Il Pane Della Vita (17 page)

“I
’m not on duty tomorrow, Sister,” said Bassi. “Please tell Father Rafaello so that he can get a replacement.”

Sister Angela did not see the abbot when she got back to the monastery. She knocked on the abbot’s office door, but no one answered.

Brother Pascal entered with the mail and put it on a desk he used when he kept books. “He’s not here. He’s in a meeting in Arezzo. Can I help you, Sister?”

“Oh, Brother Pascal. I just needed…”

The phone rang, and he answered it. She didn’t want to wait for the call to end and decided to go to her room.

In the first
courtyard, Brother Salvatore jumped up when he saw her. “Sister Angela, you’re back. What did you learn?”

She sat down
next to him on the bench in the indoor garden and took out the photographs of Father Teo.

“Is this Brother Pietro?” He held them away from his face and then pulled them in again. “How do you know this is Brother Pietro?”

“I don’t. I have to take them to the hermitage tomorrow morning. I’m hoping someone up there will recognize him. Tonight I have to read my emails and see if Neri has the visitors’ list ready.”

The next morning, Sister Angela turned on her computer and saw an email from Montriano. She had forgotten to update him. She opened it and read:

Dear Sister Angela,

I received a letter from the bishop emeritus’ office that you had been to see the bishop regarding Father Teo. The staff member was shocked that you would discuss irregularities in the diocese under the former archbishop. He even mentioned your attempt to smear the hermit’s reputation with innuendo about his sexual habits.

I believe that maybe you have strayed from the scope of the investigation and it is time for you to return to your duties at the scuola media.
We can meet after a time of reflection.

Regards,

Father Sergio

Sister Angela stared at the screen. She was finally getting somewhere. How could he pull her now? What would happen to the case? Her ears buzzing, she showered and dressed in her habit and tennis shoes. She had no one to take her to the top of the hill, but there was a path. She was out the front door without even thinking about coffee or breakfast.

She walked up the road and turned off into the hills at the trail
head. She had been trekking about ten minutes when she heard someone calling behind her.

“Sister Angela, wait up,” said the voice.

She slowed and finally looked back.

It was
Brother Salvatore, running after her. “Sister Angela, you should have told me you needed to be up the hill.”

“I’m sorry,
Brother. I thought you were too busy working with Brother Alonzo.”

“Brother Alonzo noticed you weren’t at breakfast. He told me to check your room.”

“How did he know I was back?”

“I worked with them last night and told them you were pretty tired. When I couldn’t find you in your room, I told Brother Alonzo. He reported that while I was upstairs, you were seen going out the front door. I knew no one was sch
eduled to pick you up so I attempted to catch you.”

“And you did. I thought I would try the trail. I needed to think about the explosion.”

“You mean you need to be alone? That’s unfortunate. There are places along the trail that aren’t marked well. I wouldn’t let you go alone.”

The nun smiled to hersel
f. “You can come—as long as you told someone you were coming.”

“Brother Alonzo knows. He handed me some water bottles. You’ll need that.”

“Thank you. You’re probably right.”

“I also grabbed some breakfast. Your strength will be tested. The slope here is called ‘the flat section.’”

“We have all day. I predict you will get tired before I do.”

The monk
laughed, his competitive nature emerging. “So you have the pictures of Father Teo. What else?”

“Did you see the
drawing of the woman visitor?”

“No. Show it to me.”

Sister Angela stopped to pull it out of the red-striped bag over her shoulder. Then they both started hiking again.

“She looks familiar and has a beautiful smile.
”

“But you can’t put a name to it, right?.”

“Did Neri say he knew about the visitor?”

“I don’t think I mentioned her to him. I just asked for the list.”

“Who told you about this woman?”

“One of the housekeepers and at least one of the other hermits.”

“Who helped with the picture?”

“I think the housekeeper did. I should have cleared that with the chief detective too. I didn’t. I’m not sure I’m being as effective as I should.”

“What? You’ve uncovered plenty, Sister. There are so many witnesses and clues, I don’t know how you remember them all.”

“But my trip to Pescara didn’t uncover much.”

“You talked to people who knew the man, didn’t you?”

“But I couldn’t convince the bishop or ar
chbishop that my finding out about Father Teo is important to the case. I thought Father Sergio told them what it meant to the Church, but I’m not sure what he told them. No one seemed to really know the priest.”

“Why would
our bishop hire you and then block your every move?”

“I suspect he thinks I’m not going in the right direction. I’m here to prove Brother Pietro is a saint yet I’m rummaging around his past like he broke all the rules.”

Two hours later, Salvatore reached the parking lot and then slipped back down to help Sister Angela up the last few steps. “We made it,” he said. “Let’s go inside to—”

“Dibs on the shower.”

“I think you need more water.”

Sister Angela stopped to look at her feet. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t forget to wear my comfortable shoes.” She stood up. “Thank you for accompanying me. I would have been thoroughly lost had you not kept me on the so-called trail.”

“What do we need up here? I take it you’re here because you want to do something.”

They walked together to the chapel, and Brother Salvatore pushed a button by the door inside.

“I never noticed that was there. How did they know I was here the first day?”

“Bassi has a phone. He calls ahead. I don’t have one so I ring them.”

Who is it?
asked a voice through the speaker.

“
Brother Salvatore and Sister Angela.”

A few seconds later, Costa opened the door for them. “Why didn’t you have the abbot call before you came?”

“Because we were taking a walk before we decided to grace you with our presence, Giulio,” said Brother Salvatore.

The nun did not wait around to answer the doorman’s question. She was already marching into the administrative building. When she got to Neri’s office, the door was closed. She knocked. Neri opened the door a crack.

“Sister Angela,” he said, looking surprised. “Do you have someone you want to see today?”

“I asked you for the list and then went out of town. Do you have it?” She could see someone inside, sitting in a chair across the desk, but it
was too dark for her to see who he was.

Neri closed the door again but was gone only a second. He passed the pie
ce of paper out to her. “If you will excuse me, I am in the middle of a conference.”

The nun bowed her head and headed back across the courtyard to the building with
the kitchen. Brother Salvatore was already there. He handed her a cold bottle of water.

“Hello Vincenzo,” said Sister Angela. “It looks like all is back to normal.”

“I guess it’s how
you
see it. The cloud of doubt is still out there, though. Where did Brother Pietro go and why? Do you have anything new?”

“Yes. I have a drawing of the woman who visited Brother Pietro.”

“Did you get the list of visitors, Sister Angela?” asked Brother Salvatore.

She unfolded the Neri’s list on a nearby counter and stared at it. “It shows a few people visited him over the last three months, but none of them was a woman.”

“So what’s this?” asked Pozza.

“There were seve
ral eye witnesses to her visits,” said the nun. “I wonder if your friend Giulio got her on his list.”

Pozza stared at the picture. “She looks familiar. I just can’t place her. I think I would have remembered her if she were here, though.”

“And do you usually meet or run into visitors while they’re here?”

Pozza smiled
. His sharp knife continued to chop a cucumber, even when he was talking. “Probably not, but if she
were
here, I would still probably know it. It’s instinct.”

“Come on,” she said to
Brother Salvatore. “Let’s go find your friend.”

Costa sat at a de
sk in his office, reading a book. “Good afternoon, Sister. You don’t need me to help you leave. The door will lock behind you.”

“Why is it so quiet today? There were no tourists in the parking lot.”

“We usually get a few after the lunch
pausa
, but it is quiet until then.”

She stared at
the small screens beside him. “I would have thought that people would like to come right after breakfast instead of late afternoon when it’s hotter. These are your cameras, I presume,” she said, pointing at the screens beside him. “Where’s the gate at the back of the development?”

“That’s it right there.”

“And you would see if anyone came through there while you’re sitting here.”

“Yes, some of the
eremiti
use that gate quite often.”

“
I see you can look at the parking lot directly in front of the hermitage. And you yourself open the door in the chapel, but some brothers have keys.”

“Most of the brothers and wor
kers here come in this door,” he explained.

“T
hat’s a view of the door in back of the administrative building. If you’re busy opening the door for someone, you could miss something.”

“I can come in here a
nd press
rewind
, so to speak,” said Costa. “I can recheck everything. Right now, I’m going to the kitchen to get coffee. Would you like to come with me?”

“Yes, please. But before you go, I was wondering what happened to the list that the chief detective requested.”

“The record of those comings and goings? He hasn’t pushed, and I’ve been too busy to copy off the names.”

“Is it a tome? Maybe I can scan only
the dates around the explosion.”

He let out a sigh as he walked back inside and pulled open a drawer. “Here, you can look at it over coffee and give it back to me before you leave.”

In the kitchen, Costa poured a cup of espresso for the nun. She took the cup and added milk. Then she sat down at a table next to Brother Salvatore. There aren’t so many names in the book.”

“No, normal tourists don’
t need to give me their names. If you look at today’s date, you and the monk have been noted.”

“
Do you also use Mr. Neri’s list of who has an appointment to visit one of the hermits?

“Yes.”

“I have a question. A few of the hermits have mentioned a woman who has visited Brother Pietro. I don’t see a woman’s name in the book.”

“I don’t
record relative’s names either. Brother Orsino has a mother that visits, but you don’t see her name.”

“The woman
was a relative?”

“Yes. She was Brother Pietro’s niece, I believe.”

“And this picture that I have,” she said, fumbling in her bag. “This drawing, is that his niece.”

“Yes, I guess so.
It isn’t really a faithful rendering, but I can see a resemblance.”

“I know it isn’t
in the picture, but did she have brown hair?”

“Yes. It was kind of a dark
, I think, but it might have looked lighter in the sun.”

“And what was her name?”

Costa nearly spilled his coffee. “I don’t remember. I’m sure Mr. Neri or someone told me. I only recall that I was to ignore her because she was a relative.”

“So she didn’t sneak in. You let her in the front.”

“I know she sometimes came in through the chapel, but I can’t be sure. We didn’t track when she was here.”

“
Were there men who visited Brother Pietro regularly too?”

“You mean other relatives?”

“Officially or unofficially.”

“No.”

Brother Salvatore placed a plate with a piece of cheese and hunk of sausage in front of her. “You didn’t have breakfast so we’re not leaving until after lunch. The trip down the hill won’t be any easier. You’ll need a cane if you want to walk tomorrow.”

“Would
you like to look at the book too, Brother?”

“No. It sounds to me like there were more visitors left off the list than there were those who needed to call ahead.”

The nun smiled and cut herself a chunk of bread. “I think we’ll have to give this information to the Morena before I go back home.”

“I
believe you’re going to have to fight your bishop. You can’t just leave in the middle of an investigation. I don’t think I can put the clues together by myself.”