Yet he realized he didn’t have time to help her through her spiritual crisis, not with the fate of Christianity in his hands. That meant he needed to block Maria out of his mind and focus on the only problem in the world that mattered: What should he do with the scroll?
Before he had a chance to answer that question, Maria burst into the conference room.
‘Professore,’ she blurted, ‘you’ll never believe what I just saw!’
Confused by her enthusiasm, Boyd motioned for her to take a seat. This wasn’t the Maria he was expecting. He assumed she’d return to the library guilt-ridden, not giddy as a cheerleader. ‘Are you all right? Have you had some sort of breakdown?’
‘What? No, I haven’t had a breakdown. Why would you ask me that?’
‘It’s just, you’re extremely upbeat, and…’ His voice trailed off.
‘And what? That’s not allowed?’
‘Of course it’s allowed. But when you left here, you were anything but ecstatic.’
‘And for good reason. I left here without hope but came back with my faith restored. I found new evidence that might contradict what we know.’
‘New evidence?’ His tone was full of doubt. ‘And where did you get this new evidence?’
‘At Il Duomo,’ she answered. ‘I went to the cathedral to do some soul-searching. I figured, if I was going to ponder God, that was probably the best place in Milan to go. Anyway, I was up on the roof, battling the ungodly heat, when I saw him.’
‘You saw Him? Just how hot was it up there?’
‘Not God! I didn’t see God. I saw the laughing man.’
‘Once again, let me ask you how hot was it up there?’
‘Not in the flesh. I saw a statue of the laughing man at Il Duomo!’
‘Wait a moment. You’re serious?’
‘Yes, I’m serious. Our friend from the Catacombs is on the roof of the cathedral.’
‘What? But that doesn’t make any sense. The cathedral wasn’t built by the Ancient Romans. In fact, if my memory is correct, it was built some time in the 1300s.’
‘Hold on, there’s more.’ Maria smiled, enjoying her chance to teach her teacher. ‘The laughing man had a letter carved into his ring. There’s no guarantee that it’s actually his initial, but I think there’s a good chance that it was.’
‘Which letter?’ he demanded. ‘Was it the letter P?’
She nodded, half disappointed that he was able to figure it out. ‘P as in Paccius, right?’
He held up his hand to silence her. ‘Maybe, but not definitely. We mustn’t jump to any conclusions. We must find conclusive proof before we move on.’
‘Come on, professore, who else could it be? Tiberius ordered Paccius to execute his scheme in Judea, and we have the scroll to prove it. Later, during that same year, Paccius disappeared from the Roman history books altogether. That can’t be a coincidence. I’m telling you, Paccius has to be the laughing man. He has to be.’
Boyd rubbed his eyes, considering her theory. Everything she said made sense, all but one thing. ‘Maria, I don’t mean to ruin your mood, but this news about Paccius only strengthens the case against Christ. It means Paccius received the scroll, then went to Judea to carry out the plot. It also suggests that his results were so positive that Tiberius felt obliged to honor him by building a shrine underneath Orvieto.’
‘True,’ she admitted. ‘But I think you’re the one who’s missing the big picture, not me. I left here lost and depressed, filled with doubts about God, Christ, and everything else that I believe. In order to gather my thoughts, I went to the closest church I could find, looking for solace in God’s house, hoping to find something, anything, that would get me through my personal crisis. And guess what? I was given a huge piece of the puzzle. Talk about working in mysterious ways! Santa Maria! I’ll never doubt God again.’
She gazed at Boyd and noticed that his eyes were still filled with doubt.
‘I know you think I’m crazy and that this was all a coincidence. But I honestly believe that this was God’s way of telling me to keep looking, to keep searching, to never give up on him. And in my heart I know if I keep doing that, then everything will be all right.’
Several minutes later Maria was still riding high from her discovery at Il Duomo. ‘You know, it’s pretty obvious to me we’re onto something. I mean, the historical evidence alone is mind-boggling. Throw in the assassination attempts, the lies in the newspaper, and the statue at the cathedral, and we’ve got the makings of a first-rate conspiracy.’