The Church of Lost Souls 16

I knew they were up to something.

As the insurance company was close to the bus depot they´d arrived and gone straight to the joke shop, where they found it open for business. They went in and I asked if the girl was there. She was. Paolo asked if she knew about The Church of Lost Souls and he was guided by her to the back of the shop, just like me. She opened the door and there in the middle of the courtyard next to the open manhole was the old man sat reading his paper.

He beckoned Paolo over to him and apologised for what he´d said the other day. It was the girl, he scowled, pointing to the door of the joke shop. ´She crazy´.

I asked Paolo if he´d gone down the hole and he had. He´d met the old woman and lit a candle for the homeless too. The old woman called them anime perse, or lost souls. Sofia winked at me.

I asked about the noticeboard and he said he hadn´t seen one.

Enquiring about the girl and specifically her state of mind Sofia said she was fine. She certainly didn´t seem like someone to cause the police any trouble.

She was from Arkansas and her family had been in Rome for eight years.

‘So what about the old man?’ I asked. ´Did you ask his name?´

They hadn´t, but the girl had said his name was Pietro. He was the owner.

Asking why the shop had been closed the past few days the girl revealed it was down to some petty legal issue which had been resolved.

´Sounds very fishy,´ I said.

´She was really pretty,´ said Paolo. ´I invited her to the party tonight.´

´Is she coming?´ I asked.

´Si,´ he said, ´bella ragazza.’

´Great, so now we´ve got two Marias coming.´

´Si,´ said Paolo. ´One for you, one for me.´

The two idiots had been there too. Paolo had pushed one of them off Sofia and they´d run away shouting pezzentelle and spitting on the street.

´So we´re decided,´ interjected Sofia, beseeching each of us.

´Decided on what?´ I asked.

´That The Church of Lost Souls exists, as you said it did, and that we, or at least you, have been somewhat initiated into an ancient Neapolitan cult down a sewer in the middle of Rome.´

´Yes.´ We had to agree on that.

´And that ever since you went there you’ve been pining after Maria.´

That again required confirmation, which came and went with a nod.

´James,´ said Sofia, clearing her throat, ´we took the bones out of the oven this morning and someone at the hospital´s had a look at them.´

´Holy shit,´ I said. ´What did they say?´

´They were human bones,´ said Paolo, ´children´s bones´.

´Oh my God, that´s disgusting,´ I said.

They´d had to be careful getting them out of the oven but with the aid of the dawn sun and a stick they´d all been retrieved. There were eight bones in total, all from the same person aged around eight, made up from pairs of upper and lower arms and legs. The hospital had kept hold of them and the police had been informed. They´d be wanting to talk to me, Sofia said.

I honestly thought that they were having a laugh, that one of them would suddenly say ´sucker!´ and we´d all laugh, but nothing came, not even a raised eyebrow.

´They need to talk to the owner, not me´, I protested. ‘He´s the one that got the guy with the bones in.´

I could see their point though. I´d need to be available for questioning. Children´s bones weren´t shoved into pizza ovens to bless them all that often and the cuprits needed stopping.

´Giovanni´s eight, isn´t he?´ asked Sofia.

´Oh Sofia, please. How low can you go?´ I said.

´I´m sorry, James, but I think you´re mixed up in some kind of trouble with these people.´

´You sound like Velma in Scooby Doo,´ I said.

´I´m serious, James.’

´OK, so which people? Who? The bad people?´

Silence.

´Sofia thinks the cult may have something to do with the bones,´ said Paolo.

´It´s not inconceivable,´ I had to admit.

Again, silence.

´It was banned in 1969. It´s gone underground,´ said Sofia.

´Damn right it has, down a hole,´ said Paolo.

´So what?´ I barked, trying to rally back over towards denial. ´We stumbled on a death cult. Whoopee! So let´s move on.´   

‘Both Marias disappeared from your life and then, as if by magic, they came back again. How is that possible?’ she asked.

I thought about Naples Maria, who had thankfully only disappeared. ´It´s not weird, it´s called coincidence. I mean, wow, two Marias, how´d have thought? Italy´s full of bloody Marias!´ Sofia was quite taken aback by this mini-outburst so I calmed down. ´Look, I wish you´d just stop talking about it. Even if I do take the job with her I´m still not going to be messing around with death cults and kids´ bones. I´ve got Giovanni to look after and I want to get back into my art so you´ve no need to worry there. Paolo´s fine too. He´s going to Switzerland to pick grapes, far away from all the madness, and anyway I might be joining him, so there´s no problem for us two. In fact,’ I said, turning to face Sofia, ‘that just leaves you. What indeed are the beautiful young Romanian detective´s plans? Is she going to stay in Rome and crack the case of the death cult?´ That was rude. I shouldn´t have said it but she took it well.

´I don´t know what I´m doing, at least for two weeks. Term starts mid September so I´ll need to be in Padua by then,´ she said. It was late August. ´If I do stay in Rome I might want to look into things a bit more, though.´

´So you´re worrying about us when you should really be worrying about yourself,´ I said.

´Sofia,´ said Paolo, ´maybe it´s time to let this go.´

He talked about some of the cults he knew of in Rio, the strange things they did to one another as part of a ritualistic process of retribution. It was a dangerous business.

Even when it now looked less likely that I´d be joining him in Switzerland, Paolo had remained upbeat and at ease with the situation throughout.

He’d picked up his travelers´cheques, a fair sum, and when they got back to the campsite he asked the owner if he had an old rucksack for sale.

There were a few left by campers from the year before, which were stored in a cupboard, so Paolo had a quick look at each and found one with a few clothes about his size inside, along with a decent sleeping bag and a towel. The owner only asked a small amount, twenty quid or something. 

Sofia had helped him with his new belongings at the wash area and they were drying well on the rails provided.

Knowing full well Sofia´s resolve to delve further into the cult were she to stay on in Rome, coupled with the prospect of my staying too, I had to make known the distance I wanted to put between me and the cult.  

´If you don´t mind,´ I said to her quietly, ´ I won´t be wanting to have anything more to do with the cult. I´ll talk to the police about the man and the bones but as far as we´re concerned, that´s it.´

Sofia tried to stifle a grimace, failed, but said nothing in return.

With the two Marias arriving in less than half an hour I started to get nervous so I excused myself and went back for a quick shower.

Just before eight I returned to the tent in my best trousers and shirt. Having tried unsuccessfully to run a brush through my hair it had gone wild. Sofia and Paolo laughed when they saw me. Sofia went to her tent and grabbed a hairbrush and some water.

´You´re a fine one to talk,´ I said to Paolo, who´d bought a pair of khaki army trousers and a regimental blue shirt from a thrift store.

Actually he looked pretty funky in his outfit.

Sofia looked incredible. I´d never seen her wearing make-up.

´Wow,´ I said, stunned.

She looked up at me and smiled briefly, then she swivelled me around and pressed some water into my mop. When she brushed through my hair it felt like I was at home on a Friday night just before going out, Mum brushing away with Corrie on.

´Now,´ she said, ´ let´s make you a pretty boy for Maria, shall we?´ she said.