"Josar, here is my reply to Abgar."

"Will you come with me, my lord?"

"No, I will not go with you. I cannot, for I must do my Father's work as I have been bidden. Instead, I will send one of my disciples. But mark me well, Josar-your king will see me in Edessa, and if he has faith he shall be healed."

"Whom will you send? And how is it possible, my lord, that you shall remain here yet Abgar shall see you in Edessa?"

Jesus smiled and looked calmly but fixedly upon Josar.

"Do you not follow me? Do you not listen to me? You shall go, Josar, and your king shall be healed, and he shall see me in Edessa even when I am no longer in this world."

Josar believed.

The sun poured in through the small window in the room where Josar sat, composing a letter to Abgar. The innkeeper bustled about, preparing food for Josar's companions.

Josar to Abgar, king of Edessa, greetings-

My lord, these men bring you the Nazarene's reply. I beg you, sire, to have faith, for Jesus says that you shall be healed. I know that he will work that wonder, but do not ask me how he will do it or when.

I ask license, my king, to remain in Jerusalem, near to Jesus. My heart tells me that I must remain here. I need to hear him, follow him as the most humble of his disciples. All that I have, you have given me, and so, my lord, do as you will with my possessions, my house, my slaves; give them as you see fit to the poor and needy. I shall remain here, and to follow Jesus I will have need of almost nothing. I sense, too, that something is to happen, for the priests of the temple despise Jesus for calling himself the Son of God and for living according to the laws of the Jews, which the priests themselves do not.

Ibeg of you, my lord, your understanding and your permission to follow where destiny leads me..

Abgar read Josar's letter and was overcome with despair. The Jew would not come to Edessa, and Josar was staying in Jerusalem.

The men who had accompanied Josar had traveled without rest to bring the king the two missives. He had read Josar's first, and now he would read Jesus', but from his heart had passed all hope-he cared little, now what the Nazarene might write to him.

The queen entered the chamber, her eyes filled with worry.

"I have heard that word has come from Josar."

"Indeed. The Jew will not come. Josar asks my leave to remain in Jerusalem. He desires me to portion out his possessions among the poor. He has become a disciple of Jesus."

"Is that man so extraordinary, then, that Josar would abandon all to follow him? How I would like to know him!"

"You will abandon me too?"

"My lord, you know I will not, but I do believe that Jesus is a god. What does he say in his letter?"

"I have not yet broken the seal; wait, I will read it to you."

Blessings upon you, Abgar, for as much as you have believed in me whom you have not seen.

For of me it is written: Those who have seen me shall not believe in me, so that those who have not seen may believe, and be blessed, and live.

As for the favor you ask of me, that I go to you to be by your side-I must bide here and carry out all those things for which I have been sent, so that after I have done I may return to Him who sent me.

But after my ascension, when I have returned to Him, I will send one of my disciples, who will cure your disease and give life to you and all that are with you.

"My king, the Jew will heal you."

"How can you be sure?"

"You must believe. We must believe and have faith and wait."

"Wait? Do you not see how this disease is eating at me? Every day I feel weaker, and soon I will not be able to show myself even to you. I know that my subjects are whispering and that my enemies await, and that there are even those who whisper to Maanu, our son, that he shall soon be king."

"Your hour has not yet come, Abgar. I know it."

SITTING AT A DESK AT THE ART CRIMES office in the Turin carabinieri station, Sofia Galloni was on the line to Rome with the unit's computer specialist.

"Marco's not here, Minerva. He got up early and went to the cathedral. He said he'd be spending most of the day over there."

"His cell phone's off-all I get is his voice mail."

"He's totally wrapped up in the case. You know he's been saying for years that somebody wants to destroy the shroud. Sometimes I even think he's right. With all the cathedrals and churches in Italy, the only one that anything ever seems to happen to is Turin's-there are so many 'accidents' that it'd make anybody suspicious. And then these guys with their tongues cut out. I mean, it's horrible, right?"

"Giuseppe asked me to do some digging into religious sects, to see if there are any that are into that kind of thing. Marco called me about it too. Tell them I haven't come up with anything yet. The only thing I've been able to find out so far is that the company hired to do the restoration has been operating in Turin for years-over forty-and they've always had plenty of work. Their biggest client is the Church. Recently they've redone the electrical system in most of the monasteries and convents and churches in the area, and they even remodeled the cardinal's residence. It's a corporation, but one of the stockholders is a pretty big fish-he owns aircraft companies, chemical companies… This restoration business is peccato minuto for him."

"Who is he?"

"I'm sure you've heard of him. Umberto D'Alaqua. He's always on the business pages. A real shark at finance who-get this-also owns a big chunk of that company that installs electrical cables and water pipes, big-bore plumbing stuff. But it doesn't stop there; he's also been a stockholder in other companies that have come and gone, that at one time or another had some relationship to the cathedral in Turin. Remember those other fires before '97-September of '83, for one, just before the House of Savoy signed the shroud over to the Vatican? That summer the Church had started cleaning the cathedral facade, and the tower was covered with scaffolding. Nobody knows how it happened, but a fire started. D'Alaqua was part owner of that cleaning company. And remember when the pipes broke in the cathedral plaza because of some repaving that was going on, and all the surrounding streets flooded? Well, D'Alaqua had a large percentage of stock in the paving company too."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Sofia said. "There's nothing strange about a man having stock in several different companies that do work in Turin. There are probably a lot like him."

"I'm not jumping anywhere," Minerva protested. "I'm just laying out the facts. Marco wants to know everything, and in that 'everything,' D'Alaqua's name has turned up several times. This guy must be very well connected to the cardinal in Turin, which means also to the Vatican. And by the way, he's single. Tell Marco I'll e-mail him everything I've got so far. How long are you guys staying in Turin?"

"No idea. Marco hasn't said. He wants to talk to the cathedral workers and the staff in the episcopal offices himself, and he's also decided to go see the guy from the robbery two years ago. I figure we'll be here three or four more days, but we'll call you."

Sofia decided to go over to the cathedral to talk to Marco. She wanted to have a look around for herself, to get more of a feel for what was on her boss's mind. She would have asked Pietro, Giuseppe, or Antonino to come along, but they were all absorbed in their own assignments. They'd been working with Marco for years, and he trusted them implicidy

Pietro and Giuseppe were members of the Italian police force, the carabinieri, incorruptible and like bloodhounds on a case. They, along with Antonino and Sofia, who had doctorates in art, and Minerva, their computer genius, made up the core of Marco's team. There were more, of course, but Marco trusted and relied on the five of them most. Their years together had made them all friends.