GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (66 page)

‘Jonathan, Massimo, Massimo,’ she stammered and paused and then tried again, finding the words extremely upsetting
.
‘Mass has been
...
killed, murdered!’
she sobbed.
Suddenly grabbing the man’s wrists and shaking them tightly
, she said,
‘You must call the
gendarmerie
, right
now!’
she r
ais
ed
her voice
and seemed to have trouble focusing. Jonathan wondered if she was suffering from a concussion.

‘Calm down, calm down
,
Francesca, please
.
W
hat do you mean
, the
gendarmerie
?
I really don’t understand
...
are you sure, Francesca
?
A
re you sure about this?’ Jonathan asked her calmly in complete disbelief
.

Guielletta then joined them
.
‘Are you hurt
,
Francesca? Oh, you are in an awful mess. Let us help you and tell us what has happened
.
’
she spoke kindly
to the bruised and battered systems
administrator,
although
Francesca note
d
a hint of flippancy in her tone...
.

‘
Grazie,
s
i,
s
i,
I am fine, sure, just call the damn
p
olice
—
it’s really important!’ she shouted.
Francesca
was becoming increasingly agitated
,
bordering on hysterical
.
As precious moments passed, Francesca
tried
not to lose her coherence and consciousness.
So much had happened and
so
many questions were still unexplained!

Jonathan placed his light trench coat carefully around the girl’s shoulders and applied a dressing from a
n
office first aid kit onto her skinned and tender knee.
The man
stared
seriously at his colleague
and shared a look of dismay with Guielletta
.
They needed to do something quick.
He spoke to his assistant.

‘Can you call the
p
olice
,
Guielletta
?
I think there has been a nasty accident downstairs.’ Jonathan was now resolute in his decision and
he
directed his subordinate to make the call.

‘No! No accident!
Don’t you understand
—
don’t you get it
?
Massimo has been murdered! Shot
!
H
e is dead!’
As usual
,
Francesca
regretted being in their company.
She d
emand
ed
their full attention
.
‘Call the fucking
p
olice
,
NOW!’ she screamed at the top of her voice
.

‘Call it
,
Guielletta,’
Jonathan responded with
a sombre nod as Guielletta walked quickly back to her desk, opening her desk drawer and picking up her cell-phone.
She called the
p
olice
,
looking gravely over at
her supervisor
.
This was serious.
Francesca now had both their undivided attention
...
.

**********

Agata soon arrived
on the scene
unannounced; she had entered the office without being noticed by the man and woman
,
who were preoccupied by the unfolding events
.
S
he had carefully walked over
to
Francesca
and watched her anxiously
, a worried expression written all over the old woman’s cracked face.

Jonathan stood up
,
rather surprised and annoyed at
the woman’s
silent appearance beside him.
He was at first startled
at
being caught off guard,
and
in such occasions
as
this he had a peculiar habit of standing when facing someone.
His leg would cross slowly and
so it
did,
drawing
his right knee across his left.
Then
,
with a sudden movement
,
he would fully cross
the leg
over, to stand
on both
f
ee
t.

‘Francesca my poor girl
,
is there anything I can do to help you?’ the kind old lady asked.
Looking down at her sitting uneven
ly
on her seat, cut and bruised
, the cleaning lady
g
a
v
e
her a comforting hug
.
‘Things will be just fine
,
dear.
The
doctor
and
the
Fire Department are coming, I phoned from upstairs.’

Jonathan appeared to be shocked if not openly annoyed at the woman’s initiative,
not realising that as one of the few on-duty staff members of the night shift, Agata was used to
taking action on her own
volition
.

‘Oh
,
thank you
,
Agata
. I’m
sorry I ran away from you earlier
—
I was in a complete panic
,
’ Francesca
said quietly,
trying to remember clearly what had happened.

‘Francesca will be fine.
She is a bit sore and
we
have already called for an
a
mbulance
,
’ Jonathan spoke
condescendingly
to
the woman
.
‘
Why did you call
the fire department as well?’

‘Oh,
si,
the fire alarm upstairs, it came on, it came on inside that room upstairs on “five” across from personnel offices,’ she paused
,
taking
off
her expensive Omega watch, ‘and there is a man lying inside
—
he is dead.’
the woman sounded a bit upset, more at the man’s insensitivity
than anything else.
‘I opened the door and there was Francesca!
I helped her out
, and then I called the authorities.
’

‘Thank you for rescuing me
,
Agata
.
I would be dead now, if
it hadn’t been
for you
.
’ Francesca smiled.
‘
Had you not opened the door at that moment
..
.
.
Thank you so much
,
Agata.
I will be in your debt
,
always.’
Francesca felt that Jonathan was giving
the woman
too hard a time.
The upstart!

Agata
and Francesca
kissed each other
with warm affection before the
cleaning
woman looked with ill reb
uk
e at the young man and headed for the door. Strangely enough
,
she still
carried
that pale green bucket in her hand
,
filled with dirty cloths and cleaning bottles.
They were never parted
...
.

Jonathan looked at Guielletta
through
the door and shouted at the old woman. ‘
Grazie
, you can go straight home,
now,
I am sure the
p
olice will visit you later.
Don’t speak to anyone about this business
,
please.
These circumstances are of Vatican importance and strictly confidential.’

The woman seemed most annoyed and unappreciated
at
being
reminded of her duty
, like a
schoolchild, from that arrogant foreigner who just wanted to make himself look big
.
The woman did not want any thanks
,
and the
man’s
response was totally predictable.

Turning to Francesca,
Jonathan said,
‘Have you heard anything further about
...
’ he hesitated
,
thinking again
about
being
so
direct, ‘did you find anything else out about
Michaelangelo
’s disappearance?’