“What’s wrong?” Payne asked as he leaned against the rail of the boat.
“I was just thinking.”
“About?”
She paused before answering. “Richard.”
“What about him?”
“Ivan said some things that make me wonder if I misjudged him. I mean, on the day that he was killed, he was waiting for me at the Peterhof. He didn’t have to do that. He knew someone was following him, yet he chose to stick around for me. If he had just hopped on a boat and left Saint Petersburg, he probably would have survived.”
“Maybe,” Payne admitted. “But the odds are pretty good that they would have found him eventually—whether it was in Russia or somewhere else.”
She shrugged again, not quite ready to accept reality. “Well, what about the coat?”
“What about it?”
“This whole time I thought Richard only cared about a treasure. Now I find out he had a soft spot for Schliemann, too.”
Jones spoke up. “Actually, I’m not quite sure about that. Jon told me about your conversation with Ivan, and I think something else might be going on here.”
She looked at him, confused. “Like what?”
“Richard wrote, the coat equals the key. But when we did our translations, three words—coat, key, and location—were always linked together. We assumed it was a coat of arms that would reveal the location, or something like that, right?”
“Right.”
“What if the key was actually a key? Just like the coat was a coat.”
She scrunched her face. “I don’t follow.”
Payne explained. “Ivan said that Schliemann never took off his coat. He kept it with him at all times. What if there was a reason for that? What if he kept something in his coat that he never wanted to leave his possession?”
Her eyes widened. “Like a key!”
Jones smiled. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Payne said, “We know it’s a long shot, but we’ve got some time to kill.”
“I’ll get the coat,” she said excitedly. She went and got the garment bag from the waterproof bin where Jarkko kept his valuables and brought it back to Payne and Jones. “I haven’t even opened it yet. I didn’t want to expose it to the sea air.”
“If you’d rather not,” Payne teased.
“No, that’s quite all right. The coat’s lasted this long. A little moisture won’t hurt it.”
She unzipped the bag and carefully removed the overcoat, which was black and single-breasted. The material was soft and solidly stitched, as a rich man’s coat should be. She reached into the side pockets and found nothing. The same with the interior pockets. Either Schliemann was carrying nothing at the time of his death, or the items were removed long ago.
“It was worth a shot,” she said, frustrated.
“That’s it? You’re giving up?” Jones grabbed the coat from her. “Please do me a favor and never take a job with airport security. That was the worst search I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Jones removed the coat’s hanger and handed it to her. “Hold this while I look.”
Right away he noticed that Schliemann was a small man. He figured that out when he placed his hand inside one of the sleeves and nearly got stuck. He repeated his search on the other side and then patted down the sleeves just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. After that, he looked underneath the collar. It was a great place to hide items because it was rarely searched.
Next he turned his attention to the lining of the coat. It was black with faint gray pinstripes. He ran his fingers along the seams, searching for any bulges. This process continued for several seconds until he felt something. It wasn’t solid like a key; it was flat. He moved it back and forth and felt it crinkle.
“Allison,” he said glumly, “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you.”
“Let me guess. The coat’s empty?”
“Actually, I think I found something. And if I did, I’m never going to let you forget it.”
60
Nick Dial glanced at his watch. It was 11:30 A.M. in Ouranoúpoli, Greece. He had been standing in front of the rendezvous point—a fourteenth-century Byzantine tower that had been built as a sentry post next to the Aegean Sea—for more than thirty minutes, but the governor of Mount Athos hadn’t yet shown up for their appointment.
On most occasions, Dial would have left a long time ago. He didn’t have a lot of patience when it came to tardiness. But in this situation he realized that the governor held all the cards. If he wanted immediate access to Mount Athos, he needed special permission from the governor, so Dial had little choice in the matter. He had to wait as long as necessary.