Elisha's Bones - Don Hoesel [72]
I’d used a pay phone at the airport to facilitate this meeting. Alem’nesh picks up on the first ring.
“We’re here,” I say.
He hangs up without saying anything. I put the phone down and reach for my coffee cup.
“Do you know how bad he probably feels right now?” Espy says after I’ve taken a sip.
“I have an idea.”
In our earlier call, I gave Al the highlights of our trip and I could almost smell the incredulity coming through the phone. As Espy said, there also has to be guilt there—from two fronts. On one hand, he provided information and furthered something that almost got us killed; on the other, he violated an oath to his religion by divulging their secrets.
“I don’t think he has them,” I say.
Espy gives me a questioning look.
“The bones. I don’t think Reese has them. If he did, he would just stop paying us.”
Espy frowns, and I see her parsing my logic.
“He’d cut the money, not answer my calls. Basically he’d wait for me to give up and go back to my real job.” I shake my head. “No, the reason he’s trying to execute his teams is because he knows where they are—”
“And he doesn’t want anyone else to get to them first,” Espy finishes. I see her working through that revelation until a thought hits her. “He meant to kill you all along. Even if everything went according to his original plan, and you found the bones for him . . .”
I look out the window, watching the sun drop behind Trinity, the church casting a lengthening shadow that will soon encompass Espy and me.
I’ve been trying to make sense of all the players. There’s Reese, whose role and motivations seem obvious. And Victor Manheim has stepped from the shadows, but he’s a cipher. I have no idea how he fits into this, beyond the knowledge of his involvement at KV65. What I feel confident about is my belief that Manheim and Reese are not on the same team—even if they employ similar methods. I’ve considered the possibility that Manheim is tied to someone like Reese, who wants the bones found, but every time I give that more than a passing thought I go back to the Valley of the Kings. Manheim didn’t have the air of someone searching for something; he acted like a man trying to keep others from finding it.
What keeps me from rushing off to Egypt, though, is the irrationality of thinking the bones are in that tomb. Even if they’d been there when we were excavating—unlikely, considering that KV65 was sealed when the research has the bones passing to Fraternidad de la Tierra—they would have been removed after the accident.
What hovers just out of range of these considerations is the hypothetical secret organization for which we seem to have found evidence. As much as Reese and Manheim must occupy my attention, I wish I had the time and resources needed to research this third entity, this group that might precede the birth of the Christian church. I take another sip of coffee and chuckle to myself. I still haven’t attached Victor Manheim to any vested party; for all I know, he’s a representative of this ancient society.
I have to push those thoughts away. What’s important now is our destination. There are two men who have tried to kill me, both in different parts of the world. Heading for Dallas will move me only toward vengeance, while going to Australia might lead me closer to the bones. If I want this to end, I have to do what Reese doesn’t want me to do: I have to find the bones before he can get to them. And with Victor Manheim as my only connection to the bones, vengeance might make a showing after all.
Watching out the window, I catch sight of Al crossing the Trinity courtyard. I’ve wondered