Iris Johansen - Eight Days To Live

Caleb shrugged. “If it was Judas, not Hadar, you supposedly painted, then you can see how fanatics would react. You painted Judas as tormented by guilt.”

“According to their religion, Judas had no guilt in the crucifixion of Christ,” Lina said. “He was just obeying the wishes of God in the betrayal. Jesus was destined to die on the cross, and someone had to hand him over to the soldiers to make that happen. So Judas sacrificed himself and his place among the disciples to further the will of God.”

“That’s what Hadar said in this tablet?” Jane asked.

“How do I know?” Lina said. “But Adah said there were other Hadar tablets and teachings handed down over the centuries that weren’t on the forbidden list. That’s their doctrine.”

“Twisted,” Jane said. “And this handful of coins that’s so priceless that everyone is after them. Is it what I’m thinking it is?”

“Adah said that it was the pouch of coins that the priests paid Judas for betraying Jesus.”

“Yes, I’d say that would be priceless,” Caleb said. “It would electrify the Christian world. The ultimate symbol of the worst tragedy the world has ever known.”

“Or the proof that the greatest miracle really happened,” Jane said. The idea of those coins still existing stunned her. “Providing that there’s proof and documentation.”

“Adah said Alan Roland was too smart to follow a trail unless there was some proof that it was going to pay off. Roland had been searching for the coins for years. It had become an obsession. He not only had gone over all of Hadar’s teachings but traveled the world investigating every bit of information that had anything to do with the Judas coins. If he was excited about the prospect of what was in Hadar’s Tablet, then Adah thought it was worth latching on to a shooting star. She was willing to risk Millet killing her to find a way of negotiating a partnership with Roland.”

“We found two coins in Adah’s bedroom. Could they be part of the Judas coins?”

Lina shook her head. “Adah bought those coins on the Internet. They had no value. She deliberately left them around where Weismann would find them to lead him down the path she wanted him to go. She did the same thing with the bank keys. She knew that no one but her could access the box.” She added, “It was a kind of test. She actually loved him. All the men in her life, and she had never loved any of them. But Weismann managed to touch something in her. She couldn’t believe he would betray her.”

Jane remembered the look of incredulous horror on Adah’s face. “She believed it in that last moment.”

“For the little good it did her,” Caleb said. “Anything else, Lina?”

“No. That’s all.”

“I think that we have to find out a good deal more about Alan Roland,” Jane said. “He seems to be the puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes.”

“Do what you like.” Lina snapped her computer shut. “Just do it somewhere else. I’ve given you what you asked. Get someone else to translate that tablet. Now get Weismann off my property, and all of you go with him.”

“I’ll go check to make sure that Jock was able to get through to Venable.” Jane headed for the door. “I’m sorry we brought this down on you, Lina. We’ll try to get out of your hair as soon as possible.”

For an instant the hardness in her expression softened a trifle. “I’m sorry, too. But I’m not angry with you. You’re a victim, and I’ve been in your place. I just have to protect myself.” She added briskly, “I’ll have the printouts ready to take with you in fifteen minutes so that you can examine them more carefully.” She glanced at Caleb. “And you owe me. This was more than I bargained for.”

“Name your price.”

“I’ll have to think about it.” She got up from the chair. “Now get out. I have to get these translations printed. Then I’m going to blow away the file. I want my mind and my house clear of you.”

“Understandable.” Caleb followed Jane out of the cottage. “We’ll try to oblige.” He turned to Jane as he closed the door behind him. “Judas. You seemed to have stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

“I didn’t stir up anything. Hadar is the crazy bastard who decided to found an equally crazy religion. I was only guilty of painting a face that resembled Judas.” She shook her head in frustration. “And how do we know that it actually looked like Judas? That was almost two thousand years ago. And how could Judas’s blood money have survived all these centuries?” “Lots of questions. Shall we see if Weismann knows any of the answers?”

She stiffened as she glanced at him. She had been so absorbed in the information that Lina had been imparting that she had forgotten the wariness she had felt with Caleb’s attitude toward Weismann. Perhaps she had hoped that it had been dispersed by the distraction.

It had not dispersed. The fire was not unleashed, but it was still there, smoldering.

“It’s not that easy,” Caleb said, as if reading her mind. “It doesn’t go away. Let me have him.”

“No.” She looked away. “You did what you promised. You found Weismann for me. Now I think it’s time we parted ways.”

“Too late. I’m in too deep.” He smiled faintly. “I scared you, didn’t I? I knew I probably would before this was over. You had a glimmer of what I could be, but you hadn’t actually seen it. I was hoping you might not have to see it.” He shrugged. “But it may be a relief. I am what I am. I told you that you had to accept me.”

“Do you really know what you are?” Jane asked.

“Oh, yes.”

“I don’t. Sometimes I think I do, then you change. You’ve shown me too many facets to your character for me to be sure.”

“But you don’t like this particular facet.”

“Hell, no.”

He turned away. “Then I’d better not accompany you to the toolshed to see Weismann and Gavin. I’m frustrated and edgy, and he’s not technically mine. I know I don’t have a good enough reason to override you since I promised you Weismann.” He started down the road. “I’ll see you in ten or fifteen minutes.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to try to find a good enough reason.”

She watched him walk away. What kind of answer was that? The only kind of answer she could expect from him. She should have learned that by now. He walked his own path and was as uncommunicative as the Sphinx. He was right, he had frightened her tonight. Caleb had revealed a violence and bloodlust that had been shocking. She had instinctively tried to edge away from him.

And he had refused to let her go. When he had said those words, she had felt helpless. It had been ridiculous to feel that powerless. He could not dominate her. She had her own will. Yet for that moment, she had felt… caught.

She shook her head as she started across the garden toward the toolshed. The sooner she sent him away and out of her life, the better. Just keeping alive was difficult enough without having to worry about controlling Caleb.

Control wasn’t even a concept he would deal with if tonight was any example. Yet he would argue that he’d shown the ultimate control. He’d been savage but not lethal. Was that control in his view?

She couldn’t spend time trying to decipher the dark nuances of Seth Caleb. The revelations of the night had been too mind-boggling to comprehend, and she was still trying to put together the pieces Lina had thrown out to them.

“I finally reached Venable.” Jock had opened the door of the toolshed and stepped outside. “He said he’d send someone to pick up Weismann, but it would take a few hours.”

“That’s not good. Lina wants us out of here.”