Chapter 9 #3
“Wow. Nice. If only one of the ghosts had ripped the mask off the man’s face and could sit with a sketch artist for us.”
“We’ll get this, Grant!” she assured him.
They were standing close, almost on top of one another, just behind the closed door. This time, he didn’t think. A strand of her soft waving hair had fallen over her cheek. He smoothed it back; she smiled at him.
“Hey! Is everything all right?” Sal called.
Grant snapped back to reality. “Yep, just making a call!”
He did make the call, striding out to the common area, where Sal and Alfredo had already created their sandwiches and were seated at the table eating them.
Shelly kept up a chatter while making sandwiches for the two of them, allowing him to get on the line and speak with Angela and tell her where they were with the case.
She and Grant both sat down.
“So, you’re both local. You’ve been to the exhibition before?” Shelly asked.
Sal laughed. “I have been to the Roman Baths. But, I must admit, I never had a reason to study ancient curse tablets until now.”
“No, nor I,” Alfredo said. “And I’m not sure what they can tell us, but … if feels like we’re on hold right now; it can’t hurt.”
“So, we wrap up lunch and get there!” Shelly said.
“Let’s do it,” Grant agreed.
Sal was good at driving through the city. It didn’t seem to take long to get to where they wanted to be.
Shelly said she was pleased to get the chance to see the Roman Baths, but she didn’t want to waste any of their time. Armand could be getting back to them at any time.
They headed straight to the exhibition on the curse tablets.
Each walked along the display. Thankfully, the tablets had been transcribed from whichever ancient language they’d been written in, and English was one of the languages on the placards.
“This is an interesting one,” Shelly said. “‘For great pain he has made, may his sacred organ be destroyed that pain will not fade,’ and the person is beseeching Pluto!”
Sal laughed. “Sounds like they’re talking about a certain organ used for sex. But I believe, if I understand the description I just read down there, it is supposed to cause the person to block up, lose the ability to urinate—that will kill a man.”
“So, a curse written by a spurned lover, I guess?” Shelly asked.
Sal nodded. “From what we’re seeing here, they were for all kinds of things. Revenge, jealousy, anger …”
“Here’s a lovely one,” Alfredo said dryly. “‘She that causes such trouble is accursed in age to double and double, her soul and body putrid along with her soul’”
“So,” Grant murmured, “they liked to rhyme their curses,” he murmured.
“Not always,” Shelly noted. “‘Let he who hath taken all from so many discover that all is stolen from him, body and soul, that he loses all that he treasures in death.’”
“And people believed that these things worked,” Sal murmured, shaking his head.
“They work—when they’re helped along,” Grant reminded him.
“This one was written to bring down evil upon a slave!” Sal said. “Right. Like being a slave might not have been bad enough! ‘Goddess on high, let this cursed man end his days on a blade of steel, ripped of his flesh, for his flesh has tainted that around him.’”
“Um-hmm. Good-looking slave who seduced the spouse of his owner?” Shelly suggested.
“Possibly,” Sal said.
“We’re seen some tablets that are meant to rot people to death, and I just read one that didn’t mention rotting or death, just falling from the great pedestal of control they seemed to ride.
Then I saw another one that just wanted somebody to grow ugly.
I understand that they more or less traveled all over the known world—” Alfredo began.
“From Egypt to Britain, all over. Wow. Well, I guess people have been able to be mean throughout history,” Grant said. “And I guess that, back then, people believed in them.”
“And today?” Sal asked.
“Let’s face it, we all believe what we want. But I don’t think this is a matter of the person—or persons—carrying out the killings believing in any of it. It’s a money scheme,” Grant said.
“Right. You can prey on people with this kind of belief,” Shelly said.
“Rome is filled with legends. We start with a legend—Romulus and Remus! Their mother was forced to become a vestal virgin, but she gave birth to twins fathered by Mars, and that’s only the middle of the story, but, hey, we do call the place Roma—or to you, Rome!” Alfredo reminded him.
Shelly groaned softly, smiling at the same time.
Sal suddenly excused himself, frowning as he saw his phone was ringing. He stepped away from them for a moment, and when he returned, he was deadly serious.
“We need to leave. Now,” Sal told them.
“Did we hear from Armand, get something back—” Grant began.
Sal lowered his head and sighed. “We didn’t hear back from Armand yet, no. But we sure as hell got something.” He was silent for just a minute, shaking his head slightly from side to side before looking at the three waiting for his words
“We’ve got another murder. Gino Tarelo, a newscaster, major supporter of Vincenzo Mero, was killed in his own house. We’ve got to get over there. Now.”