Templar's Code

CHAPTER 64

“I deserved that.”

Edie stared at the red imprint of her hand on Caedmon’s left cheek. “You deserve a lot worse than that. An innocent man is dead because—” Choking back a sob, she placed her hand over her mouth. A few feet away, firefighters decked out in maroon and yellow held a long hose as they blasted the exterior of Woolf’s Antiquarian Books with water.

“I’m sorry, love.” Caedmon put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Not good enough. You should have warned Rubin that there’s a killer on the loose who will do anything to get his hands on the Emerald Tablet.” Shaking her head, she gasped. Still horrified by what she’d seen in Rubin’s boudoir. “God! Why didn’t you tell him about Rico Suave?”

“I had no way of knowing that the bastard followed us to London. So, yes, mea maxima culpa.”

Hearing his apology—in Latin!— made her livid. “Go to hell!” she retorted, shrugging off his hand.

“At the moment, neither of us is going anywhere.” Caedmon jutted his chin at the quartet of police officers who were busy cordoning off the area near the bookshop. “No doubt, the quiz masters at the London Fire Brigade and Scotland Yard will want to thoroughly interrogate us.” Taking her by the elbow, he steered her away from the frantic flow of pedestrians and first responders.

Edie stooped to pick up the shoulder bag that she’d earlier flung to the ground. “Any idea what we should tell the authorities?”

“As little as possible.” Caedmon shepherded her into the doorway of a print and map shop. Closed for business on account of it being a Sunday. “Best to keep answers to a minimum. We were visiting an old friend. Yes, he had many valuable books on the premises. Since we barely survived the inferno, there should be no finger-pointing in our direction.”

“What if we’re grilled?” She stopped herself from saying “over the fire.”

“My old group leader at MI5 will see to it that we’re cleared in short order.”

Friends in high places. Must be nice.

“And I don’t advise mentioning the video,” Caedmon continued, his eyes glued to the devastated bookshop across the way. “A bit too much spice in the ragout. Especially if Scotland Yard discovers we were present at Jason Lovett’s murder five days ago. Thames House will cover for me on this side of the Atlantic, but that’s as far as they’ll go. And they won’t be happy about traversing that distance.”

“So we tell them that we found Rubin hanging from—Ohmygod!” Edie raised her arm and pointed to the stylishly dressed blond woman running down Cecil Court. “It’s Marnie!” Putting a hand on his back, she shoved Caedmon out of the doorway. “Don’t let her see this!”

No one should have to witness so horrific a scene of death. No, not death, murder.

Caedmon ran toward Marnie, catching her in his arms. Standing in the doorway, Edie watched as Marnie, frantically trying to escape, began to scream hysterically. Tears welled in her eyes, the other woman’s pain so tangible, so gut-wrenching, she could feel it from a distance.

Not wishing to be an intruder to Marnie’s grief, she turned her head and examined the wares in the shop window, feigning an interest in a rare, and exorbitantly expensive cartoon from Punch magazine. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Caedmon turn Marnie over to the rescue workers, who in turn wrapped a blanket around her shoulders before leading her to an ambulance parked at the end of the court.

“The bastard ought to be strung up by his entrails,” Caedmon muttered a few moments later, rejoining her. “Such a waste of blood and treasure.” He wearily sighed. “My God, what a grueling day.”

“Like so many of your countrymen, you have a gift for understatement.”

Rather than reply, Caedmon turned his head, presenting his face in profile.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s called turning the other cheek,” he informed her.

Belatedly realizing that she’d behaved like a teenaged drama queen, Edie smoothed her hand over the proffered cheek. “So how did Rico Suave find us?” Suddenly cold, she sidled closer to him.

“Obviously, he’s been tracking us since we arrived. Probably followed us from Rhode Island.”

“It’s crazy. . . . We don’t even know his name. He’s just a pretty face with a big murky question mark superimposed over his forehead.”

“According to Marnie, yesterday she met a beautiful young man who hails from Thessaloniki, of all places. Do you have the mobile?”

She reached into the pocket of her trench coat and removed the cell phone, handing it to him.

As he examined the cherry-red phone, a crease materialized between his brow. “Marnie’s, I believe. She mentioned that it was pinched last evening. She noticed it missing after she spent the night with the aforementioned young man.”

“You’re kidding me! Marnie actually slept with Rico Suave? But he’s . . . he’s a cold-blooded killer,” she sputtered, stunned by the revelation.

“A fact that she is blissfully ignorant of. Moreover, she has no idea that her Greek lover was involved with Rubin’s murder. I’m assuming that in addition to lifting her mobile, the bastard also nicked the key to the bookshop.” He flipped open the cell phone. Maneuvering through the navigation keys, he replayed the video. He turned slightly, preventing her from viewing the ghoulish imagery. A few moments later, he snapped the phone shut. “I don’t know if you noticed, but there was an eight-pointed star incised in one of the wood panels.”

“That’s the same symbol that was on the knife used to kill Jason Lovett.”

“The eight-pointed octogram is a Judeo-Christian pictogram of the Creation. Composed of two interlacing squares, it symbolizes the seven days of Genesis followed by the eighth day of regeneration in the newly created Paradise.” As he spoke, Caedmon absently rubbed his hand over his reddened cheek. “The fact that the killer uses the octogram so freely implies that he is aware of the so-called Genesis code that’s encrypted on the Emerald Tablet.”

“Please don’t tell me that after all of this”—Edie gestured to the chaotic crush of firemen and spectators—“we’re still going to Philly.”

“If I don’t go, Rubin will have died in vain.”

“Time out.” She made a T with her hands. “I think we’re getting way ahead of ourselves. We don’t know if the Emerald Tablet actually contains a Genesis code. That has yet to be verified. Meaning it’s still very much a speculative premise.”

“I can’t take the chance that Rubin’s killer will find the relic,” Caedmon countered, a determined look on his face. “Twelve thousand years ago, an entire continent vanished from the face of the planet. Obliterated. The Genesis code that’s embedded on the Emerald Tablet may have triggered the catastrophe.”

“But you said it yourself: Without the encryption key, the Emerald Tablet has no power.” No sooner did she utter those words than Edie was hit with a horrifying thought. “Oh God! You’re worried that Rico Suave has the encryption key.”

“Or the group that he’s working for is in possession of it. Yes, the thought has crossed my mind.”

“So, who is Rico Suave’s employer?”

Caedmon shrugged. “A rogue nation. Or perhaps a terrorist cell. Even a lone madman is a terrifying prospect if the madman has the motive and the means to create the primeval atom.”

“Because the Big Bang only needs one exploding atom,” she quietly murmured, the dread escalating.

“Surely you understand why I must fly to Philadelphia.”

“Telling me there are six universes parallel to this one doesn’t mean that I understand quantum physics. Not to mention you used the singular ‘I’ instead of the royal ‘we.’ ”

“When I call Thames House, I’ll arrange to have you taken to—”

She put a silencing hand over his mouth. “Don’t waste your breath. I’m going with you.” Point made, she lowered the makeshift gag.

“Right.” He acquiesced with a grim nod. “In all honesty, I don’t know where the clues contained within The Book of Moses will take us. If anywhere. After two hundred and thirty-five years, the trail is a bit cold. Our search may very well begin and end at the American Philosophical Society. What we do know is that Franklin intended to conscript two accomplices to help him safeguard the Emerald Tablet. The Triad, as he called it.”

“And he planned to use the Second Continental Congress as his recruiting office.” Suddenly realizing the significance of that, she gasped. “Meaning that all of the members of the Triad were signatories to the Declaration of Independence.”