Kate Concealed

by Cindy M. Hogan

  Johansen: Of course they are the same. They don’t want us to know that, but yes. New Jersey mafia and the Italian mafia are one in the same. Don’t stand out. I’m doing some research on the families and where they are headquartered in Italy so you can avoid them. Whatever you do, don’t stand out.

  Kate: We are in Venice today. We will be careful.

  “Truly, there’s something about being with a people that produced someone who would even think of creating the mafia. Insane.” Ellie gave an exaggerated shudder.

  “Yeah and I’m one of them.” Kate frowned deeply. “Johansen got back to me. It seems the mafia is alive and well in Italy. He’s doing some research for us, so we can avoid the families from New Jersey while here. He doesn’t want us to stand out.” She wished she’d thought to research the mafia in Italy before they left home.

  “First off, there are two kinds of people. Evil and good. You’re one of the good ones.” Ellie nodded rapidly. “At least you have choices. And don’t worry, I’ll try not be my normal loud self. I’ll tone it down.”

  Kate hoped she had choices. Ellie would have to go against her nature in order not to stick out. It probably wasn’t possible. All Kate could hope for was that no one from the Marconi or Bellini families would be in Venice and notice them.

  She looked over the information about the jewelry shop in Venice one more time before they exited the train and left the station, emerging into a humid, but cool morning in Venice.

  It was a sight to behold. They stepped out into the crowds of tourists and commuters and Kate pulled up her map of Venice on her phone. The main entry to Venice was packed with tour groups even though it was early and all followed the long roadway along the water. “We need to go this way to find tourist information.” She pointed. While Kate didn’t mind using her phone to map everything, she didn’t want to run out of battery before they headed back home, and she planned to take a lot of pictures, which took a lot of battery power. They would get a physical map from the tourist information center and use it instead.

  On their way there, they stopped in front of St. Mark’s library, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, a beautiful, majestic building that shone brilliant white in the early morning sun.

  “Maybe we should go in here and see if they have a map.” Kate stared up at the building, admiring the second floor balcony and sculptures that sat atop the building, above the many columns. “And we could ask about finding our ancestors while we’re at it. You’d think a library would have that information. Right? We could kill two birds with one stone.”

  “Nice thinking. If the information isn’t in there,” Ellie indicated the library, and started up the steps to the entrance, “we haven’t lost anything and can go to the information booth.”

  Kate and Ellie rushed up the steps only to find it wasn’t open yet. “Well that was easy.” They laughed.

  “Yep. I’m not waiting half an hour to go in there.”

  They hurried down the steps and followed the Internet map to tourist information. There was a long line and Kate checked out the area as soon as they entered it. They stood in St. Mark’s Market Square or Piazza. She’d thought the Piazza in Bologna had been large, but this was at least twice as big. St. Mark’s Basilica stood at the opposite end of the open, cobbled space and was enormous. It was impossible for her eyes not to follow the church’s bell tower to its heights. She could see that it was surrounded by what appeared to be government buildings, restaurants, and shops. It was easy to imagine the square being the center of the city for centuries. The absence of pigeons and birds that seemed to dominate the Bologna Piazza was a curiosity.

  “I don’t want to waste a bunch of time in this line. We haven’t moved at all yet,” Kate said, leaning out of the line to see what was happening at the front of it.

  “Yeah.” Ellie commiserated. “Let’s go to the jeweler and then come back. This is probably slammed because of all the tourists arriving. We can stop back by later. I’m sure the line will be shorter.”

  They walked all the way to the jeweler’s, which was off the beaten path, using the GPS on Kate’s phone. Kate said a silent prayer that the jeweler would be open, hoping she wasn’t being too unrealistic since it was still early. If worse came to worst, they’d go back to the library and wait outside until it opened or possibly check the line at the tourist information booth again. When they arrived, a man was opening the door.

  “Mi scusi,” Kate said, relieved.

  The man turned quickly like they’d startled him. He put his hand to his chest. “Mi avete spaventato.”

  “Are you opening up?”

  “Si, but not for an hour.”

  Both girls sighed, disappointed. Kate’s head hung. It was back to St. Mark’s square.

  The man pushed open the door and said, “But for you, we are open now.” He walked inside and flipped on the lights. The girls followed, a little hesitant. He shut the door behind them, but kept the Closed sign facing out and locked the door from the inside. Kate’s heart thumped hard against her chest, the thought that they were trapped rushing through her mind. She took two deep breaths and the feeling subsided.

  “I’m Edmondo. What can I interest you two in this fine morning? Perhaps a nice keepsake of your time in Italy?” He swished his way behind the jewelry counter and began unlocking one of the cabinets. He straightened, pulling out several necklaces and rings. His gaze settled on Kate and then what appeared to be her chest as he set the jewelry on the glass counter.

  “Oh, my. I had no idea.” He moved from behind the counter and stood in front of Kate. Kate felt really uncomfortable now and started to back up. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. It’s just that you have one of my father’s lockets.” Immediately, Kate’s hand flew to the locket and she stared at him.

  “He only made twenty of those and only for very special customers. We don’t get a ton of tourists seeking us out. He would be so pleased to know someone as lovely as you received one of them and have come to pay your respects.”

  “So you know all the people who bought them?” Kate clasped her hands in front of her. This was amazing.

  “Me? No. But my dad did. He often talked about the people though.”

  Her heart raced. “Did he talk about the people who bought this one?” Kate lifted the locket and tilted her chin back so that he could get a better look. A tiny flutter filled her belly.

  “If I could get a closer look, I could maybe look up the information.”

  Kate took the locket off and handed it to him feeling dizzy.

  “You have taken such good care of this. It’s like it is brand new.” Edmondo glanced up and smiled at her.

  “I just had it cleaned.” Her breath seemed bottled in her chest. Did he know about Carmela?

  Edmondo pulled out a familiar tool roll, but Kate stopped him. “If you want to know the number inside, it’s twenty.”

  “Well, that saved us a little effort. Perhaps you’d like to look at these pieces,” he indicated the items he’d pulled out earlier, “while I go to the office and check the books.” Ellie moved quickly to the counter and picked up a necklace as he disappeared through a door at the side of the store. Kate could tell nothing this store carried would be in her price range. Everything was very fine. It made her proud to think her birth parents had cared about quality when they had chosen the locket.

  Ellie modeled the various other jewelry for Kate while Edmondo was gone and it settled Kate’s nerves somewhat. “I’ve got to have this necklace. It’s crazy how a gondola crafted by the right person can be elegant.” The black onyx gondola hung from a silver chain and had what looked like rubies inset. It was magnificent. “It’s the perfect keepsake from this trip. I can’t wait to ride on one. We should choose a black gondola.”

  “I agree.” Kate tucked a strand of hair behind her ear chewed lightly on her cheeks.

  “What do you think of this one?” Ellie held up a charm bracelet, but before Kate could reply Edmondo returned with a dark brown le
dger and flipped through the pages.

  “I’m pretty sure the sales record of that beauty is in this book. I think fourteen years ago…”

  “Actually, I believe it would have been closer to fifteen or so years.”

  He nodded and flipped through more pages, finally landing on one particular notation. “Ah, yes. Here it is.” He turned the book around so the girls could read the entry his finger sat on. Vincenzo Bellini for Carmela Bellini and they had both signed the ledger. Kate ran her fingers over the signatures as if that would somehow transport her back to that day.

  “Did your father tell you any stories about this couple?” she pressed.

  “The only thing I remember about what he said was that the couple was shining with happiness. They had a child, a girl with them.”

  Kate swallowed hard. That had been her. Cold prickles shot up her arm.

  “My father had been waiting for just the right couple to offer the last locket to and he picked those two.” As if something suddenly occurred to him, Edmondo frowned. “Wait a minute. You’re not…No. You couldn’t be. My father said the couple were Italian but lived in America.” His eyes brightened and he smiled. “It is you, isn’t it? You were the baby.”

  It surprised Kate, but she nodded. He shook his head and then moved right up to her. Kate had to resist the urge to step back. He put his hands on the sides of her face and kissed each of her cheeks. “I’ll have you know that my father was not in the jewelry business for money, although he made plenty of that. He considered his pieces works of art and was very choosy about whom he’d allow buy them. Me? I can’t be so picky, but I like to honor his memory whenever I see someone with one of his special pieces.”

  “Do you know anything about their families, then?” Ellie asked.

  “If I once did, I don’t remember now.”

  “Were they from here possibly?”

  “I seem to remember something about that, but I can’t be certain. There’s a good chance they had family here. I do remember they lived in the U.S., like I said.”

  “You’ve been a great help. Do you mind if I take a picture of the entry in the ledger?”

  “Oh, my. Wait,” Edmondo said. “Are you saying these two lovely people are no longer?”

  Ellie nodded and tears welled in Kate’s eyes, not because Kate thought they were dead, but because they were truly dead to her, alive or not.

  “Don’t cry, my dear. You will be reunited in heaven with them. My father was rarely wrong in his judgment of others and he judged your parents to be—what is that phrase?—the creams of the crop.”

  “Thank you,” Kate squeaked out. She didn’t dare tell him it was cream and not creams.

  “Well, Kate was adopted after her parents’ demise and she was here hoping to find out if her grandparents were alive or some aunts, uncles…you know, any relatives. Have an idea where we might start?” Ellie was the best. She was asking the questions Kate was now unable to.

  “That is a good question. I’d assume records like that would be kept with State records, the church or the library. We have an amazing library here in town with millions of original documents. Yes. That is where I would start. If they were from here, perhaps you will find birth records there.”

  “Thank you,” Ellie said. “You’ve been a great help. I really love this necklace,” she indicated the black and ruby gondola. “I’d like to buy it.”

  “Most certainly,” Edmondo said and rang her up. Ellie then asked to take his picture and a picture of the interior of the shop.

  When the two girls walked out of the store, they heard the click of the lock behind them. Edmondo really had opened just for them. Ellie turned and snapped a picture of the outside of the shop.

  “Your parents were here and they were good. I knew it.” They walked down a path toward the main square.

  “That was nice to hear, but something must’ve happened to make them bad.” Kate tapped her fist against her lips.

  “Only Vincenzo and that’s debatable. Not Carmela. And I bet you anything they came here to show you off to family and since his family was in Jersey, they came to see Carmela’s parents. Your birth grandparents. Here in Venice.”

  “Or they were just on vacation.”

  “Another possibility, but I choose to be optimistic.” She gave Kate a pointed look. “Let’s go to the library and uncover both our heritages and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find Carmela in the process; but before we leave, why don’t you jot down what you just learned and I’ll sketch a picture of this place.”

  “Sounds good.” They sat on the first unoccupied bench they came upon and got to work filling more pages inside Kate’s search journal.

  14

  The girls stood outside the La Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana again and stared up at the ornately carved stone that screamed of the noblest classical style of the Renaissance. It fit in nicely with its Venetian surroundings, with its columns, arches, and statues.

  The hopeful ache Kate had buried before coming to Italy was back. “And I thought the library in New York was cool.” Ellie said. “Europeans truly know how to make amazing buildings.”

  “Right? The buildings are works of art for sure.”

  “It makes me itch to paint.”

  “I bet it does. Get good pictures and you’ll be able to in only a few days.”

  “I seriously can’t wait.” She stomped her foot a few times and let out a high pitched wail. “Does that make me a nerd?”

  “Yes!”

  Ellie slugged Kate and gave her a nasty look.

  “Just kidding, man. You’ve found your passion, and I think it’s normal to yearn for it. And besides, you would never be a nerd. Ever.” Kate squeezed Ellie’s upper arm.

  “You must be my best friend or something.” She put her arm around Kate and they spent ten minutes taking picture after picture outside the library. Some were silly with one of them posing all crazy, but the rest were of little things they loved about the building.

  “Okay. We’ve stalled enough. I think it’s time to go inside and do what we came to do.”

  Kate sighed. “Ellie, I’m scared. Really scared. I want to find Carmela so badly, but I don’t know if I could take it if we discovered she was scary like Vincenzo.”

  “I thought we decided Vincenzo was okay, just trapped in that family, a victim of his circumstances. I mean they wanted to kill his wife and only child. They took everything from him. If you took him out of that life, he would be awesome.”

  “Yes, but, oh, I don’t know. I wish neither one of them were wrapped up in the mafia. If my birth mother was a nark, then that means that she was a part of that life if only for a little while. But, if she worked for the FBI and was inserted into that life, that means she was good to the core, don’t you think?”

  “You’re going to drive yourself crazy if you try to make distinctions like that. It doesn’t matter when a person decides to become good, just that they do. And, you’ll never know unless you find her. We have to do that first.”

  “I know.” Kate bit her bottom lip and then took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

  It was a strange dichotomy walking from the bustling outdoors full of laughter and the raised voices of tour directors, into the quiet, almost silent library. Something gripped at Kate’s heart as she entered the building. She couldn’t quite tell if it was a warning of danger or some type of an urging to continue, so she continued to see what would come of it.

  They’d walked into what appeared to be a museum or a church with paintings and statues, no books. No circulation or information desk. Gold dominated the interior. Even the ceilings and walls were works of art. As they listened to people talking in low voices, they discovered that the library was created to preserve art, written or otherwise. It didn’t match their idea of library at all.

  As they were about to give up, they finally found the room for scholars and books. It was quite Harry Potterish with rows of long tables to study and little lamps dotting
the tables. There were no computers, though. They found a lady sitting at the front of the room who looked official, with a tight bun and a pencil in hand.

  “Do you speak English?” Ellie asked.

  “Sì.” The woman wore a flowing blouse and pencil skirt with comfortable looking sandals. Her blue-rimmed glasses gave her a playful look.

  “Hi. We’re looking to do some family history. You know, see who my grandparents are and stuff.” The woman directed them out of the study area.

  “Yes, the civil registry is what you want. It is easily accessed through Family Search. You could go to the government building and get the same information, but I’ve found Family Search is much faster. You’ll need to go to the computer room. It’s a bit hard to find.” She looked back inside the Harry Potter room they’d just left and then said, “Let me show you the way.” She walked with a confident gait and led them to an enclosed area with twenty or so computers, grouped in pairs. She selected one and typed away before turning it over to the girls.

  “I’ve changed the language to English so you’ll be able to read the instructions, but the records will be in Italian. I’ve also pulled up Family Search. If for some reason you lose your way, the address is familysearch.org. If you create an account, you’ll be able to track everything you find. Do you want to set one up now?”

  The girls glanced at each other. “No,” they said in unison. They stood behind the chair the librarian was using.

  “Okay. Let’s use this dummy account for now. You can always set up an account later.”

  “What is the deceased’s name?” She sat poised to type in the information.

  “The deceased?”

  “Well, this site won’t show you information on the living, only the dead. At least for the most part.”

  “Oh, sorry. I was hoping to maybe find my grandparents. I hope they’re living.”

  The librarian craned her head back to them. “Do you know their names? If so, we can put them in the Find search and see if they show up. If they do, we will know they are deceased.”

  “Oh, I don’t know their names. I was hoping to find them linked up to my parents.”