The Lost Years (11 page)

Desmond Rogers eventually decided to accept the two-million-dollar loss and, at least as far as Albert knew, had never told anyone else about it. He
did
express his utter contempt for Charles Michaelson. “I’m a self-made man, and I know many people who have been in a terrible financial bind. Not one of them would have accepted a bribe to cheat a friend. Tell Charles for me that no one will ever know of this incident, but also tell him I never want to see his face again. He’s nothing but a crook.”

If Charles has Jonathan’s parchment in his possession, he’ll probably sell it, Albert decided. He’ll find a hidden buyer for it.

How much did Charles resent Jonathan? It was clear to Albert that on that first archaeological trip six years ago, Charles had been deeply interested in Lillian Stewart, only to find that door closed in his face as he watched Lily and Jonathan fall into each other’s arms practically overnight.

That Charles had willingly allowed everyone else to believe that he and Lily were involved with each other when they attended dinners at Jonathan’s home had been absolutely out of character for him. He must have done it at Lily’s request.

What else might he do for her?

I wonder what will happen now? Albert thought as he started the drive to the campsite he had been frequenting of late, the one in the Ramapo Mountains just minutes away from the scene of Jonathan’s murder.

F
ather Aiden O’Brien escorted Detectives Simon Benet and Rita Rodriguez to his office in the building connected to the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street in Manhattan. They had called and asked if they could come in and talk to him, and he had willingly agreed, even though he immediately began to review in his mind exactly what he could tell them and the best way to word it.

It was his own grave fear that Kathleen had pulled the trigger that caused Jonathan’s death. Her personality had changed so radically in the last few years, since the onset of her dementia. It was several years ago now that he had first noticed the telltale signs that her mind was beginning to fail. He had read that less than 1 percent of the population showed signs of dementia in their sixties.

Father Aiden had met Jonathan and Kathleen when they were newlyweds and he was a young priest. Jonathan, only twenty-six years old, already had his doctorate in biblical history and was on the faculty of New York University. Kathleen’s master’s degree was in social work, and she had a job with the city. They lived in a tiny apartment on West 28th Street and would come to Mass at Saint Francis of Assisi. They began chatting with Father Aiden one day on their way out, and before long he was frequently going to their apartment for dinner.

The friendship continued after their move to New Jersey, and
he had been the one to baptize Mariah when, in her early forties, Kathleen had at last given birth to the child they had given up hope of having.

For over forty years they had what I would call a perfect marriage, Father Aiden recalled. He could understand Jonathan’s emotions as Kathleen’s condition increasingly worsened. Lord knows I see enough of it every day in my own parish as sons or daughters, or wives or husbands, struggle with the care of an Alzheimer’s patient, he thought.

“I don’t mean to get angry at him, but some days I feel as if Sam asks me that same question over and over again…”

“I left her for just a minute and she had thrown all the wash I’d just folded into the laundry sink and had water running on it… ”

“Five minutes after we finished dinner, Dad told me he was starving and started pulling everything out of the refrigerator and dropping it on the floor. God forgive me, Father, I gave him a shove and he fell. I thought, Please, God, don’t let him have a broken hip. Then he looked up at me and said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so much trouble to you.’ He had that moment of total clarity. He was crying, and I was crying…”

All this was running through Father Aiden’s mind as he went behind his desk and invited Simon Benet and Rita Rodriguez to take the two visitor’s chairs.

Jonathan was unfailingly patient and loving to Kathleen until he met Lillian, Father Aiden thought. And now, has Kathleen’s twisted mind pushed her into committing an act she would never have committed if she was the Kathleen he had known for so many years?

“Father, thank you for seeing us on such short notice,” Simon began. “As I explained on the phone, we are homicide detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, and we are assigned to investigate the murder of Professor Jonathan Lyons.”

“I do understand that,” Father Aiden said mildly.

The kind of questions he had been expecting followed in close sequence. How long had he known the Lyonses? How often did he see them? Was he aware of Professor Lyons’s friendship with Lillian Stewart?

Here starts the dangerous ground, Father Aiden thought as he reached into the pocket of his robe, took out his handkerchief, took off his glasses, polished them, and returned the cloth to his pocket before answering carefully.

“I have met Professor Stewart two or three times,” he said. “The latest was over three years ago, although from the altar at the funeral Mass yesterday, I observed her come into the church late. I do not know when she left.”

“Has she ever reached out to you for counseling, Father?” Rita Rodriguez asked.

“Many people who seek counseling do so with the understanding that their privacy will be respected. You are not to infer anything by my answer when I tell you I do not think it appropriate to reply to that question.” That attractive young detective with the deferential expression already knows that I would be the last person Lillian Stewart would come to for advice, Father Aiden thought. The question is a setup.

“Father Aiden, we understand that Jonathan Lyons’s daughter, Mariah, has been extremely upset by the fact that her father was involved with Lillian Stewart. Has she ever discussed that with you?”

“Again—”

Simon interrupted. “Father, we were speaking to Mariah Lyons an hour ago. She freely and openly told us that she had complained to you about Lillian Stewart and that she felt her father’s relationship with Lillian Stewart was harming her mother’s condition.”

“Then you know what Mariah and I discussed,” Father Aiden said quietly.

“Father, yesterday you told Mariah that her father, Jonathan
Lyons, had visited you ten days ago—on Wednesday, August fifteenth, to be precise,” Simon said.

“Yes, I told Mariah, over a cup of coffee in the friary, that Jonathan Lyons believed he had found an object of immeasurable value that is referred to as either ‘the Joseph of Arimathea parchment’ or ‘the Vatican letter.’”

“Did Jonathan Lyons visit you specifically to tell you about the parchment?” Rita asked.

“Jonathan, as we have established, was a longtime friend,” Father Aiden said. “It would not have been unusual for him, if he was nearby, to drop in on me for a visit in the friary. That Wednesday afternoon he told me that he was in the process of reviewing ancient parchments that had been discovered in a church that had been long closed and was about to be razed. A safe was found buried in the wall there. Within it were some ancient parchments and he was asked to translate them.” Father Aiden leaned back in his chair. “You may have heard of the Shroud of Turin?”

Both detectives nodded.

“Many believe that it is the burial cloth Jesus was wrapped in after the Crucifixion. Even our present Pope, Benedict, has been quoted as saying he believes it may be authentic. Will we ever really know that as a certainty? I doubt it, although the proofs are very strong. The Vatican letter, or, as it is known, the Joseph of Arimathea parchment, is of the same beyond-price value. If it is genuine, it is the only example of a letter written by Christ.”

“Wasn’t Joseph of Arimathea the man who asked Pontius Pilate for permission to take the body of Christ and bury it in his own tomb?” Rita Rodriguez asked.

“Yes. Joseph was a longtime secret disciple of Christ. As you may remember from your catechism lesson, when Christ was twelve years old he went with his parents to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover, but when it ended he did not leave with the others. He
stayed behind in the temple and spent three days confounding the chief priests and the elders with his knowledge of the Scriptures.

“Joseph of Arimathea was an elder of the temple at that time. When he heard Christ speak and then learned he had been born in Bethlehem, he believed that Christ was the promised Messiah.”

Warming to his subject, Father Aiden continued. “We do not know anything about Christ from the time he was twelve and discussed the Scriptures with the chief priests in the Temple until the wedding feast at Cana. Those years of his life are lost to us—the lost years. However, many scholars believe that some of that time was spent studying in Egypt because of the intervention of Joseph of Arimathea.

“The letter, if it is authentic, was written to Joseph by Christ shortly before the Crucifixion. In it he thanks Joseph for the kindness and protection he had offered him from the time he was a child.

“The authenticity of the letter has been disputed since Peter the Apostle carried it to Rome. Some of the Popes believed it was genuine, others did not.

“It was in the Vatican Library and word got out that Pope Sixtus IV was planning to destroy it to end the controversy. Then it disappeared.

“Now, some five hundred plus years later, it may have been found among these ancient parchments Jonathan was studying.”

“A letter written by Christ. I can’t imagine.” Rita Rodriguez’s voice was incredulous.

“What did Professor Lyons tell you about the parchment?” Benet asked.

“That he believed it was authentic, and that he was troubled that one of the experts he showed it to was concerned only about its monetary value.”

“Do you know where the parchment is now, Father?” Benet asked.

“No, I do not. Jonathan gave no hint of where he was keeping it.”

“Father, you said you had coffee in the friary. Before that, did you meet Jonathan Lyons in the church?” Rodriguez asked.

“We met in the church. The entrance to the friary is in the atrium.”

“Did Jonathan Lyons also visit you in the reconciliation room?” Rita asked, her voice now innocent.

“If he did, I would not be at liberty to tell you,” Father Aiden replied, his tone now severe. “Which I suspect you already know, Detective Rodriguez. I see you are wearing a small cross. Are you a practicing Catholic?”

“Not perfect, but yes, I am.”

It was Simon Benet’s turn. “Father, Jonathan Lyons was involved in a long affair with a woman who was not his wife. If he did go into the reconciliation room and confess his sins, could you have given him absolution if he intended to continue his affair with Lillian Stewart?” Benet smiled apologetically. “I was raised Catholic too.”

“I thought I had made it clear that any references to Jonathan Lyons other than what he told me about the parchment are off the table. That includes your speculation, Detective Benet. However, I will add this. I have known Kathleen Lyons since she was a young bride in her early twenties. I do not believe, no matter how sadly twisted and lost her mind has become, that she would be capable of killing the husband she loved.”

As he emphatically made that statement, Father Aiden realized that within the core of his heart, he believed what he had just said. Despite his early fears, he knew that Kathleen simply could not be guilty of Jonathan’s murder. Then he looked from one detective to the other and knew he was wasting his breath defending Kathleen to them.

He wondered what they would think if he told them that Jonathan had a premonition of his impending death. Jonathan had said
it openly at the table, but there was an inherent danger to mentioning it. They might think that he was in essence saying that he had come to fear Kathleen’s increasingly violent outbursts. The last thing Father Aiden intended to do was to make things any worse for her.

Simon Benet did not apologize for asking an inappropriate question. “Father Aiden, did Jonathan Lyons give you the names of the expert or experts he consulted to authenticate the Joseph of Arimathea parchment?”

“No, he did not, but I can specifically say that he mentioned ‘one of the experts,’ so, of course, he showed it to more than one person.”