Shout in the Dark Read Online Free Page A

had
constantly brooded about his unknown father, all the while drawing
away from his family. He remembered his mother and his brother
Bruno telling him they could stand his sullen behavior no longer,
so he left home. The only clue he had to his father's existence was
a creased photograph that had belonged to his mother. It showed a
group of soldiers holding an effigy of a man's head, painted white.
His mother had apparently snatched some of his father's papers when
she learned of his sudden death in the Via Tasso.
    The head was small and distant in the
photograph, and the white paint made it impossible to see much in
the way of detail. His father had written on the back that it was
the head of Jesus Christ, that it had once been seen by Eusebius,
and was probably made of bronze. He'd written that it was his
property, but it had subsequently been stolen from him by a Jew who
then took it to the Vatican. He had never recovered it.
    Manfred Kessel remembered how by 1965,
when he was twenty-one, he'd managed to convince himself he was the
son of a German officer of noble birth. A Jewish mother and brother
in Rome were too much for him to stomach, and he was interested in
learning first hand about racial purity. So he went north to try
out German living, still using the name Enzo Bastiani.
    " My father was stationed here in the war. He'd have been
proud of me," said Kessel suddenly.
    Karl mouthed the word "What?" and pulled
off his headphones. Kessel repeated the statement.
    " If you say so, Herr Kessel." Karl picked up a black
balaclava from the end of the bed and tried it on.
    Kessel opened his wallet and removed a
small photograph, the colors muted and slightly browned over the
years. "Karl, this is your father," he said. "I took it eighteen
years ago outside Saint Peter's. Your father Rüdi and I were in
Rome to recover the relic. I still miss him."
    " Yes, Herr Kessel." Karl didn't even bother to look at the
photograph. He pulled on the balaclava and blew across the end of
the barrel of the handgun. Then he looked at his watch.
    " Take that thing off your head, Karl!" snapped
Kessel.
    Karl fired two imaginary shots at the
cracked and stained washbasin, but he left the balaclava on.
    " Karl, before the war, the Church in Germany taught that
Christ was Nordic." Kessel ignored the disobedience. "Unfortunately
we don't hear the teaching now. A pure religion for a pure world.
We could have such a religion again."
    Karl ignored this valuable insight into
the past and the future. He studied his watch once more. "What time
does the TV Roma program start, Herr Kessel?"
    Kessel looked at his own watch. "Nine
o'clock." He reached across the table. "I have a friend at TV Roma.
A film editor. He's arranged this pass to get you into the building
and up to the studio on the fourth floor." He handed a bright red
staff pass to Karl. "Clip it to your shirt before you go in. I want
you there exactly one hour before the program starts, before they
let the studio audience in. This notice has to be read out live
tonight." He showed Karl a sheet of paper.
    " You've already told me all this," Karl
complained.
    " So remember everything I've said," retorted Kessel. "Don't
go making a pig's ear of things once you get inside. Canon Levi was
going to sell that relic to me a long time ago, but your father
foolishly killed him too soon. This is your opportunity to redeem
your father's name, Karl."
    As he spoke about the past, a tremble of
excitement ran through his body. The note was sheer genius, printed
by computer on an inkjet printer using a German typeface. The youth
must slip past security and into the television studio, remove the
relic, and leave the note. With nothing else to show on the live
broadcast, the presenter would be sure to read it out to the
bewildered viewers. The wording said that the ADR had reclaimed the
property of the German people. It mentioned the proposed Shrine of
Unity in Germany where the pure could come to worship.
    " Just