Chapter 5
Via Nazionale
IN HIS TOURIST class hotel off the Via Nazionale, Manfred Kessel was watching the TV Roma news channel. Karl Bretz had destroyed the relic and risked being caught -- for nothing. His dream of the Shrine of Unity lay shattered. The Jungling had seen to that. And then, as if the imbecile hadn't already done enough damage, the young thug boasted that he'd left the note in the studio -- as planned!
"Karl, I suppose you know that Phönix is going to kill us when he finds out we're involved in this mess."
"But you told me..."
Kessel waved his hands to silence Karl as the young priest on the television screen started to tell his story. Karl began playing with his homemade dagger. The implications of there being a possible eyewitness to his stupidity didn't seem to register.
Kessel took in every word. This priest had seen them talking in the park, and had probably seen Karl holding the handgun. The name on the caption said Fr. Marco Sartini.
"Keep still, Karl!"
"So would you recognize these two men if you saw them again?" asked the interviewer.
"Absolutely," responded Sartini.
"That verfluchter priest!" Kessel felt his Nordic skin turning red from the neck upwards.
The interviewer held up to a small fragment of metal. "You've seen what happened to the relic, Father Sartini. You must feel devastated by the events here at TV Roma tonight."
"It's a disaster." The priest did indeed seem genuinely upset. "That relic could have been exhibited to raise money for the poor. In my opinion it should have been used to raise money for the poor a long time ago."
"An interesting point of view." The interviewer lowered his voice for effect as he posed the next question. "Do you think some higher force decided that the relic was not meant to be seen?"
The priest grinned wickedly. "Higher force? Do you mean God?"
The interviewer appeared disconcerted by this blunt response. "The relic survived for nearly two thousand years, Father Sartini. In mysterious circumstances. Then, just as the world at large is being given the chance to see it... Bang!"
"There's certainly something strange about its history," agreed the priest. "I believe the late Canon Angelo Levi owned it for a time. He was with Vatican Archives, but I've no idea how he obtained it. He's a man of mystery. I heard this morning that he had a daughter."
"A canon in the Catholic Church with a daughter? Are you serious?" The surprise in the interviewer's voice was not just for the viewers' benefit; it seemed to be a reaction of genuine shock.
Sartini shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, if his daughter is still alive, maybe she could tell us how her father got the relic in the first place."
The interviewer turned to the camera, speaking to the viewers. "So the mystery deepens by the minute. As a security guard from TV Roma fights for his life, the carabinieri want to interview two men seen hurrying from the scene. And Father Marco Sartini here could hold the key to the puzzle of why a Christian relic, said to show the face of Christ, should be so brutally and wantonly destroyed."
Kessel flung a book at the television set. "That bloody priest. Get out there, Karl. Find him and kill him. But be more careful this time. Sartini is trouble."
Karl tossed his knife into the air and caught it deftly by the handle. "A pleasure, Herr Kessel. But right now I'm off to my room for a lie down."
"To play with yourself more likely." He watched the youth heave himself from the bed. It was difficult to think that this lump could be Rüdi's child.
In the 1980s, in Düsseldorf, he'd spent many pleasant evenings with Rüdi Bretz -- a time when his own name was still Enzo Bastiani.
The Past
The 1980s