Sign Of The Cross (49 page)

‘How long has it been?’ Dante asked while opening the hatch. ‘Ten years?’

She ignored him, not in the mood to talk to the person forcing her to walk down memory lane. In her mind he had ruined her life once before and was threatening to do it again.

The ironic thing was that Maria and Dante had been the closest siblings in the Pelati family. Even though they had different mothers and were born twelve years apart, they carried the burden of
not
being Benito’s firstborn son and were forced to bear all the disappointment that went along with it. Whereas Roberto was treated like royalty, Maria and Dante were treated like second-class citizens, receiving none of the love or attention that their older brother was given. In time Benito softened his stance toward Dante, realizing that his second-born son was a capable child, and allowed him to enter the family business right before Maria was sent away to school. Not surprisingly, she linked the two together and shifted a lot of the anger toward her father and focused it on Dante.

In her mind Dante had turned his back on her in order to win their father’s affection.

It was a sin that she still hadn’t forgotten. Or forgiven.

Maria climbed from the chopper and waited for Boyd to do the same. The two remained quiet during their trip from Vienna, much to Dante’s chagrin. He tried to interrogate them during the first ten minutes of their flight, but when they chose not to talk, he decided not to push it. He knew his options were limited, and he could be much more persuasive on the ground.

Lights in the trees twinkled as they walked through an elaborate garden and onto the stone walkway. Marble columns surrounded the shimmering water of the pool to the left while a series of statues lined the path to the right. A wide set of stairs led them to the open patio and the back entrance to the house.

Dante punched in the security code. ‘Father is at the Vatican until morning. There are things to discuss before his arrival.’

Maria almost gagged at the term
father
. She had grown up without one and was in no mood to have him reappear in her life. Not now. Not if she was about to be killed for her actions. That would be a cruel way to die, forcing her to see him one last time before she was murdered.

‘Do you remember his den?’ Dante asked. The foyer was over twenty feet high, so his voice echoed as he spoke. ‘I used to read stories to you in there by the fireplace. Your mother used to get
so
mad at me. I always saved the scariest ones for right before bedtime. I’d frighten you so much that she’d have to stay in your bed for half the night.’

Maria smiled at the memory, although she didn’t want to. That was a different time, a different life, back when she was happy and things were so much simpler.

The den was just as she remembered it. An antique desk sat on the left and faced the fireplace to the right. A leather couch, two chairs, and a glass table filled the space in between. Bookshelves and paintings lined the walls, as did an assortment of relics that were displayed on marble pedestals. A colorful rug covered the floor and made the room feel warm and cozy. Maria considered that ironic, since she knew who the room belonged to.

‘Have a seat,’ Dante said, motioning to the couch. Then he turned his attention to the guards. ‘Gentlemen, I can handle things from here. Please wait in the hall.’

They closed the door, leaving Dante alone with Maria and Boyd for the first time all night.

‘I know the two of you have a lot of questions.’ Dante took off his suit jacket and folded it over one of the chairs. Suddenly his holster and gun were in plain view. The sight doubled the tension in the room. ‘It’s been a hectic week for all of us.’

Maria rolled her eyes. She couldn’t imagine how Dante could lump the three of them together. They were adversaries, not allies.

‘First of all,’ Dante said to Boyd, ‘let me apologize for our recent lack of communication. Once you left Orvieto, I had no way of reaching you.’

Boyd’s face filled with relief. ‘I wanted to call, but the attack frazzled me. I had no way of knowing who was behind it. Whether it was you or someone else.’

‘Once again, I apologize. I didn’t know about their plans until Monday night,
after
you had left the Catacombs. If I had known what they were planning to do, I would’ve warned you.’

Maria sat there, stunned. Her brother was speaking to Boyd like they were partners. The conversation was so unexpected that it took a moment for things to register. ‘Oh my God, what’s happening here?
Professore?
You two are talking like friends.’

‘Why shouldn’t we be? He gave us our permits to dig.’

‘Yeah,’ she argued, searching for the right words, ‘but he’s going to kill us.’

‘Kill you?’ Dante scoffed. ‘Why on earth would I do that? I just saved you.’

‘Saved us?’ she screamed. ‘You just dragged us off at gunpoint. That’s not saving us!’

‘It
is
when you consider how many people want you dead.’

‘Yes, but…’

Boyd patted her shoulder, urging her to calm down. ‘In Maria’s defense, I must admit I was uncertain of your intentions until a moment ago. Your poker face is bloody brilliant.’

Dante laughed. ‘Let me apologize for that as well. You must remember that the guards work for my father, not me. If we’re to succeed, I must continue this charade for as long as possible.’

‘What are you talking about? What charade?’ she demanded.

‘The charade that I’m helping
Father
.’ There was a bitterness to his tone that wasn’t present before. He practically spat the word. ‘You of all people should know that.’

‘But…’ she stuttered, searching for words.

Boyd held up his hand, signaling her to stop. ‘You can talk about your mutual hate of him later. For now there are more important matters to discuss.’

Dante locked eyes with Maria. He wanted to say so much but realized it wasn’t the time or place. ‘He’s right, you know. Our itinerary is rather full. I have a family secret to tell you about.’

The chauffeur pulled the town car to the main gate of the villa. Benito sat in the backseat, mulling over everything that had happened. The violence at Orvieto, the events at the Vatican, the death of his son. Yet somehow, despite it all, he had a good feeling that luck was right around the corner, that all of his hard work was about to be rewarded.

Of course, he never imagined he’d be rewarded like this.

Boyd and Maria watched Dante as he walked over to the desk. Then, as if the secret he was carrying was too much to bear, he sighed and took a seat in his father’s chair.

Dante said, ‘I’ve known something was going on for years. I’d walk into a room and father would stop talking to Roberto right away. At first I thought they were talking about me. After a while I knew something bigger was going on.’

He picked up a trinket from the desk and stared at it, refusing to make eye contact with his guests. ‘I started looking through their files, double-checking everything they asked me to do, until I found a pattern that centered around Orvieto. Extra guards, extra funds, extra everything. Something was happening there that they weren’t telling me.’

Frustrated, he threw the trinket aside. ‘At one point I became so curious I went to Father and asked him about it, begging him to tell me the truth about the Catacombs and all the money we were spending. But he just scoffed and told me to leave him alone. Can you believe that? He
ignored
me. Immediately I knew he would never tell me anything.’

He paused for a split second, then glanced at Boyd. ‘That’s when I decided to get a partner.’

‘What do you mean by
partner
?’ Maria demanded.

‘I know this will upset you, but I’ve been checking up on you for years. Your schooling, your living arrangements, your lack of a social life. You’re my sister, after all. There was no way I was going to forget you, even if you wanted me to.’

Maria didn’t say a word. She just sat there, confused. Trying to absorb everything.

‘That’s how I learned about Dr Boyd,’ he admitted. ‘I was checking up on you and discovered his passion for the Catacombs. At first it seemed like a miracle had brought you two together. Then I realized it wasn’t a fluke. You went to Dover for a reason. You went there to learn about Orvieto. You became his student because you were just as curious as I was.’

Tears fell from Maria’s eyes. She tried to brush them away before anyone noticed, but Dante saw them and smiled. He knew it meant he was on the right track, that he still knew his sister after all these years.

‘A year ago I was sorting through requests for digging permits when I came across Dr Boyd’s. I figured this was a perfect excuse to speak, so I called him about the Catacombs.’

Maria glared at Boyd. ‘You talked to Dante a year ago and didn’t tell me?’

Boyd defended himself. ‘I swear to you, I didn’t know he was your brother. He said his name was Dante and he was your father’s assistant. That’s all he said to me. Ever.’

‘He’s telling the truth,’ Dante assured her. ‘I didn’t want you to know because I knew you’d run in the other direction. I know how stubborn you can be. I’ve known that for years.’

The anger in Maria’s face softened. Slowly she turned back toward Dante.

‘For several months I’ve been exchanging information with Dr Boyd. He’d inform me about things that he’d discovered, and I’d do the same for him, all in hopes of planning a successful dig. I knew I couldn’t join him in Orvieto – there was no way I could hide that – but I figured one of us could be there. That
you
could be there. And in my mind, that was good enough.’

Her tears started again. ‘That’s what you’ve been hiding?
That’s
the family secret?’

Dante laughed at her innocence. ‘No, that’s not it at all. Father’s been keeping something from both of us for our entire lives, something we should’ve been told long ago. I swear to you I didn’t know about it until yesterday. When father learned about Roberto’s death, he pulled me aside and told me everything. He told me the truth about the Catacombs, the crucifixion, and our family tree. You see, the Catacombs of Orvieto were built for us. For our family. They were built to honor
our
relative.’

‘What are you talking about? Who was our relative?’

Instead of speaking, Dante pointed over his shoulder to the painting his father had commissioned shortly after visiting the Catacombs for the first time. The image was similar, albeit smaller than the one that Boyd and Maria had found in the first chamber of the Catacombs. The one Maria
knew
she had seen before but could never place in her head. Suddenly, she understood the reason why. Her subconscious had been blocking it out.

‘The laughing man,’ she gasped. ‘I’m
related
to the laughing man?’

Dante frowned. ‘Who’s the laughing man?’

‘Him,’ she said. ‘That’s what we’ve called him, because we never knew his name. His image was everywhere in the Catacombs. On the walls, in the carvings, on a burial box. We’ve been searching for his identity ever since.’

‘Then your search is over, because you already know his name.’

‘I do?’

He nodded knowingly. ‘Because it’s your name, too.’

‘
My
name? What do you mean? He was a Pelati?’

‘No,’ Dante said. ‘His name was changed to protect us from his sins… He was a
Pilate
.’

‘A Pilate?’

He nodded. ‘As in Pontius Pilate. He was our ancestor. We are his descendants.’

‘We’re his
what
?’ She stared at Dante. Then at Boyd. Then back at Dante. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I mean, our family name isn’t Pelati… It’s
Pilate
. The name was altered to protect our family from persecution.’

‘Pontius Pilate was the laughing man?’

Dante nodded. ‘And our forefather.’

It took a moment for that to sink in. Once it did, Maria let out a soft whimper that suggested she had been blindsided. She wanted to argue, wanted to fight, but in her heart she knew her brother would never lie about something like this. That meant everything he’d said was true.

They were related to the most infamous murderer of all time.

Slowly, in an act of desperation, she turned toward Dr Boyd, who was now standing by her side. ‘
Professore?
Is this possible? Is any of this possible?’

Boyd closed his eyes and pondered the history. ‘Yes, my dear, it just might be.’

‘But… how?’

He took a deep breath, trying to find the words. ‘As remarkable as this sounds, very little is known about Pontius Pilate. Most scholars agree that he became procurator of Judea in 26 ad and ended his term ten years later. Yet nothing is known about his birth or death, though theories abound on both.’

Some historians believe that Pilate was executed by the Roman Senate shortly after Tiberius’s death in 37 ad. Others claim that Pilate committed suicide, drowning his sorrows in a lake near Lucerne, Switzerland – a lake that is located on Mount Pilatus. Meanwhile, German folklore insists that Pilate lived a long and happy life in Vienna Allobrogum (Vienne on the Rhone) where a fifty-two-foot monument, called Pontius Pilate’s tomb, still stands today.

‘Despite these uncertainties,’ Boyd stressed, ‘there are several facts about Pilate we are certain of. The most interesting involves his wife, Claudia Procula. Few people realize this, but Pilate’s wife was the granddaughter of Augustus
and
the adopted daughter of Emperor Tiberius.’

‘What?!’ Maria blinked a few times. ‘Tiberius was Pilate’s father-in-law?’

Boyd nodded. ‘I bet you never heard
that
in Sunday school, now did you?’

‘No,’ she gasped. Suddenly the thought of Pilate and Tiberius working together seemed like a probability. These men were more than just political allies. They were relatives.

Boyd continued. ‘Did you know the Coptic Church of Egypt and the Abyssinian Church of Ethiopia have always claimed that Pontius and Claudia converted to Christianity after the crucifixion? In fact, they honor them every June 25th as
saints
!’