Of course. Was there anyone else that a person would never dare risk?
“What’s her name?” I heard myself ask.
“Elena Dmitrova.” She glanced over my shoulder. “Shit. Sister Vera’s coming. You need to get out of here. She won’t like me speaking to you.” She yanked her T-shirt over her head, presenting her back to the door.
With a nod, I stepped out of the office and met the nun in the hallway.
“Father Lucciano!” Sister Vera said, and smiled coyly at me.
But my mind was a million miles away. So, Katarina’s mother was still alive? And yet, she remained here... in hell? Why didn’t her mother help?
“I’ve been searching all over for you. Father Benedict needs to see you.”
Benedict? It would be interesting to see how he was feeling the day after his boss had killed himself. Entertaining, at least.
“Very well, Sister. I’ll go to him right now.”
13
MASSIMO
After speaking with Benedict, who’d wanted to reassure me that everything would still run smoothly at the institute, I headed outside.
Benedict was rattled and seemed particularly concerned that I would run off and tell my bosses. Of course the man I’d used to get me in here was linked to the shadier side of Hallow Hall. I could guess that there was nothing the good father wanted less than for their director to get cold feet and pull their funding. Benedict was convinced that I was a representative of Centrium Group, here for training, and therefore would be reporting back on the happenings in Hallow Hall.
Outside, snow swirled in the air. The institute was outside the city, toward the mountains. The nearest city was Torino. I was grateful for the warm cassock when the crisp air of the graveyard hit me.
I walked over the gathered snow, my feet crunching on ice beneath. Ahead, I spied the familiar back of Katarina’s pet orderly rounding the corner of the building, holding something.
A rose?
By the time I found Alonso, he was deeply occupied. The young woman he had against the wall was small, even smaller than Katarina. She wore a nurse’s uniform, and the rose he’d been carrying was now gripped in her hand.
So, Alonso was even more pathetic than I’d thought he was.
How predictable.
I left the two lovebirds to it and retraced my steps past the front entrance.
I made for the gap that led to a clearing just beside the chapel. The place where I’d first set sight on Katarina. Shivering in the cold, ethereal, her long blond hair streaming over her shoulders, her eyes full of secrets... I didn’t think I’d ever forget the first time I saw her.
My little stray, feeding the strays. I went to the bowl that Katarina used for the resident feral cat and banged it on the wall. Then I grabbed the leftover ham roll I’d taken from the kitchen and tore it into pieces and dropped them in the bowl.
The cat came running at the sound. As he got closer, he purred loudly, encouraging me to feed him.
He went to eat enthusiastically while I stroked his knobbly back. He was thin, poor thing, but surviving. As soon as he finished, he rubbed himself over my legs. Thanking me.
I scratched him behind the ears. Animals were more honest than humans. I could trust animals, but trusting humans had never come easy.
Snowdrops poked through the white layer of snow on the ground, which was melting in patches. A harbinger of the changing seasons. My mother had loved them so much. There was an area beaten down by someone’s indifferent tread. I reached out and pulled the flowers from the ground. The tiny bunch wasridiculously inadequate in my hand. Green and white, fresh and new... delicate, but strong enough to push through frozen ground.
“Oh! Shit,” a voice said.
I stood and turned. I was no longer alone. Resident charmer Alonso stood by the wall lighting up a smoke. I placed the snowdrops in my pocket and eyed him critically.
“That was quick,” I muttered.
Poor nurse. It had hardly been worth putting on her winter coat for.