A. I. Evolution: The Coming of Christopher

Chapter 57

Smit is sitting in his office the next day, having his morning coffee as he goes over the reports from the various investigative divisions, which have been gathering information on the shooting of Saint Christopher. The news agencies have been after him continuously since the shooting, demanding something they can add to their report when they broadcast to the rest of the world.

The internal demands from the leaders of the Church is even more insistent. They wanted answers, so they could decide how to proceed from here. There were even rumors that Christopher was a fraud, and that he had been shot to protect the Church from future embarrassment. Pope Pius was still standing firm on his backing of Christopher, but some of the Cardinals were being swayed by public opinion.

Smit had his personal assistant handle all his calls for a few minutes, so he could drink his coffee and think about what they had learned so far, as little as that was. He picks up the latest report on the gun in the wall. He reads through it and shakes his head at the starkness of it. His guards were not able to find anything that would indicate that it was fired remotely. There was nothing attached to the trigger or even the hammer that struck the end of the bullet, sending it careening down the barrel to be ejected towards its target.

The wall itself had not been touched in three years when the drywall had been placed over the wooden support beam to finish the hallway in a modern fashion. The only fingerprints on the outside of the wall were from one of the cleaning staff that had retired almost a year before and is now living in a nursing home just outside of Brussels Belgium. The rifle itself was covered in fingerprints, all belonging to the same person, Mr. Wong Fung, Christopher's long-time companion.

Smit sips on his coffee as he stares off into space for a moment, trying to put it all together. "The rifle was obviously placed there by Wong many years before, which did not make any sense at all. To his knowledge of how things had played out, even the Pope did not know who Christopher really was till the day before the shooting. So, if Wong wanted to shoot his friend, how did he know that he would be in that window".

Val had suggested that the target was Pope Pius. Smit could not figure that one out either, because there would have been lots of time to have the rifle shoot Pius when he first stepped up to the window. Then of course, there is the fact that Wong set himself on fire, so he would die at the same time as his long-time friend and companion. Smit picked up the report from the American C.I.A. that hinted at Wong setting fire to the chair manufacturing plant that Christopher had worked at nine years before, killing five of his closest friends. So, the chair sitting on top of the pile of wood was about the only thing that made any sense to him.

He sits the reports back down on the desk in front of him and turns his swivel chair to face the window behind him. "I have a meeting with the Pope and his Cardinals at one o'clock this afternoon, and I have no more answers now than I had yesterday or will ever have. I don't know what to tell them, other than it is the strangest thing I have ever investigated in my lengthy career here at the Vatican," he thinks to himself.

He goes over in his mind everybody he has talked to, who is even remotely connected to the case, and can only come up with one person that he has not been able to talk to in depth. He downs his coffee and heads for St. Peter's Basilica and his friend Henri, who has been looking after Jane day and night for the last twenty-four hours.

Smit enters from the side entrance again and moves slowly up to the chair and the table that the body of Christopher is laying on. He can't help thinking that Christopher looks no different now than when he was alive, but remembers that his body had not been embalmed, so the formaldehyde had not eaten away the fat in his face and body.

Henri, who is using the back of the chair to keep himself upright, sees Smit coming and steps back some to see what his old friend wants. "What have you found out? Do you know who the shooter is?"

Smit shakes his head, as he watches the steady line of mourners walk by the makeshift viewing table. "No, the evidence does not make any sense. We have a gun with Wong's fingerprints all over it, that was placed in the wall, aimed at the window to the Pope's study, three years before when Wong was here in Rome with Christopher."

"But Wong killed himself before Christopher was shot. Right?"

"Yes, and there is no trigger mechanism on the gun, there is even dust on the trigger that has not been disturbed in years. I am completely stumped as to how this was carried out, and I have a meeting with Pius and the Cardinals this afternoon. The rumors and speculation are running wild throughout the Vatican. Some are even saying that Saint Christopher is a charlatan, and this was all staged to denounce the church."

Henri shakes his head and frowns deeply. "Well, you and I both know that is not true."

Smit turns to look at the body on the table surrounded by flowers sent by dignitaries from all over the world. "I don't know what to think right now. The only thing I know for sure is that the person closest to Saint Christopher is the only person I have not been able to interview properly."

Henri looks to Jane sitting as she has for the long hours since the shooting in the window of the Pope's study. "I don't think you will get much from her. She has retreated into a small space in her mind where her lover and long-time partner is still alive, and he needs her to stay here and watch over him till he returns to her unharmed. I fear that Jane may never recover from his death. In life, Christopher was a very dynamic speaker and had captured the minds of millions. I can only imagine what effect a mind like that could have on someone who was physically and mentally in love with him."

"Oh, I see," says Smit. "So, she would not be able to help me then."

Henri turns to Smit. "I don't know that she can even help herself at this point."

Smit places his hand on Henri's shoulder. "I don't envy you your charge of looking after her," he says. "I will let you know if anything changes, but right now I am at a standstill in this investigation." Smit takes one last look at Jane sitting motionless in the high-backed chair, before turning back to the side entrance and away from the sad scene.