CHAPTER 11: Much Later

 

Rome

 

Delta, with Karen in the passenger seat, backed the Indy out of her plane's cargo hold. A moment later, Kevin backed out a recently purchased white Lotus Esprit. He pulled up to the driver's side of the Indy.

"Well, Lasses," he said. "I'm off to find this Mattise's place."

"Be careful, Baby."

Kevin smiled and drove off with a chirp of tires. Delta put the Indy in gear and headed for the Vatican City.

It was mid-afternoon of the next day, the autumn sun streaking the underside of the clouds in lavender.

"Vadnez says the Rome authorities received anonymous evidence through the mail, implicating the cardinal and his two bishops in a fraud scheme that dates back to 1940."

"The same year the analysis dated the fragment of canvas," Delta said. "So what we have here so far is an artist who produces forgeries to be auctioned off as the real thing. But they did something different this time. They had the painting stolen to collect the insurance money and put it up for auction."

"The president of the insurance company was getting a cut from the insurance payoff and the auction proceeds, so why would he report the painting had been found?"

"Let's say they knew the painting was a fake," Delta said. "Did the thief actually steal the real one and was killed to keep him from talking? Or had it been a fake all along?"

"What I sense here," Karen speculated, "is that someone in this little crime clique betrayed the others."

"And someone else suddenly developed a conscience," Delta added. "Here we are."

Delta parked at the entrance to the Vatican city and she and Karen got out. They met two security guards at the station.

"Weapons, please," one asked politely.

"Nuh uh," Delta said, shaking her head. "We're on official business and are required to carry a firearm at all times."

"We can't allow that--it's highly irregular."

"Well, you're going to have to," Karen said. "Attempts have been made on our lives and we are not going anywhere unarmed."

"If that makes you nervous," Delta said. "Give us escorts. Otherwise, I place a phone call, and in five minutes you'll be jobless--and maybe indicted for obstructing an official investigation. So what's it going to be, fellas?"

The guards were indecisive momentarily, then one unhooked his radio. "Pedro, Dimitrius. Escort duty."

"Thank you," Delta said.

A few moments later, two other security guards appeared and escorted Delta and Karen into the Vatican Church.

"The opulance of this place always amazes me," Karen said.

"Yeah," Delta said. "How much blood was spilled to build it?"

Karen looked at her. "I never thought of it like that. But now that you mention it... The legacy of the Catholic church has far too often been one of spilled blood."

They reached the cardinal's office and knocked on the door. No answer.

"He's here, isn't he?" Delta asked the security guard.

"Yes. With the Bishops Varian and Sylvanus."

Delta knocked again, harder. She tried the door and found it locked. "You have a master key?"

"Not to this office," the guard said.

"Kick it in."

"What!?"

"Kick the door in!" Delta snapped. She and Karen both drew their weapons.

The other guard stomped the door close to the knob and it burst open with the sound of splintered wood. The Cardinal Fallini and his two bishops were inside--dead. The Cardinal lay slumped over his desk and the two bishops were slouched in the wing chairs.

The security guards gasped and one radioed for back-up. Delta checked Fallini and discovered how he had been killed.

"Neck's broken," she said.

"So are these two," Karen said, checking the bishops.

"Who were their last visitors?" Delta asked the guards.

"They personally received a group of Japanese businessmen," one of the guards said.

Karen and Delta looked at each other, then took a closer look at the office. Although none of the furnishings were overturned or paper scattered everywhere, there was evidence that the office had been thoroughly searched.

"The painting?" Karen asked.

"Where would you hide one?" Delta countered.

"Depends on who the doublecrosser was. The Cardinal might have hidden it in plain sight. He had that kind of arrogance about him."

Delta looked around at several paintings on the wall, stopping at a rectangular landscape painting. "Wouldn't you say that's about the size of Birth of Venus?"

"Yes, I would."

Delta took the painting down and turned it over. She worked the backing out of the frame and turned the bared picture over. She peeled it back, revealing another one underneath; The Birth of Venus.

"Probably been sitting in there since 1940," Karen remarked.

"But the Japanese didn't find what they were looking for," Delta said. "Where would they look next?"

"The home of the man who stole it," Karen said.

"Kevin's in trouble," Delta said quietly.