Glory hallelujah! Dial thought to himself. ‘Tell me, is it something about the Church? Is that what the blackmail was about? He learned something about the Church and decided to make a few bucks for himself.’
‘Nick, listen, my hands are tied on this one. I can’t talk about it. I really can’t.’
Dial couldn’t keep from smiling. ‘But…’
Rose laughed. ‘But I figure if I get him to talk about it without actually mentioning it…’
‘Then I’ll get everything I need, and you’ll have a clean conscience.’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, something like that.’
Dial looked at his watch and knew that he was running out of time. Pelati’s lawyers would arrive any minute. ‘Fine. But we’ve got to make this quick.’
Rose put his right hand in the air. ‘Don’t worry, I will be.’
Still smiling, Dial went in first, followed by Rose, who closed the door behind them. Rose had seen Pelati at the Vatican several times but had never spoken to him, mostly because the two had nothing in common. Rose was willing to give everything he had to the Church without expecting anything in return, whereas Pelati was the complete opposite. This mansion was proof of that. Rose was a giver. Pelati was a taker. It would stay that way until the end.
Pelati watched the duo enter the room and seemed to come to life. His eyes focused on the man in red who was staring at him. ‘Tell me, Mr Dial, who’s your friend?’
‘This is Cardinal Joseph Rose from the Vatican. He came to talk to me about your case, and I decided to let him join us.’
‘Oh? Why is that? Wasn’t I good enough company for you?’
‘Actually, you have it backward. I didn’t think I was good enough company for you. You see, you kept talking about something that I knew nothing about, so I decided to bring in an expert, someone who could help me understand.’
Pelati grinned at the thought. ‘This man is an expert? On what? Christ?’
‘No,’ Rose interrupted. ‘I’m an expert on secrets.’
‘Secrets?’ He gasped with mock fear. ‘Any secret in particular? Mine, perhaps?’
Rose nodded, taking a step closer.
‘Oh good! Then this shall be fun. Please pull up a seat, Your Eminence. I’d love to hear what you know about me and my secret.’
Rose shook his head. ‘The chair won’t be necessary. I promised Nick that I’d be brief, and I intend to keep my word.’
‘Suit yourself, Your Eminence… I admire a man who can keep his word.’
Rose moved closer. ‘Actually, that’s the thing about secrets that has always bothered me. People never keep their word, meaning a secret is never a secret for very long.’
Pelati nodded, all too familiar with the subject. ‘Cardinal Rose, if I may be so bold, why are you telling me this? Are you trying to convince me that you know my family’s secret? Is that what you’re trying to do?’
‘On the contrary, I wanted you to know that the exact opposite is true. You are alone in this. No one knows your entire secret but you. Do you hear me? Not a single soul.’
Pelati frowned. It wasn’t what he was expecting. ‘And you came here to tell me that?’
Rose smiled in the face of evil. He’d been sent here by the Supreme Council to protect the Church, and he intended to finish the job. ‘No, I came here because I wanted to see the look in your eyes when I told you this…’ Pulling a pistol from the folds of his robe, he said, ‘Your secret dies today.’
Before Dial could react, Rose shoved the gun against Pelati’s head and fired. A thunderous roar filled the room, followed by the splash of blood and brains against the wall.
Instinctively, Dial lunged for Rose’s weapon, but the Cardinal was too quick to be stopped. Backing away to the far corner of the room, Rose pushed the hot barrel against his own temple and ordered Dial to stay put.
‘Don’t do it!’ Dial screamed. ‘Please don’t!’
‘I have to, Nick. It has to end this way.’
‘Why?’ he demanded as a wave of cops burst through the door. ‘Tell me why!’
Rose smiled knowingly and tightened his grip on the trigger. ‘Because Christ is my savior.’
75
Payne and Jones never heard the gunshots. They were out by the pool, discussing the week’s events when Cardinal Rose opened fire. The sound was drowned out by a hovering chopper and all the police sirens that were migrating to the area.
Later, when they found out what happened, Payne was disappointed that he didn’t get to see Benito’s execution. That might sound morbid, but when you’ve seen as many good men die as he had, sometimes it helps to see the death of a devil. Somehow that helps balance the equation. At least for a little while.
Then again, Payne realized if he’d been inside for all the fireworks, he would’ve missed the biggest surprise of all. Something so unexpected that he still didn’t know what to think of it.
Sitting between Jones and Dr Boyd, Payne was staring at the twinkling blue water, thinking about religion. He had learned more about Christianity during the past few days than he had during the rest of his years combined. Yet he was thirsting for more. For every question that had been answered, ten new ones had popped into his head. And each of them was more complicated than the last. Payne mentioned this to Dr Boyd, who claimed that was the paradox of religion. Boyd said, the more you learn, the less you know.
Joking, Payne said, ‘Damn! Then I guess you don’t know shit compared to me.’
Surprisingly, Boyd laughed louder than anyone.
Payne turned toward Jones, expecting a smile on his face, too. Instead he noticed a dazed look in his eyes that said he was still trying to piece everything together. The Catacombs, the scroll, the Pelati family secret. To him, they were pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that still didn’t fit.
‘You all right?’ Payne asked.
He nodded, even though Payne knew he wasn’t. Something was bothering him. Something big. Finally, Jones said, ‘Doc, out of curiosity, what do you think happened to him?’
Boyd grimaced. ‘Him? Who do you mean?’
‘Jesus,’ he answered. ‘If Jesus didn’t die on the cross, what happened to him?’
‘Ahhh.’ The sound suggested that Boyd had been expecting that question all week. ‘I guess that depends on who you ask. Different experts have different opinions, though some of them are a little daft. The most popular theory is that Christ was a married man who shipped his family to Marseilles right after his trial in Judea. I’ve read many French manuscripts that refer to Christ’s royal blood still living in France today.’
They had heard that theory, too. Payne knew some experts believed that Christ’s wife was Mary Magdalene. Of course he had no idea if that was true or a brilliant piece of fiction. ‘So you think Christ went to France?’
Boyd shrugged. ‘That’s what some believe. Others feel the risk would’ve been too great. The truth is, if Christ had been discovered, his whole family would’ve been slaughtered on the spot.’
Jones winced. ‘Then where did he go?’
‘According to Islamic traditions, he headed east, where he eventually died several decades later in the Indian city of Kashmir. Others believe that he went to Alexandria in Egypt, where he helped convert that city to Christianity. I even read one account that claimed he was killed at Masada in 74 AD when the Jewish fortress fell to the Romans.’
But none of those theories sat well with Jones. Frustrated, he tossed a stone into the deep end of the pool. The splash sent ripples in every direction. ‘In other words, no one really knows.’