Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard Read Free Book Online

the authorities, and he didn’t leave a note.
    The tribunal duly asked Valeria for her thoughts, and also a character reference for Gallio. She surrendered her notebook, empty apart from random geometric shapes which were of no help to him at all. As for his character she declined to comment, given their personal history.
    Now, so many years later, Valeria is not Cassius Gallio’s enemy. He won’t have enemies, not at his age. She’s a former colleague he knows not to trust. She sent him an El Al ticket,economy class from Munich, and he used it because he misses the man he was. He imagines she needs him. Her need makes her vulnerable.
    Gallio takes off his sunglasses, some kind of defeat, and rubs at the side of his eye with a thumb.
    ‘Why am I here?’
    ‘I looked you up. The Jerusalem militia recently captured two of the original Jesus followers, which surprised us. We didn’t think the disciples would dare come back, but these ones were found in the Lower City. We had the situation under control, and for a while the Israelis kept the two men safe in a lockup.’
    ‘Don’t tell me. The disciples of Jesus escaped. They were rescued by angels, and have a story to prove it.’
    ‘You can help us.’
    On the day Cassius Gallio had seen the body of Judas split apart, he’d texted Valeria. Later that evening, before they came to arrest him, he’d left a second message pleading with her to intercede on his behalf. He loved her, he said, and regretted not expressing himself earlier and more clearly. She understood the intricacies of Jerusalem, and should tell the tribunal that Judas wasn’t the problem; Jesus was the mystery they needed to solve. When they found the body none of the other unknowns would seem so daunting.
    Gallio sent the same message twice, to be sure it arrived and because he hadn’t known who else to ask. He felt outmaneuvered by the Jesus faction, by Jesus as a personal opponent, so he’d persuaded himself he was special to Valeria beyond the call of duty. Between them they’d see that justice was done.
    She hadn’t replied, and after a year or two Gallio stopped feeling bitter. Valeria was an ambitious professional who valuedher career. For her disloyalty, along with his shattered life, he shifted the blame onto Jesus.
    Cassius Gallio applies pressure to the twitch near his eye. He is gentle with himself, pushes in with his thumb and then the heel of his hand. The nerve stops fluttering, it starts again. He gives it a tap. A harder double-tap.
    ‘Cassius?’
    ‘Here.’
    ‘You know these people. You were closer to them than anyone else. We have a job for you.’
    ‘You got married.’
    ‘That’s not why I called you in.’
    ‘Someone important. Rome, obviously, for the right calibre of husband. Now you’re the woman in charge.’
    ‘You’re well informed, but out of date. I’m divorced. I run the Complex Casework Unit, Middle East region. It’s not the biggest job out there.’
    ‘Nor the smallest.’
    ‘We’re reopening the Jesus case.’
    Cassius Gallio fiddles with his sunglasses, uses a stem to spread ice melt into curves on the table. ‘Hence the secrecy.’ He makes alphabet shapes no one can read, not even himself. ‘A bit embarrassing, investigating a dead man.’
    ‘We don’t know who was responsible for the fire in Rome. It was big. Thousands dead, damage still being repaired, and the CCU are ruling nothing out, not even provincial cults with a grievance. The Jesus belief is growing, even as far as Rome. We killed their leader.’
    Valeria puts her hand on his, and Gallio doesn’t know if she’s forgiving him or asking for forgiveness. The case should never have been closed, not with so many questions left unanswered.Cassius Gallio had been right, but being right was overrated. Being smart was safer.
    Gallio registers the veins in Valeria’s hands, and a grey liver spot. The years they’ve spent ignoring Jesus have aged them both, but she should have backed him