The Third Revelation Read Free Page A

who’d approached Traeger took out his wallet and opened it enough to show his Vatican City identity card.
    â€œLlano?”
    â€œRodriguez. Llano was my mother’s name.”
    They went inside to a table in a secluded corner.
    â€œIt is good of your government to lend us your services,” Rodriguez said.
    Traeger shrugged. Only a handful in Washington knew he was here. But then only a handful knew who he was. He’d spent most of his adult life in deep undercover.
    â€œSo, Mr. Rodriguez, what do we do now?” he asked the Vatican rep.
    â€œWe find a cunning killer,” Rodriguez said softly. “And we stop him.”
    â€œAnd what have you done so far?”
    â€œWhat we could,” the man replied.
    And so they discussed the four brutal murders in Vatican City: two cardinals, a priest, and a basilica guard.
    â€œWhy isn’t the Vatican in an uproar?” Traeger had spent enough time in the Holy See to know that four murders there, and in a single day, would have brought the Vatican to its knees. And media flocking to its gates.
    â€œOnly the news about the murder of the guard has been made public,” Rodriguez replied. “We’ve ascribed the other deaths to natural causes and spaced out the funerals.”
    â€œI caught some coverage of the secretary of state’s funeral. Quite a send-off, the full state ceremony,” Traeger said.
    â€œYes. There is much to be said for a great pontifical funeral. It can cover even a murder with obscuring clouds of incense. Cardinal Maguire was said to have died quietly of heart failure, which was true enough in its way—his heart failed instantly when someone plunged a knife into it. His body was sent home to Ennis for burial. The secretary of state’s young assistant received quieter obsequies a few days later that elicited little curiosity. The basilica guard was declared to be the victim of a demented tourist—a common enough form of street crime. The police are seeking him.”
    â€œDo you really believe this is the work of some fanatic?” Traeger asked.
    â€œIt is possible. If only one had been killed, perhaps that might even be true. The secretary of state was a lightning rod, drawing on himself all the anger of malcontents who would not want to criticize the Holy Father directly. And the guard’s death was incidental, merely a way to gain entrance to areas within the Vatican that are off-limits to the public. But the other deaths make this into something far more sinister.”
    â€œWas there only one killer?”
    â€œCertainly only one who participated in these killings. He killed the guard and stripped him of his uniform. That got him past the Swiss Guards into the papal palace. He threw the secretary of state out a window and did the same to his assistant, a young priest. There he left the guard’s uniform in an armoire from which he took a collar and cassock. He was wearing those when he showed up at the Vatican Library.”
    â€œHe seems to have known his way around the Holy City quite well.”
    â€œIndeed. Too well. The only living person who saw him is a priest who worked for the head of the Vatican Library and Archives.”
    â€œFor Cardinal Maguire.” Traeger considered the sequence of crimes. Except for the living witness, they were fast, well-executed, and deadly. Worthy of Traeger himself. But the witness was a mistake.
    â€œThey were both from County Clare, the cardinal and Crowe. I’m told they were close.”
    â€œI’ll want to talk to him first,” Traeger said.
    Rodriguez looked away, rubbed the tip of his nose, and again made that little sibilant noise. “He is not being cooperative.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œHe was at first, but answering the same questions over and over again has tried his patience.”
    â€œI see. I need to know something. You’ve clearly dug into this investigation. You’re following up on