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rather liked it. He thought it made the Church seem cool. His exact word, by
     the way. My rivals in the Curia didn’t agree.” He abruptly changed the subject. “I’m sorry about interrupting your holiday.
     I hope Chiara wasn’t angry.”
    â€œQuite the opposite.”
    â€œAre you telling me the truth?”
    â€œHave I ever misled you?”
    â€œDo you really want me to answer that?” Donati smiled. It was an effort.
    â€œHow are you holding up?” asked Gabriel.
    â€œI’m mourning the loss of my master and adjusting to my reduced circumstances and status loss.”
    â€œWhere are you staying?”
    â€œThe Jesuit Curia. It’s just down the street from the Vatican on the Borgo Santo Spirito. My rooms aren’t as nice as my apartment
     in the Apostolic Palace, but they’re quite comfortable.”
    â€œHave they found something for you to do?”
    â€œI’m going to be teaching canon law at the Gregoriana. I’m also designing a course on the Church’s troubled history with the
     Jews.” He paused. “Perhaps someday I can convince you to deliver a guest lecture.”
    â€œCan you imagine?”
    â€œI can, actually. The relationship between our two faiths has never been better, and it is because of your personal friendship
     with Pietro Lucchesi.”
    â€œI sent you a text the night he died,” said Gabriel.
    â€œIt meant the world to me.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you respond?”
    â€œFor the same reason I didn’t challenge Cardinal Albanese when he refused to allow you to attend the funeral. I needed your
     help on a sensitive matter, and I didn’t want to cast any unnecessary light on the closeness of our relationship.”
    â€œAnd the sensitive matter?”
    â€œIt concerns the death of the Holy Father. There were certain . . . irregularities.”
    â€œBeginning with the identity of the person who discovered the body.”
    â€œYou noticed that?”
    â€œActually, it was Chiara.”
    â€œShe’s a smart woman.”
    â€œWhy did Cardinal Albanese find the body? Why wasn’t it you, Luigi?”
    Donati looked down at his menu. “Perhaps we should order something to start. How about the fried artichoke leaves and zucchini
     flowers? And the filetti di baccalà . The Holy Father always swore they were the best in Rome.”

6
Ristorante Piperno, Rome
    The maître d’ insisted on sending over a bottle of complimentary wine. It was something special, he promised, a fine white from a small producer in Abruzzo. He was certain His Excellency would find it more than satisfactory. Donati, with considerable ceremony, declared it divine. Then, when they were alone again, he described for Gabriel the final hours of the papacy of Pope Paul VII. The Holy Father and his private secretary had shared a meal—a last supper, said Donati gravely—in the dining room of the papal apartments. Donati had taken only a bit of consommé. Afterward, the two men had adjourned to the study, where Donati, at the Holy Father’s request, had opened the curtains and the shutters of the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square. It was the penultimate act ofservice he would perform for his master, at least while His Holiness was still alive.
    â€œAnd the final act?” asked Gabriel.
    â€œI laid out the Holy Father’s nightly dose of medication.”
    â€œWhat was he taking?”
    Donati recited the names of three prescription drugs, all for the treatment of a failing heart.
    â€œYou managed to conceal it quite well,” said Gabriel.
    â€œWe’re rather good at that around here.”
    â€œI seem to recall a brief stay in the Gemelli Clinic a few months ago for a severe chest cold.”
    â€œIt was a heart attack. His second.”
    â€œWho knew?”
    â€œDottore Gallo, of course. And Cardinal Gaubert, the secretary of