«Lie near her. We’ll sleep on the armchairs» said Mrs. Kornblum.
«Old people don’t sleep a lot. Every morning I get up at four and I start studying. Keine Sorge. Don’t worry. What time do I have to wake you up?» asked Mr. Kornblum.
«At five. And thanks again. I don’t know what I would have done without you.»
Ministry of War, 11.50 p.m.
That same night a few men from the Voluntary Militia for National Security succeeded in sleeping. After discovering what happened, Giacoboni mobilized practically all the Blackshirts of Rome.
He didn’t have a real plan. He quickly checked the papers they found on Miss Cantarini they seemed so difficult to read that he ordered the director of the State archive to be woken up to decipher and interpret them in the shortest possible time.
Vittorio was in charge of the search teams: they had to report directly to him every two hours. But the hours were passing and they couldn’t find a single bit of news about Miss Cantarini.
Around three in the morning one of the teams found, near the station a woman who corresponded to the description of the art historian but she was only someone going to the bakery because she worked there. Giacoboni checked her anyway but even though she looked a bit like Letizia, she clearly wasn’t the right woman.
At five in the morning someone recognized de’ Risis car, parked not far from the Militia headquarters’ and Giacoboni was suspicious of him. He asked at the Macao base and, discovering that from the previous morning nobody had seen the captain or knew where he was, he finally understood the truth.
Moreover the weapon that had killed Morelli and the others was probably a Beretta like the standard equipment of Royal army and de’ Risis ice cold blood together with his infallible aim was quite famous at the base. The only thing Giacoboni couldn’t understand was the reason.
Unless the captain wanted the treasure for himself.
He called Vittorio who was working in the nearby office.
«I have reason to believe it was captain de’ Risis to help who helped the fugitive – he told him – You spent a lot of time with him in the last few days: don’t you have some suggestion that might help us to find them?»
«Not really – answered Vittorio thinking that Giacoboni wasn’t in the end so stupid even if he needed quite some time to get there – I spent only a couple of days with him.»
«Isn’t there anything you can think of that might give us a route to follow? A place to check… some kind of whatever clue!»
Vittorio pretended to think. He finally said that the only place they had been together was Dolores brothel; she seemed to know the captain very well.
«You see that thinking of it helps? I am not sure it can be the right track but at least it is something. Take a team with you and go to this Dolores’s place. Let’s see if you can discover something.»
Vittorio smiled leaving Giacoboni’s office. The captain couldn’t have been so stupid to hide there. Going to Dolores was just wasting time but he could see Messalina again. The first mission at the orders of his new boss was actually not so bad.
6th December 1938
Rome, Piazza Mattei, 5.00 a.m.
It was five o’clock.
Kornblum woke the captain up who, not seeing Letizia near him, got up immediately. As soon as he put his feet on the floor he was reassured by her voice.
Letizia was sitting near Mrs. Kornblum and was drinking a cup of milk.
«Don’t worry. Everything is fine» she said smiling at him.
Letizia got up around four and she saw that the Kornblums were already awake. The mother of the Little took her behind a screen where she prepared some water and a washbowl. The water was warm and Letizia rubbed herself vigorously with soap letting the water wash away the stink and the memories of her persecutors. Mrs. Kornblum spread an ointment on her bruises that smelt of grass.
«My clothes are not à la mode – she said offering her a grey pullover – But at least they are clean. Here is a pair of shoes. I hope they fit.»
Letizia gathered her hair with a hairpin and looked into the little mirror on the wall. On her face the bruises were still clear but they were going to disappear soon. Her neck was blue and violet but the medallion was still there. The ruby shone in the first light of the day as a positive promise.
The captain put on his uniform which was now nearly dry.
Mr. Kornblum prepared a cup of boiling milk for him.
«We are poor and the coffee is very expensive» he said offering him the cup.
Giulio sipped the warm milk, put the bread in it and felt alive again. He hugged Kornblum as he would have done with his father.
Before leaving the captain asked Mr. Kornblum if he had some tools to pierce wood. It was a quite peculiar request but the man didn’t comment. He looked at the end of a drawer and took out something: they were not really carpenter’s tools but would do. The captain wrapped them in a rag and put them in his inside pocket.
The farewells were not easy.
They all knew they were not going to meet again.
Giulio and Letizia left and walked in the direction of Fontana di Trevi trying to avoid the looks of the few people they met along the street. The rare pedestrians were luckily too sleepy or lost into their own businesses to notice them.
The captain turned onto a street overlooked by the frontages of old aristocratic houses. In front of one of them there was a military lorry. Letizia drew instinctively back but de’ Risis holding her hand tightly pulled her without stopping.
«We have to be quick, we don’t have a lot of time left» he told her carrying on walking.
The soldiers greeted him with a salute.
An elderly servant was having difficulties going upstairs under the weight of a wreath and the captain offered some help.
«I knew the boy. We are here to give him our last farewell» he said following her in the first floor flat.
«Please – the woman invited them to enter – the coffin is in the little living room but the vigil has just ended. It won’t take long and they’ll take him away.»
The captain entered the room followed by Letizia.
«Thanks a lot. You can put the wreath there. I have to go back downstairs to prepare the final items but if you want, you can stay.»
«Come on, help me» said the captain as soon as the woman left.
Letizia looked at him without understanding
He went to the coffin unscrewed the screws with a coin and opened it. A strong young man rested with his hands crossed on his chest. It looked like as though he was sleeping.
«Take him by the feet – ordered the captain – Good, like that» he added and then lifted him by the shoulders.
The body was quite heavy and difficult to move, when he was finally out of the coffin Letizia couldn’t hold him and his legs heavily fell on the floor.
«Hopefully they didn’t hear – whispered the captain without losing control – Open that wardrobe.»
It was a wardrobe for guests’ coats and, even if it wasn’t very big, it was luckily nearly empty. Giulio had some difficulties putting the body in it but after succeeding in bending his legs a little he finally managed.
«They’ll find him when it starts stinking» he commented putting the wardrobe key in his pocket.
He smiled to Letizia who still was looking at him puzzled.
Giulio took out the tools Kornblum had given him and quickly made little holes in the wood. Letizia understood.
«Come on, I’ll help you to get in.»
She was horrified.
«Forget it. I will not get into a coffin alive!» she answered in panic.
«There is no time for discussion! This coffin is going to go to Naples today and it will not be sealed till it gets there. The mother of the boy organized a vigil in Naples as well. The funeral will be in two days, not before.»
«I don’t care! – she nearly shouted – I don’t want to get in there!»
He put his arms ar
ound her.
He took her face in between his hands and kissed her. Letizia let herself surrender to that kiss, leaving aside for a moment her desperation and opening her soul to conflicting emotions.
Giulio held her tight.
«Do you really think I could do something bad to you? I know it is a very hard test but I am sure you can do it.»
Letizia tensed even more.
«All the Blackshirts of Rome are looking for us – went on de’ Risis softly – If we don’t leave the city as soon as possible, there is no hope for us.»
«And you?»
«I’ll follow you. I’ll take you out of that coffin as soon as we are in Naples. I swear.»
Letizia started weeping.
«The little holes I just made will guarantee you enough air – he added drying her tears – The cover will be fixed with only two screws. If something goes wrong, a good kick is enough to open it».
Terror took over. Letizia was not able to calm down.
«Do you trust me?» he asked looking straight in her eyes.
«Yes» she answered with no doubts.
«Then please, get into that coffin.»
She closed her eyes and swallowed. They heard some voices. She let the captain lift her and in a few seconds she was playing with death.
«Trust me – he said kissing her before closing the top and covering it with the Italian flag – I love you.»
When the four soldiers arrived in the room followed by the servant they found a man in mourning. He was wearing a uniform. He had a captain’s rank and they saluted him.
Then they took the coffin and carried it outside. The old servant was weeping so much that she didn’t notice Letizia wasn’t there anymore.
On the stairs Giulio met professor Pellegrino. He was there to say the last goodbye to his nephew.
«Captain! – he exclaimed surprised to find him there – thanks for your sympathy for my grief. There was no need to come personally and so early. A card would have been enough.»
«I know what it means to lose a precious person who was in the best years of his life. I just wanted you to know I am spiritually near you in this difficult moment» said de’ Risis shaking hands with him.
The soldiers put the coffin on the lorry. The professor was too exhausted to see them leaving. He greeted the captain with a sincere hug and left.
«Wait – ordered de’ Risis to the soldiers – I’ll come with you. He was my cousin.»
Rome, House of Mary and Pietro, 7.10 a.m.
Mary woke up because one of her children was crying. She took the little girl in her arms and went to look for the nanny. She walked along the corridor shivering with cold. Unusually the windows looking onto the street were open.
The evening before, with all what happened, probably nobody thought about closing them. But Mary had kind of a premonition that something horrible had happened.
The nanny hearing the little one crying arrived immediately. She went to close the windows before taking the girl and, looking outside, she had difficulty in repressing the impulse to vomit. She wanted to spare her mistress the macabre show but it was too late.
Mary was holding the little one looking out of the widow. Frozen. She didn’t even seem to breathe. Only after the nanny had taken the little girl who was still crying, did Mary shout out desperately.
Barefoot and wearing only her night gown she went out on the street to the lamppost from which the body of her husband was hanging.
Two Blackshirts were quietly smoking nearby.
Pietro had been hung. Pietro was dead.
«Cut him down! – she shouted to them – Cut him down!»
As an answer they shrugged.
She went up to them and spat in their faces.
One of them slapped her so strongly that she fell on the pavement.
The governess silently arrived and helped her to get up. Mary tried some steps but a terrible pain in her womb made her fall again. The night gown turned red.
Finally a man standing at a distance from the little crowd of people that was there, took her in his arms and, helped by the governess, took her home.
The body of Pietro was hanging from a lamppost.
On the pavement a puddle of blood testified that his third child was not going to be born.
«What are you looking at?» said a Blackshirt intimidating the little crowd with a gun. Nobody answered or moved.
«Look at him. And impress it into your brains. That is the end for traitors.»
For three days the Militia men watched over the body. He had to be a lesson to everyone. It had to be clear that subversives didn’t have a chance. Only on the third day when the corpse started stinking and the birds had eaten his eyes, they allowed the body to be torn down.
Rome, Dolores flat, 7.45 a.m.
Vittorio and his team spent a couple of hours at the brothel without discovering anything of interest, apart from the true names of the sex workers and their addresses. None of them had seen the captain after the evening he had been there with Vittorio and they didn’t have any idea of where he could be. Moreover, apart from Dolores and the blond girl he entertained himself with, they did not really know him.
Dolores didn’t know where he could be or why they were looking for him but she was a clever woman and she thought that entertaining those men as long as possible would have helped de’ Risis. Her girls distracted the Militia mixing declarations, flattering, joking and constantly flirting with them. Massalina took care of Vittorio who was not going to leave the house unsatisfied.
The prostitutes were questioned one by one.
When it was time for her, Messalina arrived in a transparent lace petticoat and nothing else. As soon as Vittorio saw her he told his men that he was going to interrogate her on his own.
She drove him out of his mind.
He closed his eyes and let her undress him.
Somewhere in between Rome and Naples, 7.45 a.m.
Letizia closed her eyes when they put the coffin on the lorry.
She told herself that there was nothing to be scared of, that Giulio wasn’t far away, that she simply had to seem dead.
Only a few hours before she seriously wished she was dead. In the darkness of the coffin the memories of what she had gone through surfaced again. The hands of those men on her, the stink of their bodies, their vulgar jokes, Musone’s arrival and then Morelli climbing on her. She remembered she had closed her eyes hoping her heart would stop beating, but it didn’t happen.
She listened to the lorry’s motor starting and then she felt it moving. She opened her eyes. Maybe they were going to make it.
From the little holes Giulio made for the air a bit of light filtered in. She was not dead yet and she was going to have enough air to survive. She just had to keep hope alive and fight against panic.
She was not going to be buried alive. Giulio wouldn’t permit it. In any case, the coffin had to be opened again. In a way or another, they were not going to forget her in there.
Buried alive.
Entombed alive.
She thought of the scarlet Lady. In her own tomb she wrote her memorial, waiting for her destiny to be accomplished: she played chess with Death. She planned a treasure hunt for someone she was never going to meet and she told her story regretting nothing, not even scared about her own death.
Letizia felt a bit ashamed of her fear.
She breathed in deeply trying to calm down. She had to stay in the coffin till Naples. Juliet came to her mind hoping her own story would end up differently.
Her thoughts went to the little holes Giulio had made for the air: they were her alarm bell. Like in Victorian England when many women terrified by cases of apparent death ordered themselves to be buried with a little thread attached to their right index finger connected with a brass bell above ground. In case of a mistaken death the buried one could have pulled the thread ringing the bell and being saved.
But she was not going to be buried alive.
&nb
sp; She had to stop thinking of it.
The captain took place together with two soldiers at the end of the lorry near the coffin.
After around twenty minutes they were stopped at a check-point. The driver showed the papers.
«Everything’s ok. Go» said the Militia man who stopped them.
The lorry moved again. A few hours and they were going to be in Naples. Alive and free. The captain sighed relieved and took Alessandro’s notebook out of his pocket.
The two soldiers on the lorry with him were chatting. They were speaking about the Franco regime in Spain which was supported by the Duce. They were a bit worried about the possibility of being sent there to fight in the civil war.
The captain didn’t participate in that conversation and went on reading the notebook. In any case, he was in mourning and they certainly didn’t expect him to hold some kind of conversation.
The last words that Alessandro wrote were: Infra 12 leones. He got there with a quite simple decoding. De’ Risis understood it was the decoding of the medallion letters. It was a quite mysterious sentence but at least it made some sense.
«I have been to Spain once – one of the soldiers was saying – My mother wanted to see Granada, the city of her grandparents, at least once before dying and so I took her there. An incredible journey. If I hadn’t seen the Alhambra with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it.»
«Why?»
«Because it’s an amazing place. As we arrived we saw it illuminated by the sun all shining in red. They explained us that Alhambra in Arabic means the red one and the name is perfect for it. It used to be a fortress but when we entered to see it I was speechless. The walls are like embroidery and wherever you look you see marvellous decorations. When I entered the 12 lions yard I was breathless.»
Giulio got the last words and lifted his head.
«The 12 lions yard, you said?»
«Yes. Do you know it?»
«No. Not yet.»
«You should go there, sir, it’s incredibly beautiful.»
The scarlet Lady Page 19