”

“Not that we know of.”

But there
was
something missing; Gabriel was certain of it. He closed his eyes and for an instant saw Claudia as she had been the previous evening—the warm smile, the flirtatious glance from her brown eyes, the batch of files she had been clutching to her breast.

And the cross of gold around her neck
.

“I'd like to have a look at the gallery,” he said.

“I'll take you up,” answered Vitale.

“That won't be necessary.” Gabriel rose. “I'm sure the monsignor will be good enough to show me the way.”

4

ST. PETER'S BASILICA

T
HERE WERE TWO WAYS TO
make the ascent from the main level of the Basilica to the base of the dome—a long, twisting stairwell or an elevator large enough to accommodate two dozen well-fed pilgrims. Donati, an unrepentant smoker, suggested the elevator, but Gabriel headed for the steps instead.

“The elevator is shut down in the afternoon after the last group of tourists is admitted. There's no way Claudia could have used it late at night.”

“That's true,” Donati said with a morose glance at his handmade loafers, “but it's several hundred steps.”

“And we're going to search every one.”

“For what?”

“When I saw Claudia last night, she was wearing a gold cross around her neck.”

“And?”

“It's no longer there.”

Gabriel mounted the first step with Donati at his heels and climbed slowly upward. His careful search of the stairwell produced nothing but a few discarded admission tickets and a crumpled flier advertising the services of a less-than-saintly enterprise involving young women from Eastern Europe. At the top of the stairs was a landing. In one direction was the roof terrace; in the other, the viewing gallery for the dome. Gabriel peered over the balustrade at the now-miniaturized figures of Vitale and Metzler, then set out slowly along the catwalk with his eyes lowered toward the timeworn marble. After a few paces, he found the cross. The clasp was intact, but the thin gold chain had been snapped.

“It's possible she tore it off before climbing over the balustrade,” Donati said, examining the broken chain by the light of one of the dome's sixteen windows.

“I suppose anything is possible. But the more likely explanation is that the chain was broken by someone else.”

“Who?”

“The person who killed her.” Gabriel was silent for a moment. “Her neck was snapped like a twig, Luigi. I suppose the break could have occurred on impact, but I believe it happened up here. Her killer probably didn't notice he broke the chain of Claudia's cross as well. He did notice the shoes, though. That's why they were found so far apart. He probably hurled them over the barrier before making his escape.”

“How certain are you that she was murdered?”

“As certain as you are.” Gabriel studied Donati's face carefully. “Something tells me you know more than you're saying, Luigi.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Is there anything you wish to confess, Monsignor?”

“Yes,” said Donati, peering down at the floor of the Basilica. “It's possible the person responsible for Claudia Andreatti's death might be standing right in front of you.”

 

They headed out onto the roof terrace of the Basilica to walk among the apostles and the saints. Donati's black cassock billowed and snapped in the cold wind. In one hand, entwined around his fingers like the beads of a rosary, was Claudia's gold necklace.

“She was conducting . . .” Donati paused for a moment, as if searching for the appropriate word. “An investigation,” he said at last.

“What sort of investigation?”

“The only kind we ever do around here.”

“A secret investigation,” said Gabriel. “Ordered by you, of course.”

“At the behest of the Holy Father,” Donati added hastily.

“And the nature of this investigation?”

“As you know, there's been a debate raging within the art world and the curatorial community over who owns antiquity. For centuries, the great empires of Europe looted the treasures of the ancient world with reckless abandon. The Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the great temples of ancient Egypt—the list goes on and on. Now the source countries are demanding the symbols of their cultural heritage be returned. And they often turn to the police and courts for help in getting them back.”

“You were afraid the Vatican Museums were vulnerable?”

“We probably are.” Donati paused along the façade of the Basilica and pointed toward the Egyptian obelisk in the center of the square. “It's one of eight here in Rome. They were built by craftsmen from an empire that no longer exists and brought here by soldiers of an empire that also no longer exists. Should we send them back to Egypt? What about the Venus de Milo or the Winged Victory of Samothrace? Would they really be better off in Athens than in the Louvre? Would more people see them?”

“You sound like a bit of a hawk on this issue.”

“My enemies often mistake me for a liberal who's trying to destroy the Church. In reality, despite my Jesuit education, I am as doctrinaire as they come. I believe that great treasures of antiquity should be displayed in great museums.”

“Why Claudia?”

“Because she disagreed with me vehemently,” Donati replied. “I didn't want the report to be a whitewash. I wanted the potential worst-case scenario, the unvarnished truth about the source of every piece in our possession. The Vatican's collection is among the oldest and largest in the world. And much of it is completely unprovenanced.”

“Which means you don't know exactly where it came from.”

“Or even when it was acquired.” Donati shook his head slowly. “You might find this hard to believe, but until the 1930s, the Vatican Library had no proper catalog system. Books were stored by size and color.
Size
and
color
,” Donati repeated incredulously. “I'm afraid the record keeping at the museums wasn't much better.”

“So you asked Claudia to undertake a review of the collection to see whether any of the pieces might be tainted.”

“With a special emphasis on the Egyptian and Etruscan collections,” Donati added. “But I should stipulate that Claudia's inquiry was completely defensive in nature. In a way, it was a bit like a campaign manager who investigates his own candidate in order to uncover any dirt his opponent might find.”

“And if she'd discovered a problem?”

“We would have weighed our options carefully,” Donati said with lawyerly precision. “Lengthy deliberation is our specialty. It's one of the reasons we're still around after two thousand years.”

The two men turned and started slowly back toward the dome. Gabriel asked how long Claudia had been working on the project.

“Six months.”

“Who else knew about it?”

“Only the director of the museum. And the Holy Father, of course.”

“Had she given you any findings?”

“Not yet.” Donati hesitated. “But we had a meeting scheduled. She said she had something urgent to tell me.”

“What was it?”

“She didn't say.”

“When were you supposed to meet?”

“Last night.” Donati paused, then added, “At nine o'clock.”

Gabriel stopped and turned toward Donati. “Why so late?”

“Running a church of one billion souls is a big job. It was the only time I was free.”

“What happened?”

“Claudia called my assistant and asked to reschedule the meeting for this morning. She didn't give a reason.”

Donati removed a cigarette from an elegant gold case and tapped it against the cover before igniting it with a gold lighter. Not for the first time, Gabriel had to remind himself that the tall man in black was actually a Catholic priest.

“In case you're wondering,” Donati said, “I did not kill Claudia Andreatti. Nor do I know why anyone would want her dead. But if it becomes public that I was scheduled to meet with her the evening of her death, I'll be placed in a difficult position, to say the least. And so will the Holy Father.”

“Which is why you haven't mentioned any of this to Vitale or Metzler.”

Donati was silent.

“What do you want from me, Luigi?”

“I want you to help protect my Church from another scandal. And me, as well.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Two investigations. One will be carried out by Vitale and the gendarmes. It will be short in duration and will conclude that Dottoressa Andreatti took her own life by throwing herself from the gallery of the dome.”

“Rome has spoken; the case is closed.”

“Amen.”

“And the second investigation?”

“Will be carried out by you,” Donati said. “And its findings will be presented to only one person.”

“The private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII.”

Donati nodded.

“I came to Rome to restore a painting, Luigi.”

“You wouldn't be in Rome if it wasn't for the intervention of my master and me. And now we need a favor in return.”

“How Christlike of you, Monsignor.”

“Christ never had to run a church. I do.”

Gabriel smiled in spite of himself. “You told the Italian security services you needed me to clean a Caravaggio. Something tells me they won't be pleased if they find out I'm conducting a murder investigation.”

“So I suppose we'll have to deceive them. Trust me,” Donati added, “it won't be the first time.”

They paused along the railing. Directly below, in the small courtyard outside the entrance to the Vatican necropolis, the body of Claudia Andreatti was being placed in the back of an unmarked van. Standing a few feet away, like a mourner at the side of an open grave, was Lorenzo Vitale.

“I'll need a few things to get started,” Gabriel said, watching the Vatican police chief. “And I need you to get them for me without Vitale knowing.”

“Such as?”

“A copy of the hard drive of the computer in her office, along with her telephone records and all the documentation she assembled while conducting her review of the Vatican collection.”

Donati nodded. “In the meantime,” he said, “it might be wise to have a look inside Claudia's apartment before Vitale can obtain clearance from the Italian authorities to do so himself.”

“How do you suggest I get through the front door?”

Donati handed Gabriel a ring of keys.

“Where did you get these?”

“Rule number one at the Vatican,” Donati said. “Don't ask too many questions.”

5

PIAZZA DI SPAGNA, ROME

B
Y THE TIME THE
V
ATICAN
P
RESS
O
FFICE
confirmed that Dr. Claudia Andreatti, the esteemed curator of antiquities, had committed suicide in St. Peter's Basilica, rumors of her demise had thoroughly penetrated the gossipy little village known as the Holy See. Inside the restoration lab, work ceased as the staff gathered around the examination tables to ponder how they had missed the signs of Dr. Andreatti's emotional distress, how it was possible to work with someone for years and know so little about her personal life. Gabriel murmured a few appropriate words of sympathy but for the most part kept to his private corner of the lab. He remained there, alone with the Caravaggio, until late afternoon, when he hiked back to the apartment near the Piazza di Spagna through a freezing drizzle. He found Chiara leaning against the kitchen counter. Her dark hair was held in place by a velvet ribbon at the nape of her neck. Her eyes were fixed on the television, where a reporter for the BBC was recounting a story of a tragic suicide under a computer-generated banner that read
DEATH IN THE BASILICA
. When a still photograph of Claudia appeared on the screen, Chiara shook her head slowly.

“She was such a beautiful girl. Somehow it always seems harder to understand when they're pretty.”

She removed the cork from a bottle of Sangiovese and poured out two glasses. Gabriel reached for his, then stopped. Dark and rich, the wine was the color of blood.

“Is something wrong?”

“Donati asked me to have a look at the body.”

“Why ever would he do that?”

“He wanted a second opinion.”

“He doesn't think she committed suicide?”

“No. And neither do I.”

He told Chiara about the broken necklace, about the shoes that landed too far apart, about the quiet review of the Vatican's antiquities collection. Lastly, he told her about the urgent meeting that was supposed to take place in Donati's office.

“Now I understand the problem,” Chiara said. “Attractive female curator is supposed to meet with powerful private secretary. Instead, attractive female curator ends up dead.”

“Leaving every conspiracy theorist in the world to speculate that the powerful private secretary was somehow involved in the curator's death.”

“Which explains why he's asking you to help with a cover-up.”

“That's not how I would describe it.”

“How would you?”

“A private fact-finding mission, like the ones we used to carry out for King Saul Boulevard.”

King Saul Boulevard was the address of Israel's foreign intelligence service. It had a long and deliberately misleading name that had very little to do with the true nature of its work. Even retired agents like Gabriel and Chiara referred to it as the Office and nothing else.

“This has all the makings of yet another Vatican scandal,” Chiara warned. “And if you're not careful, your friend Monsignor Luigi Donati is going to drop you right in the middle of it.”

She switched off the television without another word and carried their wineglasses into the sitting room. On the coffee table was a tray of assorted bruschetta. Chiara watched Gabriel intently as he selected one smeared with artichoke hearts and ricotta cheese and washed it down with the Sangiovese. Her eyes, wide and oriental in shape, were the color of caramel and flecked with gold. They tended to change color with her mood. Gabriel could see she was troubled. She had a right to be. Their last assignment for the Office, an operation against a jihadist terror network, had been a particularly violent affair that ended in the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. Chiara had hoped the Caravaggio restoration would prove to be the final stage of Gabriel's long and difficult recovery, the start of a new life free from the gravitational pull of the Office. It was not supposed to include an investigation carried out on behalf of the pope's private secretary.

“Well?” she asked.

“It was delicious,” said Gabriel.

“I wasn't talking about the bruschetta.” Chiara rearranged the pillows at the end of the couch. She always rearranged things when she was annoyed. “Have you considered what the Italian security service is going to do if they find out you're freelancing for the Vatican? They'll run us out of the country.
Again
.”

“I tried to explain that to Donati.”

“And?”

“He invoked the name of his master.”

“He's not
your
pope, Gabriel.”

“What should I have said?”

“Find someone else,” she replied. “They're three lovely little words you need to learn.”

“You wouldn't say that if you'd seen Claudia's body.”

“That's not fair.”

“But it happens to be the truth. I've seen many dead bodies in my life, but I've never seen one that had fallen more than a hundred and fifty feet and landed on a marble floor.”

“What a terrible way to die.” Chiara watched the rain pattering on the little terrace overlooking the Spanish Steps. “How certain are you that Donati is telling you the truth?”

“About what?”

“About his relationship with Claudia Andreatti.”

“If you're asking whether I think they were romantically involved, the answer is no.”

“You grew up with a mother who never told you about the things that happened to her during the war.”

“Your point?”

“Everyone keeps secrets. Even from the people they trust the most. Call it female intuition, but I've always felt there was more to Monsignor Donati than meets the eye. He has a past. I'm sure of it.”

“We all do.”

“But some of us have more interesting pasts than others. Besides,” she added, “how much do you really know about his personal life?”

“Enough to know that he would never do anything as reckless as having an affair with an employee of the Vatican.”

“I suppose you're right. But I can't imagine what it's like for a man who looks like Luigi Donati to be celibate.”

“He deals with it by giving off an aura of absolute unavailability. He also wears a long black skirt and sleeps next door to the pope.”

Chiara smiled and plucked a bruschetta from the tray. “There is at least
one
fringe benefit to accepting the case,” she said thoughtfully. “It would give us a chance to take a look at the Church's private collection of antiquities. God only knows what they really have locked away in their storerooms.”

“God and the popes,” said Gabriel. “But it's far too much material for me to review on my own. I'm going to need help from someone who knows a thing or two about antiquities.”

“Me?”

“If the Office hadn't got its hooks into you, you'd be a professor at an important Italian university.”

“That's true,” she said. “But I studied the history of the Roman Empire.”

“Anyone who studies the Romans knows something about their artifacts. And your knowledge of Greek and Etruscan civilization is far superior to mine.”

“I'm afraid that's not saying much, darling.”

Chiara arched one eyebrow before raising the glass of wine to her lips. Her appearance had changed noticeably since their arrival in Rome. Seated as she was now, with her hair tumbling about her shoulders and her olive skin aglow, she looked remarkably like the intoxicating young Italian woman Gabriel had encountered for the first time, ten years earlier, in the ancient ghetto of Venice. It was almost as if the toll of the many long and dangerous operations had been erased. Only the faint shadow of loss fell across her face. It had been left there by the child she had miscarried while being held as ransom by the Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov. They had not been able to conceive since. Privately, Chiara had resigned herself to the prospect that she and Gabriel might never have a child.

“There is one other possibility,” she suggested.

“What's that?”

“That Dr. Claudia Andreatti climbed to the top of the Basilica in a state of emotional turmoil and threw herself to her death.”

“When I saw her last night, she didn't look like a woman in turmoil. In fact . . .” Gabriel's voice trailed off.

“What?”

“I got the sense she wanted to tell me something.”

Chiara was silent for a moment. “How long will it take for Donati to get us her files?” she asked finally.

“A day or two.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?”

“I think we should get to know her a little better.”

“How?”

Gabriel held up the ring of keys.

 

She lived on the opposite side of the river in Trastevere, in a faded old palazzo that had been converted into a faded old apartment house. Gabriel and Chiara strolled past the doorway twice while determining that their usual complement of Italian watchers had decided to take the night off. Then, on the third pass, Gabriel approached the door with the easy confidence of a man who had business within the premises and ushered Chiara inside. They found the foyer in semi-darkness and Claudia's mailbox bulging with what appeared to be several days' worth of uncollected post. Gabriel removed the items and placed them into Chiara's handbag. Then he led her to the base of the wide central staircase and together they started to climb.

It did not take long for Gabriel to feel a familiar sensation spreading over him. Shamron, his mentor, called it “the operational buzz.” It caused him to walk on the balls of his feet with a slight forward tilt and to draw his breath with the evenness of a ventilator. And it compelled him to instinctively assume the worst, that behind every door, around every darkened corner, lurked an old enemy with a gun and an unpaid debt to collect. His eyes flickered restlessly, and his sense of hearing, suddenly acute, locked onto every sound, no matter how faint or trivial—the splash of water in a basin, the diminishment of a violin concerto, the wail of an inconsolable child.

It was this sound, the sound of a child weeping, that followed Gabriel and Chiara onto the third-floor landing. Gabriel walked over to the door of 3B and ran his fingertips quickly round the doorjamb before inserting the key into the lock. Then, soundlessly, he turned the latch and they slipped inside. Instantly, they realized they were not alone. Seated in a pool of lamplight, weeping softly, was Dr. Claudia Andreatti.