“Leaving us with the stone and the bridge.”
“Which, according to the map, are within close proximity to each other.” Caedmon held up a handheld GPS device that he’d found in the bottom of the box. “This should make our scavenger hunt that much easier.” Decision made, he folded the map. “We’ll begin our hunt at the Templar stone first thing tomorrow morning. To that end, we should gather any of Lovett’s archaeology supplies that we might need.”
“I saw an empty knapsack in the living room. We can use it for the small stuff, trowels, magnifying glass, bull-whips. You know, the Indiana Jones grab bag.”
Caedmon chuckled. Edie’s quirky personality was one of the things that attracted him to his American lover. That and her indomitable spirit.
As Edie trotted off in search of a rucksack, he gathered the larger items that they might need. Bending to retrieve a pickax from the floor, he noticed several sheets of paper protruding from the fax machine. Curious, he reached for the paper instead of the pickax.
Edie reentered the office. “What did you find?”
“Mmmm… I’m not altogether certain.” Puzzled, he showed her the two sheets of paper.
Holding one sheet in each hand, she examined them in turn. “Well, this one is easy”—she gently shook the piece of paper in her left hand—“it’s a fax cover sheet to a Dr. Lyon at Catholic University. This other one is just plain weird. It looks like a carved message written in a mystery alphabet. Mystery because I’ve never seen letters that even remotely resemble these.”
“Lovett did mention finding a primitive script carved on an excavated foundation stone. It’s possible that he faxed the script to this Dr. Lyon in the hopes that the other man might decipher its meaning.”
He stared at the curious script.
“It could be some sort of Indian writing.” Edie handed the two sheets of paper back to him.
“I didn’t think the Narragansett possessed a written language.” He folded the fax sheets and placed them inside Lovett’s field notebook. “If, in fact, this was carved onto a foundation stone, its significance is negligible. As part of the building’s footings, the foundation stones aren’t visible. Chthonic in nature, such stones are symbolic of the grave and often carved with a message not meant to be seen by the living.”
“And on that cheery note, we need to hit the road.” She handed him the Templar signet ring.
About to replace the ring in its plastic bag, Caedmon had a sudden change of heart. Instead, he slipped it on his right ring finger. A perfect fit.
Noticing Edie’s quizzical expression, he shrugged.
“For safekeeping.”
CHAPTER 27
“But I thought that you thoroughly searched the premises,” Mercurius replied, surprised to learn that the meddlesome Brit had discovered something inside Jason Lovett’s cottage.
“I did search it!” Saviour exclaimed, clearly agitated. “But I tell you, I just saw Aisquith and his bitch haul a metal box into their hotel room. I’m so vlakas! No! Stupid doesn’t begin to describe me. How could I have missed—”
“Shhh. Calm down, amoretto. The pair has obviously found Dr. Lovett’s research material.” In the process of watering an indoor lemon tree, Mercurius set the galvanized can on the nearby potting table and shifted the cordless phone to his other ear. “As with all problems, this one has a solution.” Although, at the moment, he didn’t know what that might be.
“I can deal with those two the same way that I dealt with Jason Lovett.”
Mercurius hesitated. “I’m in a quandary and must ponder this new development before I make a decision,” he said, stowing his ego lest he reach a poorly contrived solution.
“The Englishman is fucking his woman as we speak.” A child of the streets, Saviour nastily chortled. “They’re not going anywhere any time soon. Although if all goes according to plan, soon they’ll both be coming.”
Mercurius let the crass remark pass in silence. “I will speak with you shortly, amoretto.”
Sighing, uncertain how to proceed, he disconnected the phone and set it beside the watering can. He then pinched a yellow leaf from a slender branch. As he rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, the plucked leaf released a delicate lemony scent. Lamb meatballs wrapped in lemon leaves was one of Saviour’s favorite dishes and always elicited an exuberant round of compliments. Given to strong emotions, his eromenos tended to overreact. An endearing quality, one that Mercurius had learned to temper with a firm hand.
Had Hadrian been forced to temper the high-spirited Antinous? he wondered.
An interesting question, the play of opposites the beating heart of pederasty.
In ancient Greece, the relationship between a mature man, the erastes, and an adolescent boy, the eromenos, had been idealized. And ritualized courtship was an integral part of the relationship. The ancients recognized that mentoring was a key component in a boy’s education. How else would a youth learn to be a wise and prudent man? Saviour Panos had been a swaggering, beautiful eighteen-year-old man-child when they first met. Seven years later, he was still beautiful but not quite as brash.
Picking up the cordless phone, Mercurius left the conservatory. Through the window, he noticed that his next-door neighbor had just pulled into the driveway. The neighbors would undoubtedly be shocked if they knew the true nature of the relationship with his “nephew.” For nearly two decades, he’d resided in the same upscale neighborhood of lawyers and doctors and much-maligned financial planners. Good people who conducted their lives by the light of day but who lived in a state of darkness. No different from the “good” people of Thessaloniki.
Once the Jews had been expelled from the city in the spring of 1943, the good people went wild. Like devouring locusts, they looted vacant Jewish homes and warehouses, the Greeks convinced that Uncle Ezra had been hiding a fortune in gold and silver beneath the floorboards. Under the house. Even in the coffin, the thievery extended to the Jewish necropolis on the outskirts of Thessaloniki. The Nazis contributed to the hysteria by dynamiting the city’s synagogues.
To everyone’s keen disappointment, there was no hidden gold. There were other valuables — furniture, pianos, clothing — all of which were carefully packed and shipped to Germany.
Greek culture saturated with the notion of divine justice, the citizens of Thessaloniki paid heavily for their shameful behavior, enduring two years of privation. Food, fuel, and other basic necessities were in short supply. Hundreds perished from hunger. His own mother, forced to let go of the servants, took in laundry and learned to cook. Mercurius and his two sisters collected tinder in a small red wagon to ignite their mother’s pitiful cook fire. One day, toward the end of the occupation, he saw a Nazi officer leaving his mother’s bedroom. That night, a chicken miraculously appeared in their stewpot.
Soon after the war ended, the de Léon family immigrated to Chicago, a hirsute uncle with two spare bedrooms opening his door. In an episode similar to the one with the German officer, Mercurius caught his uncle Nikos buttoning his trousers as he left his mother’s bedroom. At the time, he’d considered it an act of disloyalty to his dead father. It wasn’t until many years later that he realized Melina de Léon had been forced to trade the only commodity she had — her extraordinary beauty — to provide for her children. Not only did Uncle Nikos, a butcher, daily provide fresh meat, he provided something that turned out to be priceless to Mercurius — a college education.