for the professor, which threw her, and she heard herself saying,
'He needs help.'
Reilly studied her, pausing for a moment. 'Okay, we'll need to do a proper, in-depth debriefing as soon as you're comfortable; but right now, I need to make sure we find where he took you. You have no idea where you were being held, where that cellar is?'
Tess shook her head. 'No, I told you. When I came to in the car, I was blindfolded, and getting out of there was just one big, dark maze of tunnels. But it can't be that far from here. I mean, I walked it.'
'How many blocks, if you had to guess.'
'I don't know . . . five?'
'Okay. Let's get some maps and see if we can find this dungeon of yours.'
Reilly was about to walk off when Tess reached out and stopped him. 'There's something else, something I didn't tell you.'
'Why am I not surprised?' he chastised. 'What is it?'
Tess reached into her bag and pulled out the roll of sheets she'd taken from Vance's desk. She spread them out for Reilly to see, and now, in the light, she could see them properly for the first time. The documents, ancient vellum scrolls, were beautiful despite having no illustrations on them; they were just simply and oddly packed, virtually edge to edge, with a continuous stream of impeccably drafted letters. There were no breaks, no spaces between words or paragraphs.
Reilly scrutinized the sheets in stunned silence, then turned to her. She grinned, her smile lighting up a face smeared with the grime of the tunnels. 'They're Vance's,' she told him. 'The Templar manuscripts from the Languedoc. But here's the thing. I can recognize Latin, and none of this makes sense. It's gibberish. That's why he needs the encoder. They're the key to what this is all about.'
His expression clouded over. 'But these pages, they're useless without the encoder.'
Tess had a self-satisfied glint in her eye. 'True, but . . . the encoder is also pointless without them.'
It was a moment she would always enjoy remembering: watching Reilly all conflicted and speechless. She knew he had to be delighted, but she also knew it was probably killing him that he couldn't show it. The last thing he wanted to do was encourage her recklessness. Instead, he just stared at her before climbing out of the car and calling over one of the other agents and asking for the papers to be photographed immediately. Moments later, an agent hurried over with a large camera, and Reilly handed him the sheets.
Tess watched as the photographer spread them out on the car's trunk and got to work. She then turned to see Reilly pick up a small two-way radio and get updated on the situation in the tunnels. There was something attractive about the urgency with which he went about his work. As she watched him mumbling cryptically into the radio, he glanced over at her, and she thought she spied a faint smile there.
'I need to go down there,' he told her after he signed off. 'They've found your two friends.'
'What about Vance?'
'No sign of him.' He clearly wasn't happy with that. 'I'll get someone to take you home.'
'No hurry,' she told him. Which wasn't true. She was desperate to get out of her filthy, wet clothes and stand under the shower for hours, but not before the photographer was finished. She was even 84
more desperate to take a look at the documents that had started all this.
Reilly walked away, leaving her in his car. She watched him chat to a couple of other agents before they all headed toward the station entrance.
Abruptly, her thoughts were interrupted by her cell phone. The caller ID displayed her home number.
'Tess, dear, it's me.' It was Eileen.
'Mom. I'm sorry, I should have called you.'
'Called me? Why? Is anything wrong?'
Tess breathed out with relief. There was no reason for her mother to be worried about her. The FBI would have been careful not to alarm her if they'd called to find out where Tess was. 'No, of course not. What's up?'
'I was just wondering what time you'd be home. Your friend's already here.'
Tess felt a sudden chill shoot up her spine. 'My friend?'
'Yes,' her mother chirped. 'He's such a lovely man. Here, have a word with him, dear. And don't be too late. I've asked him to stay for dinner.'
Tess heard the phone changing hands, and then a newly familiar voice came on.
'Tess, darling. It's Bill. Bill Vance.'
Chapter 39
Tess froze in her seat, a knot the size of a fist forming in her throat. He was there, in her very own house. With her mother. And—Kim?
She turned away from the car door, clasping the phone tightly.
'What are you—'
'I thought you'd be here already,' he interjected calmly. 'I didn't get the time wrong, did I? Your message said it was rather urgent.'
Message? Tess's mind was racing. He's in my house and he's playing games. An anger swelled inside her. 'If you hurt them, I swear—'
'No, no, no,' he interrupted, 'it's not a problem. But I really can't stay too long. Much as I'd love to take up your lovely mother's invitation and have dinner with you all, I have to get back up to Connecticut. You said you had something for me. Something you wanted me to have a look at.'
Of course. The papers. He wants his papers back. She realized he didn't want to cause her mom or Kim any distress. He was posing as a friend, and was acting accordingly. Her mother wouldn't know anything was wrong. Good. Let's keep it that way.
'Tess?' he asked with disturbing serenity. 'Are you still there?'
'Yes. You want me to bring you the documents.'
'That would be great.'
Her mind flashed on her wallet, lying among the clutter on the floor of Vance's cellar, and she chided herself for not retrieving it. She looked out the car window nervously. Only the photographer was near, still taking pictures of the documents. Feeling a constriction in her chest, Tess took a deep breath and turned away from the photographer. 'I'm on my way. Please, don't do anything—'
'Of course not,' he chortled. 'I'll wait for you, then. Is anyone else joining us?'
Tess frowned. 'No.'
'Perfect.' He paused for a moment. Tess wondered what he was doing. 'It'll be nice to spend some time and get to know them a bit better,' he continued. 'Kim is such a delightful little girl.'
So she was there after all. That bastard. He lost his daughter, now he's threatening mine.
'I'll come alone, don't worry,' Tess said firmly.
'Don't be long.'
She heard the phone click off, and for a moment she continued to hold the cell phone to her ear, running through the conversation again, trying to come to terms with what was happening.
She had a huge decision to make. Do I tell Reilly? She knew the answer to that: of course. Anyone who'd ever watched a TV show knew that, regardless of whatever a kidnapper said, you called the cops. You always called the cops. But that was TV, and this was real life. This was about her family in the hands of a demolished man. Much as she wanted to tell Reilly, she didn't want to risk triggering some kind of hostage situation. Not given the state of mind Vance was in.
Grasping at straws, she tried to convince herself he wouldn't hurt them. He hadn't hurt her, had he?
He was even apologetic about what he'd done to her. But now, she had crossed him, and she had his documents, the ones that were crucial to his mission. The documents, as Reilly had rightly put it, that people had died for.
She couldn't risk it. Her family was in harm's way.
She sneaked another look at the photographer. He was done. Still holding the cell phone to her ear, she edged toward him. 'Yes,' she said loudly, into the dead line. 'He's just finished photographing them.' She nodded to the photographer, dredging up a smile. 'Sure, I'll bring them right over,' she continued. 'You go ahead and start
