Read Online The Third Revelation by Ralph McInerny - Free Book Online

read slowly as if he were memorizing it. Finally he nodded, turned, and led them downstairs. They came into a vast temperature-controlled area with aisle after aisle of shelving on which archival boxes stretched into the distance. Pouvoir led them through the maze, seeming to know in advance exactly where the desired file was located. He stopped. A sunken light over his head seemed to illumine him. The priest’s thin hand went up, his finger sought and found a looping ring on the bottom of the archival box, and he pulled it out. Then, hugging it, he led them to a table, placed the box on it, and stepped back.
    Rodriguez was looking at the gray cardboard box with awe. Here was the secret written out by Sister Lucia, meant for the eyes of the pope alone. The three of them had stood there as if they expected the box to open itself. Traeger stepped forward and lifted the top of the box.
    It was empty.
    â€œEmpty!” Rodriguez was beside Traeger, and his voice betrayed the shock and more that he felt. Where was the message from the Blessed Virgin?
    Pouvoir remained in the attitude he had struck after placing the box on the table and stepping back. His eyes were cast down. It occurred to Traeger that the priest must have known the box was empty when he put it on the table. He had lifted it from the shelf, hugged it to him, brought it to the table. Surely he would have known the difference between an empty box and a full one?
    Rodriguez, over his first shock, demanded to see the record of those who had examined the contents of the box. Pouvoir nodded, approving of the demand. He closed the box, returned it to the shelf, and then led them back the way they had come. He produced a ledger in which were entered by dates the requests for archival items. He found what he was looking for. Under 2000. The name beside the entry was Cardinal Maguire.
    They didn’t speak until later, after they had left the strangely unperturbed Pouvoir, exited the building, and gone across the vast, now empty piazza to a bar on the Via della Conciliazione. Rodriguez had walked in silence, still shaken by what they had found—or hadn’t found. He ordered brandy and drank half of it. Then he began to talk.
    â€œThe third secret was revealed in the year two thousand, when Ratzinger was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
    â€œPerhaps he didn’t return it.”
    â€œThat’s what we’re going to find out.”
    â€œJust drop in on Pope Benedict and put the question to him?”
    But Rodriguez was in no mood for levity. What he meant was that first thing in the morning they would go to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Most of those who had worked for Ratzinger were still in place there: Di Noia, Brown, others.
    â€œMeanwhile, we get drunk,” Traeger suggested.
    He didn’t mean that, of course. In his present mood, Rodriguez could have drunk a quart of brandy without much effect. But they did have several drinks while Rodriguez talked, just talked—he had to talk. After a time, he subsided, and then, out of the silence, he said, “So the murders weren’t in vain. That’s what he was after.”
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    Traeger didn’t realize at first that Eugenio Piacere was a cardinal. Like Joseph Ratzinger before him, he eschewed the cardinalatial robes while in the office, arriving in a simple black cassock with a beret pulled low on his head. When he took it off, he might have been displaying his high-domed bald head. He received them with a small smile, bowing them into his office, closing the door, and indicating where they could sit. He himself went to a brocade armchair that seemed too large for him.
    â€œYour message was alarming,” he said softly, looking from Rodriguez to Traeger. Rodriguez slumped in his chair.
    â€œYou didn’t know?” he asked.
    â€œI didn’t know.” The smile had been replaced by an expression of sadness.