Part 20 (1/2)

I leaned back and considered.

There were two possibilities. A. This was a different skeleton from that in the Kessler photo. B. This was the same skeleton, but with a molar inserted into the gap.

If a molar had been inserted, there were two possibilities. A. It was the actual tooth that had been lost from the jaw. Teeth often fall out once the soft tissue decomposes. B. It was the tooth of another, mistakenly inserted into the jaw. This possibility would explain the differential cusp wear.

When had the tooth been reinserted? Three possibilities seemed reasonable. A. At the time of burial. B. During Yadin's excavation. C. During the skeleton's stay at the Musee de l'Homme.

My instincts said B.

Okay. If the tooth was replaced during the Masada dig, who had done it? Many possibilities. A. Yadin. B. Tsafrir. C. Haas. D. An excavator.

My gut feeling?

An excavator found the tooth beside the skeleton, tried the jaw, it seemed to fit, he stuck it in. The Cave 2001 bones were jumbled. Good records weren't kept. Mistakes happen all the time with students and unskilled volunteers.

So. Funerary act? Simple error? Neither of the above, different skeleton than that in Kessler's photo?

I was in over my head. I needed an odontologist.

It was now ten past seven on a Sat.u.r.day night. I knew what Marc Bergeron, our lab's dental expert, would say.

Get apical X-rays.

I couldn't do that until Monday.

Frustrated, I spent the next hour studying Kessler's print under magnification.

I spotted no anatomical quirk or detail that could tie the skeleton in the photo unequivocally to the bones on my table.

For the rest of the evening I sat around feeling agitated and blocked. Birdie and I watched an NCAA basketball game. I was strongly for Duke. Bird was pulling for the Clemson Tigers. Probably a feline thing.

Sunday morning it took less than thirty minutes online to locate and order the Donovan Joyce book. The Jesus Scroll. The Jesus Scroll. Ads blurbed it as the most disturbing work ever written about Christianity. Good press. Too bad the thing was out of print. Ads blurbed it as the most disturbing work ever written about Christianity. Good press. Too bad the thing was out of print.

Every few hours I called Jake. His mobile was off. At one, I quit leaving messages and tried his hotel. He'd checked out.

Ryan's surveillance ended with three arrests and the confiscation of a truckload of cigarettes. He showed up at six, eyes deeply shadowed, hair wet from the shower. I had a Perrier, Ryan had a Moosehead, then we walked to Katsura on rue de la Montagne.

My patch of centre-ville was quiet. Few students milled outside Concordia University. Few fun-seekers partied on rue Crescent.

There's something 'bout a Sunday.

Or maybe it was the temperature. Overnight, Sat.u.r.day's sleet had given way to clear skies and arctic cold.

Over sus.h.i.+, I gave Ryan the rundown on Morissonneau's skeleton, ending with my conclusion that the bones were those of a white male aged forty to sixty at the time of his death.

”So my age estimate rules out the Cave 2001 septuagenarian, the Bible's thirty-three-year-old Jesus, and Donovan Joyce's eighty-year-old Jesus.”

”But you're certain Kessler's photo shows the isolated skeleton in Cave 2001, and that that skeleton is the one Lerner stole from the Musee de l'Homme and gave to Ferris, who gave it to Morissonneau?”

”Jake's certain. He's talked to someone who worked as a volunteer excavator in Cave 2001. But I can't find a single unique identifier to unequivocally tie Morissonneau's skeleton to the one in Kessler's photo. And there's something going on with one of the teeth.”

I told Ryan about the odd molar.

”So you suspect it's not the same skeleton?”

”Or it is the same skeleton, but the molar was inserted after the photo was taken.”

”Someone found the guy's missing tooth during recovery and stuck it back in the socket?”

”Possibly.”

”You sound unconvinced.”

”The cusps look less ground down to me.”

”Meaning the tooth could be from another person, someone younger.”

”Yes.”

”Meaning?”

”I don't know. Maybe just a mix-up. Yadin used volunteers. Maybe one of them inserted the molar, thinking it belonged.”

”You're going to see Bergeron?”

”Monday.”

Ryan filled me in on his lead in the Ferris case.

”When I ran the name Kessler, not a lot popped out.”

”Dearth of Jewish felons?”

”Meyer Lansky,” Ryan said.

”I stand corrected,” I said.

”Bugsy Siegel,” Ryan added.

”Twice.”

”David Berkowitz.”

”Thrice.”

”Elegant,” Ryan said.

”Shakespearean,” I agreed.