She tossed the bags into the backseat and got in. Gabriel headed up the boulevard Carnot. Ten minutes later, he came to a large traffic circle and followed the signs for Grasse. A four-lane highway stretched before them, rising up the slope of the hills toward the base of the Maritime Alps. Chiara reclined the seat, pulled off her fleece shirt, and shimmied out of the heavy waterproof pants. Gabriel kept his eyes fastened on the road. She dug through the bags of clothing until she found the clean underwear and bra she had bought for herself.
“Don’t look.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Just hurry up and get some clothing on, please.”
“That’s the first time a man has ever said that to me.”
“I can see why.”
She swatted his arm and quickly changed into jeans, a sweater with a thick turtleneck, and fashionable black leather boots with square toes and thick heels. She looked very much like the attractive young woman he had seen for the first time in the ghetto in Venice. When she was finished, she sat up. “Your turn. Pull over and I’ll drive while you change.”
Gabriel did as she asked. From a purely fashion perspective, he did not fare as well: a pair of loose-fitting blue cotton trousers with an elastic waist, a thick wool fisherman’s sweater, a pair of tan espadrilles that scratched his feet. He looked like a man who spent his days idling in the town square playing boule.
“I look ridiculous.”
“I think you look very handsome. More importantly, you can walk through any town in Provence and no one will think you’re anything but a local.”
For ten minutes, Chiara navigated the winding road through olive trees and eucalyptus. They came to the medieval town of Valbonne. Gabriel directed her northward, to a town called Opio, and from Opio to Le Rouret. She parked outside a tabac and waited in the car while Gabriel went inside. Behind the counter was a dark-complected man with tightly curled hair and Algerian features. When Gabriel asked whether he knew an Italian woman called Carcassi, the clerk shrugged his shoulders and suggested that Gabriel speak to Marc, the bartender next door at the brasserie.
Gabriel found Marc polishing glasses with a dirty towel. When he put the same question to him, the bartender shook his head. He knew of no one named Carcassi in the village, but there was an Italian woman who lived on the road that led to the entrance of the nature park. He tossed his towel over his shoulder and stepped outside to point Gabriel in the right direction. Gabriel thanked him and rejoined Chiara.
“That way,” he said. “Across the main road, past the gendarmerie, then up the hill.”
The road was narrow, little more than a one-lane paved track, and the grade of the hill was steep. There were villas among the olive and pepper trees. Some were modest homes owned by locals; others were opulent, well-tended, and shielded by hedges and high stone walls.
The villa where the Italian woman purportedly lived fell into the second category. It was a stately old estate house with a turret rising above the main entrance. The garden was a terraced affair, surrounded by a stone wall. There was no name on the daunting, iron gate.
When Gabriel pressed the button on the intercom, dogs began to bark. A few seconds later, a pair of Belgian shepherds came galloping from the back of the villa, teeth bared, barking fanatically. They charged the gate and snapped at Gabriel through the bars. He took a quick step back and put a hand on the door latch of the car. He did not like dogs to begin with, and not long ago he’d had a run-in with an Alsatian that had left him with a broken arm and several dozen stitches. He inched forward cautiously so as not to further incite the dogs and pressed the intercom button once again. This time he received a response: a woman’s voice, barely audible above the wild barking.
“Oui?”
“Madame Carcassi?”
“My name is Huber now. Carcassi was my maiden name.”
“Was your mother Regina Carcassi from Tolmezzo in the north of Italy?”
A moment’s hesitation, then: “Who is this, please?”
The dogs, hearing the note of anxiety in their master’s voice, began to bark even more ferociously. During the night, Gabriel had been unable to decide how to make his approach to the daughter of Regina Carcassi. Now, with the shepherds trying to tear his legs off and a gale-force wind beating down on him from the Alps, he had little patience for subterfuge and cover stories. He reached out and pressed the button once more.
“My name is Gabriel,” he said, shouting over the commotion of the dogs. “I work for the government of Israel. I believe I know who killed your mother, and I believe I know why.”
There was no response from the intercom, only the rapid snarling of the dogs. Gabriel feared he had taken it too far too quickly. He reached for the intercom button again but stopped himself when he saw the front door swing open and a woman step into the courtyard. She stood there a moment, black hair flying in the wind, arms folded beneath her breasts, then walked slowly across the courtyard and examined Gabriel through the bars of the gate. Satisfied, she looked down at the dogs and scolded them in rapid French. They stopped barking and trotted off, disappearing behind the villa. Then she reached into her coat pocket, produced the remote for the gate, and pressed it with her thumb. The gate slowly opened, and she gestured them to come inside.
SHE SERVED coffee and steamed milk in a rectangular sitting room with a terracotta floor and damask-covered furniture. The French doors rattled in the mistral. Several times Gabriel found himself looking at the doors to see if someone was trying to get in, but he saw only the elaborate garden writhing in the wind.
Her name was Antonella Huber, an Italian woman, married to a German businessman, living in the south of France—a member of that itinerant class of European wealthy who are comfortable in many countries and many cultures. She was an attractive woman, mid-forties, with dark shoulder-length hair and deeply tanned skin. Her eyes were nearly black and radiated intelligence. Her gaze was direct and without apprehension. Gabriel noticed the edges of her nails were soiled with clay. He glanced around the room and saw that it was decorated with ceramics. Antonella Huber was a skilled potter.
“I’m sorry about the dogs,” she said. “My husband travels for his work, so I spend a great deal of time here alone. Crime is a major problem all along the Côte d’Azur. We were robbed a half dozen times before we bought the guard dogs. Lately, we haven’t had any problems.”
“I can see why.”
She managed a brief smile. Gabriel used the lull in the small talk to come to the point. He leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, and gave Antonella Huber a selective account of the events that had brought him here. He told her that his friend, the historian Benjamin Stern, had discovered that something unusual had taken place at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Brenzone during the war—the same convent where her mother had lived before renouncing her vows. He told her that his friend had been killed by someone who wanted that unusual event to remain a secret. He told her that her mother was not the only person to vanish without a trace in Italy. Two priests, Felici and Manzini, had disappeared around the same time. An Italian detective named Alessio Rossi believed the disappearances were linked, but he was ordered to close his investigation after Italian police came under pressure from a man named Carlo Casagrande, who worked for the Vatican Security Office. Antonella Huber remained motionless throughout Gabriel’s presentation, her eyes locked on him, her hands folded across her knee. He had the distinct impression he was telling her nothing she did not already know or suspect.
“Your mother didn’t renounce her vows simply in order to marry, did she?”
A long silence, then: “No, she didn’t.”
“Something happened at that convent, something that made her lose her faith and renounce her vows?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Did she discuss it with Benjamin Stern?”
“I begged her not to, but she ignored my warning and spoke to
him anyway.”
“What were you afraid of?”
“That she would be harmed, of course. And I was right, wasn’t I?”
“Have you spoken to the Italian police?”
“If you know anything about Italian politics, you’d realize that the Italian police are not to be trusted in a matter like this. Wasn’t Alessio Rossi one of the men who was killed in Rome the night before last? A papal assassin?” She shook her head slowly. “My God, they’ll do anything to protect their dirty little secrets.”
“Do you know why they killed your mother?”
She nodded and said, “Yes, I do. I know what happened in that convent. I know why my mother renounced her vows, and her faith, and why she was killed for it.”
“Will you tell me?”
“It’s probably better if I show you.” She stood up. “Please wait here. I won’t be a moment.”
She left the room and walked upstairs. Gabriel sat back and closed his eyes. Chiara, seated next to him on the couch, reached out and laid her hand on his forearm.
When Antonella Huber returned, she was holding a stack of yellowed writing paper. “My mother wrote this the night before she married my father,” she said, holding up the papers for Gabriel and Chiara to see. “She gave a copy of this to Benjamin Stern. This is the reason your friend was killed.”
She sat down, placed the papers in her lap, and began to read aloud:
My name is Regina Carcassi, and I was born in Brunico, a mountain village near the Austrian border. I am the youngest of seven children and the only girl. Therefore, it was almost preordained that I become a nun. In 1937, I took my vows and became a member of the Order of Saint Ursula. I was sent to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, an Ursuline convent in the town of Brenzone on Lake Garda, and I took a position teaching in a local Catholic school for girls. I was eighteen years old.
I was very pleased with my assignment. The convent was a lovely place, an old castle located on the shores of the lake. When the war came, little about our life changed. Despite the shortages of food, we received shipments of supplies each month and always had enough to eat. Usually, we had some left over to disperse among the needy in Brenzone. I continued my teaching duties and administered to the needs of those unfortunate souls affected by the fighting.
One evening in March 1942, Mother Superior addressed us after our evening meal. She informed us that in three days’ time, our convent was to be the site of an important meeting between Vatican authorities and a high-level delegation from Germany. The Convent of the Sacred Heart had been chosen because of its isolation and the beauty of its facilities. She told us that we should all be very proud that such an important gathering should be held in our home, and we all were indeed pleased. Mother Superior told us that the topic of the meeting was an initiative by the Holy Father to bring about a speedy end to the war. We were instructed, however, not to speak a word about the meeting to anyone outside the convent. Even discussion amongst ourselves was forbidden. Needless to say, none of us slept much that night. We were all very excited about what the coming days would bring.
Because I grew up so near the Austrian border, I spoke fluent German and knew about German food and customs. Mother Superior asked me to oversee the preparations for the conference, and I eagerly agreed. I was informed that the men would share a meal, then would adjourn to discuss the business at hand. In my opinion, our dining room was far too plain for such an occasion, so I decided that the meal and the conference should take place in our common room. It was a lovely room, with a large stone fireplace and beautiful views of the lake and the Dolomites—a truly inspirational setting. Mother Superior agreed, and she permitted me to rearrange the furniture in the room as I saw fit. Dinner would be served at a large circular table next to one of the windows. For the meeting, a long rectangular table with a dark finish was set in front of the fireplace. I wanted everything to be perfect, and when I was finished, the room looked quite beautiful indeed. I was thrilled by the prospect that my work might have some role in bringing about an end to all the death and destruction the war had wrought.
The day before the meeting, a large shipment of food arrived: hams and sausages, breads and pastas, tins of caviar, bottles of fine wine and champagne—things most of us had rarely seen in our lifetimes, and certainly not since the war had begun. The next day, with the help of two other sisters, I prepared a meal that I believed would suit the palates of the men from Rome and the visitors from Berlin.
The delegates were scheduled to arrive at six in the evening, but it snowed heavily that day, and everyone was delayed. The men from the Vatican arrived first, at eight-thirty. There were three in all: Bishop Sebastiano Lorenzi of the Vatican Secretariat of State, and his two young assistants, Father Felici and Father Manzini. Bishop Lorenzi inspected the room where the meeting was to take place, then he led us to the chapel to celebrate Mass. Before leaving the chapel, he repeated Mother Superior’s instruction that we never speak of the evening’s events at the convent. He went on to say that anyone who violated his order would do so under the pain of excommunication. It seemed a rather needless warning to me, for none of us would ever disobey a direct request from a senior Vatican official, but I knew that the men of the Roman Curia took their obedience to the rules of secrecy very seriously.
The delegation from Germany did not arrive until nearly ten o’clock. They too were three: a driver who did not take part in the conference, an aide called Herr Beckmann, and the leader of the delegation, a man named State Secretary Martin Luther from the German Foreign Office. I would never forget that name. Imagine, a man called Martin Luther, visiting the Roman Catholic Convent of the Sacred Heart in Brenzone! At the time, it was quite a shock. So was the state secretary’s appearance. He was a small, sickly looking man with thick spectacles that distorted the shape of his eyes. He seemed to be suffering from a terrible cold, because he kept rubbing his nose with a white handkerchief.
They immediately sat down to dinner. Herr Luther and Herr Beckmann commented on the beauty of the room, and I felt very proud of my accomplishment. I served the food and opened the first bottles of wine. It was a pleasant meal, and there was a good deal of laughter and camaraderie among the five men seated at the table. I had the impression that Herr Luther and Bishop Lorenzi were well acquainted. Apparently, Mother Superior had neglected to tell them that I was from Brunico in the far north, because they spoke freely in German whenever I was in the room, surely out of the mistaken impression that I did not understand the language. I heard much interesting gossip about the affairs in Berlin.
The conference began at midnight. In Italian, Bishop Lorenzi said to me, “We have much work to do, Sister. Please keep the coffee coming. If you see an empty cup, fill it.” By now, all the other sisters had gone to bed. I sat outside the common room, in the antechamber. After a few moments, our young kitchen boy appeared, dressed in pajamas. He was an orphan who lived in the convent. The sisters nicknamed him Ciciotto, little chubby one. The child had been awakened by nightmares. I invited him to sit with me. To help calm him, we recited the rosary.
The first time I entered the room, it became clear to me that the men were not discussing a negotiated settlement to the war. State Secretary Luther was in the process of handing round a memorandum to the other four men. As I poured coffee, I was able to see it quite well. It had two columns, and the columns were divided by a vertical line. On the left were the names of countries and territories, on the right were figures. At the bottom of the page was a tally.
Herr Luther was saying, “The program to bring about the final solution to the Jewish question in Europe is well under way. The document you have before you was presented to me at a conference in Berlin in January. As you can see, by our careful estimate, there are eleven million Jews in Europe at the moment. That estimate includes territory controlled by the Reich and its allies and in countries that remain neutral or allied with the enemy.”
Herr Luther paused and looked at Bishop Loren
zi. “Does the girl speak German?”
“No, no, Herr Luther. She is a poor girl from the Garda region. Her only language is Italian, and even that she speaks like a peasant. You may speak freely in front of her.”
I turned and left the room, pretending not to have heard the terribly insulting things the prelate had just said about me to the German. My face must have shown my embarrassment, because when I entered the antechamber, Ciciotto said, “Is something wrong, Sister Regina?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
“Shall we continue to say the rosary, Sister?”
“You say it, my child. But softly, please.”
The boy resumed the rosary, but after a few moments he fell asleep with his head resting on my lap. I cracked the door a few inches so I could hear what was being said inside the common room. Herr Luther was still speaking. This is what I heard that night, recorded to the best of my recollection and ability.
“Despite our best efforts to keep the evacuations secret, word unfortunately is beginning to trickle out. It is my understanding from our own ambassador to the Vatican that some of these reports are beginning to reach the ears of the Holy Father.”
Bishop Lorenzi replied, “That is indeed the case, State Secretary Luther. I’m afraid news of the evacuations has indeed reached the Vatican. The British and Americans are putting enormous pressure on the Holy Father to speak out.”
“May I speak bluntly, Bishop Lorenzi?”
“That was the point of this gathering, was it not?”
“This program to settle the Jewish question once and for all is under way. The machinery is in place, and there is nothing His Holiness can do to stop it. The only thing he can do is make matters worse for the Jews, and I know that is the last thing the Holy Father wishes to do.”
“That is correct, Herr Luther. But how would a protest make matters worse for the Jews?”