«I’ll think about it – answered the captain enigmatically – but thank you, you’ve given me a valuable suggestion.»
Naples, Port, 5.10 p.m.
The mourning journey to Naples ended in an elegant street on a little hill in front of an austere front door.
After the arrival the soldiers left the lorry to stretch a bit and look for those to whom they should deliver the coffin. The captain benefited from it and in a few seconds let Letizia free.
Giulio and Letizia jumped down from the back of the lorry and started running as long as their legs and lungs allowed it. They passed in front of the Mergellina railway station, left at their back the inviting food smell of the grocers’ shops in piazza San Nazzaro and went straight to the seafront via Caracciolo.
When they finally saw the imposing outlines of ships and the Molosiglio, they slowed down. They walked holding hands like any young couple would have done.
«Have you ever stolen something?» he asked her suddenly.
«Once I stole a turtle hair clip.»
«Really?»
«Yes. It was my aunt’s – answered Letizia fighting against her shortage of breath – She was packing her bags to go back to Milan when I saw it I couldn’t resist. I was ten years old. Why do you ask me?»
«Would you do something for me?»
«What?»
«Steal again.»
Giulio was absolutely serious and he then stopped waiting for the answer.
Letizia looked at him puzzled.
«I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t necessary – he said holding her hand – I don’t have a lot of money with me and at the moment I can’t go to the bank or have it sent. What I have has to be enough until we are out of here.»
«What shall I steal?»
«I need to get rid of this uniform. Till now it has been useful but now it makes me too recognizable. Do you see that man down there?»
Letizia looked where Giulio was pointing: she saw a man in his forties elegantly dressed taking his luggage to a ship.
«He has more or less my size. He is going to board and he will give his luggage to some porter.»
Letizia understood: what he was asking her wasn’t that difficult.
Certainly not as difficult as being closed up in a coffin alive.
She winked and walked alone to the luggage deposit. She waited where the selected passenger would leave his bag and, as soon as she saw him walking on the pavement she approached the porters.
«How annoying that is! – she began – I told him one hundred times that I wanted to take that bag with me. But men really don’t understand women’s needs!»
She got their attention and changed her tone.
«I am so sorry, but I really need your help» she said with her most charming smile
«How can we help you?» answered the youngest among them gallantly.
«Well, you see… My husband never listens to me – she whimpered flirting with him – I asked him to bring my bag directly to the cabin but of course he didn’t and gave it to you instead. So I came here to get it myself. Can you please help me?» she concluded looking adorable.
«Of course, madam. Which is yours?»
She pointed at the luggage the man had given them.
«Isn’t it too heavy for you?»
«No. I can carry it. And my husband will finally learn that I don’t need him.»
Letizia walked steadily towards the ship letting the porters follow her swaying walk. She disappeared behind a pile of cases that needed to be loaded and, instead of going to the ship, she turned to where Giulio was waiting.
«Here it is. And I didn’t even need to steal it. They kindly handed it over to me.»
«I won’t ask you what you told them. But you have been fantastic».
The captain took Letizia by the arm and went with her into the first tavern near the port.
«Order something to eat. I’ll be back» he said and disappeared to the toilets.
Letizia sat at a table near the window.
After a few minutes Giulio came back wearing a white shirt and a grey suit that seemed tailored for him.
«The uniform is fascinating – said the hostess – but you are good looking in civilian clothes as well.»
The captain thanked her with a smile and sat near Letizia. He gave her a coat with a fur-collar.
«There was no coat for me, but this one is for you. Probably it was a present.»
They were very hungry and they ate the best pasta of their lives. After the food and some wine they left. They went in the direction of one of the ships and on the way they passed a group of sailors.
«Get a move on – one of them was saying – We have to finish loading or we won’t be able to start at eight o’clock. You can rest tomorrow in Cartagena.»
Rome, Ministry of War, Giacoboni’s office, 5.10 p.m.
Giacoboni received a very embarrassing telephone call.
«It was the Carabinieri – he said to Vittorio putting down the receiver – we let them slip the dead out just under our nose!»
«Sorry, what? Which dead?»
«The dead! The one that they thought was stolen in Naples was shut in a wardrobe here in Rome! Damn it!»
Vittorio looked at him puzzled.
«They just called me from Naples – explained an exasperated Giacoboni – It was not in the coffin any more. After a few hours, here in Rome, a servant succeeded in forcing a wardrobe lock. They couldn’t find the key anywhere and when it finally opened the dead supposed to be in Naples fell on her! Did you understand now?»
«Actually… not really» answered Vittorio mortified. The more he tried to make a connection between this grotesque story and the search of Letizia and the captain, the less he understood it.
«The Carabinieri went to professor Pellegrino, the uncle of the dead man. Do you remember that at least? Good. They asked him what happened in the time between the vigil for his poor nephew and the departure of the coffin for Naples. Guess who went there early in the morning before they left.»
«De’ Risis» answered Vittorio.
He finally got it. And not only what happened but also why, for an hour the captain listened very carefully to all the details that professor Pellegrino was telling them about the death and the funeral of his nephew.
«Exactly. You are slow but not stupid at least. It looks like de’ Risis travelled on the military lorry with the other soldiers. Probably Miss Cantarini was in the coffin instead of the corpse. That bastard of the captain told the soldiers he was the dead man’s cousin and nobody asked him anything. They passed the check-points with no problem. Then, as soon as they arrived in Naples, they ran away.»
Despite being deceived, Vittorio couldn’t help but smile.
The captain was really smart and was able to get out of the city fooling them all. If he saw him again, it would be a pleasure to shake hands with him.
Naples, Port, 7.45 p.m.
From the moment he heard the talk of the soldiers on the lorry, the captain kept thinking that his intuition might be correct. And now curled up in between hundreds of cases on the ship to Cartagena he decided to speak about it to Letizia.
«We didn’t have much choice: this was the last ship leaving Italy tonight. I believe it is a stroke of luck it is going to Spain…» started Giulio taking Alessandro’s notebook out of his pocket.
He had protected it from the moment he found Alessandro shot in Mary’s attic.
Looking at the notebook he remembered all the deaths of the last few hours: the Jewish researcher, Pietro who was like a brother to him, a brave antifascist who had now left his beloved wife and two children alone, and Alessandro the Great. In despite of the horror around them, or maybe exactly because of it, the survival instinct pushed them to run, to stay alive dismissing the heavy memory of all that grief and of the sacrifice of those who had died. It seemed as if leaving space for sorrow that nevertheless they had inside, would make them more vulnerable and fragile. As if the tor
ment of those broken lives would be a heavy ballast threatening to drown them.
«He reacted to the fascists. He wanted to protect me. To stop him they had to shoot» she said taking the notebook.
Having that little familiar notebook in her hands was enough to feel all the pain she had tried to put aside in the last hours of the hectic get away. The pain was now eating her heart.
«I know. I saw him. And I found his notebook near him.»
He gently took it, opened it at the last written page and showed her the line infra 12 leones.
«We finished reading the secret papers before the Blackshirts found us. The scarlet Lady had a poison phial sawn in her petticoat but before drinking it she wrote the last riddle. We solved it. She suggested to using the old Jewish Atbash code to read the letters engraved on the medallion. So we did it and we reconstructed the sentence: infra 12 leones.»
Letizia explained everything in flat voice. It looked like in one single instant all the discouragement of the last days had overcome her.
«I guessed you had discovered more.»
«The treasure is hidden under twelve lions – she said drying the tears running down her cheeks – but we were not able to understand what it really means and where the treasure might be.»
«I believe I know it –said Giulio softly – I am not totally sure but I think it could bring us to the treasure.»
Letizia was sceptical.
«I believe the treasure is in Spain. In Granada.»
The scarlet Lady had Spanish origins, but Granada was the land of the Reconquista, the land of infidels and marranos. Letizia’s thoughts were running fast: the scarlet Lady, the lions, the pope, the kings of Spain... and then, in a flash, she saw it.
«The Alhambra!» she exclaimed as though awakening from a dream.
«Exactly. The Lions yard – went on Giulio with a new shine in his eyes – I have only heard about it, but I know that in this yard there is a fountain with twelve lions. Couldn’t it be the one we have to look for?»
«Of course! How could we be so stupid not to think of it! Two art historians who forget the Patio de los leones… I can’t believe it. It is one of the Alhambra masterpieces. I have never been there but, as you can guess, I studied it deeply. It is in the harem built in the second half of the XIV century, when the Alhambra was still the house of the sultan. Later, as you probably know, at the end of the XV century Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon completed the Reconquista banishing or converting all the Arabs of Spain.»
«Isabella and Ferdinand – whispered Giulio following the memories of his school studies – the very Catholics Kings who also banished the Jews…»
«Exactly! – exclaimed Letizia who felt as though she had been blind till that very moment – Ah, if the Little one were here! He would finally know that the rich Jews that hide the Seal’s treasure before one of their many exoduses were Spanish Sephardi. Why didn’t I get it before? The scarlet Lady says she is the daughter of a Jewish woman and a Spanish pope. Now, it is quite probable that her mother, the Jewish courtesan, lover of the pope and guardian of the secret, was Spanish as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was part of the Sephardi community that, after being banished from Spain, settled in Italy in between Rome and Venice.»
Letizia held the medallion on her neck and smiled. She smiled to the stars that seemed so near and shining, she smiled to life. She was near the man she felt in love with and she was feeling ready to start a new existence with him far away from the horrible things happening in her country. Maybe, together, they could even find the treasure.
Under that cold but beautiful shining sky, on the ship’s deck, hiding in between many cases on their first night as stowaways, they made love.
7th December 1938
Spain, Port of Cartagena, 7.00 a. m.
When they arrived in the port of Cartagena it was early morning. Giulio succeeded in sleeping a couple of hours but now he was more than awake. He needed to check every crew movement being well aware that disembarking without being seen was of vital importance to their safety. If they found them on board they would be sent back to Italy and the thought was not reassuring at all. He woke Letizia with a caress and made her a sign not to speak.
From what he could see from his position they were starting with the disembarkation of passengers first so they were still safe behind the cargo cases. De’ Risis located a dense group of people ready to disembark: they had already been through passport control. Giulio helped Letizia to get up, fixed their clothes as much as possible and cleverly avoiding the check-points neared the group like a socialite hand in hand with his woman.
They walked the boardwalk holding their breath completely dazzled by the Andalusian light. When they were on the land one of the passengers spoke to the captain.
«I believe I didn’t see you on board before» he said in French.
He was smiling and didn’t seem suspicious at all. Giulio had the feeling he just wanted to start a conversation.
«Actually, we didn’t spend a lot of time in the common rooms. Our cabin was very comfortable and we just needed each other» answered de’ Risis winking.
The man understood. He smiled at the captain with a certain masculine complicity and looked Letizia with a polite and understanding admiration.
«Are you also going to visit Granada? They say the Alhambra is fabulous.»
«Yes, we are going to Granada too – answered the captain walking near him – If you are going to the station we could go together.»
«With pleasure. The part I like best about travelling is meeting new and interesting people. Nice to meet you, I am Jacques Racine.»
«Nice to meet you too – said the captain shaking hands with him – I am Lorenzo Ronchi and this is my wife Eleonora.»
«My wife Pascale» said Racine introducing an elegant woman in her early fifties.
They also met the other friends in the group and finally left the port.
«I didn’t know you spoke such good French» whispered Letizia.
«I am a man full of surprises» he answered smiling.
«What did you tell him?»
«That we are married and we are also going to Granada.»
«With them?»
«Yes. In a group we are not so easily recognizable.»
«But Giulio…»
«Don’t call me Giulio. I am Lorenzo now. And you are Eleonora. Did you understand?» he whispered in her ear.
They spent all the money they had to buy two first class tickets. Giulio wanted to travel with Racine and the others: it was less dangerous and, in any case, he had a plan.
«Good – commented Letizia – this time I’ll travel more comfortably than in a coffin.»
They got on the train at the very last moment and went to the restaurant coach to reach their new friends.
«We’ll tell them that they stole our luggage. Show how upset you are» said Giulio before entering the restaurant car.
«Ah, here you are finally! We thought you had changed your minds. Come on, we saved two places for you as well» he said showing them the two free places.
«We’ve lost all our appetite. Our luggage disappeared» said de’ Risis annoyed.
«What?» burst out a scandalized lady sitting in the table nearby.
«Yes. Unfortunately it is true. Someone stole our luggage. We don’t know if it happened in the station or at the port but, in any case, our bags disappeared» explained de’ Risis convincingly.
Letizia pretended to be inconsolable and a young lady from Ticino, Benedetta Novati, sat near her trying to give some comfort.
«I know it is upsetting, but it is not the end of the world. It just means that in Granada you will have to go shopping. Now sit here with us and don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of the lunch» Racine concluded lightly.
In this way the self-styled Eleonora and Lorenzo, a freshly married couple, were adopted by a group of rich French people who, in the next seven hours, did all that was pos
sible to amuse and take care of them.
When they arrived in Granada, Giulio outlined the rest of the story: he couldn’t remember the name of the hotel where they were supposed to stay and all their documents and papers were in the stolen bags.
«My dear boy, I understand that love can cloud the mind but it is never wise to leave your documents in your luggage» Racine scolded him kindly.
«Now I know. I have learnt the lesson. But what now?» asked de’ Risis more and more depressed.
From the first moment they met the French man found the elegant young man very pleasant. Shy, crazily in love and now so upset for their misfortune, he reminded him of himself at the same age. Or maybe he could have been the son who had never arrived.
«Don’t worry. Let’s see if there is a room in our hotel. Then we’ll go to the police to denounce the theft.»
De’ Risis was thanking him when they heard a woman’s cry. They both turned and saw Letizia taking Mrs. Novati’s case as the Swiss lady did with her just a few hours before.
«What happened?» asked Giulio running to them.
«They stole their documents and also quite a lot of money» answered Letizia sadly.
«But it is not possible! First your luggage and now their documents and money! Which country is this?» exclaimed Racine indignantly.
Thanks to the stubbornness of Mr. Racine, Letizia and Giulio obtained a room and could even freshen up ready to deal with the policeman who arrived twenty minutes later.
8th December 1938
Ministry of War, Giacoboni’s office, 3.30 p.m.
«No. I have no idea where they might have gone. We believe they arrived as stowaways in Cartagena leaving on the only ship that left the port of Naples for a foreign country in the last forty-eight hours. I know they could be anywhere but you have to find them! It is an international security matter!»
Giacoboni shouted all the time throughout the telephone call.
Vittorio was watching him sitting on the armchair in front of him. He had the clear impression that, after replacing Morelli, Giacoboni was transformed. He never seemed so arrogant but now sitting at his predecessor desk he was behaving exactly the same way as Morelli would have done. One can’t change so quickly, thought Vittorio, clearly his real personality now was coming out. Or maybe, the violent atmosphere into which they were falling more every day, made the worst part of every man come to the surface.
The scarlet Lady Page 20