Unfortunately, Dial didn’t know much about literature, so he decided to call Henri Toulon, the assistant director of the Homicide Division. Toulon was a wine-loving Frenchman who had the ability to speak at length on every subject under the sun. Whether it was quantum physics, soccer statistics, or a recipe for fondue, Toulon was the man with the answers.
Dial said, ‘Hey, Henri, it’s Nick. Do you have a minute?’
Toulon answered with a hoarse, ‘But of course.’
‘Man, are you feeling all right? You sound a bit under the weather.’
‘Oui, I’m fine. It was a late night. Again.’
Dial smiled, not the least bit surprised that Toulon was hungover. His late-night carousing was one of the main reasons that Dial had been promoted ahead of him. That plus Interpol’s desire to have an American as the head of a division, a rarity in the European-dominated organization. ‘Out of curiosity, how much do you know about Shakespeare?’
‘More than his own mother.’
‘And what about the Bible?’
‘More than Dan Brown. Why do you ask?’
Dial filled him in on the case and told him what he was looking for. Why was Jansen kidnapped in Rome but killed in Denmark?
Toulon answered, ‘Religion played an important role in Shakespeare’s world, yet I can’t think of a single character who was crucified. That would have been heresy back then.’
‘Then ignore the crucifixion and focus on the murder. Besides the location, can you think of any connections to Hamlet?’
‘The thing that grabs my attention is the sign above the cross. Whoever painted that was brilliant. Is “FATHER” referring to God, a character in Shakespeare’s play, or the killer’s actual father? At first glance, I’d assume it’s referring to Hamlet. The plot follows Prince Hamlet as he avenges the death of the king – a son getting revenge for his father. Sounds perfect to me. Until you examine the method of execution. In my mind, crucifixion screams of Christ, not Shakespeare. If the killer cared about Hamlet, he would have chosen the sword.’
‘So this is about religion?’
‘Not necessarily. It could be about the killer’s father or the victim’s father. But that’s why the sign is so brilliant. You’ll have to track down all these possibilities, whether you like it or not. For all we know, the killer is simply messing with you.’
‘Maybe. Or it could be about something else, something you missed.’
‘Such as?’
Dial smiled, glad that Toulon didn’t know everything. ‘The victim was a priest. For all we know the sign could be about him. Father Erik Jansen.’
‘Which only adds to the brilliance of the sign. It’s memorable yet ambiguous. The perfect way to attract attention without giving anything away.’
‘That’s why I decided to call you. I figured I’d fight brilliance with brilliance.’
Toulon grinned. ‘I’ll tell you what, give me a day or two, and I’ll see what I can find. Who knows? Maybe I missed something else.’
‘Thanks, Henri, I’d appreciate that. Before you go, though, I have one more question, this one about religion. Do you have any idea what Jesus’s cross looked like?’
Toulon took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his gray hair, which was pulled back in his trademark ponytail. He desperately wanted a cigarette but wasn’t allowed to smoke inside Interpol, even though sometimes he did just because he was French and fuck them if they didn’t like it. ‘You’ll be happy to know you’re not alone. Most people are confused about his cross. Tell me, what kind of cross did they use in Denmark?’
‘Wooden, made out of some kind of oak.’
‘That’s not what I meant. Was it Latin? Tau? Greek? Russian?’
‘Honestly, I have no idea. They’re all Greek to me.’
Toulon rolled his eyes. Why did Americans have to make a joke out of everything? ‘A Greek cross is easy to spot. It looks like a plus sign. All four of its arms are the exact same length.’
‘Not Jansen’s. His looked like a capital T. The horizontal beam was way at the top.’
Toulon whistled softly. ‘Then they got it right.’
‘They got it right? What do you mean by that?’
‘Most people think that Jesus was crucified on a Latin cross – one where the crossarm sits a third of the way down the vertical beam – but that’s wrong. The Romans used tau crosses for crucifixions, not Latin ones.’
‘Really? Then why do churches use the Latin cross?’
‘Because Christian leaders adopted it as their symbol during the ninth century, a decision that sparked controversy, since it was originally a pagan emblem representing the four winds: north, south, east, and west. Yet Christians preferred that to the history of the tau cross, a symbol that meant death by execution to the ancient world. The death of criminals.’