If Leyers caught his disappointment, he didn’t show it as he disappeared through the front door. Only then did Pino’s hunger pangs return with a vengeance. What was he supposed to do? Never eat? Never drink?
Miserable, Pino looked up the face of the building, saw slivers of light showing through the blackout curtains across Dolly’s windows. Was Anna disappointed? Well, she had definitely smiled at him that morning, and it had been more than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill smile, too, hadn’t it? In Pino’s mind, Anna’s smile had spoken of attraction, possibility, and hope. She’d told him to be safe and used his name, hadn’t she?
In any case, Pino wasn’t going to get to see her. Not tonight. Tonight he had to sleep in a car and starve. His heart felt heavy, and then heavier still when thunder drummed. He got the Daimler’s canvas top up and snapped down before the rain came in torrents. He slumped in the driver’s seat, deafened by the storm and feeling sorry for himself. Was he supposed to sleep out here all night? No food? No water?
A half hour passed, and then an hour. The rain had slowed, but it still pattered off the roof. Pino’s stomach was aching, and he thought of driving to his uncle’s to report and get some food. But what if Leyers came down and he was gone? What if—?
The front passenger-side door opened.
Holding a basket of delicious-smelling food, Anna climbed inside.
“Dolly thought you might be hungry,” she said, closing the door. “I was sent to feed you and keep you company while you ate.”
Pino smiled. “General’s orders?”
“Dolly’s orders,” Anna said, peering around. “It will be easier to eat in the backseat, I think.”
“That’s the general’s territory.”
“He’s busy in Dolly’s bedroom,” she said, climbed out, opened the back door, and got in. “He should be in there for a long while, if not the night.”
Pino laughed, threw open the door, ducked through the rain, and climbed into the back. Anna set the basket where the general usually put his valise. She lit a small candle and set it on a plate. The light flickered, making the staff car’s interior golden as she drew back a towel over the basket to reveal two roasted chicken legs with thighs, fresh bread, real butter, and a glass of red wine.
“I have been delivered,” Pino said, which made Anna laugh.
On another night, he might have gazed at her as she laughed, but he was so hungry he just chuckled and ate. As he did, he asked her questions, learning that Anna was from Trieste, she had worked for Dolly for fourteen months, and she had gotten the job through a friend who saw Dolly’s ad in the newspaper.
“You don’t know how much I needed that,” he said, finishing his meal. “I was ravenous. Like a wolf.”
Anna laughed. “I thought I heard someone howling outside.”
“Is that your whole name?” he asked. “Anna?”
“I also go by Anna-Marta.”
“No last name?”
“Not anymore,” the maid said, cooling, and repacking the basket. “And I must be going.”
“Wait,” Pino said. “Can’t you stay just a little longer? I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as lovely and elegant as you.”
She made a dismissive flip of her hand but smiled. “Listen to you.”
“It’s true.”
“How old are you now, Pino?”
“Old enough to wear a uniform and carry a gun,” he said, annoyed. “Old enough to do things that I can’t talk about.”
“Like what?” she said, sounding interested.
“I can’t talk about it,” Pino insisted.
Anna blew out the candle, leaving them in darkness. “Then I must go.”
Before Pino could protest, she climbed out of the Daimler and shut the door behind her. Pino struggled out of the backseat in time to see her shadow going up the steps to the front door of the apartment building.
“Buona notte, signorina Anna-Marta,” Pino said.
“Good night, Vorarbeiter Lella,” Anna said, and went inside.
The rain had stopped, and he stood there a long while, looking at that spot where she’d disappeared and reliving every moment of his time in the backseat of the staff car, with her smell all around. He noticed it after the food was gone, when she’d laughed that he’d been hungry as a wolf. Had there ever been anything that smelled like that? Had there ever been a woman who looked like that? So beautiful. So mysterious.
At last he climbed back into the driver’s seat and pulled his cap down over his eyes. His thoughts still on her, he questioned everything he’d said to her and dissected her every word as if they were clues to the puzzle of Anna. The horror of Mr. Beltramini’s death, being branded a traitor—all these things had vanished from his consciousness. All he knew until sleep took him was the maid.
A sharp rap came at the window, waking Pino. It was barely cracking light. The back door opened. His first happy thought was that Anna had come down to feed him again. But when he looked over his shoulder, he saw the silhouette of General Leyers.
“Fly my flags,” Leyers said. “Get me to San Vittore Prison. We don’t have much time.”
Going for the glove compartment and the flags, Pino fought off a yawn and said, “What time is it, mon général?”
“Five a.m.,” he barked. “So move!”
Pino bolted from the staff car, mounted the flags, and then drove fast through the city, relying on the flags to get them quickly through checkpoints until they arrived at notorious San Vittore. Built in the 1870s, the prison had six three-story wings connected to a central hub. When San Vittore opened, it was state-of-the-art, but seventy-four years of neglect on, it was a nasty starfish of cells and halls where men fought for their lives every moment of every day. Now that it was under Gestapo rule, Pino couldn’t name a place he feared more besides the Hotel Regina.
On Via Vico, which paralleled the prison’s high eastern wall, they confronted two lorries stopped by an open gate. The first lorry was backing up through the gate. The other idled on the street, blocking the way.
Dawn glowed over the city when General Leyers got out and slammed the door. Pino jumped out and followed Leyers as he crossed the street and went through the gate with the guards saluting. They went into a large triangular yard that narrowed where the walls of two opposing arms of the prison joined the central hub.
Four steps beyond the gate, Pino stopped to take it all in. Eight armed Waffen-SS soldiers stood about twenty-five meters to his left at ten o’clock. In front of them was an SS captain. Beside the captain, Gestapo Colonel Walter Rauff held a black riding crop behind his back and watched with great interest. Leyers went to Rauff and the captain.
Pino hung back, not wanting Rauff to notice him.
The flaps at the back of the lorry opened. A squad from the Muti Legion of the Black Brigades climbed out. Fanatically dedicated to Mussolini, the elite Fascist commandos wore black turtlenecks, despite the warm air, and jawless death-head symbols on their hats and chests.
“Are you ready?” the SS captain said in Italian.