The Eighth Veil (31 page)

“She fought him?”

“It would seem so. In the struggle he attempted to cut the thong to which the pendant was attached. He held her head underwater to disable her, I assume, and as she struggled to breathe her head jerked forward at the precise moment he attempted to cut the thong and instead of merely slicing through the leather, he slashed her neck as well. Slashing upward, not down. That misled the physician and me, for a time. Because the wound seemed to be downward from right to left as he faced her, we assumed the killer used his left hand, but in fact he attempted to cut the thong and her throat, you could say, got in the way. The rush of blood must have startled him and the pendant slipped from his fingers and into the depths of the bath.”

“And he didn’t want to go into the water to retrieve it? That seems rather fastidious for a man accustomed to cruelty.”

“I do not think it had anything to do with fastidiousness, Excellency. Barak, the man you assigned to me you recall, had the night watch. He entered the area at about the time this man would have gone after the pendant. The killer fled and with the uproar that followed, could not return to retrieve his prize. He tried on later occasions, but, as you know a guard had been posted and then when I had the bath drained, I found the piece and it was too late. All he could do after that was to hope no one would recognize it for what it was and that he might be able to steal it back later.”

“He needed the pendant? Why?”

“Ah, that is a question the answer to which I can only guess, but I believe it would have to do, as I said, with the attempt by remaining sons of Alexander to seize the throne of Cappadocia. For the killer, it had to do with collecting his fee.”

“Fee? You’ve lost me again, Rabban.”

“Bounty, then. I believe the captain of the guard, Geris, sent word to Cappadocia of his suspicions that the girl might be royalty. I do not know what the relationship was between the two men, but you can find that out when you have them in custody. So, Geris, in turn, sold this information and subsequently was paid by agents acting for Tigranes and/or Alexander II to travel to Jerusalem, pose as an emissary from some court in Greece, violate the girl, and return with the pendant. How he managed to get it was of no consequence to his employer or employers. If he could simply steal it, well and good, but any means to an end would be acceptable.”

“I understand that this bit of gold once belonged to the missing son of Alexander. Am I to understand that while Alexander was a candidate for assassination, the grandson was not?”

“It would seem so. Our late great king was a complex man. He willingly punished those whom he believed stood against him, innocent or guilty. But those who he believed did not, he treated fairly. Whole families were not punished for the sins of one of their members.”

“I don’t know what our late and no longer lamented Julius Caesar saw in him.”

“Oh, he was extremely good at what he undertook and I doubt your Caesar cared a fig how he ran his court. Tribute is the measure of success in his world, and Herod the King was very generous. Do not forget, he also won the favor of Marc Antony, Queen Cleopatra, and Octavian, or Augustus, as he came to be. Say what you will, Antipas’ father knew what he was about.”

“If you say so. I grant that he was a builder. Continue.”

“So, it happens this child was the daughter of Archelaus. I can now tell you that he is dead, poisoned by his brothers who, I surmise, had in place a plot to replace their grandfather, the King of Cappadocia who died a decade ago after Tiberius exiled him.”

“You’re telling me that a pair of Herod’s decedents thinks they can seize the throne of Cappadocia? That is patently absurd, Rabban. What fool would challenge the might of the Syrian Legion?”

“I believe they are waiting for the death of the current Caesar. As that seems a near certainty they will step in during the inevitable struggle for succession that will follow and then swear loyalty to the most likely winner.”

“There will be no struggle.”

“Then that will be a first. At any rate, Archelaus apparently fell out with his brothers and refused to be party to the plan or he might have had separate ambitions of his own. Either way what he knew placed him in jeopardy. When he sensed something amiss, he enlisted the help of his friend, ally, and cousin, Philip. He sent his daughter to him for protection. Philip placed her in his wife’s household, but did not reveal to anyone who she was or why she was there. When Herodias left Philip for Antipas, the girl came along as well. As with all things associated with this extended family, nothing is ever simple.”

“So she was the great-granddaughter of Herod the First. She was seen as a threat? To whom?”

“Primarily to the remaining brothers. Their opponents, and there would be many, would happily use her as a rallying point for a civil war, or in this case an attempt to reestablish the kingdom forfeited by the first Archelaus. We may never know for sure. Those who lust for power are a confusing and unpredictable lot, but one thing is certain, anyone who so aspires, must have some connection to the throne they covet. A prince is best, but a princess will do. A son of a princess would be marginally better.”

“Did she know?”

“I think it unlikely. She never knew her grandfather, and would not be the object of discussion in Cappadocia, I think.”

“So she did not have to die?’

“Without the pendant, she had no proof of her relationship and who would believe a woman and a damaged one at that? So, no, she did not have to die.”

“But one thing I do not understand. Why did not everyone know this? Surely if they saw the pendant on her neck, they would know or at least guess.”

“That is the question, indeed. They did not see it because it was hidden. Her father, to protect her, had an overlay of material put on the medallion that completely covered the inscription and the gold. He did it to protect her. Her identity, you could say, was hidden in plain sight only to be revealed later at an appropriate time and place.”

“So her uncles, acting on the information of the…you did say the captain of the guard?”

“Yes.”

“Sent this man, posing as a Greek, into Antipas’ court to relieve her of her identity.” Pilate drank from his cup. “She needn’t have died.”

“Again, no, she needn’t have died.”

“And if you, that is to say, I, hadn’t been able to capture, or at least identify her killer, it might have gone badly with me in the Senate.”

“Possibly.”

“I am in your debt, Rabban.” He drank again. “You said something about this Menahem. What did you mean?”

“Ah. I said I recognized him, yet I never met him before. I thought I had seen him recently, in fact, but that could not be.”

“But you had?”

“I had. So have you—often.”

“So you said. When? I do not attend on the king’s court.”

Gamaliel tossed a coin on the table next to the pendant. “Here, on the obverse of this coin.”

Pilate picked it up and frowned. “It is the face of the same Julius Caesar of whom we just spoke.”

“Yes.”

“And? Am I being thick headed or are you playing games with me again?”

“It is said that Queen Cleopatra’s son, Caesarion, bore a striking resemblance to his father whom Antony, among others, claimed was Julius Caesar.”

“By the gods, Rabban, you cannot be serious.”

“It is so, Prefect. Rumors of the young Pharaoh’s fate are many and varied and perhaps mythical—he escaped to India, he returned to Octavian who had him garroted, he was slain by the Nabataeans. It appears, however, that Herod, who as I said was no fool, saw an advantage in holding him. He had conquered Nabataea with the support of Cleopatra already. He had cast his lot with Antony after the death of Julius. As luck would have it, Caesarion was on his way east through Idumea and passing through Petra. I believe a servant betrayed his identity for money. Herod trapped him and brought him into his court. The man, boy really, then had no choice. Accept Herod’s hospitality or Octavian’s vengeance. Herod thought of him as an asset in the games he played. If he needed to curry the favor of Octavian, he had a die to cast. If not, he could do this one last favor for his late and former allies and protect the son. And, who knew, he might need him in the future.”

“And now that asset is mine.”

“If you have use of it, it would seem so.”

“Was he ever married? Were there children? If so, that might add another complication or advantage. He is very old.”

“I know of no offspring. If there are any, and he denies there are, and unless they sprang from a noble family, they would have little or no value, much less be in a position to make a claim.”

“That’s so. Many years have passed since Actium and with Augustus dead and Tiberius, as you just noted, failing, I doubt this asset is of much use to anyone now.”

“Yet even old coins retain value when spent in the right market, Excellency.”

“As you say. Thank you. I am impressed, Rabban. I did not take you for a solver of mysteries. How did you do it?”

“You remember our first encounter when you charged me with this business? We spoke glancingly about the Princess Salome and her alleged dance wearing only seven veils and I wondered what the Baptizer’s fate might have been—”

“Had she been wrapped in eight and so on. Yes, yes, so?”

“My mystery was like the princess, only not so beautiful. I went through all the bits and pieces. I asked questions. I thought about what I had learned from my interviews. Finally, one by one, the veils fell away. When I acquired an account of the fall of Egypt and the more recent history of Cappadocia to the north, the seventh fell away. All that was left was the business of the basement and the Greek.”

Pilate’s eyebrows crept up his forehead. “What about the basement?”

“It was where the man was hiding. I needed a means to lure him out. Once that was done, my eighth veil dropped to the floor. I saw all. And on that note, Excellency, I must take my leave.” Gamaliel slipped off Pilate’s ring and handed it to him. “With respect, Excellency, it is my sincere hope you will have nothing more to occupy my time, now or ever. As you said, you are in my debt—doubly so, I should think.”

“Be off, Rabban, I will not bother you again.”

Would he not? Gamaliel wondered and prayed it would be so.

Epilogue

Four of Gamaliel’s students waited for him when he returned to his work. He couldn’t be sure how many, if any, would be there and was gratified to still have them in place and eager to engage. His week-long absence chasing after a killer combined with the Feast of Tabernacles had disrupted the routines of both teacher and students. But he was happy to be back doing the thing he loved best. He spent the morning with them and at noon sent them away to attend to the other duties they were called to. One paused at the door as if to speak.

“So, Saul, is there something you wish to ask me?”

“Not ask, exactly. To consult, more like. I have a problem set for me by the High Priest.”

“Ah, I see. Without knowing the nature of the problem, my advice is to keep some distance from Caiaphas. I know he comes from a family proud of their ascension to the position and I have known and been a colleague of his for years, but it has been my experience that the position he holds has within it the seeds of a man’s destruction. I do not know why. It may be that it comes from the fact that the position has slipped over the centuries from being held by descendants from the line of Aaron to whomever can curry political favor.” Gamaliel looked up at his student and saw the astonishment in his eyes.

“But the High Priest…how can we think of him in such a way?”

“I am sorry, my son, I spoke too soon and perhaps too harshly. I am no longer young like you and I sometimes see the world with an eye that is clouded. Experience should make it clearer, but it doesn’t. So, what is the problem the High Priest has burdened you with?”

“He has not yet burdened me with anything, Rabban. He only asks me to consider joining him as part of the Temple staff. I would have thought that was an honor and would like to accept but I am afraid it will interfere with my studies, you see?”

“Ah, so that is it. And what would he have you do as a member of his inner circle?”

“He is concerned about the burgeoning number of itinerant rabbis roaming the countryside and the laxity of their teaching. He wishes me to join him so that the older, more experienced members can launch an assault on some of them.”

“He is concerned about more than one itinerant rabbi?”

“Yes, although he seems particularly focused on one, a man from the Galilee, or someplace like that.”

“I see. And he wishes you to pursue this man?”

“Not I, no. He has set Ehud to work on that one. He has a plan to bring him down, he says.”

“Does he really? What might that be, I wonder? Did he say?”

“Not in any detail. I gather he thinks there is one of the rabbi’s number who is weak and he plans to suborn him somehow—money or a bribe, perhaps. I believe he thinks there is enough evidence of blasphemy to punish him.”

“Punish? Really, Saul, consider. If you were this rabbi and believed in what you are doing as he must, would a flogging be enough to stop you? Or jail?”