The Sculptor

Chapter 34

Sam Markham sat at the doctor’s desk—the harsh, speedy pulse of the fluorescent lights battering his tired eyes as he typed the words “topiary garden” and “Rhode Island” into the Google search engine.

“But Sam,” said Bill Burrell, leaning over his shoulder, “what makes you so sure The Michelangelo Killer discovered the location for his Bacchus on the Internet?”

“Something the Reverend Bonetti said about their stolen Pietà—that they used to have a picture of it on their Web site. Just bear with me—I’m sort of working backward here.”

Markham clicked on a couple of links; then, unsatisfied, he typed the words “Earl Dodd” and garden Watch Hill without quotes—but still came up empty. Markham thought for a moment, then flipped through his copy of Slumbering in the Stone to the page on the history of Michelangelo’s Bacchus.

“ The Bacchus was originally commissioned by Cardinal Raffaele Riario,’” Markham read aloud. “‘Who rejected it upon its completion on the grounds that the statue was distasteful. We know that by 1506, the Bacchus had found its way into a collection of ancient Roman sculptures belonging Jacopo Galli, Michelangelo’s banker. There the Bacchus lived for some seventy years, weathering the elements at Cancelleria in Galli’s Roman garden, until it was bought by the Medici family and transferred to Florence in 1576.’”

Markham typed the words Roman garden and Rhode Island into the search engine.

“Bingo,” he said, and clicked on the sixth result from the top. The link brought him to a Web site titled, Homes of the Elite. A couple more clicks and Special Agent Sam Markham found exactly what he was looking for: a single photograph of Earl Dodd’s topiary garden—no name, no address, just a caption that simply read, “A lovely Roman garden in Rhode Island—overlooking the sea!”

“Jesus Christ,” said Burrell. “He must have driven around for weeks just trying to find the fucking place.”

“And must have thought it nothing short of divine providence when he learned that the owner of his Roman garden was in finance like Jacopo Galli—wouldn’t have settled for anyplace else, I suspect. It’s why he went through so much trouble to display the statue there.”

Markham flipped to Cathy’s chapter on the Rome Pietà. He skimmed, then read aloud, “‘In such a fashion, with the body of Christ illuminated by the natural light falling from above, the Pietà in its original installation must have seemed to the visitors at the Chapel of St. Petronilla as physically accessible yet at the same time untouchable; material yet undoubtedly supernatural—like the Savior himself, corporal yet divine.’“

“You’re searching like he would,” said Burrell. “You’re using Hildebrant’s words to find your destination like you think he did.”

“The light,” whispered Markham, typing. “It has to do with the light.”

Natural light falling above chapel Rhode Island.

Nothing.

Light above chapel Rhode Island.

Nothing.

Chapel Rhode Island.

Nothing—too many.

Markham backtracked through Cathy’s section on the Rome Pietà—his finger tracing along the text like a lie detector needle.

The Pietà is thus an expressive and decorous funerary monument, but at the same time perhaps the greatest devotional image ever created: a private memorial built for one man, but a public donation of faith intended for all of mankind.

“But you see,” Cathy said in Markham’s mind. “One has to ultimately remember that the Pietà was originally intended to be a funerary monument, not just a devotional image.”

Markham typed, Rhode Island funerary monument private memorial public.

Nothing.

Funerary, Markham thought frantically. Odd word.

Impulsively, he changed his search criteria to, Rhode Island cemetery monument memorial public faith.

Markham clicked on the first of his search results. What he saw next made his breath stop in his throat.

The first photograph was an exterior shot of a small, circular structure that appeared to be built from marble, and that reminded Markham of the columned temples of Ancient Rome. The columns themselves were situated around an interior wall, through which there appeared to be only a single entrance. Beneath the photograph was the caption:

The Temple of Divine Spirit is located at the heart of Echo Point Cemetery. Its circular design—inspired by the “round” Temple of Hercules in Rome—is intended to represent an all-inclusive memorial for those who have passed on, as well as a monument to those who have been left behind. It is a place of prayer and contemplation open to the public and people of all faiths. On your next trip to Echo Point Cemetery, please feel free to remember your loved ones in the Temple of Divine Spirit.

Beneath this text was another photograph—this one of the temple’s interior.

Markham did not bother to read the accompanying caption.

No. The single shaft of sunlight streaming down from the oculus in the temple’s ceiling told him everything he needed to know.