Aaron Elkins - Murder In The Queen's armes

"Nate," Gideon said softly, wishing that the mournfully attentive Frawley would go away, "this whole Mycenaean business… Are you sure you’re not getting yourself out on a limb? An inquiry by Horizon-that’s serious stuff; it could affect your whole career."

"Everything I said is true," Nate said fervently. "Listen, I can prove the Mycenaeans brought the Bronze Age to England." He stared at Gideon, then turned suddenly to Frawley. "Right?"

Frawley was caught raising his mug to his lips. He spluttered and set it down, then drew from one breast pocket a metal-stemmed, stubby pipe, from the other a foil tobacco pouch. "Well, yes," he said, "I would certainly say that what we’ve found provides considerable confirmation of your theory, yes." His pouchy eyes lit glancingly on Gideon and then dropped to his pipe, at which he poked assiduously with a paper clip.

No wonder Nate was getting himself into deep waters. If the rest of his staff was like Frawley, he wasn’t getting any honest feedback or argument.

"Look, Nate," Gideon said, "I know you’re excited about this, but think about what you’re saying. How can you prove something like that? At best-"

"All right," Nate snapped, "you don’t need to lecture me." For a moment his hot, black eyes blazed, but the fire went out as quickly as it had come. "Sorry," he said. "I guess I’m a little edgy. You’re right, you’re right. We’re supposed to be scientists; we deal in probabilities, not certainties. But it just seems as if it’s so goddam obvious…" He grasped the edge of the table and leaned forward. "Look, if there was no Mycenaean invasion, how do you account for the sudden introduction of a complex, multi-tiered society with ‘Aegean’ stamped all over it? Tell me that! Where did those incised geometric pottery motifs come from? The faience beads?" He snatched up the bronze dagger again. "This?"

Gideon spoke as gently as he could. "You know I’m no Bronze Age specialist, Nate. But even I know that the arguments you’re making were laid to rest decades ago. As far as I know, you’re the only modern scholar who still accepts them."

"And that makes me wrong?"

"Of course not. Look, you’re the expert, not me. All I’m trying to suggest is that the way you’re going about things has gotten the Horizon Foundation and the Wessex Antiquarian Society on your back, and you might want to be just a little less bellicose. If that inquiry goes against you and they relieve you here, you’ll never get another legitimate dig."

Nate sighed impatiently, flicking a pottery fragment with the back of his finger. "Listen, you think I don’t know you’re trying to help me? I appreciate it, believe me. But I have to do this my own way. Do you want me to say I don’t believe what I know is true? I know I’m right; Jack knows it; all of us here know it."

Frawley had continued to probe his pipe noncommittally. Angrily, Gideon rounded on him. "Jack, isn’t there anything you’d like to say about this?"

Frawley shifted and shook his head, not meeting Gideon’s eyes. "I may have certain, ah, minor points of difference, but what Nate says, ah, makes real sense." The pipe seemed to be ready, and he concentrated on searching for his matches, pocket by pocket.

It was amazing that Nate, never very kindly disposed toward yes-men, would tolerate Frawley’s sycophancy, let alone encourage it. Or maybe not so strange. Nate had changed. He had, of course, always been intense, frequently ardent, and yet underneath his passion there had always been that healthy, self-mocking sense of humor that kept him on a reasonably even keel. But if it was still there, it hadn’t surfaced so far. Was he so caught up in his strange theory that he didn’t know a yes-man when he saw one- even one as pusillanimous as Frawley?

"Gid," Nate said, "you know what the Times said- rumors of a sensational new discovery? Well, it’s true. I’ve got proof that nobody can argue with. You’re not going to believe it!" He spoke with mounting excitement, as if he were about to hug himself or rub his hands together. Instead he jumped from his chair to pace restlessly up and down the narrow space behind the table. He’d gotten thinner, Gideon realized. His clothes flapped on him as if they were two sizes too large. This battle he was fighting was eating him up.

"Just wait," he said. "Wait till that damn inquisition convenes. What a kick in the ass they’re going to get-what a surprise!"

"Would that be the human skeletal remains the paper mentioned?" Gideon asked.

"Right." He grinned wolfishly. "Jealous?"

"Interested. Do you have any physical anthropologists working with you?"

"No, and if what you mean is that, being an ignorant archaeologist, I might be misinterpreting the skeletal evidence, then come back in two weeks and see for yourself."

"I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t I look at what you have right now?"

"Uh-uh, I want it to be a surprise for Horizon."

"I’ll keep it a surprise; it’s your baby, whatever it is. I promise not to tell anybody what I’ve seen. Look, for one thing, I really am damn curious to see what you have. For another, maybe I could point out some things you missed- it’s my business, you know." And for still another, Gideon thought, maybe I can show you you’re heading for a hell of a debacle, and maybe you’ll listen. For whatever Nate had unearthed-and if he said it was sensational, it probably was-it could hardly confirm a theory that was untenable to begin with.

Nate had been shaking his head all the time Gideon was speaking. "Nope," he said firmly. "I think we’ll just go ahead and have the official unveiling at the Grand Inquisition."

It was said with finality, and at that point Gideon gave up. He’d tried to help and been rebuffed. And when it came down to it, it wasn’t his affair. Nate was a grown man, chairman of a department and director of an excavation, and he had more than once shown himself capable of getting out of his own difficulties as well as into them. Besides, Gideon told himself (only a little after the fact), he’d promised Julie to stay out of academic fracases on his honeymoon, and that was a promise he meant to keep-no matter how curious he was about Nate’s mysterious find. He had no idea what sort of game Frawley was playing, but that, too, was Nate’s problem.

He took his first sip of the tasteless, now-cold coffee and put the mug down. "Okay, Nate, do it the way you want. I wish you well; you know that."

"Hey, don’t go ‘way mad." Nate, more relaxed now, picked up a piece of pottery, rubbing it thoughtfully with his thumb. "Where are you going to be in two weeks? Still in Charmouth?"

"No, I’m leaving tomorrow. We thought we’d drive west, spend some time in Wales, see some of Ireland, and then head back to London in a couple of weeks."

"Well, couldn’t you work it out to stop in Charmouth again on the way back? The inquiry’s November twenty-ninth."

"I don’t think-"

"Wait, don’t say no. I’m in trouble, Gid. That inquiry board is dead set against me. They’ve already made up their minds. They’ll find some way to twist-"

"I don’t buy that, Nate. Horizon and the WAS are objective, knowledgeable-"

His protest was waved away. "They’re archaeologists, like I am. What do they know about skeletons? Look, man, we could use a good physical anthropologist there; somebody without an ax to grind, someone we all trust- because we sure as hell don’t trust each other."

Gideon shook his head. "Forget it. The last thing I need is to be on a board of inquiry-into your conduct, no less. No, thanks."

"Listen, all I’m asking you to do is be there, maybe for an hour, when I show them what I have. You know, just be an expert resource; do your thing, give us your opinion.