Alana locks her eyes on his. “Don Arturo, you also told me none of the brothers were acting strangely at the time the monastery was closed.”

“It is true. Stefano was acting as he always did. He has suffered this same condition since his first day at the monastery.”

“Dr. Lonzo told us he’d become more paranoid of late,” Alana says. “That he believed God was seeking some kind of vengeance.”

Arturo holds her gaze. “Stefano did not speak of this to me. Nor did Dr. Lonzo.”

“And you have no idea where Stefano might be?” Alana asks.

“I thought he was at the new monastery. No one has told me otherwise.”

“He’s not there,” Sergio says.

“We know Stefano is behind the spread, Don Arturo,” Alana says. “What we don’t know is whether he is acting alone.”

“You think others at San Giovanni could have helped him?”

“How does a twenty-five-year-old schizophrenic monk learn the secrets of San Giovanni and then retrieve the rats from an enclosure that has been untouched in more than six hundred years?”

Sergio nods. “And how is he able to move, undetected, from city to city without a phone or a credit card to his name?”

“Who would help him?” Arturo asks. “Besides, Brother Stefano is a very private man, even by monastic standards.” His brow furrows. “Well, he did spend much of his spare time with Brother Silvio in the library . . .”

“Stefano was close with Silvio?” Alana asks.

“As close as with any of the brothers, I suppose. And, of course, if anyone was acting strangely after the closure of our monastery, it was Silvio. With his vigil at the construction site.”

Alana and Sergio fire other questions at Arturo but learn nothing more of use before they leave.

As Sergio drives them back across town, Alana asks, “Do you believe him?”

He shrugs. “I never fully trust anyone. Not without researching first.”

“How will you do that?”

“I have already requested Arturo’s phone and online records. Those of Silvio and Stefano, as well. My team is scanning them as we speak.”

Sergio pulls the car up in front of Brother Silvio’s building. Inside, at the door to the monk’s apartment, Sergio knocks three separate times, banging so hard that eventually an elderly woman pokes her head out of a neighboring unit across the hallway.

The woman speaks to Sergio for a few seconds and then disappears back behind her door.

“What did she tell you?” Alana asks.

“Silvio left yesterday.”

“Left? For where?”

“The old woman didn’t know. Apparently he was carrying a suitcase. And she said he looked as if he were in a big hurry.”

Chapter

Fifty-Seven

The captain announces that in less than forty-eight hours the Cielo di Asia will reach the Egyptian city of Port Said, where they will stop to replenish supplies. Stefano has never heard of the city before, but he is told that it’s the gateway to the Suez Canal. What excites Stefano far more is how close Port Said lies to the Holy Land. From there, he will even be able to see the Sinai Peninsula. He knows in his heart that he will never get closer, but for him, it will be close enough.