Shrouded In Silence

26





A cold wind blew down from the top of santa Maria Church sweeping rubbish across the back yard of the church. Workmen had already been separating debris from the foundation of the bomb-scattered house. A few people hung around watching the workers sift through the devastation. Guido Valentino stood on the sidelines talking to a detective and observing several men stacking the ruins of the bombed house in a pile to one side. Windows had been completely blown out and the roof cratered with shingles blasted away. The front porch had sunken and the door completely disintegrated.

"Strange about bombings," detective Alfredo Pino made casual conversation. "They don't explode in a consistent direction. Some of the house was blown away while other parts remained surprisingly intact. I guess the one guy was standing right over the bomb when it went off. Got hit straight on. Horrible." The detective shook his head. "Worst I've ever seen."

"Why would someone bomb these people?" Guido pressed.

"Doesn't make any sense," Pino said. "They're not political. I guess the fact they were Americans with a Jew working for them might be part of it. Just don't know what to think. Confounds me. Everyone is speculating that this group called The Scorpion set it off. Seems they don't like Americans." The detective shook his head. "Bizarre. Don't see any connections between those two explosions, but they might be related."

"I work with the Townsends and, of course, wasn't in the office," Guido said. "I can't see any reason for any of this destruction either. The Townsends have been the best people I've ever been around. Yet, I can't believe this was a random act."

"Like that subway explosion. No good explanation."

Guido noticed a well-dressed figure walking around from the side of the church. The man stayed bent over as if desperately searching for something. Wearing elegant clothes, the man looked completely misplaced wandering through the rubble. Swaggering into the rubble, he started kicking boards around as if he owned the place.

"Who is that guy?" Guido pointed at the figure. "Strange-looking fellow."

"I don't know," Pino said.

"Looks like he's trying to ransack the wreckage." Guido watched him more closely. "I've been around here working with the Townsends for several weeks, and I've never seen the likes of him. He's not somebody you'd forget."

"He's picking up pieces of paper and books," the detective said. "Might be some sort of hack trying to find materials he can sell to a secondhand bookstore. We can't have any of that monkey business." Alfredo Pino started stepping over pieces of board to get to the man.

Guido followed from behind, watching closely.

"What's going on here?" the detective demanded. "Do you have any identification?"

Pushing a few strands of his blond hair aside, the man looked at Guido and the officer suspiciously.

"Why are you asking?" He sat the books down and looked harshly at them.

"I ask the questions," Pino fired back. "If you don't have identification, you will be charged with trespassing as well as stealing and taken into custody."

"I work with the Townsends," the man said indignantly. "I am a PhD from Tübingen, Germany."

"Let's see your paper," Pino said impatiently. "I won't ask again."

"My name is Dr. Albert Stein." He reached for his billfold. "When I heard of the explosion, I volunteered to be of assistance. Opening the billfold, he pulled out a driver's license. "I don't carry my passport when I am doing physical labor."

Guido looked over the policeman's shoulder. "I work with the Townsends," he said dogmatically. "I have never heard your name mentioned once. Not once! Can you explain that?"

Stein leaned forward, studying the face before him. "How long you been there?" he asked skeptically. "A matter of weeks?"

Guido flinched. "Not long," he said. "But I would have expected them to have mentioned you."

"Well, your expectations were wrong," Stein barked.

"Officer, I cannot vouch for this man. I'd suggest you take his information and send him on his way."

"You running the project now?" Stein sneered. "I also have a Permesso di Soggiorno for study purposes, but don't carry the papers on archaeological digs."

Guido said nothing, but the detective was already copying the information down on his notepad.

"We don't allow anyone in at a crime scene," the officer said. "This certainly is not an archaeological site. You obviously didn't check in with us when you arrived. I'm not going to arrest you, but your information will be examined and better add up. I'd suggest you leave now."

Stein looked back and forth at the two men for a moment with a fierceness that left the impression he might bite one of them. Guido felt his fist tightening and had to force his fingers to relax.

Without saying a word, Stein stomped out of the wreckage and marched away down the path between the church and building next door. In a matter of moments, he was gone.

"Strange-looking individual," the officer said.

"More than strange," Guido said. "I have no idea who that character is, but he obviously was more than a little interested in whatever he could pick up.



Guido Valentino stayed throughout the day, observing the workmen, the detective, making sure nothing was carried away that might have value. Slowly, the wreckage of the broken walls and the dilapidated roof were pulled back. The house looked like it had been over a hundred years old with pieces of molding from around the ceilings that might have antique value. Beyond a few old remains, nothing else had any value. Computers and bookcases had been destroyed. By noon, a truck rolled in with a backhoe and started tearing down the rear of the house. The work went much faster, and the pile of splintered boards continued to grow higher.

The new priest who had been appointed to Santa Maria Church came and went several times, standing quietly watching, saying little. Guido introduced himself to Father Alberto Kajetan and told the priest the name of the hospital where he could find the Townsends. The priest assured him that he would visit this afternoon.

By mid-afternoon, a few shadows had started to fall across the ruins. The roof had been completely torn away, exposing the floor and a few remaining walls. An ugly jagged hole in the middle of the front office exposed the deadly spot where the bomb had gone off and Dov Sharon had been standing. No one said much when they walked around the hole that exposed the dirt beneath the house.

"Hey!" one of the workmen suddenly shouted. "I need help deciphering what we've found.

Guido joined the officers huddling around the man standing with one leg on the broken flooring and the other on the ground. A board had been turned over with wiring running along its length.

"What is this?" the workman ask. "It's got an apparatus of some kind attached to this board. "Looks like the piece was in this conference room somewhere and got torn loose."

The policemen gathered around and stared. "Don't know, but it looks like a transmitter of some kind," one of the men said.

"This house was bugged!" another policeman said. "Don't touch it. We should check it for fingerprints."

Guido stood up. "Whoever planted this device could have set off the explosives."

"Yeah. We've found something important," the workman said.