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ces was in itself a web of facts and double s and cross connections

Breaking only to eat and drink and refresh themselves in the study’s attached bathroo into late afternoon until finally they decided on a different tack: to focus their attention on a single line of the riddle, hoping its solution would start a domino effect They decided to try the second line

“ ‘Tassilo and Pepere Gibbous Baia keep safe the place of Hajj,’ ” Re her temple with a pencil “Pepere is easy It’s a French nicknarandfather’”

“Right And unless we’re nificant reference to Tassilo, we can assume it’s a reference to Bavaria—its history, its land Bavarian”

“Agreed How about ‘Gibbous Baia’?”

They’d already devoted two fruitless hours to Ro across an epiphany about the Baia area

“ ‘Gibbous’ means a moon that’s between half and completely full”

“Are we sure about that part?”

“Yes, a gibbous moon is—”

“No, I’”

Saht for a moment, then frowned “I’d assumed so Maybe I shouldn’t have” He picked up and shoved books around the desk until he found the dictionary He found the correct page, scanned the entry, then clicked his tongue “Dumb, Sam”

“What?”

“ ‘Gibbous’ also means ‘humpbacked’ So Gibbous and Baia”

Reh much of their in-depth references had coood old Google “Heregot so “Put the two together and you get this: Baia is part of a phrase—‘h translation for the word ‘Bavaria’ ”

“So, the Humpback of Bavaria?” Sam asked