But that was only the beginning.
Before his men returned, Lars was informed that Maria Pelati had rented a limo to Zürich, and any attempts to contact her driver would be pointless, because of cellular interference in the Alps. Then he was told an American named Otto Buckner, a gentleman matching Payne’s description, had purchased eight pairs of tickets on eight different buses, and all of them were currently on the road and heading in opposite directions around Switzerland.
Of course what Lars didn’t know was that all of those purchases were false leads. The truth was that Payne and Jones had found their transportation in the long-term parking area at the Bern airport. They simply waited for a businessman to pull into the lot, then had Maria flirt with him to obtain his travel information. Once she discovered he was flying to Paris and would be gone for an entire week, Payne and Jones knew they could take his BMW to Küsendorf and wouldn’t have to worry about the car being reported stolen for days.
Dr Boyd managed to explain everything they needed to know: his discovery in Bath, his theories on Emperor Tiberius, and his translation of the scroll. Then, once he had answered all of their questions, Maria pointed out the mystery of the laughing man, described the statue on the roof of Il Duomo, and gave them some facts about Tiberius’s right-hand man, General Paccius.
Needless to say, their heads were swimming at the end of the session.
Just to be fair, though, they returned the favor by briefing them on their backgrounds, their deal with Manzak and Buckner, the cover-ups at the crime scenes, and everything else they could remember. By the time they finished, there were only two things that everyone was able to agree on. One, all of them were baffled. And two, if they had any hope of learning anything at the Ulster Archives, they needed to get some sleep.
Because tomorrow would be filled with even more excitement than today.
47
Nick Dial rented a hotel room a few blocks from the crime scene so he could walk to Fenway in the middle of the night if he felt the urge to reexamine the evidence. And the truth was, he probably would, since his body was still on European time. Or was it African time? Honestly, he didn’t know, since he’d passed through eight different time zones in the last day alone.
Dial checked his watch and decided he might be able to catch Cardinal Rose at the Vatican. They hadn’t spoken since Tuesday, and he was hoping Rose had found some additional information on Father Jansen. He already knew that Jansen was affiliated with the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC), though he didn’t know his exact role. Dial needed to know if Jansen was interning with a cardinal from Denmark or Finland, or if his position was more substantial.
The phone rang eight times before someone answered. ‘This is Cardinal Rose.’
‘Joe? This is Nick Dial at Interpol.’
‘Nick! I was wondering when you were going to get ahold of me. I left several messages.’
‘Sorry about that. It’s been a busy couple of days.’
‘CNN just reported that another body was found in Boston. Is that true?’
‘Very true. I just left Fenway Park.’
‘Was the victim another priest?’
‘Nope. This time it was a Pope.’
‘Excuse me?’
Dial clarified his statement. ‘The victim was Orlando Pope, a ballplayer for the Yankees.’
Rose took a few seconds to absorb the news. ‘That can’t be a coincidence.’
‘Probably not.’
‘Was there another note?’
Dial grinned. ‘Are you sure that you’re a cardinal? You sound more like a cop.’
‘Sorry, I don’t mean to pry. It’s just that I’m trying to get a clear picture. I figure, with my knowledge of the Vatican and your knowledge of the case, we might be able to help each other.’
‘Speaking of which, what did you learn about Father Jansen?’
‘Nothing useful, I’m afraid. I talked to all my friends on the PBC, and they were saddened by the loss. It seems Erik was one of the good ones, one of those people that everyone knew and liked. In fact, the more I learned about him, the more I regretted not knowing him.’
‘What about his job? Did you find out what he did?’
‘A little bit of everything. Part clerical, part researcher, part messenger. He was a jack-of-all-trades, just trying to learn the ropes.’
‘What about funny business? Sex, drugs, anything?’
Rose took a deep breath. ‘The kid was clean.’
Dial made a note to himself. ‘So this wasn’t about him. That’s what you’re telling me, right? Father Jansen was the victim, but it wasn’t about him.’
Rose nodded. ‘That would be my guess.’
‘What about the Vatican? Anything going on that I should know about?’
‘What are you implying? That we had something to do with it?’
Dial shook his head. ‘I’m not saying that at all. I’m just wondering if there’s anything going on that I should be aware of. Any scandals? Controversies? Bitter feuds? Give me some help, Joe. People are dying, and I don’t know why.’
Rose stayed quiet for a moment, gathering his thoughts. When he finally spoke, he did so in a much softer voice. ‘All organizations – even the innocuous ones – have enemies. No matter what you do, whether it’s good or bad, someone’s bound to be offended. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but the truth is, the Catholic Church gets more threats than any organization in the world. It’s so bad we have a special staff whose sole job is to sort through our mail and separate the real threats from the fake ones.’
‘Is that so? What do they do with the real ones?’
‘I guess that depends on the threat. We have a first-rate security staff that would handle things on our grounds. Anything else would be turned over to the police.’
‘What type of threats are we talking about?’
‘Bombs, fires, assassinations. Everything that you’d expect. Then, of course, there are the whitecollar threats. Lawsuits seem to be popular these days. So does blackmail. You know, “Give me a million dollars, or I’ll tell the press that a priest molested my son.”’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
‘I wish I was, Nick. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in today. What’s that expression? Money is the root of all evil… Whoever said that was a very wise man.’
Benito Pelati spent the night in his office, waiting for an update. Twenty years ago he would’ve been in Milan himself, doing the things that had earned him his reputation as one of the most feared men in Italy. Now he was relegated to the sidelines, stuck with Dante running things. Not that Dante wasn’t capable, for he was. Still, Benito would’ve preferred his presence in Vienna, working on the excavation that was so important to their cause.
When the call finally came, Benito was angry. He wasn’t one to tolerate inefficiency.
‘What took you so long? You were supposed to call me hours ago.’
Dante replied, ‘I would’ve if it wasn’t for her. Her involvement has complicated things.’
The comment stunned Benito. He wasn’t used to backtalk from anyone. ‘What are you talking about? Who’s involved?’
‘I’m staring at surveillance photos from the library, and Maria was there with Boyd. You know, I wondered why your guards in Orvieto waited so long to take him out.’