Page 16

On the way to the library, pictures on the wall advertised exhibitions of ancient art.

Flyers pinned to bulletin boards announced a research talk on architecture in Nineveh, a show about digital storytelling through maps, and a lecture on poetry during the Cold War.

Hagen wondered if the university also held car shows but decided it probably didn’t.

Jodie spoke quietly as they made their way down the corridor. “I’m sorry about that. Professor Whelan can be a little…cantankerous at times. He really was a great scholar in his day. He’s just, well, sort of over it now.”

“No need to apologize. I’m half his age, and I can be a pain in the ass sometimes too. As I’m sure my colleague would be happy to tell you.” Hagen grinned.

Stella elbowed him. “He’s right. And more than sometimes.” Her eyes softened. “But he has his redeeming qualities. I didn’t notice any in your boss there. Why do you put up with him?”

Jodie hesitated before answering but didn’t argue. “I’m applying to professorships. A recommendation from Professor Whelan would be a huge help. Until then…he does ha ve some pretty good ideas.” She peered over her shoulder at Stella. “Must be amazing working for the FBI.”

Stella smiled. “It has its moments. Right now, we’ve got a case that appears to have some connection with a cuneiform tablet. We were just looking for some expert help.”

“Oh, wow.” Jodie’s eyes widened. “Like those murders in Tennessee and here in Pennsylvania? I read articles about those. How can there be more?”

Hagen wished he had an answer to that question. He was just grateful he had a good reason not to provide one. “I’m sorry. We can’t really talk about it.”

“Yeah, of course. I get it. Totally.” Jodie’s stride acquired a new pace. “Wow, that’s so cool. I mean, it’s not cool you have another case. But something to do with cuneiforms? That’s amazing. If you ever need any help…”

They stepped out of the building and onto the concourse. Hagen held open the door. “Right now, I’d just like to see exactly what we’re talking about. All I’ve seen so far is a bunch of weird lines and triangles.”

“Yeah, of course.” Jodie buttoned her coat against the chill wind blowing over the campus. Dusk was little more than an hour away. “Library’s up here. They keep some tablets in the archive.”

On their way through the next building to the special collections archive, they passed a small display, mounted in vitrines against the wall, showing the different ways monsters had been depicted in children’s fiction.

Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are stood alongside Pixar’s one-eyed blob and an etching of a large wolf talking to a girl in a red hood.

Hagen recognized a printing of Curious George that his father had read to him when he was a kid.

That hadn’t happened often. Normally, his mother had read to him. But the mischievous monkey had held a special place in his father’s heart .

Hagen missed him.

Anger at his father’s loss rose inside him once more, hot and acidic.

He took a deep breath. He couldn’t feel that rage again, that old burning need for revenge.

He had a better life now than the one he’d lived before.

Now he had to catch real monsters, beasts much scarier than anything a children’s book illustrator could show.

Stella’s hand landed on his shoulder. “You okay?”

Hagen gave a short nod and pointed at the monster behind the glass case.

The print had been carefully made, full of subtle shading that left almost no white space at all.

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky seemed to fly out of a dark forest like an angry, bucktoothed dragon.

It hung in the air above a little girl wielding a sword as tall as she was.

“After the craziness of Boris Kerne and his lunatic daughter, I can’t look at Lewis Carroll the same way.”

Boris Kerne, world renowned pianist, and his equally famous daughter had delivered death and destruction as if they were born to murder rather than music. Hagen bet either the father or daughter would have willingly composed an apocalyptic soundtrack to accompany the Administrator’s current plot.

Hagen and Stella followed Jodie to the special collections area, and Jodie went to the desk to speak with one of the librarians. A minute later, she returned. “We can head up into the reading room. One of the librarians will bring a selection of tablets for viewing. This way.”

She led them up the stairs and into a small room with a large table in the middle and walls lined with reference books as thick as bricks. Two people sat at the table, notebooks and large volumes in front of them.

A young man greeted Jodie with a smile, which was quickly followed by a light hug. He had a thin beard that Hagen assumed he’d grown to attempt to add years to his face. It didn’t work. The dark bristles only highlighted the youthful redness of his cheeks.

As the first man returned to his seat, the other reader took Jodie’s hand and squeezed it gently. He was much older, with a mostly bald head that displayed the first signs of liver spotting.

“Good to see you, Jodie. How is the Marduk project coming along? Did you finish it?”

“Almost. It’s…getting there.”

Hagen knew a lie when he heard one. The project wasn’t “getting there” or anywhere near there.

Jodie waved at a couple of empty chairs at the end of the table. “Why don’t you two take a seat? The librarian will be up in a moment.” She laid a hand on the younger man’s arm. “This is Robert Pew. He’s one of our students…well, our best student.”

Robert chuckled. “Just another fellow struggler, I assure you.”

“And this is Dr. Alfie Napp. He’s a curator at the Museum of Ancient Art in Pittsburgh. One of our regular visitors, mining our library for knowledge.”

“Plenty of good knowledge here.” Dr. Napp grinned. He had high cheeks, which his easy smile lifted higher still. His eyes picked up a spark. “And lots of knowledgeable students to help me find it.”

Jodie blushed slightly.

Dr. Napp turned to Hagen and Stella. “But I don’t believe I’ve seen you two before.”

“No.” Stella ran her hand along the surface of the table. She looked like she wanted to be studying again, filling her head with new ideas and thoughts that didn’t touch on murder. Hagen smiled to himself as he realized how well he was starting to know all her mannerisms.

Dr. Napp, on the other hand, had strange mannerisms and intonations that didn’t seem to match his physicality whatsoever. He looked like former military turned motivational speaker. Hearing him talk like a stereotypical stodgy professor was strange.

“We’re from the FBI, investigating a crime that centers on an ancient cuneiform tablet. We just want to see what one looks like.”

“Good heavens.” Dr. Napp placed a hand to his forehead.

Something about the way he did it struck Hagen as inauthentic, even affected.

An instant later, his expression morphed into one of searching interest. “But of course. It’s the talk of everyone in our field.

What a distinct pleasure to make your?—”

The door to the reading room creaked open, cutting off Dr. Napp in mid-flow and saving them from having to make small talk.

The special-collections librarian was in his late twenties and tall, with a small, badly shaved chin.

He held a cardboard box slightly larger and much sturdier than a shoebox, which he placed on the table in front of Hagen.

He fished a pair of blue nitrile gloves from his pocket and handed them to Jodie.

“Only you’re to handle the items, Jodie. Call me when you’re finished, and I’ll take them back.”

Jodie thanked him. She pulled on the gloves, removed a length of soft cloth from inside the box, and laid out the contents.

Each of the three tablets was the color of old chalk. One was shaped like a large blunt nail. Another was a cylinder, and the third was like a large square skipping stone with rounded corners and a gently curved surface.

Hagen was surprised to find that he was impressed. The tablets were simple things and looked too fragile to touch, even with gloves. But the lines of short scratches across the surface, the indented wedges that had been carved into Laurence Gill’s back, looked so ordered here and so neat.

Blood ruined them. These weren’t letters meant to be cut into flesh. They were records and notes carefully kept. And it appeared they’d been preserved for so long.

“How old are they?”

Dr. Napp leaned over the table. He kept his arms folded close to his chest as though worried he’d be tempted to pick up a tablet and hold it in his hands. Or slip it into his pocket.

Hagen understood that. He was tempted to touch one, too, and this wasn’t even his field.

“Oh, I know these. They’re all about four thousand years old.

” He pointed at the tablet shaped like a nail.

“This one lists the costs of female slaves during the reign of King Amar-Suen. The cylinder in the middle is a receipt for grain. And that small tablet there is a note for an astronomical diary.”

Stella flashed Hagen a side-eye. “Four thousand years old? And they’re just here? In a library?”

Dr. Napp laughed. He had a soft chuckle, friendly and without a hint of mockery.

“There are thousands of tablets like these from what used to be Mesopotamia. They’re like scraps of paper but made of baked clay.

We’ve lost plenty, too, of course. More than we’ve found.

But there are still far too many tablets sitting in libraries and museums and so on, and far too few scholars to read and translate them. ”

Robert drew closer. He leaned over the tablets with his hands safely in his pockets. “We’re developing AI software to help make the translation process easier and faster. Might just find something special buried in an archive somewhere.”

Dr. Napp laughed again. “A whole new era. One that leaves old guys like me behind.” He lowered his voice and leaned closer to Jodie. “And your Professor Whelan. ”

“Now, now.” Jodie nudged him but joined his gentle laughter.

Hagen watched as she placed the tablets back in the box. Where Whelan had looked old enough to be Hagen’s father, that couldn’t have been the case with Dr. Napp.

“You know, we have a much larger collection at my museum. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to show it to you. Just an hour away, with traffic on your side.”

Hagen rose and thanked him. But he’d seen enough. Now he at least knew what these tablets looked like.

Maybe they’d find what they needed to crack their case once they got outside the city and into the Pennsylvania farmland.