'You sanctimonious ass, I want that book.'
'You must first listen to what I have to say.'
'Hurry up.'
'Lars's first book was a resounding success. Several million copies worldwide, though it sold only modestly in America. His next were not as well received, but they sold-enough to finance his ventures. Lars thought an opposing point of view might help popularize the Rennes legend. So I financed several authors who wrote books critical of Lars, books that analyzed his conclusions on Rennes and pointed out fallacies. One book led to another and another. Some good, some bad. I myself even made some rather unflattering public remarks once about Lars. And soon, as he wanted, a genre was born.'
Her eyes were aflame. 'Are you nuts?'
'Controversy generates publicity. And Lars was not writing to a mass audience, so he had to generate his own publicity. After a while, though, it took on a life of its own. Rennes-le-Chateau is quite popular. Television specials have been made, magazines devoted to it, the Internet is loaded with sites dedicated solely to its mysteries. Tourism is the region's number one draw. Thanks to Lars, the town itself has now become an industry.'
Malone knew that hundreds of books existed on Rennes. Several shelves in his shop were filled with recycled volumes. But he needed to know, 'Henrik, two people died today. One leaped from the Round Tower and slit his throat on the way down. The other was tossed through a window. This isn't some public relations ploy.'
'I would say that today at the Round Tower you came face-to-face with a brother of the Knights Templar.'
'Ordinarily I'd say you're nuts, but the man screamed something before he jumped. Beauseant. '
Thorvaldsen nodded. 'The battle cry of the Templars. The screaming of that word by a mass of charging knights was enough to instill absolute fear in an enemy.'
He recalled what he read in the book earlier. 'The Templars were eradicated in 1307. There are no knights.'
'Not true, Cotton. An attempt was made to eradicate, but the pope reversed himself. The Chinon Parchment absolves the Templars of all heresy. Clement V issued that bull himself, in secret, in 1308. Many thought the document lost when Napoleon looted the Vatican, but recently it was found. No. Lars believed the Order still exists, and so do I.'
'There were a lot of references in Lars's books to Templars,' Malone said, 'but I never recall him writing that they still actually exist.'
Thorvaldsen nodded. 'Intentional on his part. Such a great contradiction they were, and are. Poor by vow, yet rich in assets and knowledge. Introspective, but skilled in the ways of the world. Monks and warriors. The Hollywood stereotype and the real Templar are two different beings. Don't be swept into the romance. They were a brutal lot.'
Malone was not impressed. 'How have they survived for seven hundred years without anyone knowing?'
'How does an insect or animal live in the wild without anyone knowing it exists? Yet new species are cataloged every day.'
Good point, Malone thought, but he still was not convinced. 'So what's this all about?'
Thorvaldsen leaned back in the chair. 'Lars was looking for the treasure of the Knights Templar.'
'What treasure?'
'Early in his reign, Philip IV devalued the French currency as a way to stimulate the economy. The act was so unpopular a mob came to kill him. He fled his palace for the Paris Temple and sought protection with the Templars. That was when he first spied the Order's wealth. Years later, when he was desperate for funds, he concocted a plan to convict the Order of heresy. Remember, anything a heretic owned became the property of the state. Yet, after the 1307 arrests, Philip found that not only the Paris vault, but also every other vault in Temples across France was empty. Not an ounce of Templar wealth was ever found.'
'And Lars thought that treasure was in Rennes-le-Chateau?' he asked.
'Not necessarily there, but somewhere in the Languedoc,' Henrik said. 'There are enough clues to warrant that conclusion. But the Templars made finding its location difficult.'
'So what does the book you bought tonight have to do with this?' Malone asked.
'Eugene Stublein was the mayor of Fa, a village close to Rennes. He was highly educated, a musician, and an amateur astronomer. He first penned a travel book about the region, then wrote Pierres Gravees du Languedoc. Inscribed Stones of the Languedoc. An unusual volume that depicts gravestones in and around Rennes. A strange interest, granted, but not uncommon-the south of France is noted for unique tombs. In the book is a sketch of a headstone that caught Stublein's eye. That drawing is important because the tombstone no longer exists.'
'Could I see what you're talking about?' Malone asked.
Thorvaldsen pushed himself up from the chair and lumbered over to a server table. He came back with the book from the auction. 'Delivered an hour ago.'
Malone parted the binding to a marked page and studied the drawing.
'Assuming Stublein's sketch is accurate, Lars believed the gravestone was a clue that pointed the way to the treasure. Lars searched for that book for many years. One should be in Paris, as the Bibliotheque Nationale maintains a copy of every printing in France. But, though one is cataloged, no copy is there.'
'Was Lars the only one who knew about this book?' Malone asked.
'I have no idea. Most believe the book does not exist.'
'Where was this one found?'
'I spoke with the auction. A railway engineer who built the line from Carcassonne south to the Pyrenees owned it. The engineer retired in 1927 and died in 1946. The book was among his daughter's possessions when she recently died. The grandson placed it for auction. The engineer had been interested in the Languedoc, especially Rennes, and kept an inventory of tombstone rubbings himself.'
Malone wasn't satisfied with his explanation. 'So who alerted Stephanie to the auction?'
'Now, that is the question of the night,' Thorvaldsen said.
Malone faced Stephanie. 'Back at the hotel, you said a note came with the journal. You have it?'
She reached into her bag and retrieved a tattered leather notebook. Tucked within its pages was a folded sheet of taupe-colored paper. She handed the paper to Malone and he read the French.
On the 22nd of June in Roskilde a copy of Pierres Gravees du Languedoc will be offered at auction. Your husband searched for this volume. Here is an opportunity for you to succeed where he failed. Le bon Dieu soit loue.
Malone silently translated the last line. God be praised. He gazed across the table at Stephanie. 'Where did you think this note came from?'
'One of Lars's associates. I just thought one of his cronies wanted me to have the journal and thought I'd be interested in the book.'
'After eleven years?'
'I agree, it seems odd. But three weeks ago I thought little about it. Like I said before, I always believed Lars's quests were harmless.'
'So why did you come?' Thorvaldsen asked.
'As you say, Henrik, I have regrets.'
'And I do not want to aggravate those. I don't know you, but I did know Lars. He was a good man and his quest was, as you say, harmless. But it was nonetheless important. His death saddened me. I always questioned whether it was suicide.'
'So did I,' she said in a whisper. 'I tried to place blame everywhere to rationalize it, but in my gut I never accepted that Lars killed himself.'
'Which explains, more than anything, why you're here,' Henrik said.
Malone could tell she was uncomfortable, so he offered her emotions a way out. 'Let me see the journal?'
She handed him the book and he thumbed through the hundred or so pages, seeing lots of numbers, sketches, symbols, and pages of handwritten text. He then examined the binding with a bibliophile's trained eye and something caught his attention. 'Pages are missing.'
'What do you mean?'
He showed her the top edge. 'Look here. See those tiny spaces.' He parted the binding to one. Only a sliver of the original paper remained where it had once adhered to the binding. 'Slit with a razor. I watch for this all the time. Nothing destroys the value of a book like missing pages.' He restudied the top and bottom and determined that
