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STEPHANIE ENTERED THE DOMKIRKE THE MAN AT THE AUCTION had said the building was easy to find and he’d been right Thefor the town around it, dorandiose building she found extensions, chapels, and porches, all topped by a high vaulted ceiling and towering stained-glass s that lent the ancient walls a celestial air She could tell the cathedral was no longer Catholic--Lutheran from the decor, if she was not mistaken--with architecture that cast a distinctively French air
She was angry that she’d lost the book She’d thought it would sell for no more than three hundred kroner, fifty dollars or so Instead, soht thousand dollars for an innocuous account of southern France written over a hundred years ago
Again, somebody knew her business
Maybe it was the person waiting for her? The twohad said all would be explained if she would simply walk to the cathedral and find Christian IV’s chapel She’d thought the trip foolish, but what choice did she have? She had a lireat deal
She followed the directions provided to her and circled the vestibule A service was being held in the nave to her right, before the main altar About fifty people knelt in the pews Music froh the interior with a metallic vibration She found Christian IV’s chapel and entered through an elaborate iron grille
Waiting for her was a short ray hair that lay flat upon his head like a cap He had a rugged, clean-shaven face and wore light-colored cotton trousers beneath an open collar shirt A leather jacket covered his thick chest, and as she drew closer, she noticed that his dark eyes cast a look she iht cold and suspicious Perhaps he sensed her apprehension because his expression softened and he threw her a disarood to meet you"
"How do you knoho I am?"
"I ell acquainted with your husband’s work He was a great scholar on several subjects that interest me"
"Which ones? My husband dealt in many subjects"
"Rennes-le-Chateau is reat secret of that town and the land surrounding it"
"Are you the person who just outbid me?"
He held up his hands in mock surrender "Not I, which is why I asked to speak with you I had a representative bidding but--like you, I’m sure--I was shocked at the final price"
Needing a moment to think, she wandered around the royal sepulcher Monstrous wall-sized paintings, encased with elaborate tro marble walls Five embellished coffins filled the center beneath an enor
The arded as Denland, Francis II in France, and Peter the Great of Russia, he fundaed this country His mark remains everywhere"
She wasn’t interested in a history lesson "What do you want?"
"Let "
He stepped toward theat the chapel’s entrance She followed
"Legend says that the devil hined these ironworks The crafts and queen’s rams and a multitude of fabulous creatures But look closely at the bottoraved into the decorative metal
"It reads," he said, "Caspar Fincke bin ich genannt, dieser Arbeit binn ich bekannt Caspar Fincke is my name, to this work I owe my fame"
She faced him "Your point?"
"Atop the Round Tower in Copenhagen, around its edge, is another iron grating Fincke designed that, too He fashioned it low so the eye could see the city rooftops, but it also e "That man who jumped today worked for you?"
He nodded
"Why did he die?"
"Soldiers of Christ securely fight the battles of the Lord, fearing no sin froer from their own death"
"He killed hiiven, or received, it has naught of a crilory"
"You don’t kno to answer a question"
He sian, rote those words eight hundred years ago St Bernard of Clairvaux"
"Who are you?"