The Second Messiah (10 page)

He smiled and shook his head. “Lela Raul, well I’ll be darned. It’s been a long time. When I spotted you earlier I couldn’t believe my eyes. I know this sounds weird considering that this is a murder investigation, but it’s wonderful to see you again.”

Lela stood and they shook hands warmly. “It’s good to see you, too, Jack.”

He put a hand on her arm, held it there. “You look well. You look—”

“Older?”

“I was going to say great. You’re a cop now. An inspector no less. I’m sure your dad’s proud. How is he?”

“Living in a retirement home outside Jerusalem. He’s still in good health and refuses to slow down. They’ll probably have to shoot him on Judgment Day.”

“Did you marry?”

“Divorced, no kids. Jack, I’d love to talk some more. There’s a lot to catch up on, but first I have a job to do. I need to ask you some questions. Go over what you spoke about with Sergeant Mosberg.”

Jack slowly let go of her arm and took a step back. “Sure, I understand. But I told Mosberg everything.”

“Humor me, Jack. I need to hear it again, for myself. You know what I imagine? That a discovery like this could bring out the worst in people. Make them jealous, envious of the professional admiration it would bring. It could cause rows, arguments.”

Jack’s face clouded. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at. But you’re right. Except that Professor Green and I didn’t argue about the find, Lela. Just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t kill him either. I can give you the reasons why not. Number one, I doubt I could kill anyone.
Number
two, a find like this, it’s the dream of every archaeologist. The equivalent of winning the Oscars. It’ll attract a lot of attention, media, academic, the works.”

Lela looked toward the window and where the journalists and TV crews were gathered. “I can see that it’s got the media rattled already.”

“Lela, it’s the kind of discovery that I’ve worked hard for. It’ll probably be the pinnacle of my career, something I’d almost want inscribed on my headstone. Why would I ruin it all by murdering Green?”

Lela considered the reply before she again looked past the window toward the parched hills, then turned back. “Living near here, seeing all the digs take place, I learned enough about the scrolls to know that they were a remarkable discovery. But what’s so spectacular about the scroll you found?”

Jack’s voice sparked with excitement. “You’ve no idea, Lela. It may be one of the most dramatic finds of this century. Or any century, for that matter.”

“It’s that important?”

“We found the name of Jesus Christ written in the scroll, which is simply incredible. You know why?”

Lela picked up her notebook. “No. But how about you show me where you made the discovery and you can tell on the way?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT
most people don’t understand? The Dead Sea scrolls are mostly Jewish documents. They have almost nothing Christian in them.” Jack’s boots crunched on gravel as he led the way along a footpath toward a distant cliff face, carrying a heavy-duty electric torch in his hand.

“Apart from some copies of parts of the Old Testament and a number of unknown New Testament records, they mostly tell us about a Jewish religious community called the Essenes living in and around the same time as Jesus and in about the same place.”

Lela nodded. “Sure, that much I know. And that the manuscripts found here include biblical texts, psalms, poetry, commentaries on daily life, even prophecies and apocalyptic visions. Plus miscellaneous texts that don’t fit anywhere.”

“That’s right.” Jack smiled, followed the rise of the land, enthusiasm braiding his voice. “You remembered. But what’s so remarkable, is that in all the other Dead Sea scrolls, Jesus’ name isn’t mentioned once. There’s not a single reference to him or to his followers in any of the documents.”

“But there is in the scroll you found.”

“Precisely. It’s a bombshell.”

“Tell me how you found the scroll.”

“It was just after noon yesterday. Yasmin and I were digging near a cave in field fourteen, in Area A, which is up there.” Jack pointed to a weathered sandstone cliff face they were headed toward. “The entrance had been covered by a rockfall, which some of the crew had cleared away. You know what’s kind of ironic?”

“What?”

“It wasn’t all that far from where my father made his own discovery, or from where many of the original scrolls were found over fifty years ago.”

“How did that make you feel?”

“To be honest, it felt special, Lela. Really terrific. As if somehow I’d managed to carry on where my father left off all those years ago, if that makes sense.”

“You must still miss your parents.”

Jack smiled. “Of course. Pretty much every day I visit their resting place. I sit a while, talk to them. And hope, as always, that they’re listening. I’d like to think that they do. That there’s something greater beyond all this. Even if on a bad day I get the hollow feeling there isn’t.”

Lela touched his arm and nodded. “Go on.”

“We were about to finish for lunch but Yasmin suggested that we open just one more hole for the heck of it, so we did.”

“But Yasmin’s not an archaeologist, is she? Just an interested amateur?”

“Like some people on this dig. The professor said she’s helped on a couple of excavations since high school, working with other members of her family. She’s worked as hard as anyone on the site, and with as much passion.”

“She’s an American, right?”

“Her passport’s American. Her father’s from New York but her mother was Lebanese.”

Lela kept up with Jack’s stride. “Keep going.”

“I’d found very little during the dig. We’ve been here since late January and done a lot of hard digging but mostly all we had to show for it were some ibex bones and pottery vessels and shards dating from the first century. My high point until today had been an ostracon I discovered—a piece of a broken pottery jug with what looked like an ancient grocery list written on it. That was normal practice at that time—people used junk broken pottery like slips of notepaper.”

“But this find was different?”

“You said it. I’d dug about a half a yard of soil when my trowel hit something hard. I saw immediately that it was the neck of a clay jar. Most of the important scrolls found in this region were stored in clay jars or urns, so I got excited. Sure enough, I’d struck it lucky. Inside the jar I found a linen wrap containing the scroll.”

“Could you tell how old it was?”

Jack nodded. “I’d examined other material found in the area and figured it had to be at least a couple of thousand years old. Carbon dating would have pinned it down more precisely.”

“Our forensics people found some flakes of parchment on the floor of the professor’s tent. It’s likely they came from the scroll, seeing as it was the only one found on this dig. But we’ll have the flakes analyzed and carbon-dated.”

“Good. Like so many of the scrolls found in this region they’re beyond monetary value, even if some dealers manage to put a price on them.”

“Which dealers are you talking about?”

Jack wiped his brow from the heat as they followed a track that led up an incline and toward a narrow chasm fifty yards away. “The ones who trade in stolen artifacts and parchments. There’s an entire industry that deals in plundered historical objects, even Dead Sea scrolls. I’m sure you know that.”

“Are you including the Bedu tribes?”

“Of course. They’re the ones who discovered many of the scrolls in this area. Some Bedu like to treasure-hunt for booty. They’d use some of the same indicators that we use to find buried artifacts.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like burrow holes, for instance. When wild creatures tunnel into the ground, they can leave pieces of pottery and coins behind them in the soil mound, which can be a good indicator that it’s worth digging in that location. Sometimes that’s how we find our material. So the Bedu pitch their tents out in the valley and under cover of night they’d
dig
down into the burrow holes. Sometimes they’d get lucky and find valuable objects. Then they’d fill in the holes, dismantle their tents, move on, and no one’s the wiser.”

Lela nodded. “I’ve heard about such practice.”

“They sell their more important finds to dealers, rich private collectors, or church representatives. Stuff like pottery, Roman or religious artifacts and documents. You name it.”

Jack slowed as they stepped up a rocky incline, then went on. “You might call it theft, but the Bedu would argue that they didn’t steal anything in the first place. These lands have been their stomping grounds for thousands of years, since way before Christ. They consider their finds to be rightfully theirs.”

“Do you think that the scroll’s theft could have been a motive for killing Professor Green?”

“Hey, you’re the cop, Lela. The professor’s dead and the scroll’s disappeared. It’s simple deduction that theft’s the motive. Why else would anyone kill him?”

“Have you anyone in mind?”

“No. But I can’t imagine any of the dig crew stabbing their director to death, no matter how much of a moody guy he was.”

“What about thieves who specialize in valuable artifacts?”

“Maybe. But how could they have learned so quickly that we’d made a valuable find?”

Lela considered the reply, then said, “Let’s get back to the contents. You told Mosberg that Green managed to translate some of the text.”

“The scroll seemed in remarkable condition and written mostly in Aramaic. Green didn’t unravel it entirely because of the risk of damage. But the first inked lines were legible and mentioned the name
Yeshua HaMeshiah
, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ.”

“What exactly did the text say?”

Jack halted, removed his notebook, and flipped it open.

“This story concerns the man known as Jesus the Messiah. Having traveled from Caesarea to Dora, where his name had become well-known, he failed miserably to cure the blind and the sick, despite his
promises
to do so. Soon after, he was arrested in Dora by the Romans, tried and found guilty, and sentenced to be executed.”

Jack looked up. “Green thought the text bizarre and so did I. There’s absolutely no historical or biblical mention of Jesus ever having visited the towns of Dora or Caesarea, never mind being arrested in either. Jesus Christ was principally known to frequent a fairly small area in Judea. Dora and Caesarea were in different Roman provinces, over sixty miles away. We didn’t understand the reference to not curing the blind and the sick either. Like I said, it’s bizarre. Had we been able to fully translate the text, it may have shed new light on established biblical events.”

“Do you mind if I copy down your translation in my notebook?”

“Help yourself.” Jack showed her the note.

Lela copied it. “Do you think the text could have been significant historically? Perhaps even extremely valuable as well?”

“I think so, Lela.”

“Are there any other Aramaic experts on site?”

“Buddy Savage isn’t an expert but he knows enough. There’s a German guy, Wolfgang, who’s pretty hot on Aramaic but he was away in Munich. A couple of the Israelis are Hebrew experts. Why?”

“Did the professor consult Savage?”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? He wouldn’t have even consulted Buddy about which shirt he ought to wear for dinner.”

“Why?”

“With respect, Green could be arrogant. He believed his own intellect was superior to everyone else’s and he rarely consulted anyone.”

“Sounds like he wasn’t the ideal team leader.”

“He raised the funds to cover the cost of the dig in the first place. He’s the one who got our sponsors, so Green was the boss.”

“Who are the sponsors?”

“Wealthy benefactors in the United States. I don’t get into the politics of it but I believe they’ve sponsored lots of digs in this area in the past. And don’t ask me who they are or why they do it. I think some of them may have wanted to remain anonymous. Buddy Savage may know more. He often helped Green with his paperwork.”

“What about religious convictions?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are many of the team here because of any particularly strong religious beliefs?”

Jack shrugged. “I guess about half are interested in religion, whether it’s the Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faith. The other half are here just to learn and appreciate the dig. But some among them, being young and carefree, are just here to party and have fun.”

Lela smiled. She removed her Ray-Bans as they came to a cliff face that rose at least a hundred feet in the air. At the bottom was a scattering of massive limestone chunks, once part of the cliff that had long ago collapsed. Jack led the way into a six-foot-wide chasm on the right. Twenty paces later their path ended at a cave mouth. Limestone debris had been moved to a mound on the right, a rockfall that had been cleared away.

“This is where we found our treasure. Do confined spaces bother you, Lela?”

“If you mean am I claustrophobic, the answer is … sometimes. It depends how small the space is.”

“Not too small, but maybe you better hold on to me. There are some holes where we’d been digging.” Jack held out his hand to her. “Ready?”