Sign of the Cross(56)

‘What do the history books tell us? If Tiberius’s ruse actually worked, there must be a record of this “miracle” somewhere in biblical folklore.’

‘I already considered that, my dear, but the accounts of Jesus’s life are so varied it would be impossible to separate fact from fiction. In the Gospels alone, there is talk of thirty-six miracles, everything from turning water into wine at Cana to walking on water at Lake Gennesaret. And in my opinion, none of those events left the kind of impression that Tiberius was hoping for.’ He shook his head in confusion. ‘Furthermore, we must remember what the New Testament is. It’s a piece of propaganda that was intended to turn people on to Christianity, not a book of facts that was written by the hand of God… Even the pope would admit to that.’

Maria knew what the Bible was and wasn’t, yet there was something about Boyd’s tone that made his explanation sound harsh, no matter how accurate it was. Take the Gospels, for example. She knew the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John detailed the life of Jesus, and most Christians believed these accounts were infallible. However, what most people failed to realize is that John’s Gospel disagreed with the other gospels about several important events in Christ’s life, meaning that large portions of the Gospels had to be wrong since they contradicted each other. Furthermore, she knew that many modern scholars claimed the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written by men who’d never met Christ (although some early-Christian scholars would disagree) nearly forty years after his crucifixion. That meant none of their writings were first-person accounts of Jesus’s life. Instead, they were based on rumors, stories, and exaggerations that had been passed through two generations of religious turmoil.

Maria also realized the fourth Gospel, the one by John, was penned by an unknown writer with unknown credentials, although some fringe scholars have theorized that it was actually written by Lazarus, the man who Christ supposedly raised from the dead. And if that was true, his version of Christ’s life would’ve been more than a little bit biased.

Wait a second, she thought to herself. Could that be the miracle they were looking for?

She asked, ‘What about Lazarus? Jesus brought him back four days after he’d been buried.’

‘Hmmm, I admit I forgot about that one. I think that’s probably the type of event that Tiberius would’ve had in mind, something that would have been unexplainable. Unfortunately, the Lazarus miracle didn’t occur on the great stage of Jerusalem, the place where Tiberius wanted the Jews to discover their Lord. Therefore, I doubt that was the one.’

‘OK, tell me this: Which of Jesus’s miracles actually occurred in Jerusalem?’

‘Truthfully, none of his miracles seem to match the criteria. None of them possessed the pizzazz that Tiberius was striving for.’

‘Meaning?’

‘We must be overlooking something. We need to keep on digging until we find a fact, no matter how large or trivial, that supports our hypothesis.’

Frustrated, Maria sank back into her chair. ‘That sounds kind of tough, sir. I mean, there are so many places we could look. It would be so much easier if we had some idea where to begin.’

‘True, but that is not the reality of things. In this business nothing is ever handed to you, and nothing is sitting out in the open, waiting for you to notice it. That’s just not how it works.’

But in this case Boyd was wrong, for the answer they were looking for was within their grasp. In fact, it was lying on the table in front of them.





31


Opened in the 1930s, the Grand Hotel Reale used to be the most elegant hotel in town. Nowadays the hand-painted frescoes that once enhanced the lobby were tarnished, the result of fingerprints, tobacco stains, and years of neglect. Payne noticed the outside of the hotel was faded, too, as he and Jones scurried alongside the building to reach the back entrance. A few minutes later they were inside Barnes’s room, slipping a pair of his socks over their hands to conceal their fingerprints. After that it didn’t take long to find something of interest.

‘Well, well, well,’ Jones said. ‘Look what we have here.’

Payne turned and saw him kneeling on the floor, holding a 9 mm Beretta in his sock glove. After checking the safety, Jones put the barrel under his nose and took a whiff, trying to determine if it had been recently fired. ‘Found it under the bed,’ he said. ‘Smells clean.’

‘The gun or the sock?’

Ignoring the question, Jones handed him the weapon. ‘I wonder why he had it?’

Payne took it in his sock-covered hand. Suddenly he looked like a performer in a twisted puppet show who was about to kill Kermit the Frog. ‘Who knows? He was traveling alone in a foreign country. He might’ve brought it for protection.’