Cross Bones Part 58

35.

I'D REPEATED IT TWICE. JAKE WAS STILL NOT GETTING IT.

"The tooth and the skeleton show different mitochondrial-DNA sequencing. That means the tooth came from a different person than the skeleton. But we already knew that. The dentist affiliated with my Montreal lab already told us that. The tooth came from someone younger than Max.

"And Max's mitochondrial DNA is unique, different from both the tooth person and the members of the tomb matrilineage. If Max was a member of that family, his mother was an outsider."

"A female who married in."

"Possibly. But the real shocker is that the mitochondrial DNA in the molar is identical to the mitochondrial DNA in the Kidron tomb family."

"DNA ties the tooth, but not the skeleton, to the Mary lineage?"

"Sequencing links the odd tooth from Max to the matrilineally linked individuals in your tomb."

"The tooth that was reinserted into Max's jaw?"

"Yes, Jake. It means the owner of the tooth was related to the people in your tomb. He was a member of that family, a maternal relative."

"But the tooth didn't belong in that jaw. How did it get there?"

"My guess is the transfer was a simple mistake. The tooth probably slipped from the jaw of one of the individuals in the commingled remains, and became erroneously incorporated with the bones of the articulated skeleton. Maybe during recovery. Maybe during transport. It couldn't have happened at Haas's lab. We now know Haas never saw Max."

"So at least one person in Cave 2001 was unquestionably related to the people in the Kidron tomb. What the h.e.l.l was a member of that family doing up on Masada?"

Jake walked to the window, shoved his hands into his pockets, and looked down. I waited while he wandered through thoughts of his own.

"Yadin's reticence to discuss the cave burials. Haas's failure to report on them." Jake's voice was hushed. "Of course. Those weren't zealots. A group of Nazarenes was living in that cave."

Though Jake wasn't really speaking to me, his hold on my attention was complete.

"What the h.e.l.l have we stumbled onto? Who was this Max? Why was that one skeleton not given to Haas? Who was hidden in the loculus in the Kidron tomb? Why weren't those bones ever collected and placed in an ossuary?"

It came out sounding like the middle of a thought.

"Jesus followers on Masada, one of them with biological ties to the tomb in the Kidron. One of them a member of the Holy Family. And to prove that I've got to prove the James ossuary came from that tomb."

Jake turned, eyes burning with something that froze my response.

"I thought we had two unrelated first-century finds, each mind-blowing on its own. That's not true. It's all connected. The missing Masada skeleton and the Kidron tomb are all part of the same story. And it's mega, maybe the biggest discovery of the century. h.e.l.l, the millennium."

Jake strode back to the table, picked up the physical anthropology report, laid it down, touched an ossuary photo, then another, stacked the photos, laid the report on top of the stack, ran his finger around its edge.

"This is bigger than even I I imagined, Tempe. And more dangerous." imagined, Tempe. And more dangerous."

"Dangerous? But we no longer have Max. And no one knows about the shroud bones."

"Not yet."

"It's time we tell Blotnik."

Jake spun on me. "No!"

I jerked as though shocked by live current.

Jake raised an apologetic hand.

"Sorry. My head's cranking up again. It's just. I-Not Blotnik."

"Jake, are you allowing personal feelings to cloud your judgment?"

"Blotnik's a has-been. No." Jake snorted. "That's being charitable. He's a never-was. And a real a.s.shole."

"Blotnik could be Caligula, but he heads the IAA. The man must have done something to earn that position."

"He published a few brilliant articles back in the sixties, got the academic world s.h.i.tting its fancy French shorts, got a lot of plum offers, then sat back and never wrote another thing of merit. Now he rides on the backs of others."

"Despite your view of Blotnik, the IAA has authority over antiquities in this country."

Outside, a car door slammed. Jake's eyes skittered to the window, to the locked cabinet, then back to mine. Sighing, he picked up and began clicking a ballpoint pen.

"I'll visit Ruth Anne Bloom this afternoon."

"Bloom is the physical anthropologist attached to the IAA?"

Jake nodded.

"You'll tell her about the shroud bones?"

"Yes." With his free hand, Jake squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"You're not just saying that?"

"I'm not just saying that." Jake threw down the pen. "You're right. It's too risky to keep the bones here."

Risky for whom? I wondered, watching Jake cross back to the window. The bones? Jake? Jake's future career? I knew my friend. He, too, had academic ambitions.

"Would you like me to go with you to the Rockefeller?"

Jake shook his head. "I've got to swing by the dig and warn my crew about the Hevrat Kadisha. They know the drill, but I want to be sure the d.a.m.n bone police don't take them by surprise."

I looked at my watch.

"I'm supposed to meet Ryan at the hotel at four. But I can change that."

"No need. I'll call you in a couple of hours."

"You'll have dinner with us tonight?"

Jake nodded, thinking, no longer listening.

[image]

Ryan arrived at my room shortly after I did. I must have looked unhappy.

"You okay?"

I nodded, not wanting to go into details of my spat with Jake.

"How's your pal?"

"His head's hurting, but he's fine." I slammed the door on the minibar. "Judgmental, but fine."

Ryan let it go.

"Learn anything useful at the Post Post?"

Popping a Diet c.o.ke, I told Ryan about the articles in which Yadin contradicted himself concerning the use of radiocarbon dating.

"So the old boy did send materials out of the country. Why wouldn't he do that with the Masada skeletons?"

"Why not indeed."

"But listen to this. I got DNA results. A number of individuals in the Kidron tomb had identical sequencing."

"Meaning they're related."

"Yes. But that's no big deal. It's a family tomb. You'd expect the people buried there to be related. What is a big deal is that mitochondrial DNA links Max's odd tooth to that family."

"Meaning someone buried in Cave 2001 was a member of the family buried in the Kidron tomb."

I love Ryan's quickness.

"Exactly. And since Jake's convinced the Kidron tomb held the members of the Holy Family, that would place early Christians on Masada at the time of the siege."

"Wow."

"Yeah. The Israelis will be antagonistic to any such suggestion."

"Jesus people at Masada, maybe even a member of the Holy Family."

"Exactly. But I still have no idea who Max is." I took a swig. "Was. His DNA sequencing was unique. If he was related to those in the Kidron tomb, it wasn't through any of the ladies Jake recovered."

"Kaplan was dancing around the subject this morning."

That got my attention.

"Claimed Ferris was on a first-name basis with Max."

"He had proof of ident.i.ty?"

"The world according to Kaplan."

A tingle of excitement ran up my spine. I'd spent a month trying to attach a label to the Masada skeleton. It'd been like chasing smoke in a pitch-black tunnel. If I was honest with myself, I'd come to suspect all hope of individualization had evaporated with time.

"For G.o.d's sake, Ryan. Tell me what Kaplan said."

"Kaplan claims he never found out. But word on the street was, the bones were big."

"The street of illegal antiquities?"

Ryan nodded. "Here's the bad news. Friedman had to cut Kaplan loose."

"You're kidding."

"Kaplan lawyered up. Counsel suggested, ever so politely, that his client's rights were being violated in that he'd been held well past the legal limit. I believe the term 'const.i.tutionally impaired' was directed at Friedman."

"What about the shoplifting?"

"Litvak dropped his complaint. And I've got zilch to tie Kaplan to the Ferris. .h.i.t."

"Kaplan admitted he was hired to shoot the guy."

"He says he didn't do it."

"He planned to sell a stolen skeleton." My voice sounded shrill in the quiet room.

"Intent isn't a crime. Besides, he's now claiming he never really intended to hawk the thing. Just made some calls out of curiosity."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l."

"Here's another interesting development. Courtney Purviance is in the wind."

"Ferris's secretary has disappeared?"

"When Kaplan first told us about the Masada skeleton, we asked why Ferris decided to sell after hiding the bones for more than thirty years."

I'd wondered that myself.

"He claimed Ferris's business was tanking."

"That's not what Purviance told you."

"Not at all. So somebody's lying. That's why we wanted to ask Purviance some more questions. I fired off a query. Guy named Birch is working this with me."