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It was in the bedrooht Having lived alone for years now, I knehat bachelor clutter looked like: dirty clothes strewn on the floor; clean clothes piled on the dresser and bed Mostly I kept a handle on ot out of hand But Stefan’s bedroom was beyond cluttered; Stefan’s bedroo open, empty or nearly so; shoes, sweaters, even spare linens had been pulled from the closet floor and shelf; the overstuffed armchair in one corner of the roo on its underside in tatters “So a chill run up my spine

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, boss,” Miranda murmured

“Call Stefan’s phone again”

“I’ve already called a dozen times I called just before ent in the shoe store”

“I know, but eren’t in here when you did I’ to answer I want to know if his phone’s in here”

“Ah Good idea” She hit the redial button, and through her speaker, I heard his phone beginning to ring Unless the ringer was off or the battery was dead, his phone wasn’t here

After five or six rings, I expected to hear a voice h the speaker What I heard instead electrified me There was a click, then silence: The call had been accepted, but whoever took it didn’t speak Miranda’s eyes, big as saucers, met mine “Hello?” she said “Stefan?” No response “Who is this?” she de silence on the other end of the line, and then a click, and the screen flashed the e Call ended

“Take a right here,” I said “I think it’s in this block”

“Where are we going, and why?” Miranda was edgy, and I didn’t blame her

“A few nights ago — it was the night before ent to Turin — I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk It was late, aroundout of the palace”

“At ht?”

“Yeah We walked around for, I don’t know, half an hour or so” Just ahead, on the left, I spotted the passageway leading froht h the corridor and into the courtyard “This used to be the chapel of the Knights Templar Stefan had a key — funny, Stefan see — and he tookhis heels e left” Suddenly I re around here, and I wondered iffor soet rid of me, you know? And he stayed behind after he shooed me away”

“Jesus, why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“The truth?”

“Please”

“I wondered if ht rendezvous in the chapel of the Te, but I noticed theReluctantly, I reached for the black iron knob, hoping that it would not turn ininward, and Miranda and I stepped inside

The air was cool in the stone interior — cool, pungent, and coppery It was a mixture of smells I knew only too well “Maybe you’d better wait outside,” I told Miranda

“Hell, no” I knew there was no point arguing with her

A , vaulted space of the chapel itself As I held the curtain aside, Miranda stepped through, and I followed half a step behind

She gasped and reached back forinto my arm Then she turned and buried her face in my chest

Congealing on the stone floor was a pool of blood, already black at its rih overhead was the arched hts Suspended horizontally from a cable and pulley at the center of the truss was a short wooden beam And nailed to that beam — like some modern-day minimalist crucifix — was the nude body of Stefan Beauvoir

PART II

The Second Co

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;