Jane glanced back to see Henrik Barnard standing where they’d left him, frowning up at the video camera.

“Will he erase them?” she asked in a low voice as Caleb opened the front door for her.

“Eighty-five percent probability. If he doesn’t do it now, it will bother him enough to make him come back later and do it.”

“It’s scary that you have it down to percentages.”

“I’ve been at this a long time. We didn’t need a video record of our presence in the bank. It was only another little push for me.”

“And what happens when he discovers that Adah Ziller is dead?”

“Nothing. After he erases the videos, he won’t remember that you were ever here.”

“What about the receptionist at the desk who announced you to him?”

He didn’t reply. He didn’t have to answer. “She won’t remember either, will she?”

“Not if I did my job.” He glanced at her as they reached the car. “It still bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“Hell yes, it bothers me. I either have to doubt my sanity or accept the unacceptable. No one should have the ability to do that.”

“But I do. I didn’t ask for it, but it’s part of me. I handle it the best way I can.” He opened the passenger door for her. “And I’m going to use it to protect you whether you like it or not.” He glanced at Jock behind the wheel. “Is everything okay?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Jock said curtly. “Get in the car.”

“Right.” Caleb jumped in the backseat and glanced at the rearview mirror. “What the hell is wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Jock started the car. “It just doesn’t feel… I don’t know. Are we going back to Lina’s place now?”

“Yes.” Jane was studying his face. She knew that expression. Tense, alert, on edge. “There was a gold box with a tablet in the deposit box. Very small script that might be Aramaic. We’ll have to have Lina take a look at it.”

“There wasn’t anything else? Maybe some more of those coins you found in her bedroom?”

She shook her head and nodded at her handbag. “Nothing but the tablet. We’ll have to see how important they are.”

“They’re important,” Caleb said. “For one reason or another.”

“Don’t give me that enigmatic bullshit,” Jane said. “I’ve had enough of your mysterious ‘gift.’ Just come through with good old down-to-earth answers.”

“How boring,” he murmured. “I’d much rather deal in enigmatic bullshit.”

“Those tablets have to be important.” Jock’s gaze was on the rearview mirror. “Why else are we here?”

Jane’s gaze followed his to the mirror. “Do you see someone?”

“No.” He glanced at Caleb. “But I still don’t feel right. Keep an eye on that rearview mirror.”

“My pleasure,” Caleb said. “Trust, at last.”

“Not trust. Necessity. I’m driving, and I want a sharp eye on our backs. You might as well keep busy.”

“By all means.” He smiled. “If there’s anything to see, I’ll see it. Now get us to Lina’s cottage.”

IT WAS CLOSE TO ELEVEN WHEN THEY drove up the road to Lina’s cottage. The moon was bright overhead and illuminated the mountains and valley with almost surreal beauty.

“Peaceful,” Jane said. “I can see why she’s content to stay here.”

“Yes, the light on the mountains is pretty spectacular.” Caleb glanced casually back at the road through the mountains which they’d just traveled. “And she set herself up to ensure that she wouldn’t have to move again. Let’s just keep it peaceful.” Caleb reached for his phone. “I’ll tell Lina that it’s us coming up her drive. We don’t want to alarm her.”

Or she might reach for that AK-47, Jane thought, as Caleb talked to Lina on the phone. It was difficult to accept that the woman who lived here gardening and working in seclusion could possibly be violent. But who could blame her for protecting herself after the life she had lived?

She could see the front door of the cottage open and Lina’s slender figure silhouetted against the lamplight as they drew up before the cottage.

“I’m not quite finished,” she said, as they got out of the car and walked toward her. “I’ll give you what I have, but you’ll have to wait for the rest.”

“How long?” Jane asked.

Lina shrugged. “A few hours. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. Come in and have a cup of tea. Do you have the time?”

“We have the time,” Caleb said. “We have no choice. Jane has something else for you to translate.”

“Not tonight. I’ll finish the first book that I promised you I’d do. But I need some time away from Adah Ziller.” Her lips tightened. “I don’t understand her. She liked it.”

“What?”

“Pain.” She turned and went back into the house. “She was twisted.”

“S and M?”

“Oh, yes.” She put on the kettle. “Some of the passages are very descriptive. Particularly the ones that have to do with Jack Millet. What he did to her was unbelievable.”

“He was her lover?” Jane asked.

“That’s not love,” Lina said. “And she didn’t care. She liked it.” She got cups down. “You said that she’d been murdered? Maybe it was just that one of her lovers went too far. She said that Millet almost killed her several times while they were playing their games.”

“No, that wasn’t how it happened,” Jane said. “And it’s not another ledger we found in the safety-deposit box. There was a tablet that we need translated.” She took the black container out of her tote and set it on the table. “As you can see, it’s pretty large, and the script is very tiny. Caleb thinks that it may be very old.”

“A tablet?” She looked suddenly thoughtful. Then she shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“It would help us,” Jock said quietly. “I know you don’t want us here, but we can’t leave until we know.”

“I don’t mind you being here. I’m not that much of a hermit.” She glanced at Caleb. “But don’t bring me any more of this ugliness. It brought back too many memories.”

“I didn’t have any idea what I was bringing, or I would have warned you,” Caleb said. “We know very little about Adah Ziller.”

“Well, I know quite a bit.” She poured tea over the leaves in the pot. “You can start with the printout on the table over there, but you’ll have to plow through it. As I told you, it’s disjointed.”

“Can you summarize?”

“As long as you don’t make me describe her sexual perversions.”

“Sit down,” Jock said as he crossed the room and nudged her away from the teapot. “Relax. I’ll take care of this.”

“I won’t argue. I like to see a man do domestic chores.” She dropped down in the easy chair. “It was strictly forbidden to let any male lift his hand in the house where I grew up.”

“And my mother made sure that I helped out,” Jock said. “Or I got boxed on the ears.” He poured tea into cups. “So watch all you please. You won’t see me shirk.”

Lina gazed at him thoughtfully. “No, I don’t think you would.”

“Adah,” Jane prompted.

Lina nodded. “The ledger begins when she’s fourteen. She grew up in Syria. Her father was a merchant and was moderately well-to-do. She had a Western upbringing and was sent to England when she was sixteen to complete her education.”

“Where did she meet Millet?”

“Before she left Syria. She met him at something called the Offering.”

“What’s that?”

“She doesn’t elaborate much. A sort of meeting her family went to every year since she was a child. She always found it exciting, but when she met Millet there, that was the only thing she could think about. She called him the Guardian. He was older than she, in his early twenties, and she kept talking about his power and what she wanted to do with him. She seduced him.”

“At sixteen?”

“She was no virgin. She had been experimenting since she was thirteen. But Millet was special to her. At last she’d found someone who had the same tastes. She was upset when she had to leave Syria.” She took the cup Jock handed her. “But she replaced him quickly. She’d acquired a taste for power and knew that was the fast lane. She honed her sexual talents while she was at school and took a job with Med-Coast Oil. She climbed the ladder quickly there.”