The Lincoln Myth(13)

“I became one of Senor Salazar’s personal assistants five years ago. But I came to see that there was a problem with him. My employer is Mormon.”

“And how is that a problem?” Malone asked.

“He is an elder, a senior member of the First Quorum of Seventy, perhaps destined to be named an apostle of the church.”

“That’s real high up on the pole,” Luke said.

“I’m familiar with the Latter-day Saints.” Malone stared at Kirk. “What’s the problem with Salazar?”

“He’s involved with some nefarious dealings. I turned a blind eye to them … until recently, when I believe he killed someone.”

“And how would you know that?”

“I don’t, not for sure. But he’s been trying to obtain a 19th-century diary. Senor Salazar is an avid collector of Mormon history. The book’s owner refused to sell. This was … a point of frustration. Then the diary was obtained, and I learned that its owner was found dead.”

“And how does that connect to Salazar?” Malone asked.

“Somewhat coincidental, wouldn’t you say?”

He glanced at Luke, hoping for more. “Can you fill in the gaps?”

“Wish I could. We were tasked with a simple background check on Salazar. That’s all, facts and figures. We had an agent on the ground working that for the past few months. Kirk, here, made contact with him. Then, three days ago, that agent disappeared. I was sent to find him. This afternoon I had a run-in with some of Salazar’s men, so I stole one of his planes.”

“He has more than one?”

“He’s got a friggin’ air force. Like I said, nasty rich.”

“Your agent talked with me,” Kirk said. “He was going to get me to safety. But when I learned Senor Salazar had taken him, I panicked and ran. He gave me a contact number, which I called. I was told to go to Sweden, but Salazar’s men followed.”

“Your employer has men?” Malone asked.

“Danites.”

That was a word he hadn’t expected, but one he knew.

He stepped over to the aisle marked RELIGION and searched for the book he hoped was still there. He’d bought it a few weeks ago from an odd lady who’d dragged in several cartons.

And yes—it remained on the top shelf.

Kingdom of the Saints.

Published in the mid-20th century.

The term Danites had triggered something in his eidetic memory. It didn’t take much. Photographic was too simplistic a description for the genetic trait, and not altogether right. More a knack for details. A pain in the ass that could, sometimes, be helpful.

He checked the index and found the reference to a sermon delivered June 17, 1838, by Sidney Rigdon, one of Joseph Smith’s early converts.

“Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall the earth be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of man. We have provided the world with kindness, we have suffered their abuse without cause, with patience, and have endured without resentment, until this day, and still their persecution and violence does not cease. But from this day and this hour we will suffer it no more.”

Rigdon directed his comments to other apostates who he believed had betrayed the rest, but he also was referring to gentiles who’d repeatedly meted out death and violence toward Latter-day Saints. One new convert, Sampson Avard, a man described as “cunning, resourceful, and extremely ambitious” played upon the feeling aroused by what came to be called the Salt Sermon. He formed a secret military organization within the ranks known as the Sons of Dan, taken from a passage in Genesis, Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels so that his rider shall fall backward. The Danites were to enlist the youngest, the rashest, and the most vigorous as an elite corps, which served secretly. They acted not as a group, but as individuals who could be called upon to effect swift and immediate revenge for any acts of violence practiced against the Saints.



He glanced up from the book. “Danites were fanatics. Radicals within the early Mormon church. But they disappeared long ago.”

Kirk shook his head. “Senor Salazar fancies himself living in another time. He is an obsessive believer in Joseph Smith. He follows the old ways.”

Malone knew about Smith and his visions of the angel Moroni, who supposedly led him to golden plates, which Smith translated and used to form a new religion—first called the Church of Christ, now known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Senor Salazar is intelligent,” Kirk said. “Possessed of an advanced degree from the Universidad de Barcelona.”