"Who robbed the woods,
The trusting woods?
The unsuspecting trees
Brought out their burrs and mosses
His fantasy to please.
He scanned their trinkets, curious,
He grasped, he bore away.
What will the solemn hemlock,
What will the fir-tree say?"
Trying to keep her eyes on the road while she scribbled notes on a piece of paper, Sophie pressed on the gasp pedal in order to buzz through a yellow light. She heard a loud honk come from behind her, and stuck her tongue out at the rearview mirror.
"Listen," she hissed into the reciever of the handless phone, making a sharp right turn. "I don't care if you have to find him using your entire department or a crystal ball, I need you to find Bishop Aringarosa as soon as possible. You will be hearing from me before morning!"
Before the baffled receptionist could complain once more, Sophie pressed the disconnect button on the earpiece. Tossing the headset aside, she pulled up into the parkinglot of the Marseille Hotel and came to a stop. She turned off the car and leaned her head against the seat, closing her eyes and inhaling slowly. Releasing the breath, she attempted to relax her frayed nerves; it didn't work.
The twelve hour drive from London had given her plenty of time to go over the conversation between her and Silas the night before, picking apart everything that he had said again and again until her mind was spinning. Only two things had stuck in her memory, glaring at her like neon signs, until she could no longer ignore them.
"I killed a member of the Opus Dei, people it is my duty to protect, and a servant of the Lord! It was a foolish mistake, and for that, I should have died!"
After enough thinking, it had occured to Sophie that the only known Opus Dei member attacked by Silas had been Bishop Aringarosa... and it had, indeed, been an accident. A frown wrinkled her forehead as she opened her eyes and looked at the passanger seat. The notes she had taken echoed her thoughts. Although the Bishop had been severely wounded, he had not been killed.
"I will be waiting."
Sophie picked up the next page of notes. A call to Robert, who had sounded relieved to hear from her, confirmed that it had been a doctor-- one of the ones to have helped preform Silas' surgery-- that had signed him out into the care of a man that the doctor had identified as a member who had flown in from New York. The doctor had spoken to Silas, in fact, soon after he had come out of anethesia.
It was the fact, however, that Bishop Aringarosa had been... and still was, as far as she could tell... in the same hospital as Silas that surprised her. It was the same surgeon that had worked on them both.
Surely, one man would have asked about the other man's condition? Sophie looked out the window of the car, biting her lip. She briefly toyed with the idea that the whole bit about killing the Bishop had been faked, but the look of smouldering anger and grief that crossed Silas' face had been too intense. But...
He had known that he would be evading the police. The doctor had told him that much. However...no one had told him that Aringarosa was alive, and if they had told the Bishop that Silas was alive, surely there would have been some communication. Silas had left the hospital in the hands of an Opus Dei member from New York, thinking that he had killed Bishop Aringarosa...
Mist elle mare man ei. Meet me in Marseille.
...And expecting her to find him.
Sophie grabbed her notes, her purse and her phone, opening the car door and stepping out into the night air. After checking the locks, she walked into the Hotel. A blond woman at the front desk looked up as she came in, offering her a wide smile of acknowledgement. Her namtag read 'Anne.'
Sophie returned the smile and came up to the counter, pulling out her credit card. "Hello. I would like a room," she said, holding it out with her identification card. "One bed."
The blond glanced at the card, and for a moment, Sophie thought she saw a flicker of apprehension. "You must be Mademoiselle Neveu," Anne replied, continuing to smile. "There's a room waiting."
"What?" Sophie stammered, staring at a small receipt that sat next to a room key. The paper had been stamped as being paid.
Anne cheerfully pushed the key in her direction. "Enjoy the city of Marseille, Mademoiselle. Room 305."
Feeling stunned, Sophie took the key and headed towards the elevators. Room 305...the same room as in the hospital. There was only two people who knew she would be here, and only one person who would have that kind of sick humor. She shook her head, stepping into the elevator and pressing the door-close button.
"Going up," she sighed.
Watching the doors slide shut, Anne waited until the numbered lights on the elevator began to move upwards. The blond clerk grabbed the phone, punching a few numbers and waiting for the other end to pick up. Her smile vanished into unease.
"Hello?"
Shivering at the dark, silky voice, Anne swallowed her fear. "Miss Neveu arrived and is on her way up."
Silas smiled from inside the hotel room. "Good."
A click told her that the man had hung up. Anne set the phone down, and crossed herself. With that done, she went back to her work. The fear of the ghostly man was enough to keep her from calling the police, as he had warned her not to do.
Even so, the clerk couldn't get the image of the albino man from her mind... or the foreboding grip of the gun she had seen at his waist, glittering just beneath his black robes and waiting for it's prey.
