Both stepped further inside to find crates upon crates stacked in the room. She watched as he pulled one of the sheets off an item directly to his right. They stared at what was in front of them.
“Madre de Dios,” he whispered.
“What is it? What did you find?” Midas asked in a rush.
“A statue of the crucifixion made out of gold, I think. Several marble statues of saints.” Ildefanso swiped another sheet off a long, low coffin-like structure. “A reliquary. Midas, there are tons of items down here. It would take months to catalog them all.”
Daleyza had wandered to the wall behind him. When she pulled the sheet off it, a large thin crate appeared, a corner of it broken off. “Fanso, this one is open. Help me take the lid off.”
They pried the lid off to find a mass of straw, and they dug in to find a frame for a very old painting, but the canvas was gone.
He turned to the next crate, and digging out Gem’s screwdriver again, he used the nail-puller feature to open it. This one had an undisturbed painting in it. “This looks like a Klimt,” she told him. They shared a look.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked her.
“My family was not Nazis, nor were they sympathizers,” she protested.
“Where else could all this possibly come from, Daleyza?”
Midas interrupted. “I’m patching God in.”
God’s voice came on the comms. “What’s this about Nazis?”
“Yes,” Daleyza confirmed. “This vault is filled with crates of what’s likely art, church artifacts, and I’ll bet jewelry and gold if we were to look further.”
Ildefanso added, “Bariloche was one of the major sites where Nazis fled at the end of the war since Perón was a known sympathizer. They’ve found objects and heirlooms, both from Nazis fleeing prosecution and from Jewish heirlooms stolen during World War II, all over Argentina. Rumors held that there were still things to find. Everything in this vault looks to fit the bill… and there’s a lot of it.”
“One of the crates held a painting, but it’s missing. The others appear undisturbed, at least in this area,” Daleyza reported.
“I don’t think it’s too outrageous a guess that this is how General Howard is funding his escape from St. Lucia,” God surmised. “Howard needs cash because he can’t touch his accounts. He’sprobably been collecting favors from all his old contacts to keep afloat. Daleyza mentioned she’s seen him with her family in the past.”
“Hmm. So he comes to Daleyza’s brother and asks to cash in his favor. Rodrigo gives him a painting.”
“It would make sense,” Midas replied. “We haven’t seen any movement on his accounts, so we know he had to have had a backup plan in case he needed to escape and couldn’t access his funds. I’ll start a search on the dark web for any famous paintings being auctioned off.”
“And it’s also no surprise that we’d find connections between the Salieri and the Nazis. It’s a perfect match made in hell. I’m willing to bet we’ll find more caches like this as we dig further into these assholes.”
Her stomach turned as she continued to survey what was in the vault and what it meant. “I still can’t believe this,” she whispered. “By all accounts, mymadrewould never have allowed something like this in her life. I was always told she didn’t even tell white lies—that’s how Catholic she was—so allowing Nazi contraband inside our home? No.”
“Maybe she didn’t know,” Steel said simply. “You said it yourself. Women in our circles weren’t often aware of business.” He paused. “I never thought to ask. What was her ancestry? I know she was at least partly Latin.”
The answer caught in her throat. It would be the nail in the coffin, so saying it out loud pained her. However, Midas found information quickly, so denying she knew was pointless.
“Austrian. On her father’s side.”
No one spoke. Ildefanso stared at her, a strange expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“How did your father meet your mother, Daleyza?”
“Believe it or not, my mother was one of the nurses who tended toPapá’ssecond wife.”
“Steel,” Midas interjected, “I’ve researched the company logo. It’s been with the company for fifty years.”
“Madre de Dios!” His face took on an ashen complexion.
“Wh-what?” she stammered.
Midas explained, “The trucking line has been around since before you were born, Daleyza. You’re the youngest child, with significant years between you and your eldest brother. Rodrigo’s sixteen years older than you, so he could almost be your father, and you were barely nineteen when you married Steel.”
