Day of Confession Part 17

The security chief was out, he was told, and not due back until eight that evening. And Thomas Kind had simply nodded and said he would return then.

By eight-fifteen the two were chatting amiably in the security chief's office. Turning the conversation to business, he asked whether, in light of the bombing of the a.s.sisi bus and the a.s.sa.s.sination of the cardinal vicar of Rome in what the government feared might be a new wave of terrorist attacks, the hospital had done anything to increase its security situation.

Not to worry, he was told by the a.s.sured and surprisingly young security chief. Moments later the two men entered St. Cecilia's security operations center and sat down at a bank of sixteen television monitors taking live feed from surveillance cameras throughout the building. One, in particular, caught Thomas Kind's attention. The one he was looking for. The camera covering the ambulance dock.

"Your cameras operate twenty-four hours a day, every day," he said.

"Yes."

"Do you keep videotape of everything?"

"There." The chief of security pointed to a narrow closet-like hallway where red recording lights of video recorders glowed in the dim light.

"The tapes are kept for six months before they are erased and reused. I designed the system myself."

Thomas Kind could see the pride the man took in his accomplishment. It was something to be applauded and then exploited. And Thomas Kind did, saying how impressed he was with the setup, enthusiastically pulling his chair closer, asking for a demonstration of how the system's video retrieval worked. Asking, for example, if the security chief could pull up a videotaped record of someone arriving or leaving by ambulance at a specific time on a particular day-say, oh, last night about ten.

Only too happy to oblige, the security chief grinned and punched in a number on the master board. A video screen in front of them snapped on. A time/date code showed in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and then a video of the ambulance dock at the hospital's rear entrance came to life. The security chief fast-forwarded, then brought the tape back to speed as an ambulance arrived. The vehicle stopped, attendants got out, and a patient was taken from the ambulance and disappeared into the hospital. Clearly seen were the faces of the attendants as well as that of the patient. A moment later the attendants returned and the ambulance pulled away.

"You have stop motion," Kind said. "If there were a problem and investigators needed a license plate number-"

"Watch," the security chief said, punching REVERSE REVERSE and bringing the ambulance back. Then letting it go forward again in stop motion to freeze and hold a frame on a clearly identifiable license plate number. and bringing the ambulance back. Then letting it go forward again in stop motion to freeze and hold a frame on a clearly identifiable license plate number.

"Perfect." Kind smiled. "Could we see a little more?"

The tape ran forward, and Kind, with his eye carefully on the running time code, engaged the security chief in conversation through the comings and goings of several more ambulances, until, at nine-fifty-nine, a unmarked beige Iveco van pulled in.

"What is that, a delivery truck?" Kind asked, as he watched a heavy-set man step from behind the wheel and walk out of the camera's view into the hospital.

"Private ambulance."

"Where is the patient?"

"He's picking one up. Watch." The tape fast-forwarded, then came back to speed as the man returned, this time accompanied by a woman who looked like a nursing nun, another man, who appeared to be a male nurse, and a patient on a gurney, heavily bandaged with two IVs hanging from a rack overhead. The heavy-set man opened the door. The patient was put inside. The nursing nun and male nurse got in with him. Then the door was closed and the heavy-set man got behind the wheel and drove off.

"You can retrieve that license number, too, no doubt," Kind said, stroking the security chief again.

"Sure." The security chief stopped the tape, then backed it up. Then forwarded in stop motion and froze. The license number was clearly visible-PE 343552. The time/date code in the upper corner-22:18/9 July.

Kind smiled. "PE is a Pescara prefix. The ambulance company is local." is a Pescara prefix. The ambulance company is local."

"Servizio Ambulanza Pescara." The security chief's pride showed again. "You see, we have everything under control."

Smiling in admiration, Thomas Kind pushed the chief's pride b.u.t.ton one more time and retrieved the name the anonymous patient had used-Michael Roark.

THE SQUARE BOXED ad in the telephone book gave Thomas Kind the rest. Servizio Ambulanza Pescara was headquartered at 1217 Via Arapietra, directly across the street from where he waited now. The ad also listed the name of the company's direttore responsabile direttore responsabile, its owner, Ettore Caputo, and alongside showed his photograph. Beneath it were its business hours. Monday through Sat.u.r.day. 7:30 A.M A.M. to 7:30 P.M P.M.

Kind glanced at his watch.

7:25.

Suddenly he looked up. A man had turned the corner across the street and was walking down the block. Thomas Kind watched him carefully, then smiled. Ettore Caputo was four and a half minutes early.

47.

THE PHOTOGRAPH ON THE Pa.s.sPORT IN FRONT of him was Harry's, showing him bearded, as he still was. The pa.s.sport itself was worn, its stiff cardboard covers bent, softened as if it had been carried around for years. It had been issued by the U.S. Pa.s.sport Agency, New York. The inside pages showed the entry stamps of British, French, and U.S. immigration authorities, but beyond that there was nothing to indicate the course of the traveler's movements because few western European countries stamped pa.s.sports anymore.

The name beside his photograph was JONATHAN ARTHUR ROE JONATHAN ARTHUR ROE-born 18/SEP/65-New York, U.S.A.

On the table next to the pa.s.sport was a District of Columbia driver's license and a faculty membership card for Georgetown University. The driver's license listed his residence as the Mulledy Building, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Both pieces carried his photograph.

In fact, all three photos were different. With Harry wearing either one or the other of Eaton's shirts or his sweater. None looked as if it could have been taken at the same place as another-the room in which he now stood-or at the same time, yesterday evening.

"That's the rest of it." Adrianna Hall slid a letter-sized envelope across the coffee table in front of her. "There's cash there, too. Two million lire, about twelve hundred dollars. We can get more if you need it. But Eaton said to warn you-priests do not have money, so don't spend it like you do."

Harry looked at her, then opened the envelope and took out its contents-the two million in Italian lire, in fifty-thousand lire notes, and the lone sheet of paper with its three neatly typed, single-s.p.a.ced paragraphs.

"It tells you who you are, where you work, what you do, all of it," Adrianna said. "Or enough for you to fake your way through if someone asks. The instructions are to memorize what's there, then destroy it."

Harry Addison was now Father Jonathan Arthur Roe, a Jesuit priest and a.s.sociate professor of Law at Georgetown University. He lived in a Jesuit residence on the campus and had taught there since 1994. He had grown up an only child in Ithaca, New York. Both his parents were deceased. The rest gave his background: the schools he had attended, when and where he had joined the seminary, a physical description of Georgetown University and its environs, the Georgetown section of Washington, down to the detail that he could see the Potomac River from his bedroom, but only in fall and winter when the leaves were off the trees.

And then there was the last, and he looked up at Adrianna. "It seems as a Jesuit, I've taken a vow of poverty."

"Probably why he didn't give you a credit card..."

"Probably."

Harry turned and walked across the room. Eaton had promised and delivered, giving him everything he needed. All Harry had to do was the rest.

"It's kind of like Charades, isn't it?" He turned back. "You totally become someone else..."

"You don't have much choice."

Harry studied her. Here was a woman, like many, one he'd slept with but hardly knew. And except for that one moment in the dark when he'd sensed that some part of her feared her own mortality and was genuinely afraid-not so much to die as to no longer live-he realized he almost knew her better from seeing her on television than he did standing in a room with her.

"You're how old, Adrianna? Thirty-four?"

"I'm thirty-seven."

"All right, thirty-seven. If you could be someone else," he asked seriously, "who would you choose?"

"I never thought about it..."

"Take a stab at it, go on. Who?"

Suddenly she crossed her arms in front of her. "I wouldn't be anyone else. I like who I am and what I do. And I've worked like h.e.l.l to get there."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"A mother? A wife?"

"Are you kidding?" Her half laugh was both droll and defensive, as if he'd touched some nerve she didn't like touched.

He pushed her. Maybe more than he should have and unfairly, but for some reason he wanted to see more of who she was.

"A lot of women do both, have a career and a home life..."

"Not this woman." Adrianna held her ground, if anything becoming more serious. "I told you before, I like to f.u.c.k strangers.-You know why? It's not only exciting, it's total independence. And to me that's the most important thing there is, because it lets me do my job the best way I can, lets me go as far as I have to to get to the truth of the stories.... Do you think as a mother I'm going to stand out in the middle of a f.u.c.king field under artillery fire covering somebody's civil war?-Or, bringing it a little closer home, risk spending the rest of my life in an Italian prison because I provided one of the most wanted men in the country false ident.i.ty papers?-No, Harry Addison, I would not, because I wouldn't do that to children.... I'm a loner who likes it.... I make good money, I sleep with who I want, I travel to places even you could only dream of and have access to people most of the world's leaders don't.... I get a rush from it, and that rush gives me the b.a.l.l.s to cover history like they used to but like n.o.body but me does anymore.... Is it selfish? I don't know what the h.e.l.l that means.... But it's no charade, it's who I am.... And if something happens and I lose, the only person who gets hurt is me..."

"How does that play when you're seventy?"

"Ask me then."

Harry watched her a moment longer. It was why he felt as he had, that he knew her better on television than here. Her life and her intimacy were right there on the screen. It was who she was and all she wanted to be. And she was very good at it. A week ago he would have said something of the same about himself. Freedom was everything. It gave you incredible opportunities because you could take chances. You trusted your skills and ability and played everything on the surface as hard and fast as it came. And if you lost, you lost.... But now he wasn't sure. Maybe it was because he no longer had freedom at all. Maybe there was a price for it he'd never realized. Maybe it was as simple as that.... But maybe it wasn't.... And there was something else, something he knew he had yet to learn and understand.... And all this was a journey to help him find it....

"Where I do go from here... and when...," Harry suddenly found himself saying, "who do I communicate with-you or Eaton?"

"Me." Opening her purse, Adrianna took out a small cellular phone and handed it to him. "I know what the police are doing, and I make a hundred telephone calls a day. One more won't raise an eyebrow."

"What about Eaton?"

Adrianna hesitated, then turned her head slightly, the way she did on camera when she was about to explain something.

"You've never heard of James Eaton... and he's never heard of Harry Addison, except for what he's read in the papers or seen on TV, or maybe had pa.s.sed through the emba.s.sy about you.... You don't know me either, except for that one time we were seen in the hotel together and I was trying to get a statement from you."

"What about all this? this?" Harry leaned forward and spread the Jonathan Arthur Roe pa.s.sport, the Georgetown ID, the driver's license across the table.

"What happens if I turn left instead of right and walk into the arms of Gruppo Cardinale. What am I supposed to tell Roscani, that I always carry a second set of identification? He's going to want to know how I got it and where."

"Harry." Adrianna smiled warmly. "You are a very big boy. By now you should know your left from your right.... If you don't, practice, huh?" Leaning forward she kissed him lightly on the lips. "Don't turn the wrong way," she whispered, and then she left. Turning only at the door to tell him to stay where he was, and when she had news she'd call him.

He stood there and watched the door close behind her. Heard the click of the latch as it did. Slowly his eyes went to the table where the IDs were spread out. For the first time in his life he wished he had taken acting lessons.

48.

Cortona, Italy. Still Sat.u.r.day, July 11. 9:30 A.M A.M.

NURSING SISTER ELENA VOSO FINISHED HER shopping and came out of the small grocery on Piazza Signorelli with a large bag of fresh vegetables. She had picked the vegetables carefully, wanting to make a soup that would be as palatable and nutritious as possible. Not just for the three men who were with her but for Michael Roark. It was time at least to try to feed him solid food. Earlier she had moistened his lips and he had swallowed automatically in reaction. But when she had tried to get him to sip some water he'd only looked at her, as if the effort were too much. Still, if she offered a warm puree of fresh vegetables, perhaps the aroma itself might be enticing enough to make him at least attempt to get it down. Even a spoonful was better than nothing, because it would be a beginning, and the sooner he began taking solid food, the sooner she could get him off the IV and help him start regaining his physical strength.

Marco watched her come out and turn down the narrow cobblestone street toward the far end, where they had parked the car. Ordinarily he would have walked beside her and carried the bag. But not now, not here today in the bright sunshine. And even though they would drive off in the same car, it was not good that they be seen shopping or walking together. It was something someone might later remember. They were Italians, yes, yet strangers to Cortona-a nun and a man, obviously together, gathering supplies, taking them away. Why? What were they doing? It could be enough for someone to say, "Yes, they were here. I saw them."

Ahead of him Marco saw Elena stop, glance back, then turn and go into a small shop. Marco stopped, too, wondering what she was doing. To his left, a narrow street dropped steeply downward. Below he could see the distant plain and the roads leading up from it to the ancient walled city of the Umbrians and Etruscans, where he now stood. Cortona had been a fortress then; he hoped he would not have to make it one again.

Looking back toward the shop, he saw Elena come out, turn her head toward him, and then walk away in the direction of the car. Five minutes later, she reached a small, silver Fiat, the car Pietro had driven when he followed them north from Pescara. A moment later Marco came up, waited for several pedestrians to pa.s.s, then took the bundle from Elena and unlocked the door.

"Why did you go into the store?" he asked as they drove off.

"I'm not allowed?"

"Of course. I just wasn't prepared."

"Neither was I, which was why I went in." She lifted a package from the bag in her lap.

Sanitary napkins.

BY ELEVEN O'CLOCK both soup and puree were simmering on the kitchen stove and Elena was in the second-floor bedroom with Michael Roark. He was in an armchair, a pillow tucked under each arm, sitting upright for the first time. Marco had helped get him out of bed and into the chair and then had left, anxious to go outside for a cigarette. Above them, Luca slept in a third-floor bedroom. He was the night man, the same as he had been in the hospital in Pescara, sitting in the van outside from eleven at night until seven in the morning. Coming every two hours to help Elena turn her patient. Then going back out to wait and watch.

For what? Or whom? she wondered again, as she had wondered about the men all along.

From the bedroom she could see Marco, smoking and walking the southern periphery of the yard atop a stone wall. Below the wall was the road, and up from it, the gate and the driveway leading up to the house. Across the road was a large farm that went as far as the eye could see into the summer haze. A tractor worked it now, dust rising behind it as it plowed a stretch of open field behind the main house.

Abruptly Pietro appeared, crossing between the cypress trees in front of the window and walking toward Marco, his sleeves rolled up, his shirt open against the growing heat of the day, the gun in his waistband no longer hidden. Reaching him, he stopped, and the men talked. After a moment Marco glanced back at the house, as if he knew the two were being watched.

Elena turned to look at Michael Roark. "Are you comfortable sitting up?" she asked.

He nodded ever so slightly, just a small tip of his head. But it was a definitive response, much more dynamic than his previous blinking in reaction to her squeezing of his thumb or toes.

"I've made something for you to eat. Would you like to try and see if you can get it down?"

This time there was no response. He merely sat looking at her, then moved his eyes away and to the window. Elena watched him. His head, turned as it was against the light, gave him, despite the bandages, a profile she hadn't before seen. She hesitated, studying him a moment longer, then went past him and into the nook that was her part of the room.

Yes, she had turned into the store for sanitary napkins. But the move had been an excuse. Something else had caught her eye: a storefront rack with newspapers and a copy of La Repubblica La Repubblica with the bold headline with the bold headline FUGITIVES IN CARDINAL PARMA MURDER STILL AT LARGE FUGITIVES IN CARDINAL PARMA MURDER STILL AT LARGE, and beneath it, less bold, "Police Screen Victims of a.s.sisi Bus Explosion."

They were both stories she knew of, but in little detail. The a.s.sa.s.sination of the cardinal had, of course, been the talk of the convent, and then had come the explosion of the a.s.sisi bus. But very shortly afterward she had gone to Pescara and had seen no papers or television since. Yet the moment she'd glimpsed the headlines, she'd reacted, making an instinctive correlation between the headline and Marco and the others-men who were armed and guarded her and her patient twenty-four hours a day. Men who seemed to know a great deal more about what was going on than she did.

Inside the store, she'd picked up the paper and seen photographs of the men the police were looking for. Her mind raced. The bus explosion had taken place Friday. Michael Roark's automobile accident had occurred in the mountains outside Pescara on Monday. Tuesday morning she'd been given the order to go to Pescara. Could not a survivor of the bus explosion be badly burned and in a coma? Perhaps even have broken legs? Could he have perhaps been secretly moved from one hospital to another, or even to a private residence for a day or more before arrangements had been made to bring him to Pescara?

Quickly she'd bought the paper. And then as an afterthought-as a way to hide it from Marco and an unquestionable excuse for why she'd gone into the store-she'd bought the sanitary napkins and had both put into the same brown paper bag.

Back at the house, she'd gone immediately to her nook and put the napkins on a shelf where they could be seen. And afterward she'd carefully folded the newspaper, putting it away under clothing still in her suitcase.

"Dear G.o.d," she'd thought over and over. "What if Michael Roark and Father Daniel Addison are the same person?"

Washing her hands and changing into a fresh habit, she'd started to take the newspaper from her suitcase, wanting to hold it up next to her patient. To look at the photograph and see if there was any resemblance at all. But Marco had called her from the staircase, and she had not been able to do so. Putting the paper back, she'd closed the suitcase and gone to see what he wanted.