The Venice Conspiracy

by Sam Christer

  They all stare silently at the desecration and try to put themselves in the mind of the offender, try to guess his motivation, his end game. Vito motions towards the number beneath the symbol. ‘What’s going on here? This number, what do you think that means?’

  ‘Numbers are for counting,’ speculates Valentina, ‘so it’s some kind of countdown?’

  ‘Quite. But what? Is it in hours, days or weeks?’

  Vito turns squarely to Valentina. ‘Find that damned ex-priest of yours. Find him quick, and pray he can tell us what the hell this all means, before someone else dies.’

  CAPITOLO LIII

  1778

  Rio Terà San Vio, Venezia

  Tommaso can see why Tanina trusts Lydia. She’s one of those rare people who has the capacity to listen without interrupting. She’s patient and attentive as the young priest explains that he’s only recently learned he’s been separated from his sister since early childhood and is hoping to find her – and find her quickly.

  ‘Have you approached the convents?’ she asks. ‘The sisters will have records, and you may be able to gather a list of orphaned girls of the right age.’

  Tommaso looks distressed. ‘It’s what I imagined as I left the abbey, but now I have no time. I also fear that if I show myself at such places then the abbot and the inquisitor will be alerted to my presence.’

  ‘I suspect you are correct,’ Lydia nods in agreement, then gives him a positive smile. ‘In a few days’ time I will have one of my servants make discreet enquiries for you. There are not many convents in the area, and the task should be an easy one.’

  Tommaso is in the process of thanking her when Tanina returns with Ermanno and Efran.

  ‘What the hell have you been saying?’ Ermanno makes for Tommaso. ‘You stupid fool!’

  Efran steps between them. ‘We know what he’s been saying. Now calm down.’ He pushes Ermanno back, stares him into submission, then turns to Tommaso. ‘We are not beggars and thieves, signor. We sought to do business with you. To profit mutually.’

  He looks towards Ermanno. ‘Neither my friend nor I know anything of the theft of your property, and we find it offensive that you thought us capable of doing such a thing.’

  Lydia stands up. ‘Please excuse me. I need to make some arrangements and will rejoin you shortly. I’ll have some food prepared.’ She turns to Tanina. ‘I fear it may be the last decent meal you will have for a while.’

  Ermanno watches her leave the room, gently closing the elegant brass-handled doors behind her, then he explodes again. ‘Do you not know what the guards will do to us? Have you not heard of the Canal of the Orphans, where they throw the bodies of those they’ve executed in their dungeons?’

  Tommaso dips his head, unsure of how to cope with the confrontation. The past few hours have seen him lose his most prized possession, forsake his vocation and become homeless.

  Tanina can see he is frightened. She sits by him and touches his arm reassuringly. ‘Brother, I’m sure we can sort things out. Though I confess, everything does look rather bleak.’

  He peers up at the men opposite him. ‘You really know nothing of the theft? You swear it?’

  Ermanno shakes his head. ‘Not a thing. We both swear it. Believe me, we do not have your heirloom.’

  ‘Then who does?’ asks Tanina. ‘Who could have taken it?’

  The three friends stare at each other. Tommaso can see they’re mutually embarrassed. ‘Who else did you tell? It is human nature that you will have discussed this with someone else. Who?’

  Ermanno looks nervous. ‘My family knew. My sister – she’s but nine years old – and my mother and father.’ He raises his eyes to Tommaso. ‘My father is an antiquities trader in the ghetto. But he is not a thief.’

  ‘I’m sure not. But if he told others, perhaps one of them is.’

  Efran lets out a sigh and turns to Ermanno. ‘I told you. You are the only person I told.’

  All eyes switch to Tanina.

  ‘I told Lydia. And she is certainly no thief. And Ermanno and I spoke of the tablet. In fact, recently that seems to be all we have spoken of.’

  He furrows his thick eyebrows. ‘And what does that mean?’

  Tanina looks exasperated. ‘Nothing. Except that you were obsessed by the thing.’

  ‘Meaning you think I took it?’

  ‘Meaning nothing of the sort! I know you didn’t take it – you were with me all night. I merely meant that I would have liked you to have been less immersed in discovering the provenance of this damned thing and more attentive to me.’

  Everyone’s attention switches to the doors as Lydia opens them and breezes in. ‘The dining table is set and food will follow shortly. I have sent a servant to a friend’s home. He owns a place where you will be safe.’

  ‘Thank you,’ says Tanina. ‘We’re very grateful for your hospitality and assistance.’

  ‘Don’t be silly!’ Lydia smiles broadly. ‘This is all tremendously exciting. Quite an adventure!’ She grabs Tanina by one hand and Tommaso by the other and leads them to the doorway. ‘Now, come on – let’s all get a drink and see what we can do to brighten up your dreary spirits.’

  CHAPTER 57

  Present Day

  Carabinieri HQ

  ‘There’s no trace of Shaman.’ Valentina sounds worried. ‘I’ve called his hotel – they say he left soon after I phoned him last night and he hasn’t been seen since.’

  ‘When did you call him?’ Vito glances to the clock on his wall.

  ‘About nine-thirty – we were still here, working late.’

  Vito turns to Rocco. ‘Pull his cellphone records and see if he called anyone after that time.’ He glances towards Valentina. ‘Best have someone check restaurants, bars and hospitals to see if he got drunk, hurt or sick. Give his description to the foot and boat patrols.’

  ‘Lieutenant Totti is already working his phone records,’ says Valentina. ‘She was happy to help out.’

  ‘Fine,’ says Vito distantly. Suddenly the unthinkable has occurred to him. ‘We need to get forensics round to Tom’s hotel room. See if they can find some hair on his pillows, towels, robes, anything like that.’

  The remark shocks Valentina. ‘DNA? You want his DNA?’

  Vito frowns. He knows she likes the ex-priest, maybe even sees him as a substitute for her cousin. ‘Just a precaution, Valentina. Best to do the legwork now.’

  The penny drops. ‘The blood at the basilica yesterday – you think it was his.’

  Vito plays it down. ‘I don’t think anything of the sort. I just want to be prepared.’

  ‘It could be,’ says Rocco. ‘Satanists would get pretty excited by smearing a priest’s blood in St Mark’s.’

  Valentina shoots him a withering look. She’s still not forgiven him for letting her take the rap over the missed fingerprints at the hippy mansion, and his latest crack isn’t winning her over. ‘When I last spoke to Tom he started to tell me something about a serial killer in California who used his victims’ blood to write messages in churches. He was going to come in and tell us about it today.’

  ‘Charles Manson?’ queries Vito.

  She shakes her head. ‘No, no. It was someone I’d never heard of … Yale? Or was it Cale? A name like that.’ She scratches her head while dredging her memory. ‘Bale! That’s it, I’m sure it was Bale – Lars Bale. Tom said he’d met him more than a decade ago at San Quentin.’

  The major looks to Rocco. ‘Call the FBI, have them go through VICAP and send us anything that might be useful. Ring LAPD and see what they know about Bale. Find out where he is now, and the whereabouts of any known associates.’

  Valentina waits for him to catch his breath. ‘Tom said Bale had a teardrop tattooed under his left eye. It reminded him of the one Mera Teale has.’

  ‘Mario Fabianelli’s PA?’ Vito remembers her arms looking like a comic-book spread. ‘She’s American too.’

  ‘Si.’

  Rocco nods. ‘Yeah, I know: chec
k her too.’

  ‘Mera Teale is not very old,’ Valentina adds reflectively. ‘Mid-twenties, no more. If she were connected to Bale ten or twelve years ago, then she would have been very young, maybe even pre-teen.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ says Vito. ‘They’re connected by these tattoos, and maybe much more. Let’s dig and dig.’

  On a flipchart in the corner of his room is a red felt-tip drawing of the rectangular symbol found in the basilica. Vito’s eyes are not so much focused on the shape as the number six hanging from the bottom of it. As Valentina said yesterday, numbers are for counting, so chances are the blood message is a countdown.

  But to what?

  And what units is the writer working in? Six months – six weeks – six days – six hours?

  He has to work this out, and work it out quickly.

  The one thing he’s sure of is that someone’s life depends on it.

  CAPITOLO LIV

  1778

  Sestiere di Dorsoduro, Venezia

  Ermanno, Efran, Tanina and Tommaso watch their breath freeze in front of their faces in the thin night air as they wait for a carriage. Tommaso looks particularly cold, though Tanina suspects he’s shaking as much through fear as the chill of the evening. She’s relieved her friend is coming with them. Though she wishes Lydia wouldn’t treat their predicament with the casual air of adventure she personally would have reserved for a short holiday in Rome.

  The meal of soup, fresh fish and lamb has buoyed their spirits, and the rich red and white wines have dulled the aching anxiety in their heads.

  The carriage Lydia ordered arrives and takes them quickly to a mooring at L’Accademia. The building, completed only a few years earlier, stands softly illuminated, and shadowy shapes can be seen floating among the fine art.

  The streets are crammed with crocodiles of courtesans, flirting and mingling with masked party-goers. Efran rubs his hands together and blows out. ‘God, it’s cold. I can’t wait for spring to come.’

  Ermanno slaps his shoulder. ‘Let’s hope we all live to see it.’

  Lydia is some distance in front of them, a long way down a pontoon bridge, heading towards a boat moored near racks of gondolas.

  Tommaso stays close to Tanina. He still feels distrustful of the men, and wonders whether he should just slip away, find his boat and, under the cover of darkness, set off for a new life somewhere.

  Ermanno catches them up and takes Tanina’s arm. ‘You told me Lydia said we would be safe at her house? If so, why are we running like dogs?’

  She’s annoyed by his comments. ‘You are so unreasonable! Lydia has taken enormous risks on our behalf. It is not fair to expect her to harbour us.’ She leans closer to him, so Tommaso does not hear: ‘This is all your fault. We are paying the price of your obsession with that stupid silver tablet.’

  Ermanno thinks about lecturing her on how valuable it could be, how it could have helped secure their futures, but decides that will only inflame matters.

  They reach the boat and Lydia stretches out her hand for Tanina. ‘Be careful getting down, there is quite a gap here.’

  Tommaso notices there are two oarsmen – fore and aft. A little unnecessary, but no doubt that’s the sort of thing privileged women like Lydia are accustomed to. In keeping with Carnevale, they are cloaked and wearing full masks. Tommaso imagines that, given the cutting wind across the lagoon, they will soon be grateful for the cover.

  No one really speaks as they head out into the blackness of the lagoon. Tanina squeezes as close to Ermanno as she possibly can to keep warm and Lydia unashamedly does the same with Efran. Tommaso wonders about her morals. Life seems simply a game to her – an opportunity to seek out new pleasures and liaisons.

  Was his mother the same?

  The thought shocks him.

  He supposes she must have been. An unmarried courtesan who took whatever comforts she could, whenever she could, with whomever she could.

  Small lamps on navigation posts help Tommaso recognise the route the boat is taking. Eastwards out of the Canal Grande, across the choppy confluence of Canale della Giudecca and Canale di San Marco, then south down the Canale della Grazie, skirting the west side of Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore. Bitter-sweet memories of morning mass, Martins and Lauds come flooding back to him. He feels guilty as he looks away from the basilica and the monastery, the places where he spent much of his life – places he can never again set foot.

  A mile further south they come to the point where Tommaso, one misty morning, saw a strange man dumping sacks overboard. Both Tanina and Lydia are visibly chilled now, their teeth chattering, the men next to them rubbing their shoulders to try to spark some warmth.

  The moon is smoked by slivers of grey cloud. Black fingers of wintered trees stretch skyward from what he guesses must be an island not far away.

  The place the strange man came from?

  The boat noses its way towards land. A rugged shore seldom spoken of.

  Lazzaretto Vecchio –

  – Plague Island.

  CHAPTER 58

  Present Day

  Carabinieri HQ

  Lieutenant Francesca Totti finally hits pay dirt while going through Tom Shaman’s cellphone records. Most of the calls are to numbers she already knows – Vito and Valentina’s extensions at Carabinieri headquarters – but one other person on Tom’s list proves so important she keeps him hanging on while she dials in the major on a conference extension.

  Vito creaks back in his office chair and puts it on speakerphone while Valentina and Rocco hurriedly gather around his cluttered desk so they can listen.

  Francesca does the introductions, ‘Major, this is Alfredo Giordano, he’s a senior librarian at the Vatican’s Holy See. Father Giordano, Major Vito Carvalho and my colleagues lieutenants Valentina Morassi and Rocco Baldoni are now also on the call.’

  Alfie clears his throat and sounds slightly nervous. ‘Hello. I guess I should repeat some of the things I just told Lieutenant Totti.’ He coughs again and gets his nerves under control. ‘I, err … I’ve known Father Shaman – Tom, I mean, it’s hard not to still think of him as a priest – for about ten years. Tom is a good man, a very good man and a personal friend. When he told me about your case, only little parts of it, I felt that I had to help.’

  ‘How exactly were you helping him, Father?’ asks Vito.

  ‘Tom asked me to search the Vatican Library for information on the Tablets of Atmanta. You know about the artefact? Did he mention this to you?’

  Vito looks to Valentina, who seems surprised and shakes her head. ‘No,’ says Vito, ‘he didn’t. What is it?’

  ‘Three silver tablets that date back to Etruscan times. If you put all three together they form an incredibly valuable piece of art that is about the size of a sheet of A4 paper.’

  Valentina finds herself sketching an oblong identical to the rectangular symbol they’ve been finding in Venice.

  ‘On their own,’ continues Alfredo, ‘each tablet depicts a separate scene, supposedly the vision of a young Etruscan priest. When the tablets are joined together, they make one big scene, originally called the Gates of Destiny, though over the years it has also come to be known within the Catholic Church as the Gates of Hell.’

  Francesca Totti prompts him: ‘Father, please tell my colleagues what you told me about the importance of the tablets.’

  ‘Si, si.’ Alfie’s voice becomes lower and more confidential. ‘The tablets show many snakes – six hundred and sixty-six, to be precise – crawling over each other to form the bars of the gates. There is also an image of a very powerful god guarding them. That deity was not part of the recognised Etruscan pantheon, and this is the only artefact depicting him. I have found documents in the secret archives of the Holy See confirming that this is now recognised by the Catholic Church to be the first recorded image of Satan.’

  No one around Vito’s desk says anything – they’re all trying to imagine exactly what the face and body of the demon look li
ke.

  ‘I’m not sure you quite understand the significance of this,’ Alfie’s tone grows even more serious. ‘This drawing of Satan predates any made of Christ. Catholicism wasn’t even a concept back in those days.’

  ‘Exactly which days are those days?’ asks Vito. ‘When are we talking about?’

  ‘Six hundred years before Christ was born,’ says Alfie. ‘The year 666 BC, to be precise. The Church believes the Tablets of Atmanta are essentially the birth certificate of Satan, a registration of the day he first came to earth in human form, and the reason why the number 666 has become so powerful and symbolically evil.’

  CHAPTER 59

  Venice

  Tom would like to try to escape, put up a fight, but he’s been shot so full of sedatives that it’s impossible for him to even move.

  His skin feels strangely numb, almost as though it’s humming, a sensation that makes him guess he’s been spiked with something like Propofol or Diprivan.

  He’s made enough care visits to hospital wards and palliative clinics to understand he’s going to be physically useless for some time. Weak as a kitten. Maybe even unconscious at times. He’ll also be vulnerable to hypnotism and possibly suffer hallucinations.

  He uses what senses he still has to work out where he is. There’s no freshness to the air. If he can pick up anything, it’s a musty feel. His eyes are still burning from the pepper spray and he can’t see. There’s some form of bandage over them, but he can tell they haven’t cleaned his eyelids properly and the pepper has soaked painfully through the pores.

  Someone knocks against him, or at least against the stretcher or bed that he’s lying on.

  He can hear mumblings a few feet away and knows it will now only be seconds before he slips into a world of sleep.

  A blessing.

  Given the agenda of whoever has kidnapped him, sleep seems a merciful manner of restraint.