IX.II
Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives
WHEN I HAD LEFT SIENA with Alessandro the day before, I had not imagined I would be returning so soon, so dirty, and with my hands cuffed. And I had certainly not anticipated being accompanied by my sister, my father, and three thugs who looked as if they had been sprung from death row, not by paperwork, but by dynamite.
It was clear that, even though he knew them by name, Umberto was as much a hostage to these men as we were. They tossed him into the back of their van-a small flower delivery truck, most likely stolen-just as they did Janice and me, and we all fell hard on the metal floor. With our arms tied, there was little but a potpourri of rotting flower cuttings to block the fall.
“Hey!” protested Janice, “we’re your daughters, right? Tell them they can’t treat us like this. Honestly-Jules, say something to him.”
But I couldn’t think of anything to say. I felt as if the whole world had turned upside down around me-or maybe the world was right side up, and I was the one who had completely keeled over. Still struggling to process Umberto’s transformation from hero to villain, I now had to accept the fact that he was my father as well, which almost took me full circle and back to square one: I loved him, but I really shouldn’t.
Just as the villains pulled the doors closed behind us, I caught a glimpse of another victim they had already picked up somewhere en route. The man was propped up in a corner, gagged and blindfolded; had it not been for his clothes, I would never have recognized him. Now at last, the words came to me spontaneously. “Friar Lorenzo!” I cried. “My God! They’ve kidnapped Friar Lorenzo!”
Just then, the van jolted into action, and we spent the next few minutes sliding back and forth on the ridged floor, while the driver took us through the wilderness of Mom’s driveway.
As soon as things were smoother, Janice let out a deep, unhappy sigh. “Okay,” she said, loudly, into the darkness, “you win. The gems are yours… or, theirs. We don’t want them anyway. And we’ll help you. We’ll do anything. Anything they want. You’re our dad, right? We gotta stick together! There’s no need to… kill us. Is there?”
Her question was met by silence.
“Look,” Janice went on, her voice shaky with fear, “I hope they know they’ll never find that statue without us-”
Umberto still didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Even though we had already told the bandits about the supposed secret entrance in Santa Maria della Scala, they clearly thought they might still need us to help them find the gems, or they surely wouldn’t have brought us along for the ride.
“What about Friar Lorenzo?” I asked.
Now at last, Umberto spoke. “What about him?”
“Come on,” said Janice, recovering some of her spirit, “do you really think the poor guy is going to be of any help whatsoever?”
“Oh, he’ll sing.”
When Umberto heard us both gasp at his indifference, he made a sound that could have been laughter, but probably wasn’t. “What the hell did you expect?” he grunted. “That they’d just… give up? You’re lucky we tried it the nice way first-”
“The nice way-?” cried Janice, but I managed to poke her with my knee and shut her up.
“Unfortunately,” Umberto went on, “our little Julie didn’t play her role.”
“It might have helped if I knew I had a role!” I pointed out, my throat so tight I could barely get the words out. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did it have to be like this? We could have gone treasure hunting years ago, together. It could have been… fun.”
“Oh, I see!” Umberto shifted around in the darkness, clearly as uncomfortable as we were. “You think this is what I want? Come back here, risk everything, play charades with old monks and get kicked around by these assholes, all to search for a couple rocks that probably disappeared hundreds of years ago? I don’t think you realize-” He sighed. “Of course you don’t. Why do you think I let Aunt Rose take you away and bring you up in the States? Huh? I’ll tell you why. Because they would have used you against me… to make me work for them again. There was only one solution: We had to disappear.”
“Are you talking about… the Mafia?” asked Janice.
Umberto laughed scornfully. “The Mafia! These people make the Mafia look like the Salvation Army. They recruited me when I needed money, and once you’re on the hook, you don’t get off. If you wiggle, the hook just goes deeper.”
I heard Janice take in air for a bitchy comment, but somehow managed to elbow her in the darkness and silence her yet again. Provoking Umberto and starting an argument was not the way to prepare for whatever lay ahead, I was sure of that much.
“So, let me guess,” I said, as calmly as I could, “the moment they don’t need us anymore… it’s over?”
Umberto hesitated. “Cocco owes me a favor. I spared his life once. I’m hoping he’ll return the favor.”
“So,” said Janice, “he’ll spare you. What about us?”
There was a long silence, or at least, it felt long. Only now, mixed in with the engine noise and general rattle, did I pick up the sound of someone praying. “And what,” I quickly added, “about Friar Lorenzo?”
“Let’s just hope,” replied Umberto at last, “that Cocco is feeling generous.”
“I don’t get it,” grumbled Janice. “Who are these guys anyway, and why are you letting them do this to us?”
“That,” said Umberto wearily, “is not exactly a bedtime story.”
“Well, this is not exactly a bedside,” Janice pointed out. “So, why don’t you tell us, dear father, what the hell went wrong in fairyland?”
Once he started talking, Umberto could not stop. It was as if he had been waiting to tell us his story all these years, and yet, now that he finally did, he clearly did not feel much relief, for his voice kept getting more and more bitter as he spoke.
His father, he told us, who had been known as Count Salimbeni, had always lamented the fact that his wife, Eva Maria, only ever bore him one child, and had set out to make sure the boy was never spoiled and always disciplined. Enrolled in a military academy against his will, Umberto had eventually run away to Naples to find a job and maybe go to university and study music, but he had quickly run out of money. So, he had started doing jobs that other people were afraid to do, and he was good at it. Somehow, breaking the law came naturally to him, and it was not long before he owned ten tailored suits, a Ferrari, and a patrician apartment with no furniture. It was paradise.
When he finally went back to visit his parents at Castello Salimbeni, he pretended that he had become a stockbroker, and managed to persuade his father to forgive him for dropping out of the military academy. A few days later his parents hosted a big party, and among the guests were Professor Tolomei and his young American assistant, Diane.
Stealing her right off the dance floor, Umberto took Diane for a drive under the full moon, and that was the beginning of a long, beautiful summer. Soon, they were spending every weekend together, driving around Tuscany, and when he finally invited her to visit him in Naples, she said yes. There, over a bottle of wine in the best restaurant in town, he dared to tell her the truth about what he did for a living.
Diane was horrified. She did not want to listen to his explanations, or his apologies, and as soon as she was back in Siena she returned everything he had given her-jewelry, clothes, letters-and told him she never wanted to hear from him again.
After that, he did not see her for over a year, and when he did, he had a shock. Diane was walking across the Campo in Siena, pushing a stroller with twins, and someone told him she was now married to old Professor Tolomei. Umberto knew right away that he was the father of the twins, and when he walked up to Diane, she went pale and said, yes, he was their father, but she did not want her girls to be raised by a criminal.