The Manhattan Puzzle

12

Rose Suchard was sitting at a back table in the otherwise almost empty In Italy restaurant at the bottom of their street when Isabel and Alek got there.

In Italy was one of those new places with all white wooden tables and chairs. On the long side wall there was a giant map of a futuristic subway system made up of multicoloured dots. The restaurant attracted a young crowd who enjoyed the real Italian coffee, great pasta dishes and the atmosphere. Sean and Isabel went there regularly. It was one of the reasons she loved the area.

A waiter was flirting with Rose when they arrived.

Carlo, his name badge said, turned and smiled at Isabel as she sat down.

‘And for you, signora?’ he asked, as his smile said, you also look fantastic. The black wool sweater and midnight blue jeans she’d put on was her basic outfit these days. It was nice to be complimented, but she really didn’t need it.

‘A late breakfast, maybe?’

But Isabel wasn’t hungry. She ordered a latte and an orange juice for Alek. He was wiggling on the chair to her right. She took off his jacket.

Once he was settled she turned to Rose.

‘Sean didn’t come home last night,’ she whispered, leaning close to her, so Alek wouldn’t hear.

‘The bastard,’ Rose hissed back. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Not really, I still don’t know where he is.’ She put her hand to her forehead. Rose tutted.

‘If I’m arrested for killing him, don’t be surprised.’ She looked out the window, hoping to see his car going by.

‘I’ll stand by you,’ said Rose. ‘Did you see the news?’ She leaned even closer to Isabel. Alek was caught up with galloping an armoured knight across a corner of the table.

‘What news?’

‘About BXH,’ she whispered. She had an are-you-still-with-us look on her face.

She was scaring Isabel now. ‘You know I’ve sworn off TV in the morning.’

All the endless bad TV news was like an infection. She’d decided to keep it all out until the evening each day, when Sean brought enough of it home for both of them.

‘They were going on about the merger,’ said Rose. ‘Apparently BXH’s share price should be going up, but it’s not, it’s collapsing. You know what Terry said?’ Her voice dropped to a whisper.

Isabel shook her head, slowly.

‘He said if the merger doesn’t happen, BXH will collapse in on itself, like a black hole or something. They’ve been hiding …’ She leaned towards Isabel. Her voice went even lower.

‘Something big, he reckons.’ She glanced around, as if they were in a conspiracy movie.

‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘Me neither.’ Rose looked genuinely worried.

‘Sean said if the merger fell through, BXH would still be okay,’ she said.

‘Sure, but where is he?’

She opened her mouth, looked at Alek, closed it again. She felt like cursing Sean and BXH, but she couldn’t, not in front of Alek.

‘You know …’ said Rose. She looked sad. Her mouth opened. Her eyes were brimming. ‘It’s …’

Rose was crying. Big tears were running down her nose. Sympathy flared inside Isabel. Her problems suddenly seemed minor. Rose was usually so upbeat. When the western world had been about to melt down, she’d invited them around for a party.

‘We’re going … we’re going to lose our home,’ said Rose.

‘No way.’ Isabel glanced at Alek. He hadn’t noticed anything.

‘What happened?’ she said.

‘Terry’s overtime’s been cut. They’re cutting loads in IT. We borrowed so much to get this house. We’re going to lose it all. I just know it.’

Isabel squeezed her arm. Rose smiled at her and straightened herself up. It was the smile of someone determined not to let anyone else down.

‘Maybe it’ll be for the better,’ she said. ‘We don’t need such a big house.’ She sniffed and tried to compose herself. ‘Terry took out another loan. He didn’t even tell me.’ There was a wounded, shocked look in her eyes.

‘That’s terrible,’ said Isabel.

The waiter arrived. He made an elaborate show of placing their drinks in front of them. He was far too solicitous. Had he seen Rose crying?

‘You know what else?’ said Rose, after he’d gone.

She arched a neatly plucked brow, then started talking about how Terry had been acting odd recently. Isabel encouraged Rose to tell her more. After a few minutes she leaned towards Alek. ‘Are you looking forward to playing with Aunty Rosie?’ Alek nodded. She gave his hand a squeeze.

That was her signal.

‘I gotta go,’ she said, She’d hardly touched her coffee.

‘Make sure he tells you where he was,’ said Rose.

‘He’ll have some amazing explanation,’ she said. ‘Just like the last time.’

She gave Rose her long-suffering-wife smile.

‘Did I tell you Alek likes to sleep with the lights on?’ she said.

‘Three times,’ said Rose. ‘Go on. Have a good time. Making up is always the best part.’

Rose was definitely the most reliable friend she had. Alek would be in good hands.

‘Go on,’ said Rose. ‘Call me if there’s a problem.’

She pecked Alek on the cheek. He looked so cute. His little green weekend bag was under the table. She slid it near Rose. ‘That’s his things. You have my number, don’t you?’ Rose nodded.

Isabel took the bill.

‘This is on me.’ It was the least she could do.

A blast of bitter wind greeted her as she left the restaurant. She wanted to run all the way back to the house. She could picture Sean waiting there, standing in the hall, smiling, all apologetic.

A last-minute hitch to the merger could easily have stopped Sean from coming home. The merger was supposed to be a coup for BXH; the first time a Chinese state bank had ever taken a large stake in a major American bank, but God only knew what last-minute hitches might occur or what information was needed on Sean’s software initiative, facial recognition for all customers.

Sean had said the project would still go ahead, despite the takeover but she had got the distinct impression that he was worried about something, though he hadn’t elaborated about it. He’d been so preoccupied during the last few weeks that they’d hardly spoken more than a few words.

Even yesterday morning, when he’d called to tell her he’d be back late, he’d been strangely distant.

‘Be home, please,’ she mumbled, as the reality of what was happening hit her. She stared at the house as she neared it, looking for any sign that he might be back.

There wasn’t.

13

The policeman fixed the blue and white tape stretching from side to side of the alley. The two jumpsuited forensic officers who’d just gone under hadn’t bothered to secure it properly after they’d passed; typical.

They were probably too excited about the corpse to think about mundane matters.

It wasn’t often you found a murder victim with these sorts of injuries in Soho. He was glad he didn’t have to stand near the body any more. How anyone could do such a thing to a beautiful woman was beyond all understanding.

Maybe now, at last, they’d move the body. It was attracting far too much attention. The journalists and the TV crew were a gawping entourage.

‘Sorry sir, this area is restricted,’ he said.

A tall man with close-cropped dark hair and a weary expression pulled an ID card he’d seen only once before out of his pocket. It was in a brown leather wallet. It had the crown insignia and the words SECURITY SERVICES MI5 beneath it.

‘May I take your name for the crime scene log, sir?’ said the policeman.

‘Henry Mowlam,’ said the man, as he lifted the blue tape and passed underneath.

Henry went up the stairs slowly. They were narrow, nicotine coloured. He passed the policeman guarding the entrance to the room. This one had a better look at his card, which was a good thing, and then he let him through.

The room where the girl had been murdered was splattered in blood. There were trails of it on the walls and on the ceiling too. Henry stood in the centre of the room and turned slowly.

Then he went close to the splatter lines. Were they triangles?

He shook his head. ‘It’s just a coincidence,’ he whispered to himself.

Ever since he’d figured out that the square and arrow symbol in that old book could also be a representation of a skull, he’d been seeing them everywhere.

He been warned about how certain ‘cases’ could get under one’s skin at his last annual evaluation and they’d both known what the lady from human resources had meant.

But that didn’t mean he was going to heed the warning. There was no way he could just let all this go.

There was a lot more than a takeover and a murder going on here. He could feel it deep down inside him. He’d seen evil before, seen its effects, but he’d never seen it like this, part ancient, part modern. It was like a layered puzzle.

And Henry had a theory about it.

14

Their house, with its blood-red brick frontage, and olive-green eaves and sash windows, looked, she often thought, like something from an Edwardian fairy tale, when London stood at the centre of an Empire that stretched around the globe.

Living there was a fairy tale too. She hadn’t expected such happiness, and at times she felt uneasy about how quickly they’d achieved all this. She’d sold her apartment for a small profit. Sean had sold his house for a bigger one. A bargain had come on the market. And she’d deserved it.

Her first marriage, to Mark, who had worked beside her at the British Consulate in Istanbul had been a disaster. They’d lived in a dull Foreign Office apartment in the city and he used to go missing for weeks. The final insult had happened when he’d abandoned her in a house in northern Iraq that was under fire.

He was supposed to be her security escort.

Meeting Sean hadn’t seemed like such a big deal when it happened – he was in Istanbul to identify a friend’s body – but after they’d escaped those waterlogged tunnels under Hagia Sophia together, she’d wanted to be with him. The feeling was strong, unexpected, but he’d been what she’d needed.

She trusted Sean totally now. He wouldn’t let her down, like Mark had. He wasn’t like that. After Mark had died in Jerusalem, and Sean had rescued her from a hellhole cave in the Judean Hills, where she’d been held against her will for stepping across the wrong person’s path, their connection had become stronger, cemented.

She couldn’t imagine anything happening that could break it.

As she looked at her front door, her stomach was churning. She closed her eyes and said a prayer that he would be inside the house.

She remembered the day they’d moved in. They’d arrived together by taxi. And they’d found a window in the attic to stare out of. They’d both gazed over the slate roofs of London to the big wheel of the London Eye and the jumble of glittering buildings all around it. It had been a wonderful summer’s evening. The wind had been as light as a baby’s breath. They’d made love for hours.

Stay calm.

There were a lot of things she had to do. She had to finish packing, find her black jacket, get some cash out, check the timer switches on the lights, check their passports, tickets, and make sure all the windows in the house were closed.

She looked at her watch. It was eleven forty-five. He had to be back by now. Isabel put her key in the lock. She closed the door behind her quickly to keep the heat in.

‘Sean,’ she shouted.

There was no reply. Had she missed him? His scarf was hanging at the bottom of the stairs. Had it been there when she went out?

She took it and headed upstairs, sniffing at it. Would she feel heat coming off it, if he’d just put it down?

She called out again as she reached the top of the stairs. Alek’s room was on this floor, as was their bedroom and the main bathroom. You had to go up again, to the top floor, to reach their shared office room. The doorbell rang. A short ring. She gripped the banisters and headed down fast, half afraid she might fall in her eagerness. Even before she got to the bottom though, she could see that it wasn’t him, and the thumping slowed to be replaced by a jolt of recognition as she opened the door. It was Sabrina, their Neapolitan cleaning lady. Isabel opened the door wide. Sabrina was overweight. She had to stand aside to let her in.

‘Ciao, Mrs Ryan,’ she said. She wore her trademark big smile, but it disappeared quickly when she saw the look on Isabel’s face.

‘What happened, eh?’

Isabel tried to smile. She didn’t think it worked.

‘I’m waiting for Sean. We’re supposed to be going to Paris in a few hours. But he didn’t come back last night.’ The words came out in a rush.

‘Men, huh? They’re all the same. He’ll come back, Mrs Ryan.’ She waved her hands in the air. ‘He’s not going to miss a weekend in Paris with you.’ She flicked her hands through the air again, motioning towards Isabel, in an almost jealous gesture. Then she headed for the kitchen. It would be a few hours before she’d finish the ironing and cleaning. Isabel was halfway up the stairs. ‘I’ll be down in a while,’ she said, as Sabrina’s back disappeared.

She’d wasted enough time. Sean had a laptop in their office. His electronic calendar was on it. If anything ruled his life, that thing did. If there were meetings he’d been due to attend today that might explain where he was.

His life was dominated by meetings. Trying to break in on one of them would be like trying to break into the Sistine Chapel when they were picking a new pope. But at least she’d know where he was.

She felt like an intruder as she opened Sean’s laptop. But she didn’t care. The air in their home office was often musty. Now it felt stuffy. She wondered if Sean still used the same password he’d had a few years before, when they’d both used the same machine.

To her relief he did.

She was in.

She opened Outlook. He had two meetings in it for this morning. One was with Paul Vaughann at eight thirty. Another one, re: merger/Mr Li, was at nine thirty. That was it. It had to be. She relaxed a little. He’d gone straight to the office after staying somewhere last night. He’d probably arrived soon after she’d spoken to George. That would explain it all. He was in that meeting right now, looking at his watch, wondering how he could get out, call her. She launched his web browser. The last page he’d visited was the Wall Street Journal.

She swallowed hard, as if a frog was going down, when she saw the main headline on the site: BXH UNDER INVESTIGATION

She read the story, her face tingling as the words scrolled in front of her.

The merger with the Chinese bank had not been completed. A UK Fraud Squad investigation was under way. The bank was claiming short sellers were spreading rumours about the company. The next paragraph talked about the layoffs that would happen at BXH if the merger didn’t go ahead. She took a deep breath. Rose was right. Talk about reality sneaking up behind you. Sean had been telling her for a long time that there was nothing to worry about, that the contract with BXH would save the Institute.

Was it all a lie?

She looked out of the window, down at the street. A car horn beeped. A siren echoed distantly. That stupid bank. She banged the window frame with her fist.

Their train tickets were lying on the nearby bookcase. She picked them up and checked the date, before putting them in her back pocket. Whatever happened, they were still going to Paris. To hell with all the rest. She took up the phone handset from beside the laptop. The first thing she should do was check in with BXH. She tapped in his direct dial number.

But it wasn’t Sean who answered, it was George Donovan.

Damn.

He announced his name as if he was on parade.

‘Hi, George,’ she said. There was silence. ‘It’s Isabel. Is Sean around?’ If Sean wasn’t answering his phone, he could be in that meeting.

‘Hello, Mrs Ryan. Hold on a moment. I’ll get him.’ His tone was as flat as an unruffled page. The line went quiet.

A burst of relief tingled through her. He was there. He was going to come to the phone. At last!

15

Xena closed the door of the apartment. Pastor Stevson walked slowly into the main room overlooking Fifth Avenue.

He poured himself a coffee, then sat on the black leather sofa.

‘I didn’t get much sleep, Lord Bidoner, but I’m here.’

‘Thank you for coming. We need to move things forward.’

‘You told me to get ready, sir. I’ve done that. The money has been rounded up and the laboratory is up and running. I’ve even told my wife that His return is near.’

‘Have you told anyone else?’ said Bidoner.

‘No, no. I did as we agreed. She knows nothing about how His coming will be achieved.’

‘Tell no one else. I told you this already,’ said Lord Bidoner. ‘He will return, but we must keep every detail secret. No more talking.’ He pointed at Pastor Stevson.

‘You ain’t got nothing to fear on that count.’

‘There are many who will try to stop us.’

‘The devil’s workers are all around.’

‘Your tests are finished, you said?’ Lord Bidoner stood up and began pacing.

‘You bet, they can clone from any good cell sample now.’

‘Good. They should be congratulated.’

‘It’s all working, like you said. This doc did some research for another IVF clinic, he didn’t even put it on their website.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s amazing. The whole process is simpler than I thought.’

Lord Bidoner smiled. ‘But he has no idea of our real plans?’

‘No idea at all. He still thinks I’m some crackpot millionaire who wants to clone a dead relative. He’s happy to get his payoff and then disappear. And he’s all ready. He’s tested injecting a whole range of DNA cells into defective human embryos at least a dozen times. Each live embryo has been a hundred per cent clone of the DNA sample. He hasn’t had one single failure.’

Lord Bidoner smiled. The process of producing full clones had been done with mice for years. It was illegal with human embryos, but once the embryo was planted in a womb no one would know the difference between what they had done and standard IVF treatment.

‘All we need now is that DNA sample,’ said Stevson. He leaned forward. ‘You’re sure we can find it?’

‘Yes. We had the carbon dating repeated on the page with the symbol on it. It came back again as the period around Christ’s death. The symbol will verify the DNA, when we find it.’ He sat down.

‘Most people assume that such a quest is a romantic fantasy. They have no idea that there is truth at the heart of it.’

‘That book resurfacing now, out of the blue, when we can do something with it, has gotta be divine intervention,’ said Pastor Stevson.

‘I agree.’ Lord Bidoner smiled. ‘It is an intervention.’ He was staring out of the window. There were flakes of snow driving up against it now. It was a surreal view.

Pastor Stevson smiled. ‘You know, I always liked that story about Joseph of Arimathea catching Christ’s blood in a cup.’ He smiled. ‘But I really never thought I’d be involved in a search for it.’ He sighed, shook his head, as if remembering something.

‘You are sure DNA survives from dried blood that old?’

‘Human DNA can survive thousands of years. That’s been proven, again and again. DNA cells from long-dried blood have been extracted many times.’

‘And you’re near to getting into the site?’

‘Very near. I’ve managed to persuade someone to give us some useful security codes. We have access.’