Page 48 of No Stone Unturned

He shook his head, regret heavy in his voice. “I did not.”

“Wasn’t there a background check?”

“Several, but the falsification was done well, and Nicolo fell through the cracks. I searched for him every day for seven years and begged God over and over to let me find him alive—to try and make amends. I eventually found him in a Sperlonga hospital. Thankfully, he’d been fingerprinted as part of the foster process, so when he arrived at the hospital, not able to speak, they ran his prints. I went to him immediately, but Nicolo had been traumatized, rendered mute. The experts weren’t sure what was wrong with him, other than that he’d been beaten. At first, they thought he was on the autism spectrum, but that was eventually ruled out. He’d been traumatized and he’d adopted similar techniques to calm himself. After that first year, the doctors and psychologists realized his silence was self-imposed.”

Just hearing this story again, in more detail, hurt more than I could say. I couldn’t imagine him as a small boy, so alone and afraid, with no one to turn to for help. I wondered if he felt that way right now, and it made me even more determined to find him and let him know he didn’t have to face any of this alone.

“Nicolo was terrified of strangers, so I stayed back. But there was a nurse there, tending him. He responded to her.”

“Juliette,” I supplied. The only mother Slash had ever known, and the woman who had opened her heart and home to a scared little boy.

“Si.She fell in love with him, much as I had. She quickly requested permission to adopt him, which was unusual, as she was a single mother herself. But people are drawn to him. He’s a blessed child.”

I was sure Slash wouldn’t have considered himself blessed, given all he’d been through. I pushed my sunglasses to the top of my head so I could look at Father Armando with an unfiltered view. “So, Juliette adopted him, and he grew up in Sperlonga with his new family.”

“Correct. I did not stand in the way of his adoption. How could I? I’ve never said this to another person, but I was ready to give up the priesthood to take care of him. It was difficult for me to step back, to let someone else take charge of his life once again. But Juliette, she is a wonderful woman with a kind and compassionate heart. It was the right thing to do. Nicolo needed a mother, and now he had a brother, too. My decision was validated when, a year later, he started talking again and making great strides. Juliette, bless her, let me keep in touch with him after I told her my story of how he’d once been mine. When Nicolo was sixteen years old, she permitted me to tell him of our connection at birth. That’s how he came into my life. We have always been connected at the heart, Nicolo and I. He’s truly been my greatest gift from God.”

I lifted my ponytail from my neck, wishing I could dump a bottle of cold water on my head. “Is that why you groomed him for the church?”

The question appeared to catch the father by surprise. “Groom him? I never considered that for him. I didn’t even talk to him about the priesthood. He came to me when he was eighteen and said he’d seen a vision. He wanted to ask me about the church, God and how he could serve.” The father slipped his fingers behind a white blossom and inhaled the fragrance. “I was hesitant at first, but he’d had a calling, and he was persistent. That’s Nicolo for you. When he wants something, he can be singularly persuasive. I could not refuse him anything.”

No one could, it seemed. Not even me. “His mother, Juliette, she didn’t mind that he was interested in the priesthood?”

“She did not. She, like me, let him follow his heart.”

Juliette lived in London now, and I hadn’t met her yet. I already liked her anyway. A lot. “What happened next?”

“He began training for the priesthood. Not under my tutelage, but I kept a careful watch on him. It quickly became apparent that Nicolo had important talents.”

“Computer skills.”

“Not only. Analytical, mathematical, logic and visual-spatial skills that were off the charts. He also had an extraordinary ability to code. All those who witnessed his skill agreed he was astonishingly gifted. He quickly outstripped everything his teachers could offer him. We had to bring in special tutors and, even then, it wasn’t enough. He soon became the teacher. Not surprisingly, word got back to the Vatican.”

“They had other uses for him,” I said, stating the obvious. Of course, they did. Slash was so talented, he would have excelled at nearly any challenge they could have given him. But in the end, they had used him for darker, more nefarious, purposes, and he had apparently surpassed expectations with those, too. How much of his life had ever gone the way he wanted?

Perhaps Father Armando was thinking along the same lines, because sadness settled into his face and mouth. I steered the topic to safer ground.

“Slash studied while he worked at the Vatican, right?”

“He did. He obtained several degrees, no surprise for a very talented young man.”

Nope, no surprise at all. “Father, do you happen to know what year Slash went to the United States?”

Father Armando considered. “Seven or eight years ago, I think. I’m sorry. I’m not sure exactly when.”

I watched him carefully, trying to gauge his reaction. “To your knowledge, had he ever been to the US before that?”

“Not before he began his training at the Vatican. After that, I don’t know. At a certain point, I was no longer apprised of his activities. I suppose it’s possible, given his line of work, but I cannot confirm that.”

I was satisfied he was telling the truth. “Have you ever seen a birth certificate for him?”

“I have. One issued by child services shortly after he was taken from me and fostered.”

“What exactly was his name on the birth certificate, if I may ask?”

“Nicolo Cilento. Cilento after the hamlet where the church I was working at was located. However, when he was adopted by Juliette, she changed his name to Romeo—a poetic gesture, perhaps—his Romeo to her Juliette. Nicolo took her last name, too, which, at the time, was Fortunato. She eventually remarried and took her new husband’s name, but as far as I know, Nicolo did not. So growing up, he was Romeo Fortunato. As I already mentioned, he chose to be known as Nicolo Cilento at the Vatican, but at some point, he asked to be called Slash. I admit it was quite bewildering to me at first, but he assured me it was a nickname of his own choosing. He said it was a computer term, shortened for the backslash on the keyboard. At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of it, but later it occurred to me that for him, the backslash was incredibly symbolic. It was as if he were putting a hard stop, or a backslash, to his old life. From that moment on, he was his own man. For the first time in his life, he’d given himself a name and identity of his own choosing.”

A lump settled in my throat. I had no idea there was so much history behind his nickname. So much I didn’t know about him.

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