The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer [93]
“You mean this Cain book? What’d the FBI guys call it?”
“A totem,” Scotty said. “And if it weren’t so important, why spend over a century searching for it?”
Naomi closed her eyes as the nurse hooked the curved needle through her skin. “So you think Ellis is part of these Thules as well?” she asked.
“According to the FBI, the Thules haven’t been active since World War II. But that doesn’t mean Ellis isn’t trying to bring the band back together—especially if he thinks there’s some kinda magic power that’ll come from it.”
“Is that what the Bureau guys said? They used the words magic power?”
“To be honest, I don’t think they know what to make of it. This was Germany at the height of occultism. Himmler and the Nazi leaders kept a list of breeding cemeteries because they were convinced that babies who were conceived in graveyards would inherit the attributes and spirits of all the German heroes buried there. Even Hitler supposedly carried around a magical mandrake root to help ward off evil. These Thules were eating a whole lot of crazy. And speaking of which: Any idea where Cal and his father ran off to?”
“Trust me, we’ll get there,” Naomi said as the nurse tugged hard on his final knot. Naomi felt that one, even with the anesthetic. “You still haven’t answered my question, Scotty. What’d the FBI boys say was in Cain’s so-called book?”
“Again, depends what ghost story you want to believe. One theory says that Cain carried a book that contained the location of where Abel’s body is supposedly buried. Another says Adam gave his children a book with all the herbs they should never eat. There’s even a theory at York Minster in northern England in one of the largest pieces of medieval stained glass in the world, where the top panel shows God holding a so-called Book of Creation. In the book it says: Ego sum alpha et omega. That the beginning and end of the world will come via the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet.”
“Okay, good as new,” the nurse announced.
Naomi barely noticed, still focused on Scotty. “And the FBI boys told you all that?”
“Well . . . let’s be honest . . . those requests I sent in were in your name. They were really just helping you.”
“That’s fine,” she said, sitting up straight and letting her legs dangle off the gurney. “What about Timothy? Any word yet?”
“Listen, I didn’t wanna be the one to say it, but—”
“They found the body, didn’t they?”
“They found a leg. Fish and Wildlife guys just called it in. It’s gruesome, Naomi.”
This time, Naomi was silent.
“You okay?” Scotty asked.
“I need to call his family. I don’t want them seeing this on the news. God, his poor twins. . . .”
“Suarez’s already on it. First call he made. Then he called me. You’ve officially got your murder investigation.”
For a moment, Naomi just sat there as the nurse tied the final knot in the stitches and put some ointment on the wound. “Scotty, put a lookout in NCIC for Cal—”
“Already done. NCIC . . . IBIS . . . I listed him as a threat to the homeland just to make sure the other agencies take a long look at his photograph.”
“I also need you to run both Cal’s dad and this woman he was with. Cal called her Serena. Check the airline records. If she’s a novice, maybe she flew under her real name.”
“So you think one of them might be this Prophet?” Scotty asked.
“Where’d you even hear that name—the Prophet? That from the FBI?”
“No, from you—through your earpiece when you were unconscious. Anyway, you think it’s one of them?”
“I have no idea. But I’m telling you right now—to do that to Timothy—to his twins . . . I don’t want these lowlifes anymore. I want chunks of them.”
“I assume that means Cal, too. I assume you got the bug on him?”
“Of course,” Naomi replied, reaching for the tracking device in her front pants pocket. “I slipped it in his jacket back at the—” She patted her front pocket, then her back. The tracking device was gone. But if Cal had that . . . If he’d found the bug . . . “Oh, don’t tell me he—” Cutting herself off, she