«I am sorry I can’t accommodate you better and, for everyone’s security, it’s better if you stay hidden. I have already prepared covers and food. There is an old wool matrass and a chamber pot near that big chest. Cover the windows if you switch the light on tonight: someone in the front house could suspect something and think this is not just a utility room. In the flat below lives an old lady, she is a meddler who never goes out and has very good ears. Try not to make too much noise and always close the door with the key. As soon as I can and it is safe enough I’ll come to see if you need anything else. I’ll knock twice and I’ll pause. Then I’ll knock once more» after all this list of recommendations Mary finally left.
Alessandro locked the door and left the key in the lock.
«A beautiful woman. Very charming» he commented sitting on an old chair.
«And brave. It clearly isn’t the first time she’s helped someone to hide from the fascists» added Letizia approaching the little window from which it was possible to see the street.
The two fugitives were silent, overcome by anxiety. They were hunted and closed up in a claustrophobic attic. Alessandro felt he had to react to give Letizia some strength. And he reacted his way: he opened the basket full of food that Mary had prepared for them.
He didn’t know what time it was anymore, maybe it was already lunch time, and seeing all those good things he decided that the best thing to do was to eat. In the attic there was only one chair and so, spreading out a cover on the floor, they improvised a picnic.
«I believe we should complete the reading of the secret papers. There are only a couple of pages left» urged Letizia as soon as Alessandro seemed satisfied.
«You are right – he answered pouring the real coffee that even cold seemed very good – Maybe it will help us to solve the riddle of the medallion letters.»
Letizia started reading from the point where the scarlet Lady cursed all those who would dare to profane the treasure.
I suffered a lot in my life but I don’t regret anything. I was allowed to know the greatest of happiness: love. Love for Pierangelo and for my daughter.
To you, my future reader, I wish the same: to know how to love. Find the signs and you will understand. The price will be the most precious of all treasures.
A life of joy I wish you.
Turn down the sadness of the heart.
Be with loved ones and kiss them every hour.
Audacity and a sharp wit be with you.
Suggestions of who lived everything are these.
Have to go now. The clues you have all.
In one of my crimson petticoat’s hem there is a phial sewn. It was Lucrezia’s forbidden present. For years I have carried it with me. She said I only need ten hits to break its glass with my hands and I’ll die.
Here, I drink.
Farewell.
It was now clear why doctor Tucci found the glass powder near the skeleton. It was the broken glass of a little phial containing poison. A phial shattered into pieces under the fingers of a woman that knew those ten hits were going to cover the last moments of her life.
Another Borgia gave her half-sister the weapon to decide freely the exact minute of her own death.
Alessandro and Letizia didn’t speak for a long moment as if they were paying the last tribute to the scarlet Lady.
«She had to be an incredible woman» Alessandro commented after a while.
Letizia barely heard him. There was a sentence in between the lines she just read that she couldn’t get out of her head: To you, my future reader, I wish the same: to know how to love. That was the key for everything. It was not only the treasure but especially the secret of true love that she wanted to perpetuate.
Letizia asked herself what it meant for her to love. The answer was not easy. She could only put together images. She saw her parents, the big dog who grew up with her, her books, Alessandro and then clearer than everyone else the captain’s smiling face. For the first time in her life she found it easier to paint emotions than to describe them.
«To you, my future reader, I wish the same: to know how to love» she whispered to herself.
«Exactly! This is the key! – said Alessandro joyfully – A really incredible woman. What a wit, what a wisdom! I nearly can see her here, in this attic with us. I believe she would be proud of us» he went on even more excited.
Letizia looked at him uncertainly.
«Look! Look here and tell me if it is not crystal clear!» he said passing her the last paper.
She looked at it but she continued to be puzzled.
«Don’t you see it? Read here, read!»
«To you, my future reader, I wish the same: to know how to love. Find the signs and you will understand. The price will be the most precious of treasures. It seems to be an important truth about love» answered Letizia still not getting the point.
«Yes, but it is not only that! Reading the following sentences in another way gives you the key to find the last clue! The mystery of the letters!»
Letizia didn’t understand.
«The scarlet Lady tells us that to find the most precious of treasures we have to find the signs. But it is not only the signs of love she is talking about. In all her memoir she hides double meanings and the hidden meaning unveils a clue. As you probably noticed after this sentence she changes her style. We imagined it happened because she was already very weak and she knew she was going to die but I don’t believe it. Look at the page without really reading it. The key is there, it is in the capital letter of the words with which she starts the lines.»
«A, Turn, Be, Audacity, Suggestion, Have» read Letizia out loud.
«Exactly. Did you get it now? ATBASH! Here is the solution for the mystery of the letters. To find the treasure we have to decipher the letters with the Atbash code!»
The Atbash code was one of the oldest examples in cryptography. Letizia remembered that Jews invented it: the first letter of the alphabet was substituted for the last one, the second with the penultimate letter and so on.
Alessandro took out a pen and his notebook.
«As they have hidden David’s symbol in a triangle, which is the symbol of the trinity, with the ruby in the middle to represent the eye of God, they used Latin letters and not Jewish ones so as not to arouse suspicions.»
The one who contrived that trick had to be someone that knew both religions very well. For example a marrano, a converted Jew.
«So – said Alessandro starting to write – If we have to decode the words on the medallion with the Atbash code, the substitution of letters should correspond to the overturning of the Latin alphabet. In this case A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V and then X, right? If I am not mistaken X was there and had the value of the sound CS for names like Xantippe or Xyris. What about Y?»
«Should be there as well – answered Letizia forcing herself to remember a challenging exam in Latin philology – If I remember it correctly the Y was added around the end of the Republic period to represent graphically the upsilon of some words coming from Greek. Though I think it is never at the beginning of a word.»
«So if there is also a Y – he said showing her what he had written – the solution of the code should be this:
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z
Z X Y V U T S R Q P O N M L I H G F E D C B A
The letters on the medallion are on one side M N U G P U and on the other side N T H Z Q so decoding them we should have O N E S L E and N F R A I.»
Alessandro looked at Letizia as if she had just been betrayed. Also decoding them the letters on the medallion didn’t make sense.
«Wait – she said taking the medallion and opening it – Let’s check we didn’t make mistakes. At one side we have G P U M N U and at the other side T H Z N Q. You see? It is not the letters you wrote down.»
«Yes they are! – he exclaimed Alessandro suddenly in a good mood again – Because the star of David is circular, the consequential resulting line depends wh
ere one starts reading from. You read it starting from a different point from the one the captain started when I wrote it down. So you gave me a different series. What’s more, we probably have to read the letters counter clockwise because the Jews unroll the sacred texts like that. And the starting point should be, logically, the one where there is the ring that holds the medallion.»
«In this case we have: P U M N G U and Q N T H Z, and the numbers are 09» suggested Letizia reading directly from the medallion.
«P U M N G U corresponds to LEONES and Q N T H Z to INFRA. So the two words are Leones and Infra. They don’t tell me a lot but at least they make sense» said Alessandro writing them on his notebook.
«What about the numbers?»
«For the numbers I think we should use the same decoding. Since Latin didn’t have the zero and the numbers carved on the medallion are Arabic numbers, probably we should put the zero at the end of a series from 1 to 9. So it should be:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
And our 09 corresponds to 12. The solution is then infra, leones, 12.»
«But if, as you said, we have to read the medallion counter clockwise starting from the point of the ring to hang it then we first have to read the front part, the one with the ruby, and then the back side. In this case the solution is: infra 12 leones» concluded Letizia.
«Infra 12 leones: under twelve lions»
Under twelve lions.
What the hell did it mean?
They also decoded the last riddle but they didn’t understand what it really meant. They were in a dead-end street; the treasure could have been anywhere.
«I don’t really know what it might refer to» said Letizia discouraged.
«Don’t say that. We have got this far and now we can’t let go. Let’s try to think about it. As we know the lion is the symbol of gold, light, royalty and power. It could symbolize the treasure itself. But we shouldn’t forget that this is a Jewish treasure we are talking about, and for Jews the lion is the animal that represents justice.»
«Of course! The twelve lions guarding Solomon’s throne!» exclaimed Letizia brightening up.
In the Book of Kings or maybe in the book of Chronicles, she didn’t remember exactly, she had read the description of Solomon’s marvellous ivory throne all covered in gold. To reach it there were six steps with twelve lions. Wasn’t the one they were looking for the Solomon’s treasure? So it was quite logical to refer to his throne.
«And Solomon was the wisest king. But even if it does speak about the twelve lions of his throne, where do we find them?»
Letizia tried to think quickly, to recall all the sacred Books, all the miniatures, the art, all the images she knew. But she couldn’t think of anything useful.
Their desperate efforts were interrupted by a heavy noise of foot-steps. It sounded like men coming up the stairs. Letizia put the medallion back around her neck. In an instant she hid the scarlet Lady’s papers under her clothes again. Alessandro hid his notebook between some old books and they listened silently.
They couldn’t hear anything anymore. Then they suddenly heard a woman screaming, kids crying and masculine voices barking orders.
Letizia and Alessandro retreated to the darkest corner of the room sure that the fascists were there for them. Then they heard the entrance door slamming and the tyres screeching.
Alessandro carefully approached the window. The only thing he could see was a military jeep driving away and a woman running behind it. That woman was the captain’s cousin.
Rome, Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, 4.00 p.m.
After speaking with the dean of Literature and Philosophy faculty who hadn’t had contact with Alessandro Romei for at least a year and had never met Miss Cantarini, Vittorio and the captain started to speak with some professors.
The first one didn’t know anything and Vittorio had the feeling that they were just wasting time. If he was the one in charge they wouldn’t have waited for the professor of Medieval History, but the captain didn’t want to leave any possible track unexplored, so he resigned himself to wait for him.
Two hours later professor Pellegrino finally arrived. He explained them that he was very sorry but he had had to organize the sad return of his nephew’s body to Naples. The young twenty year old man had died two days before during a boxing match. He was one of the soldiers preparing for a gymnastic event supposed to take place in front of the Duce himself in a month, but his heart had failed. The following day his body had to leave for Naples where the mother of the boy, the professor’s sister was waiting for him, to give him her very last kiss.
Vittorio had had enough of that sad story. He was sorry for the young man, but what could he do? He was dead. Full-stop.
After a good half an hour of details about the funeral which they had not asked for, the professor finally asked them why they were there.
«I understand how difficult it is for you in this moment, so I’ll go directly to the point without taking too much of your precious time. We came to ask you if you recently saw or had news from Mr. Romei. The dean told us he was one of your best students» said the captain.
«Not one of my best students, captain, the best one. When I saw him the first time I thought that with his size he would have been perfect to become a soldier or a boxer, but sometimes appearance misleads. In that Titan’s body hides an exquisite brain. But why do you ask me? Don’t tell me something happened to him!»
«No, nothing happened. We are looking for him because we think he might have information which would be very useful to solve a case of national security.»
«Really? I knew that boy would have go far» commented Pellegrino pleased.
Vittorio had difficulty not to laugh. If the professor knew the truth he wouldn’t have that smile on his face.
«I am sorry, I can’t help you. I haven’t had any news since when he left to work in Poggio Catino. He should still be there, you might check, it isn’t very far from Rome.»
The captain answered tactfully that it was a good idea and after renewing his condolences for the professor’s terrible loss they finally left.
«I really don’t know how you can always be so nice and polite. As soon as the old professor started to tell us his nephew’s story I thought we were also going to die, die of boredom» exploded Vittorio as soon as they went out.
When they arrived at Morelli’s the office was stirring. Employees and Blackshirts were going in and out looking very busy and Giacoboni was already back from the two days off he had had because of his mother’s funeral. Very oddly Morelli welcomed them with a smile.
«News of the fugitives?»
«None. You?» replied de’ Risis.
«About the two art historians none as well. But we caught a mole who was playing a double game here at the War ministry!» exclaimed Giacoboni greeting them with a nod.
The captain had to turn to all his self-control not to cry out. The name on the folder Morelli had in his hands when they entered was written clearly and he could easily read it. Pietro had been discovered.
«It was quite some time that one of our employees was spying on him. He started because of personal antipathy and work competition» went on Morelli.
«He wanted to find out something to put his competitor in a bad light with his superiors so he could be able to take his place» concluded Giacoboni with a tone that seemed to disapprove of the way this employee had acted.
«Envy can push people to act ignobly but this time it was good for us» added Musone.
«It seems that our mole had something to do with Kornblum’s getaway – continued Morelli – I wonder if he knows something about the other two fugitives as well.»
«If he knows something, we’ll find a way to make him speak. Every man has a breaking point» said Musone with a devilish smile.
Vittorio now considered Musone even more despicable than he thought at the beginning. The captain reacted as if he hadn’t heard him but he would ha
ve liked to throw him out of the window.
«They already arrested him. He is now at the Militia’s headquarters waiting to be interrogated. Let’s go. I don’t want him to wait too long and loose his memory. Giacoboni, you stay here. We need to find out which documents and information the betrayer spread. I’ll see you later» concluded Morelli getting up.
The captain looked for a pretext not to go with them but no idea came to his mind. It was like flailing in shifting sands: the more one moves the more one sinks. Unexpectedly Morelli helped him a little.
«It seems that one of the Vatican Library officials, don Cosimo, is a good friend of Mr. Romei. Someone should speak with him. He might give us some useful information. Captain, would you? We are more than enough, for the interrogation of the spy, aren’t we Antonio?»
They parted in the courtyard. To avoid shaking hands with Musone the captain saluted as a soldier and left in the direction of his car.
All the others enviously admired the beautiful car driving out of the courtyard and as soon as the captain had left Morelli showed Vittorio a Fiat Balilla waiting for him.
«Take that car and follow him. The betrayer is his cousin’s husband. Let’s see if now our captain will finally make a false move.»
Vittorio followed the orders reluctantly. In the two days he had spent with the captain his esteem and admiration for him had grown so much that he couldn’t believe he was a traitor. And in case he was, he probably had a very good reason for it. If the poor person that was now going to be tortured by Morelli and Musone was his cousin’s husband there was absolutely nothing strange about it if the captain was now driving to her house.
The scarlet Lady Page 17