Part 28 (1/2)

I heard rattling, then the refrigerator. Ryan reappeared with my AAFS mug, dropped into an armchair, and thrust both legs full length.

Charlie whistled a line from ”Dixie,” then screeched, ”Strokin'!”

”Did I hear conversation?” Ryan asked.

I waggled the cell phone. ”Jake wants me to deliver Morissonneau's skeleton to Israel. He's pretty insistent.”

”Land of sun and fun.”

”And suicide bombers.”

”And that.” Ryan blew across his coffee. ”Do you want to go to Israel?”

”I do and I don't.”

”I love a woman who knows her mind.”

”I've always wanted to visit the Holy Land.”

”Things are slow. Your lab wouldn't implode if you disappeared for a week.”

”What about the boys?” I swept a hand at Birdie and Charlie. ”What if Katy needed me?”

I felt instantly stupid. My daughter was twenty-four and a thousand miles away. And a short drive from her father.

”Violence got you nervous?”

”I've traveled to dicier places.”

”Why not go?”

I had no answer.

I was was needed at the lab. needed at the lab.

Two kids found bones in a trunk in their uncle's attic. Cold case! Call the cops!

The bones were human. Female, white, thirty to forty years at the time of her death.

Important detail. Every bone had been drilled with tiny holes. Some holes still sported wires.

The knee bone's connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bone's connected to the foot bone.

You get the picture. Unc was a retired physician. The kids' unknown was a teaching skeleton.

My report was completed by 9:05.

After lunch, my thoughts veered to Jake and his guarded mention of a major discovery. What discovery? And why such concern for Masada Max, as Ryan had taken to calling the skeleton? Max couldn't possibly be Jesus. Max had been too old at the time of his death.

Or too young. Wasn't that the premise of the Joyce book?

Both Jake and Blotnik had made reference to the James ossuary. Several Internet articles had mentioned it.

Curious, I did some cyber-surfing.

It yielded the following.

An ossuary is a small stone casket.

Ossuaries served an important function in Jewish burial in first-century Israel. The deceased were entombed and left to decay. One year later, their bones were collected and permanently interred in ossuaries.

Thousands of ancient ossuaries have been discovered throughout Israel and Palestine. One can be purchased on the antiquities market for a few hundred dollars.

The James ossuary is a first-century limestone box measuring approximately twenty inches in length. It is inscribed in Aramaic with the words ”James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

When first reported in 2002, the James ossuary made a big splash. According to many, before its discovery, no evidence of Jesus existed outside written texts. The box was heralded as the first physical link to Jesus.

Okay. That's big.

In 2003, an IAA authentication committee was formed. The committee declared the box legit, the inscription a forgery, based largely on oxygen isotope a.n.a.lysis of patina, an encrustation caused by surface oxidation.

The finding led to controversy. Many experts disagreed, calling the committee's work sloppy, its conclusions premature.

Bottom line? No one disputes the age of the box. Some question the inscription, in whole or in part. Some accept the whole enchilada.

Ryan came by at two. Resting a haunch on my desk, he raised his brows. I raised mine back.

”Just for kicks I ran a check on your monastery. Address kicked out something interesting.”

I leaned back in my chair.

”Father Andre Gervais dimed the SQ post in Saint-Hyacinthe one week ago today.”

”Gervais is a monk at l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie-des-Neiges?”

Ryan nodded. ”Seems the boys were edgy about a car with two male occupants parked inside their wall. Saint-Hyacinthe sent a cruiser to check it out.” Ryan paused for effect. ”Both the driver and pa.s.senger were Palestinian nationals.”

”Jesus.”

”Nope. The other team.” Ryan checked a spiral pad. ”Jamal Hasan Abu-Jarur. Muhammed Hazman Shalaideh. Car was a rental.”

”What were they doing out there?”

”Claimed they were sightseeing and got lost. Both men had valid pa.s.sports. Names came up clean. The cop told them to move along.”

”When was this?”