Stealing God

by James Green

  It was something someone had said. The thing he wanted to bring out into the open was something someone had told him. No, not someone, more than one person. He had been told something very important and told more than once and by more than one person. He concentrated and as he did so whatever it was slipped further away.

  He gave up. It would come when it was ready, if it came at all.

  He got up and quietly walked to the nearest candles. They were in a black, wax-spattered affair by a massive round pillar and above them, on a plinth, the statue of a saint looked down. Jimmy put some coins in the money box, picked up two candles, lit them, and put them among the others. There were always candles burning. People always wanted something from God, a big favour, a small favour. When only God could help you reached out to him and you did it like you did to all the powerful ones. You got an insider to put in a word for you. Jimmy looked at the stone saint.

  ‘Whoever you are, if you were ever in trouble, please pray for me.’ Pray for what, what was the message he wanted this saint to slip to God? ‘That I can find a way of going on, if not as a priest then as something. Amen.’

  He crossed himself and looked back into the church. The priest had come down from the altar and was distributing communion at the altar rail. It was nothing to do with him, he was a spectator, uninvolved. It was their Mass after all, not his.

  Jimmy went out of the church into the sunshine. It had only been a little prayer to a very minor saint whose name he didn’t even know. But it was something. It was the best he could manage in the circumstances. Now he could go and get something to eat and try to work out why Anna and why now? Or perhaps he could dredge whatever was at the back of his mind out into the open.

  Chiesa Nuova was on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele just opposite the entrance to the narrow street with the café where he met Danny and Ron, so he knew the area quite well. He had a choice of places to eat but he just wanted a simple meal in quiet so he went round the back of the church into a maze of back streets where he could find the kind of place he wanted.

  It was something he’d heard, just one thing, like Anna was just one thing. One thing that might tell him what he needed to know, but what? What had he been told?

  He found a place where the locals ate, not unlike the bar he, Danny, and Ron used. He ordered spaghetti and a beer and sat down. He put his mind into neutral. He’d tried thinking and it hadn’t worked so now he just sat and drank his beer. His spaghetti came and he ordered another beer. The spaghetti was good, he was ready for it.

  When he was about halfway through his meal the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ jangled in his jacket pocket and the man at the next table, smoking a cigarette with a glass of red wine in front of him, looked across.

  ‘Shit.’ Jimmy put his fork on his plate, took out the mobile and answered it. ‘It’s still playing bloody Wagner, when are you going to …’ He stopped and listened. ‘Why won’t they?’ He listened again. ‘Oh, fuck.’ If the solitary drinker at the next table spoke English he didn’t seem to mind the language, but it wasn’t much of a place, so it probably didn’t matter one way or another. ‘Look, we’d better meet, this needs sorting. Where are you now? I’ll be there in about ten minutes.’

  THIRTY

  Cars weren’t allowed in Campo di Fiori because of the busy market square but Ricci’s big black Lancia was outside the bar with the blue light still on the roof to identify it as a police car. There was no sign of the driver. Ricci was sitting inside holding his usual campari and soda, and there was a beer ready on the table. The waiter nodded as Jimmy walked past him, he didn’t smile, but he definitely acknowledged his arrival. Progress there at least, thought Jimmy as he went and sat down.

  ‘He nodded at me.’

  ‘Why not? He’s seen you before.’

  ‘He used to ignore me.’

  ‘Maybe now he thinks you add a dash of something to the place. To be so out of fashion in a place like this might be the way to be in fashion. Who knows, crumpled scruffy might be the new black.’

  Jimmy took a drink and noticed the pack of aspirins was on the table.

  ‘Still got the headache?’ Ricci nodded. ‘Why not see a doctor?’

  ‘I’ve seen one, remember? I’m on sick leave.’

  ‘Maybe you really are sick.’

  ‘It’s a headache, that’s all. Leave it alone.’

  Jimmy left it alone.

  ‘Why won’t they co-operate?’

  ‘Because I’m unofficial. I’m on leave pending a medical report and when I’m at work I’m nothing to do with terrorists. As for you, you don’t exist.’ He paused, picked up his drink, thought better of it, and put it back on the table. ‘I found out who was on the team and phoned one of them off the record. I told him I was working for the minister in an unofficial capacity and asked for a contact inside the investigation so we could share information. Fifteen minutes later I get a call which slams the door on me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you go to the minister’s aide and let him pull the strings?’

  ‘If Anna’s on the move we’re in a hurry and going through the minister would have taken too much time. I thought my way was best. I was wrong.’

  It was a lie and not a very good one. He’d tried to bypass telling the Cherub what they’d come up with and it hadn’t worked. Now he waited to see how Jimmy would take it. He took it surprisingly well.

  ‘Well we still need access to progress reports, to information as it comes in. We need to ask questions and get them answered.’

  ‘I put a message in to the minister’s aide. He should get back to me.’

  ‘He might get back to you? You just left it at that? We’re sitting here with no police hook up, Little Sister is on the move, and all we’ve got is that Charlie Cherub might get back to you?’

  ‘Well, what else could I do? And he was quick with the Anna stuff in the first place.’

  Jimmy wasn’t happy with it, but he left it. Ricci should have gone through the aide, not buggered about with unofficial requests; that way they would have got what they wanted. If the Cherub believed them. But would he have believed them? Maybe Ricci was right to leave him out of it, even if it hadn’t worked out.

  ‘We’ve got to phone McBride.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, who the fuck else is there?’ Ricci looked around. Jimmy had let his voice rise and in this place just about everybody spoke English. ‘She must have a direct line to whoever set this up with the minister. When we asked for a Vatican contact we got her. Whoever she is she’s more than just a simple academic and part-time rector. She’s a player of some sort. So if we ask her for a police contact inside the investigation she might be able to get somewhere. We need access. We need to get up to speed on what the police have on Anna’s movements and we need it now. If she’s bringing a team in she wouldn’t move until she was needed, and she wouldn’t be needed until the team were about to arrive. She must already have a safe house for them.’

  ‘We don’t know that, maybe that’s what she gone to do, not pick up the team.’

  ‘Oh yes? You said she arrived three weeks ago, what do you think she’s been doing since she arrived, sight-seeing? If she’s moving, they’re moving, and that means a timetable. I don’t know how these things work but I’d say day one, the day she left, would be to get where she’s going and check that everything is OK. We know she’s careful so she’d want to make sure that there were no unwelcome spectators to see her meet the team when they arrive. Day two she would take delivery of the team and get them to the safe house. Day three, yesterday, her job’s done and she’s finished. The team’s in place so Little Sister will have flown. What do you think?’

  ‘Sounds all right but I don’t know how these things work any better than you.’

  ‘We need to know how she travelled. If she hired a car the team might still be using it.’

  They both sat in silence for a moment with their own thoughts and both were thinking about the same thing: their fu
ture, what happened to them when this ended, however it ended. It was Ricci who broke the silence.

  ‘Look, whatever’s going on is a long way from Cheng’s death. It might be a blind alley for us even if we get inside the information loop. Why don’t we give it up and let the police sort Anna out? We’re tying ourselves in knots on something that’s probably nothing to do with what we’re supposed to be looking at.’

  ‘Then why were we given Anna in the first place?’

  ‘She was a coincidence, she’s not connected to Cheng or anything we’re doing. And even if she was we’d never be able to sit here and work out what it is.’

  Ricci was right, but Jimmy wasn’t going to agree. Cheng and the other cardinals might be a dead end but finding Anna Schwarz was all that stood between him and having to face re-building what was left of his life.

  ‘We could try.’

  ‘For God’s sake, stop being Sherlock bloody Holmes and let’s go back to Cheng. That’s what the minister wanted us to do, not chase phantom terrorists.’

  Jimmy nodded and picked up his beer. Ricci was right but he wasn’t going to drop it so easily.

  ‘All right, but at least let me get in touch with McBride.’

  ‘Why? We don’t need McBride, we don’t need to know what the police have got or what they’ll get. We need to drop the fucking thing.’

  This time Ricci didn’t look round. He didn’t care what anyone might think. Jimmy finished his drink and ignored Ricci’s outburst.

  ‘I’ll go to my apartment and phone her.’

  ‘Oh, Christ, I don’t believe this. Why do you have to be such a stubborn bastard?’

  ‘Just the way I am I guess.’

  ‘God give me strength.’ Ricci reached for the packet and dropped the last three tablets into his hand. He swallowed them with the last of his drink. ‘Come on, if that’s the way you want it I’ll drive you.’

  Jimmy got up slowly.

  ‘You sure about that headache and a doctor?’

  ‘I’m sure. I know what’s causing it: you.’

  ‘OK, but I still think you should see a doctor.’

  ‘Go to hell.’

  And they left the bar.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Ricci sat in a chair and watched Jimmy put the phone down.

  ‘What did she say?’

  ‘I told her what we’d got so far, how Anna turned up, and our theory about bringing in a team.’

  ‘Your theory, Jimmy, you’re the brains, the leader, remember?’

  It was back to being his theory.

  ‘I told her Anna was on the move and what we think might be happening …’

  ‘What you think might be happening.’

  ‘… and she just said stay where you are, give me your number, and I’ll phone you back as soon as I can.’ Jimmy sat down; his manner seemed far away. Ricci waited for a second.

  ‘So we wait here?’

  ‘You don’t have to. I’m the one who wants to see where this goes.’

  ‘No, I’ll see where it goes, if it goes anywhere.’

  ‘Funny though, she didn’t seem interested, she just listened. Why didn’t she have any questions?’

  ‘You told her what you think and then told her what you wanted, an urgent message passed to the minister. What do you expect her to do, spend time cross examining you? She’s getting on with it, doing what you asked her to do.’

  Ricci wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t completely right either.

  ‘I suppose so.’

  Ricci stood up and wandered about the room. He was restless. Waiting, doing nothing wasn’t something he was good at, especially when he didn’t like the nothing he was doing.

  ‘Shall I make us coffee? Do you want a coffee?’

  Jimmy gave him a vacant stare. He wasn’t really listening, he still seemed far away. He managed an answer.

  ‘No, no coffee.’

  ‘Neither do I. Do you have any aspirins?’

  ‘Somewhere. You had three not so long ago.’

  ‘Where are they?’

  ‘Try the kitchen.’

  Ricci went to the kitchen. After a few minutes he came back.

  ‘I can’t find any.’

  ‘I still say you should see a doctor. Headaches shouldn’t last that long.’

  ‘All right, I’ll see a doctor.’

  It wasn’t easy, trying to think with Ricci just standing there. He wasn’t going to settle until he was occupied. Jimmy dragged himself away from his thoughts.

  ‘I’m not happy about this.’

  Ricci gave an ironic laugh.

  ‘Not happy? That’s a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?’

  He went and stood by the window looking out.

  ‘Tell me, did you ever want to be in a movie?’

  ‘What the hell are you on about now?’

  ‘Well that’s what this all feels like. It’s like we’re following a script, like someone’s …’

  ‘For Christ’s sake, don’t.’ Ricci came back and sat down heavily. ‘Don’t make it any worse than it already is with another of your crazy ideas. We’re not in a movie, there is no script. Anna Schwarz is real and the police looking for her are real and Cheng died, that’s real. Stay away from Hollywood and stick with what’s real.’

  ‘OK. Let’s stick with Anna. She’s a known terrorist and apart from being invisible what she’s good at is moving other terrorists around. If she’s here for anything it’s to move people, bring someone in, probably more than one. Why Rome, what’s so special about Rome?’

  Ricci had sat forward, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He didn’t look well but Jimmy couldn’t help. Telling him to see a doctor had used up all his medical knowledge.

  ‘Go on, tell me what’s special about Rome.’

  ‘Do you remember what we were looking for, a connection?’

  Ricci sat up. He definitely looked bad.

  ‘Sure, you thought you’d found one, fixing the next conclave.’

  ‘And to get a conclave you have to have a dead pope.’

  ‘Is that it? They’re going to kill the pope? Of course it is because everything has to fit your theory or it can’t be right, can it? If Anna’s bringing in a team it has to be to kill the pope.’

  Jimmy looked at him.

  ‘Finished?’

  ‘No, I’m not finished. I feel like I’m being sucked into your head, that everything I do and think about is crammed inside your head but I have to go along with it because it’s where you want to go and I was told to follow. All right, let’s say that Anna Schwarz really has come to bring in a team and they have a target. Why not a sports event or pop concert, anywhere that would be crowded? If it’s terrorist related it could be almost anything. Why do you have it that it must be killing the pope?’

  ‘All right, it could be a bomb, but if it is why did we get given Anna? Before Anna it was all Vatican related, Cheng was Vatican, whoever put pressure on the minister was Vatican, our information on Cheng’s funeral and confirmation he was a cardinal were both Vatican. If we’ve been given Anna it’s because somebody thinks that whatever she’s here for is to do with the Vatican. And maybe you’re right, it won’t be an attempt on the pope, it may be a bomb, a bomb in the Vatican.’

  ‘For God’s sake, why?’

  ‘Why not? Put a bomb on the Metro and who do you kill? Civilians, nobodies, innocent bystanders. Bombing the Vatican would be as big as hitting the Twin Towers, bigger depending on how many die and who they were. Imagine it. They get a plane, stuff it with explosives, and fly it into the dome of St Peter’s during a papal Mass. The dome collapses and everybody inside dies and it would all be televised. It doesn’t just hit Italy, it hits the whole Catholic world. It would be like a declaration of war against Christianity.’

  Ricci made an effort. A bomb. It could be a bomb. If it was terrorists a bomb was the best bet and that was his idea, not Jimmy’s. This time he wasn’t following, he was leading. He felt a bit better
; it showed in his voice.

  ‘Bombing the Vatican is better than killing cardinals and fixing a conclave.’

  ‘A damn sight better even if I can’t see how it ties into Cheng.’

  ‘Sod Cheng. Now we stick with Anna. If there is a connection it’ll show at some point.’

  Ricci pushed his headache from the forefront of his mind. A terrorist bomb made sense. But in Rome, in the Vatican. His mind went back to the TV pictures of the Twin Towers being hit. He tried to imagine something similar here in Rome as Jimmy had described it. He found it all too easy.

  ‘Thank God we can get it stopped.’

  Jimmy looked surprised.

  ‘Oh yes, and how do we stop it? We haven’t told anyone what we think except McBride and with her only that a team may be coming in. At this moment in time the minister doesn’t even know that we think the Vatican may be a target. Nobody’s told him.’

  Ricci felt uncomfortable. He should have done better than just that message with the minister’s aide.

  ‘No, I know we haven’t. Look, I thought I’d get nowhere with the minister’s aide. All we’d actually got was that maybe the deaths of some old cardinals might be suspicious. Maybe they were connected if a conclave were to be called. I mean, when you come right down to it, before Anna turned up, what did we have, what concrete evidence was there?’

  Jimmy looked at him. He was tired, not in good shape, it was time to leave it alone.

  ‘Well, we’ve gone as far as we can. All we can do now is wait for a call from McBride and see if she gets anywhere.’

  ‘Well I hope she’s operating with more than we have.’

  ‘And what do we have?’

  ‘Prayers, candles, and hope.’

  Jimmy smiled.

  ‘I have great faith in prayer, candles, and hope, especially when they’re mixed in with Professor McBride.’

  THIRTY-TWO

  They had been waiting an hour, Ricci had taken to wandering in and out of the kitchen trying to find some aspirins. He had even looked in the fridge. It was something to do. Jimmy was sitting at the table staring at nothing. Ricci had begun to hate the room. Now he was ready to hate Jimmy because apparently he could sit still forever doing nothing.