Out of the Ashes

by Lori Dillon

“Very well,” the Professor sighed. “Since we don’t seem to be getting any answers here, we’ll have to hand the investigation over to the authorities.”

  The head officer stepped up to stand between Giovanni and David.

  “We have already searched Signore Corbelli’s apartment and found nothing.” He turned to look at Giovanni. “Since you are also a possible suspect, I must ask you to accompany us to your home so that we may search it also.”

  What skin on Giovanni’s face that wasn’t already discolored by bruising flamed red in indignation.

  “This is an outrage. I am a senior archeologist here, highly respected in my field. To even insinuate that I—”

  “Be that as it may,” the officer interrupted, looking back and forth between David and Giovanni, “until this issue is resolved, I strongly suggest neither of you leave the city.”

  The order hung in the air like a hangman’s noose waiting for the next neck to stretch.

  “Now, if you will accompany me, Signore Ragusa?”

  The officer indicated the open doorway with a flamboyant wave of his hand and followed a fuming Giovanni out of the villa.

  The raspy shuffling of feet on the tile floor echoed off the walls as the throng of onlookers who had come to watch the interrogation exited behind them, many of them speculating on who was guilty. Some were even placing bets, and David wasn’t the favorite by a long shot.

  Sera looked at him, but he stood rooted in the same spot, staring straight ahead. At that moment, she recognized the soldier in him, standing at attention before an unseen commanding officer. She wondered if anyone else picked up on the mannerism.

  Finally, he seemed to dismiss himself and turned to leave. As he walked by her, she reached out and lightly touched his arm. He stopped, looking first at her hand and then at her face, but for the life of her, she couldn’t fathom what he was thinking.

  “So, you’re staying?”

  “I guess I don’t have a choice now, do I?”

  Chapter 21

  “She knows?”

  David watched as Frank spun around and strode several paces away, all the while cursing under his breath every expletive known to man. He turned and marched back to where David stood near a drainage ditch beside an olive grove.

  Frank’s normally jolly disposition was tempered with concern.

  “Damn it. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten that record for you. You gave it to her, didn’t you? Is that how she found out?”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Although now that David thought about it, giving the record to her probably wasn’t one of his brightest ideas. He might as well have hung a sign around his neck that read, Look at me. I’m an American. But at the time, all he’d wanted was to make her happy, to see her smile again.

  “Well, then how the hell did she find out?”

  “I think it was when I made the mistake of using one or two of those choice words that just spewed out of that sewer you call a mouth.”

  “You spoke English in front of her?” Frank’s look was almost comical, with his big eyes bulging and his mouth gaping as if he’d just swallowed a bug.

  “It’s not like I did it on purpose. There were extenuating circumstances.” Like a painful, self-inflicted toe injury and a wicked temper that seemed to flare fast and hot whenever Giovanni came sniffing around Sera.

  “I’ll just bet there were. This is not good, David. Not good at all.”

  “She promised not to tell anyone.”

  “Oh, she promised, did she?” Frank nodded his head in mocking acknowledgement. “Well, that makes all the difference in the world. Your American-hating, Nazi-sympathizing boss promised she wouldn’t tell.” Frank slapped David in the forehead with the flat of his palm. “And you believed her?”

  David rubbed at his stinging brow. The bruises from the punches Giovanni had managed to land on him had only just started to fade. He didn’t need any more.

  “Damn, Frank. That hurt.”

  “It was supposed to hurt, dumbass.”

  Frank placed his fists on his hips and looked for all the world like a father disappointed with his son’s performance. The uneasy emotions it recalled in David were all too familiar. He swallowed the feelings just as he had as a kid.

  “How could you screw up like this?” Frank continued. “The Colonel is going to snap his cap. It could jeopardize the whole mission.”

  Realizing what Frank might do with what he’d just told him put David on edge.

  “Look, this is just between you and me. You can just store this tidbit of information away in that sponge of a brain of yours. The Colonel doesn’t need to know about it. The Army doesn’t need to know about it. Sera’s not going to tell anyone.”

  “Yeah, right,” Frank snorted, skepticism etched across his face. “How can you be so sure of that?”

  David thought about the many chances Sera had already had to blow his cover—when Giovanni overheard him singing, when the Italian police showed up at his apartment, when they questioned him about the stolen artifacts.

  She’d had every opportunity to turn him in, and she hadn’t.

  “I trust her, Frank.”

  “How much?”

  David stared at the olive trees, their thick, gnarled trunks twisted into contorted shapes on the hillside. He didn’t understand it, but Sera’s reluctance to reveal who he was gave him a confidence he couldn’t begin to explain to his friend.

  “With my life.”

  *

  Sera carefully guided a small spoon with a long, thin handle into the hole and pulled out a scoop of loose pumice.

  Tedious couldn’t even begin to describe the backbreaking work of removing debris from the cavity. If David thought shoveling dirt was hard work, then sitting in one position, hour after hour, scooping out ash and dirt one spoonful at a time must seem like pure torture for him. He was now getting a taste of, and hopefully a new respect for, the delicate work she did every day. Nothing about it was easy.

  But he never complained. Not once did he question why the process was so painstakingly slow. He wasn’t even shocked anymore whenever one of them would pull out a bone, the flesh and muscle having decayed centuries before.

  She looked over the mound at David, his forehead creased in concentration as he worked on another section of the cavity. Neither of them sang anymore as they worked. The unspoken knowledge that it was too dangerous for them both hovered in the air around them.

  She inserted the probe once more, scraping carefully inside the dark hole.

  Over a week had passed since the fight with Giovanni and the breakin at the artifact villa. She, along with the entire archeology community, had been shocked when Giovanni ditched the police after leaving the ruins that day. When they searched his apartment later, the police found some, but not all, of the missing artifacts.

  It hadn’t surprised David.

  He didn’t say it, but she knew he suspected the missing treasures were probably well on their way to Hitler’s private collection by now. The thought made her want to pummel Giovanni. Or hold him down and let David do it again.

  He stood and arched his back, stretching stiff muscles, then walked over to his pack near the sifting table.

  Sera stopped poking in her hole and watched his every movement.

  “Where are you going?”

  He glanced at her, not bothering to hide his irritation. She had become his self-appointed guardian. For the past week, she’d made it her business to know where he was at all times, at least while they were working. Even though he was off the hook for the thefts, she still didn’t completely trust him.

  “Taking a break.” Then David boldly added, “I need to check on my second job again.”

  At least he no longer had to hide what he was doing around her. She bristled, but didn’t comment and returned to the tedium of her work.

  “Come up there with me.”

  She almost dropped the probe into the cavity. “What?”

  “Take a break, and come h
ave lunch with me on the wall. It’s beautiful up there.”

  Sera shook her head. “You forget. I’ve lived here all my life. There’s nothing in Pompei I haven’t seen.”

  “I’ll wager you haven’t seen the German camp.”

  She gritted her teeth and gripped the tool tighter.

  “I don’t want to. What the Germans do is none of my business.”

  “Ah,” he nodded his head. “The ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach. Aren’t you even a little bit curious about them since they’re camped in your own backyard?”

  “Quite frankly, no. That’s your job.”

  “Right.” David didn’t bother to hide the disappointment in his voice. “Well, suit yourself.”

  Sera watched him walk to the base of the tower and scale the wall like a squirrel up a tree. Or rather, like a sleek panther in the jungle, all power and hidden danger.

  She shivered at the memory of that strength unleashed on Giovanni. He’d hardly had a chance against David. She looked up to where he sat in the shadows of the tower with his broad back to her. She trembled again, only this time it came from the unwelcome image of that power unleashed on her in a totally different and very intimate way.

  She felt a traitorous pang of regret. He no longer made those kinds of advances toward her, and only occasionally did he even make an overture of friendship like he just had.

  But every now and then, she would catch him looking at her when he thought she wasn’t aware. Sometimes, she didn’t even have to see him to know he was watching her. She could feel his gaze like a touch on her shoulder, a caress on her cheek.

  David turned just then and looked down on her. Was he experiencing the same thing? Had he felt the touch of her eyes on him just then?

  Unbidden, his angry words came back to whisper to her. Once in a while, you should leave your safe little hiding place behind the ruins and climb up on that wall. Seeing more of the outside world might open your eyes to a lot of what’s going on around you.

  He hadn’t been talking about the actual wall then, and the meaning of his words taunted her now more than ever. Here, inside the ruins, she was safe, comfortable, sure of herself and her place in the world. But once she stepped outside the wall, the old insecurities always closed in. She’d taken the risk once by going to America and lost too much—the fantasy of a father to love her and a fiancé when she returned home. She was content to stay right where she was, thank you very much. Safe, secure… and alone.

  Her gaze wandered back up to David, where he once again looked out over the wall. He represented everything she was not. Risk, danger, excitement.

  She felt a pang somewhere inside her, a tiny pinprick of sorrow that she had lost something she never had to begin with.

  What would it hurt to climb that wall, just once, and see what was on the other side? She told herself that she didn’t have to go over the wall. She could always turn around and come back down if she didn’t like what she saw.

  Sera stood, her knees stiff from sitting with them tucked under her for hours at a time. Dusting off her hands, she took a deep breath. Climbing the wall to where David stood watch went against all the promises she’d made to herself to keep her distance.

  She grabbed her lunch from her pack and walked to the base of the wall. Stepping carefully on the stones, she used the strongest ones as steps up the side of the tower.

  As she ascended, she recalled the last time she climbed this same wall after David. That time, he’d thrown her to the ground and put a knife to her throat. This time, she felt an altogether different danger waiting for her at the top, but she couldn’t stop herself from climbing to it.

  “I’m coming up,” she called in warning as she neared the top, not willing to make the same mistake twice.

  David’s surprised smile greeted her as he offered his hand to help her up.

  “What changed your mind?”

  “Nothing.” Except the meddlesome little voices in my head that won’t leave me alone. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he got to her even a little bit, but the smug smile on his handsome face told her he already knew.

  He pulled her up to stand on the dirt-filled space between the inner and outer walls. The ancient Pompeians had built a strong barrier around their city, but it didn’t compare to the solid wall of David’s body as he steadied her.

  “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

  “Of course not.” She shook him off. Standing beside him was one thing. Having him touch her was another. It sent a tingling warmth through her body that she didn’t want to acknowledge, but craved to feel again. Turning, she looked out over the valley beyond the wall and gasped. “My God, there are so many of them.”

  “Yes, the camp has tripled in size since I got here.”

  For one brief moment, Sera had forgotten she stood next to an American spy, but his simple statement served to remind her that he’d been spying on the Germans from this very spot every day for over a month now.

  “I had no idea it was that big. Why would they possibly need an army that size here in Pompei?”

  He looked surprised. “Do you really want to know?”

  Frankly, she surprised herself, suddenly interested in a war she used to care nothing about. “Yes.”

  “Things are heating up in Africa. It’s no secret that it’s only a matter of time before the Allies attempt to cross the Mediterranean and invade Italy. Hitler needs to keep her in his power at all costs. To lose Italy would be to expose the soft underbelly of the Axis realm and allow the Allied forces a doorway in through Switzerland to Germany.”

  Sera was confused.

  “But why so many here? I mean, Pompei is not a port city like Naples or a strategic location. Why so many soldiers?”

  David looked at her, and she could tell he was gauging her reasons for asking. Did he wonder if she was just curious and really wanted to know? Or was he deciding whether he could trust her with the information if he told her?

  A shield fell down over his eyes. He crossed his arms and leaned one broad shoulder against the tower as he looked out over the encampment.

  “We aren’t sure. That’s why I’m here.”

  She followed his gaze again out over the Nazi army, trying to ignore the hurt his lack of trust stirred in her. He wasn’t telling her everything. Then again, why should he trust her? She’d been all but ready to turn him over to the Germans just a few days ago.

  “It seems like everything is in chaos down there,” she said. “They look like an army of ants, running around all over the place.”

  “Yes, they do. But don’t be fooled. They aren’t chaotic. They’re extremely organized. And their bite is a lot worse than any fire ant’s I know.”

  The amount of German forces boggled her mind. She’d had no idea there were so many. She glanced at David, leaning casually against the tower as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized what he was up against. Looking back out over the valley, she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was one man standing against a whole army.

  Sera felt a tiny piece of the wall she’d so carefully built around herself crumble. Somehow, without even realizing it was happening, a truce had been drawn between them.

  *

  A pounding on the bathroom door startled Hershel so much, he almost fell off the toilet.

  “Hershel, what on Earth are you doing in there? The show’s about to come on.”

  He finished as quickly as he could and opened the door to an irate Marsha, her hands fisted on her bathrobe-clad hips and the long white braid of her hair slung over her shoulder.

  “Hurry up. It’s the last episode, and I don’t want to miss it. Nora is about to solve the case.”

  Hershel grumbled and followed his wife as they shuffled into their dark living room and assumed their usual places—he in his favorite chair, and Marsha on the footstool pulled up close to the radio.

  Marsha turned on the power on the smal
l, laminated wood control panel and moved the dial to pick up the BBC on the shortwave, where the show was relayed from America. She kept the volume low. Even though it was ten at night and the rest of the world was probably asleep, they didn’t want to risk someone hearing them listening to the illegal broadcast. The sponsor’s commercial came on, and in a deep voice, the announcer began lauding the new, improved taste of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

  “Good, it hasn’t started yet.” Marsha wiggled so much on her seat, he worried she might fall off.

  The front door squeaked open and shut, and she quickly switched off the radio. Watching the arched opening leading to the hallway, they both knew who their late-night visitor was, but, as usual, they wanted to be sure.

  Serafina stepped into the opening on slippered feet, her blue bathrobe cinched tight at her waist.

  “Did I miss anything?”

  “No.” Marsha smiled and waved her in before clicking the radio back on. “It’s just about to start.”

  Serafina walked over and sat in her usual spot on the floor beside Marsha.

  As “The Adventures of the Thin Man” started, Hershel looked down at Serafina. Her head rested on Marsha’s lap, and his wife absently ran her fingers through the girl’s wavy, brown hair highlighted gold in the orange glow from the radio dial. Every Saturday night was the same. The three of them would gather around the radio at ten o’clock and listen in the dark to Nick and Nora Charles as they solved daring crimes.

  He shook his head. It was such a shame. She was so young and pretty. She should be with someone her own age, instead of sitting here with two old fogies like him and Marsha. She should be with David. What was taking the two of them so long to figure it out?

  Hershel’s attention came back to the radio show just as Nick was about to solve the case.

  “… and with this evidence, we can prove that—”

  “We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin…”

  “Nooo!” Marsha shrieked, nearly giving him a heart attack and startling Serafina’s head from her lap. “They were going to reveal the killer. How could they do this?” she wailed at the small wooden box on the table. She actually reached out and shook the radio.