THAT SAME NIGHT, Gregory Evans retired to bed early. He was certain Candice needed to speak openly with her uncle about personal, family-related matters, and he didn't think it wise to pry into matters that weren't in his best interests. On the other hand, he wanted to look through the Book of Psalms, as Monroe had so insistently advised. And for that, there's nothing better than the tranquility of the bedroom, where the silence is more profound when one knows how to choose the most appropriate book—in this case, the Bible.
Sitting on the bed, with the pillow propped up against his back, he took a deep breath before half-opening the most widely read text of all time. As he searched for the Book of Psalms, he tried to delve deeper into the meaning of Umbert's words. He hadn't even told him how important it was, that it could be found among the writings of Solomon. Nor did he have a reference point to guide him. He recognized that it wouldn't be easy, and that he would probably have to go through it several times before finding a connection with the cathedral builders.
He read for a few minutes, until he reached Psalm 5. One verse caught his attention, precisely verse 10. He took his pencil from his pajama shirt pocket. He underlined the phrase:
— Open tomb in her throat, sweet, her tongue moves...
He thought it must be a coincidence, a metaphor from Solomon, perhaps of no great importance, but he didn't rule out the possibility that he had found the origin of Viana and Clarice's mutilation. Shortly after, the answer came to him, when he reached Psalm 12. Verse 4 read:
— May the Lord tear out every deceitful lip, the tongue that speaks boastfully...
He mentally underlined it, hoping to find another conclusive phrase, and decided to finish what he had started.
AFTER AN HOUR OF INTENSE reading, he paused. He found nothing else related to torn tongues. However, one detail piqued his interest: God was often compared to a rock or a fortress. He found such revealing phrases as:
— Be for me a rock of refuge, a fortress that saves me, for you are my rock, my fortress... Yahweh, my rock and my bulwark, my Umbert, my God... Who is the Rock, if not our God alone...? Long live Yahweh! Blessed be my rock! He alone, my rock, my salvation, my citadel, my comfort, I will not waver... Lead me to the Rock that stands far from me, for you are my refuge...! Come, let us sing and praise Yahweh, let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation...! Blessed be Yahweh, my Rock, who trains my hands for battle...
And so on, a multitude of similar expressions, comparing God's wisdom to the simplicity of a stone, a hewn rock like those used to build cathedrals. He reflected on this, concluding that this was why Monroe had urged him to read the Psalms. There, among allegorical and praiseworthy phrases, lay some of the Masonic practices attributed to Solomon, who may have had contact with the Tyrian architect's science during the years he spent in Jerusalem. Therefore, it was essential to continue reading the rest of the books written by the king of the Jews, at least until exhaustion opened the doors of sleep. Something unlikely, considering how hard he was to get over Candice's murder and the fact that he might become the next victim.
The next book was Proverbs. He skimmed through it, pausing to analyze only the verses he thought might be of interest. It seemed much more pleasant to him than the Psalms; at least this one appealed to common sense and human good nature. Solomon branded fools as evil, glorifying the man who, through erudition, attained divinity. It was a compendium of praises intended to extol Wisdom, that mystical knowledge which, according to theologians themselves, has been God's collaborator since the beginning of time, a science that existed long before the primordial dust of the Universe.
He continued reading, intoxicated by the subtle grace of the words, but upon finishing chapter 10, he read a verse that gave him goosebumps:
— The mouth of the righteous bears the fruits of wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut out...
Attentive, he searched for new clues that would allow him to understand the reasons for that obstinate determination. And it wasn't difficult. He found another sign, indicating the path to follow, in the first verses of chapter 15:
"The tongue of the wise is pleasant to knowledge, but the mouth of fools spreads folly... A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue destroys the soul..."
His eyes devoured the letters, despite the dim light provided by the small lamp on the nightstand. It didn't take long for him to find something truly incredible, two new phrases that would put the finishing touch on the cake:
— Death and life are in the power of the tongue, which and the nurse shall eat her fruit... The Lord shall destroy the house of the proud, and establish the boundaries of the Widow...
The word "Widow" was underlined. He felt a chill. He closed the Bible, driven by the unfounded fear of violating one of God's ancient laws. Apparently, the Freemasons' oath was linked to the Solomonic thought that Wisdom was a treasure to be preserved from the folly of men, but what was the nature of that knowledge that compelled members of the Freemasons to commit such an atrocious act as cutting out a fellow Freemason's tongue? The answer lay in the stones, in his view. That was why Solomon compared the power of Yahweh to a mere rock.
Then he remembered the story Monroe had told them about the Templars and the Ark of the Covenant. According to Monroe, the Testimony of God was nothing more than a science based on geometry and divine proportion. He was familiar with the importance of the golden numbers pi and phi, as well as the famous Fibonacci sequence.
Those numbers were linked to the natural law of things, the cosmic order, and the squaring of the circle. He knew that such numbers had been used by those who built the Pyramid of Khufu, the Parthenon, the columns of Notre-Dame Cathedral, as well as by Gregory da Vinci, Le Corbusier, and even Dali, who depicted these magical properties in his great work, "Cosmic Leda." And all used it because it was a generator of harmony. His conclusions:
— If it is true that God governs the Universe thanks to a numerical system of proportional relationships, and that this and many other pieces of knowledge conceal the secret of life, carefully hidden within the Ark, the person who manages to recover it could see through the eyes of the Creator and understand the meaning of His work...
Evans had never been a practicing Catholic. To him, the Bible was a most boring book, and only a madman could read it from beginning to end. Now, after tracking down the The enigmatic verses of Solomon seemed to him a masterpiece that every bibliophile should read, even if only in parts.
Monroe knew its message well, perhaps too well... It was clear that he had studied it thoroughly. His investigations followed an obscure purpose linked to the search for the Ark, he acknowledged.
Indeed, he seemed to have memorized many of the Bible verses, indicating that he took what he did seriously. A man who had left his brilliant work in Barcelona to shut himself away in the far corner of Spain must have been very clear about his priorities.
That night, Gregory dreamed of a cathedral, whose doors were guarded by a Saint Peter who was Monroe's very image. In his right hand, he held several cattle tongues, still dripping with blood, and in his left, a huge compass used in the Middle Ages by master builders. A woman in an ancient purple vest and turquoise cloak—Wisdom—sat on the entrance steps, reading. out loud a passage from the Bible that spoke of Solomon's Temple.