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.There were two beds.The one nearest the door was empty but obviously in use.Wanounou was in the bed by the window, up five floors with a view of bright blue sky.The room smelled like rubbing alcohol and floor wax.People moved quietly up and down the halls carrying bouquets of flowers and peeping in doorways.The professor looked like hell.Both eyes were black and swollen three-quarters shut.His lips were swollen and the color of eggplant.He had a plaster skullcap and a plaster bandage on his nose.He had a cast on his left arm and wires and tubes everywhere.Machinery clicked and hummed all around the room.Things dripped into him, and things dripped out.The nurse, a skinny thin-faced man named Joseph with some kind of Slavic accent and a thick scar on his chin, told them they had exactly half an hour to visit.He looked like he meant it.Wanounou was conscious and a little groggy from assorted medications he’d been given.He gave them a puffy-lipped smile as they stepped up to the bed.Two of his front teeth were broken, their ends jagged.He lisped a little when he talked.“I’d kiss you, but it might be too painful,” said Peggy, pulling up one of the visitor’s chairs and sitting down.She extended her hand and let it rest on the professor’s sheet-covered leg.Wanounou’s smile broadened.It looked as though his lips were going to split open.Holliday winced.“Feeling better now,” said the professor.“A bit hungry though.”“That’s a good sign,” said Peggy.“What happened?” Holliday asked.“I was working on the scroll.It was about ten thirty or so.Three guys came into the lab.One of them had an attaché case.He took the sections of the scroll, and the other two started beating me.One of them had a piece of pipe with duct tape wrapped around it.The other one just used his fists.”Peggy winced.“What did they look like?” Holliday asked.“Ordinary, but like they went to the gym a lot.”“Military?”“Maybe.They didn’t have particularly short hair, except the one with the attaché case.He was bald.”“Tattoos?” Holliday was thinking about the sword and ribbon symbol he’d seen on the killer’s wrist at Carr-Harris’s summer house.“Not that I saw.”“Accents?”“They didn’t talk much.”“Anything?”Wanounou thought for a moment.The machinery ticked, dripped, and wheezed.“The one with the attaché case.”“What about him?”“He was a Christian.”“How do you know?”“He had a little crucifix on a chain around his neck.Gold.”That really didn’t mean much these days.“Anything else?”Wanounou thought again.“One thing.Silly.”“What?”“One of the guys kicking me.Before I passed out.”“What?”“His boots.Motorcycle boots, you know? The ones with a buckle.”“Okay.”“They were Rogani Bruno e Franco.I know the brand.Pricey.I’ve always wanted a pair.They make beautiful street shoes, too.”“So?”“They’re Italian.The only place you can get them is a town called Macerata, near the Adriatic Coast.”“Now why would you know a thing like that?” Peggy asked.“Fanum Voltumnae,” said Wanounou as though it would mean something to them.“ ‘Fanum’ means ‘temple’ or ‘shrine,’ doesn’t it?” Holliday said, his mind skipping back to Mary-Lou Gemmill’s senior Latin class and her threats to deny prom tickets to anyone who couldn’t decline neuter i-stem nouns by the end of class.“That’s right,” said Wanounou.“There’s a big archaeological site there.Etruscan.It’s not far from Orvieto, a big gathering center for crusaders shipping out to Jerusalem.I’ve visited the site a number of times.”“How far along were you with the scroll before they got to you? Did you manage to read it?”“I didn’t even get to clean the pieces.”“How many slices?”“Nine.”“How long do you think the whole scroll was?”“Thirty centimeters.I measured the pieces.”“About twelve inches.”“More or less.”“And he took them all?”“I guess so.My concentration was elsewhere,” answered Wanounou.Peggy gave Holliday a sharp look.“Would you like some water?” she said.Wanounou nodded [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]