He opened to the first few pages and studied the tiny print. Nothing unusual had appeared on the front endpapers, so he checked the back ones.
All blank.
He could thumb through every page, but there were hundreds and that would take time. So he allowed the tissue-thin pages to slip past his thumb as he rifled through in rapid succession, his eyes scanning for anything unusual.
He saw something.
He stopped and found the page.
Part of the Book of Helaman. More precisely, chapter 13. The prophecy of Samuel, the Lamanite, to the Nephites. He knew the story, from around five hundred years before the coming of Christ. It told of the righteousness of the Lamanites and the wickedness of the Nephites. In no uncertain terms Samuel predicted the destruction of the Nephites, unless they repented.
Atop the type on the page, penned in ink, was a drawing.
He found the copy of the map from the temple cornerstone, which Snow had provided to him. They were the same, except this one had writing.
He noticed the printed passages that lay beneath the drawing.
19 For I will, saith the Lord, that they shall hide up their treasures unto me; and cursed be they who hide not up their treasures unto me; for none hideth up their treasures unto me save it be the righteous; and he that hideth not up his treasures unto me, cursed is he, and also the treasure, and none shall redeem it because of the curse of the land.
20 And the day shall come that they shall hide up their treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; and because they have set their hearts upon their riches, and will hide up their treasures when they shall flee before their enemies; because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures; and in that day shall they be smitten, saith the Lord.
21 Behold ye, the people of this great city, and hearken unto my words; yea, hearken unto the words which the Lord saith; for behold, he saith that ye are cursed because of your riches, and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you.
He smiled.
Lincoln had chosen his page with care.
The Nephites rejected Samuel and ultimately stoned the prophets.
A warning?
Perhaps.
But he had no choice. He had to move forward.
He noticed that something was missing from the map. One location unidentified. That could be problematic. He’d already recognized some of the locales. They were in the mountains northeast of Salt Lake, in an area long suspected of holding secrets. But the area contained thousands of miles of wilderness, with few or no markers, and the omitted reference seemed to be an end point.
Lincoln had hedged his bets and not revealed all.
At the bottom of the page was scrawled Romans 13:11. He could not recall the gist of the passage.
Why had it been included?
He stared past the open blinds, out the window, at the illuminated Capitol dome. He needed time to think and could not leave this evidence.
Heavenly Father forgive him.
Never had he defaced the scriptures.
But he carefully tore the page from the book.
FORTY-FOUR
3:50 A.M.
LUKE HAD FLED MONTPELIER QUICKLY, FINDING THE HIGHWAY and speeding north out of Virginia to Washington, D.C. Katie had sat in the backseat, quiet for the most part, only occasionally engaging in conversation. She’d kept the gun, but obviously knew little about it. He wasn’t stupid enough to leave a loaded weapon around for anyone to get hold of. He kept the magazine beneath the driver’s seat, easy to get, if you knew where to look. Which she didn’t. He’d checked and was comforted to discover it was still hidden away.
They were now off the highway, headed into the city, the streets devoid of cars at this godforsaken hour. Luckily he’d always been a night person, so his mind was alert.
“You ever watch The Andy Griffith Show?” he asked her.
“Sure. Who hasn’t?”
“Remember how Barney wanted to carry a gun. Made a big thing out of it. But Andy made him keep the bullets in his pocket.”
Katie said nothing.
“The gun’s not loaded,” he told her.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Pull the trigger.”
He watched her in the rearview mirror.
She did nothing.
“You said you knew how to use one. So use it.”
He heard a click. Then another. And another.
Damn. She actually did it.
She tossed the gun over the seat. It thumped to the floorboard on the passenger side. “You think you’re so damn smart.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know about that. You with your master’s degree, working on your doctorate. I thought maybe you might figure it out on your own.”
He stopped for a red light. “And you really gave me the sheriff department’s number as your own?”