Stealing God (25 page)

‘Shall I make us coffee? Do you want a coffee?'

Jimmy gave him a vacant stare. He wasn't really listening, he still seemed far away. He managed an answer.

‘No, no coffee.'

‘Neither do I. Do you have any aspirins?'

‘Somewhere. You had three not so long ago.'

‘Where are they?'

‘Try the kitchen.'

Ricci went to the kitchen. After a few minutes he came back.

‘I can't find any.'

‘I still say you should see a doctor. Headaches shouldn't last that long.'

‘All right, I'll see a doctor.'

It wasn't easy, trying to think with Ricci just standing there. He wasn't going to settle until he was occupied. Jimmy dragged himself away from his thoughts.

‘I'm not happy about this.'

Ricci gave an ironic laugh.

‘Not happy? That's a bit of an understatement, isn't it?'

He went and stood by the window looking out.

‘Tell me, did you ever want to be in a movie?'

‘What the hell are you on about now?'

‘Well that's what this all feels like. It's like we're following a script, like someone's …'

‘For Christ's sake, don't.' Ricci came back and sat down heavily. ‘Don't make it any worse than it already is with another of your crazy ideas. We're not in a movie, there is no script. Anna Schwarz is real and the police looking for her are real and Cheng died, that's real. Stay away from Hollywood and stick with what's real.'

‘OK. Let's stick with Anna. She's a known terrorist and apart from being invisible what she's good at is moving other terrorists around. If she's here for anything it's to move people, bring someone in, probably more than one. Why Rome, what's so special about Rome?'

Ricci had sat forward, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He didn't look well but Jimmy couldn't help. Telling him to see a doctor had used up all his medical knowledge.

‘Go on, tell me what's special about Rome.'

‘Do you remember what we were looking for, a connection?'

Ricci sat up. He definitely looked bad.

‘Sure, you thought you'd found one, fixing the next conclave.'

‘And to get a conclave you have to have a dead pope.'

‘Is that it? They're going to kill the pope? Of course it is because everything has to fit your theory or it can't be right, can it? If Anna's bringing in a team it has to be to kill the pope.'

Jimmy looked at him.

‘Finished?'

‘No, I'm not finished. I feel like I'm being sucked into your head, that everything I do and think about is crammed inside your head but I have to go along with it because it's where you want to go and I was told to follow. All right, let's say that Anna Schwarz really has come to bring in a team and they have a target. Why not a sports event or pop concert, anywhere that would be crowded? If it's terrorist related it could be almost anything. Why do you have it that it must be killing the pope?'

‘All right, it could be a bomb, but if it is why did we get given Anna? Before Anna it was all Vatican related, Cheng was Vatican, whoever put pressure on the minister was Vatican, our information on Cheng's funeral and confirmation he was a cardinal were both Vatican. If we've been given Anna it's because somebody thinks that whatever she's here for is to do with the Vatican. And maybe you're right, it won't be an attempt on the pope, it may be a bomb, a bomb in the Vatican.'

‘For God's sake, why?'

‘Why not? Put a bomb on the Metro and who do you kill? Civilians, nobodies, innocent bystanders. Bombing the Vatican would be as big as hitting the Twin Towers, bigger depending on how many die and who they were. Imagine it. They get a plane, stuff it with explosives, and fly it into the dome of St Peter's during a papal Mass. The dome collapses and everybody inside dies and it would all be televised. It doesn't just hit Italy, it hits the whole Catholic world. It would be like a declaration of war against Christianity.'

Ricci made an effort. A bomb. It could be a bomb. If it was terrorists a bomb was the best bet and that was his idea, not Jimmy's. This time he wasn't following, he was leading. He felt a bit better; it showed in his voice.

‘Bombing the Vatican is better than killing cardinals and fixing a conclave.'

‘A damn sight better even if I can't see how it ties into Cheng.'

‘Sod Cheng. Now we stick with Anna. If there is a connection it'll show at some point.'

Ricci pushed his headache from the forefront of his mind. A terrorist bomb made sense. But in Rome, in the Vatican. His mind went back to the TV pictures of the Twin Towers being hit. He tried to imagine something similar here in Rome as Jimmy had described it. He found it all too easy.

‘Thank God we can get it stopped.'

Jimmy looked surprised.

‘Oh yes, and how do we stop it? We haven't told anyone what we think except McBride and with her only that a team may be coming in. At this moment in time the minister doesn't even know that we think the Vatican may be a target. Nobody's told him.'

Ricci felt uncomfortable. He should have done better than just that message with the minister's aide.

‘No, I know we haven't. Look, I thought I'd get nowhere with the minister's aide. All we'd actually got was that maybe the deaths of some old cardinals might be suspicious. Maybe they were connected if a conclave were to be called. I mean, when you come right down to it, before Anna turned up, what did we have, what concrete evidence was there?'

Jimmy looked at him. He was tired, not in good shape, it was time to leave it alone.

‘Well, we've gone as far as we can. All we can do now is wait for a call from McBride and see if she gets anywhere.'

‘Well I hope she's operating with more than we have.'

‘And what do we have?'

‘Prayers, candles, and hope.'

Jimmy smiled.

‘I have great faith in prayer, candles, and hope, especially when they're mixed in with Professor McBride.'

THIRTY-TWO

They had been waiting an hour, Ricci had taken to wandering in and out of the kitchen trying to find some aspirins. He had even looked in the fridge. It was something to do. Jimmy was sitting at the table staring at nothing. Ricci had begun to hate the room. Now he was ready to hate Jimmy because apparently he could sit still forever doing nothing.

‘Are you thinking or have you just switched off? Maybe you're dead. Should I close your eyes?'

‘I can't believe I played along with it for so long. It was all there in plain view. I even got told and more than once but I still didn't see it.'

‘See what?'

‘It's all in my head, you told me that, you said it was like being sucked into my head and you were dead right. Danny said the same thing, it was like a film someone was running inside my head.'

‘Danny? Your black friend? For Christ's sake tell me you haven't told him anything.'

Jimmy brushed aside Ricci's concern.

‘We've been part of a bloody movie, everything so far has been scripted and directed. We get brought in and given Cheng's death. When it was obviously going nowhere we get the cardinals?'

‘That was your idea, no one fed us that. You thought up that little fantasy.'

‘I did, didn't I? I knew it was rubbish but I didn't want the investigation to stop. I wanted it to go on so I forced a connection where there couldn't be one and when I ask for someone to tell me all about it what happens? I get a monsignor who invites me to lunch and there it is, all the confirmation I need to turn a piece of nonsense into a possible lead. Sure there are some cardinals whose deaths might be suspicious and guess what? It might be something to do with a conclave, and guess who might have been elected pope in that conclave? Only Cheng. My God, I must have been sleep-walking. From Cheng's death to fixing a conclave. It's all been nothing more than a film show, Killing cardinals, a fantasy movie playing in a head near you: mine.'

‘And who's supposed to be behind all this elaborate conspiracy? The minister, the pope, the president of the…'

‘I don't know, but McBride is involved. She has to be.'

‘Your rector.'

Ricci couldn't restrain a burst of laughter.

‘Now that
is
a joke.'

‘Is it?'

‘She a bloody academic, a professor, a temporary rector. All right, she has Vatican connections but who doesn't in Rome if they matter at all?'

‘She's American. It could be something to do with the CIA.'

‘No, that's enough. Not the CIA on top of everything else. Forget the Americans and any movie in your head or anywhere else because there's one thing that blows your stupid theory right out of the water: Anna Schwarz. She's real, she's not part of any script. Nobody made Anna up.'

‘That's right. And that's what all this fucking crap of play-acting has to have been about, to lead us to Anna. Someone knew she was here. Once she was out of the apartment and on her way to do whatever she's doing they arranged a break-in and made sure the police got called. Then Charlie Cherub kindly tells you all about it and lo and behold there's a file on Anna with everything we need to know and it gets handed to you nice as pie.'

‘But why? Why the hell would anybody go to all that trouble?'

‘Because we're not detectives on this, we never were. We're going to be the bloody evidence. We're witnesses. Whatever happens from now on will be as carefully managed as all the rest. We'll be fed enough, but just enough, to be able to say at the end that it was definitely a terrorist attack aimed at the Vatican, that we stumbled on it as part of an investigation into Archbishop Cheng's death. What we started out with might sound like a fairy story but no one will care about that after a bomb has gone off. All anybody will be interested in will be the bit about Anna and that will be all too believable. Mind you, if I'm right there's one good thing about it all.'

‘What?'

‘If I'm right then whatever happens we'll survive, we need to be alive afterwards if we're going to tell our story.'

Jimmy said it like a joke but Ricci couldn't see any funny side. Jimmy had thought it out and made his case. Ricci wanted to laugh at it, to tell him it wasn't possible, another stupid idea. Unfortunately he agreed with it.

‘But who would know about a bombing and yet still let it happen?'

‘Someone who stands to gain from it all. It must be. Somebody who knew about the attack, wants it to go ahead, and be able to prove it was terrorists.' A thought occurred, ‘Or better still, someone who's set up the attack and when it's done wants to be able to prove it was terrorists, and before you ask I have no idea who that might be or what they stand to gain. What I do know is that we've been used and will go on being used.'

The phone rang. Ricci stood up and watched as Jimmy picked it up and listened.

‘Thanks.' He rang off. ‘We've got a briefing in one hour.'

‘Police headquarters?'

‘No. The Duns College rector's office.'

They stood for a moment.

‘Jimmy, do you think you could be wrong about this, about a bomb aimed at the Vatican?'

‘It fits what we know and I can't think of anything else that does.'

‘And the bomb? What sort of bomb? A plane like you said?'

‘Maybe; I don't know, but something that sends out the right message; we can do it and we can do it anywhere because we've done it in New York and now in the heart of your Christian world, we've done it in Rome.'

‘Christ. So what do we do?'

‘We do whatever we can.'

‘Which is?'

‘Assume I'm right and pray that I'm wrong.'

Ricci waited for the rest, but there was no rest.

‘It's not much.'

‘No, it's not, is it? But at the moment it's all there is.'

THIRTY-THREE

Jimmy's apartment was close enough to the Vatican for them to walk. The evening was pleasant, they had time before their appointment and both wanted to talk. Jimmy wanted to find a way forward and Ricci wanted to find a way out.

‘Why don't we just tell the minister what we think? That the whole thing has been a set-up?'

‘And what will that do?'

‘Well, if he knows that we know then … then …'

‘Then we all know we know?'

Ricci gave him a look. It was no time to try and be funny.

‘Then maybe we'd be no good to them any more. If they know we've worked out that it's all some sort of set up then maybe they'll let us drop out of it.'

‘For Christ's sake think, will you? If we tell them that the whole thing was a set up by somebody who wanted it to look like terrorists do you think we get to walk away from it, to stay alive and tell whoever we like?'

They walked on. A bomb, not a terrorist bomb but one that could be made to look like it was. Who would do that? Who would benefit? Jimmy had to ask the questions but didn't like the only answer he could come up with. If it wasn't terrorists but had to be made to look that way it meant the thing was planned by someone supposedly on our own side.

The dome of St Peter's became visible as part of the skyline.

Ricci broke his silence.

‘Could we stop it?'

‘How? We aren't even sure it's happening. If it is, we don't know when or how. We don't know where the device will be or what it will be.'

‘All right, all right. So what
can
we do? There must be something we can do, someone we can tell.'

‘Like who, and what would we tell them? Whoever set this up has got us by the balls. What's happened all makes sense to us because we know it all happened. Say we went to the police. The minister, McBride, your China-watcher, everyone we could name wouldn't even have to deny anything, just tell a slightly different version and we'd look a couple of idiots. We'd probably get locked up for wasting police time.'