Page 104 of The Order

Donati accepted the call. Calmly, he asked, “What have you done to her?”

“Nothing yet,” answered Father Markus Graf. “But if youdon’t turn around and walk out of there, I’m going to kill her. Slowly, Excellency. With a great deal of pain.”

Domenico Albanese watched from above as Luigi Donati burst from the entrance of the Casa Santa Marta. His phone was in his hand, its screen aglow with the embers of Father Graf’s call. Frantic, he seized Allon by the shoulders, as though begging for help. Then he swiveled around and searched the upper windows of the guesthouse. He knows, thought Albanese. But what would he do? Would he save the woman he once loved? Or would he save the Church?

Fifteen seconds passed. Then Albanese had his answer.

He tapped the screen of the burner phone.

Bishop Richter answered instantly.

“I’m afraid it’s over, Excellency.”

“We’ll see about that.”

The call died.

Albanese concealed the phone in the writing desk and went into the corridor. Like Luigi Donati five floors below, he was organizing his thoughts, separating lies from truth. His Holiness bore the weight of the Church on his shoulders, he reminded himself. But in death he was light as a feather.

51

Via della Conciliazione

“Why didn’t youcome to me in the beginning?” asked Alois Metzler.

“Would you have agreed to help us?”

“With a private investigation of the Holy Father’s death? Not a chance.”

Metzler was behind the wheel of an E-Class Mercedes with Vatican plates. He turned onto the Via della Conciliazione and raced toward the river, a rotating red light flashing on the roof.

“For the record,” said Gabriel, “I only agreed to find Niklaus Janson.”

“Were you the one who deleted his personnel file from our database?”

“No,” answered Gabriel. “It was Andreas Estermann who did that.”

“Estermann? The former BfV officer?”

“You know him?”

“He tried to convince me to join the Order of St. Helena a few years ago.”

“You’re not alone. Frankly, I’m disappointed he didn’t ask me to join, too. By the way, he went to Canton Fribourg to see Stefani Hoffmann a few days after Niklaus disappeared.”

“Was Janson a member of the Order?”

“More like a plaything.”

Metzler drove dangerously fast across the Tiber. Gabriel checked his messages. Immediately after leaving the Casa Santa Marta, he had called Yuval Gershon at Unit 8200 and asked him to pinpoint the location of Father Graf’s phone. As yet, there had been no reply.

“Where do you want me to go?” asked Metzler.

“The National Etruscan Museum. It’s—”

“I know where it is, Allon. I live here, you know.”

“I thought you Helvetians hated to leave your tidy little Swiss Quarter in Vatican City.”