Ryan nodded, elbow-leaning on the railing beside me.

"That was one of the Roman camps."

I leaned forward and craned to my left. There it was. A dark wound piercing the flesh of the cliff.

"There's the cave." My voice cracked.

I stared, mesmerized. Ryan knew what I was feeling. Gently tugging me back, he arm-draped my shoulders.

"Any theories on who he was?"

I raised my hands in a Who knows? gesture.

"Guesses?"

"Max was a man who died between the age of forty and sixty about two thousand years ago. He was buried with more than twenty other people in that cave down there." I pointed over the cas.e.m.e.nt wall. "A younger person's tooth ended up in his jaw. Probably by mistake. Lucky Lucky mistake. Otherwise we might never have known of the link between the cave people and the family in Jake's shroud tomb." mistake. Otherwise we might never have known of the link between the cave people and the family in Jake's shroud tomb."

"The one Jake believes is the Jesus family crypt."

"Yes. So Max may very well have been a Nazarene, not a zealot."

"Jake is d.a.m.n sure that tomb belonged to the Holy Family."

"The names match. The decorative styles of the ossuaries. The age of the shroud." I kicked at a stone. "Jake's convinced the James ossuary came from that tomb."

"Are you?"

"I'm intrigued."

"Meaning?"

I thought a moment. What did did I mean? I mean?

"He could be right. It's just an overwhelming concept to grasp. Of the three great religions woven through the history of Palestine, all rely more on divine mystery and spiritual belief than on science and reason to establish their legitimacy. Historic facts have been given differing spins to make them mesh with favored orthodoxy. Inconsistent facts are denied.

"The facts Jake postulates as to the Kidron tomb could potentially undermine elements of the Christian creed. Maybe Mary didn't remain a virgin. Maybe Jesus had siblings, even offspring. Maybe Jesus remained shrouded in his loculus after the crucifixion."

I tipped my head at the cave below us.

"Same goes for Cave 2001 and certain elements of revered Jewish history. Maybe Masada wasn't occupied solely by Jewish zealots during the first-century revolt. Maybe early Christians were up here, too. Who knows? What I do know is that it's tragic DNA wasn't obtained from the shroud bones. Especially since it's clear that at least one of the people in the cave up here was related to the people in Jake's tomb down there."

Ryan considered that. Then, "So, even though DNA links a tooth from Masada to the Kidron tomb, you think the resurfacing of Max and the discovery of the shroud bones within weeks of each other was pure coincidence?"

"I do. The tooth was undoubtedly from someone in Cave 2001, and mistakenly became a.s.sociated with Max. But Max may have been only the messenger, not the message, in this whole saga. Funny. I'm even more curious about whose tooth it was than I am about who Max was."

"I'm not following."

"This all started with Max, but Max may simply have lucked into a prime cemetery plot."

"Still lost."

"Because Max's grave was at the back of the cave, his body wasn't disturbed by animals. It's possible he remained intact not because he was buried in a manner that differed from the others, or because his social status was more exalted than the others, but simply because he was put into the ground at a greater distance from the cave mouth. But since his was the only complete, articulated skeleton, people viewed Max as special. Someone shipped him out of Israel. Lerner stole him. Ferris and Morissonneau hid him. In the end, Max's main contribution may be that he survived intact and led us to the odd molar."

"Tying the Kidron tomb to Masada. Jake got any theories whose tooth it might be?"

"Lots of bodies in the cave. Jake's thinking a nephew of Jesus, maybe a child of one of the sisters. The mitochondrial DNA shows a maternal link."

"Not a sibling?"

"Unlikely. Inscriptions account for Jude, Joseph, James, if that ossuary's real, the Marys, and Salome. Simon died years later."

Again, we fell into silence. I spoke first.

"It's funny, Max started everything. Lerner stole him from the Musee de l'Homme because he believed Joyce's story about the scroll and his theory about Jesus living on at Masada. It turns out Joyce could have been right about Jesus, some some Jesus, but wrong about Max. Max can't be Jesus of Nazareth, who died in his early thirties, according to Scripture. His age doesn't fit, and his mitochondrial DNA makes him an outsider to the Kidron tomb matrilineage. But Max could be a nephew of Jesus." Jesus, but wrong about Max. Max can't be Jesus of Nazareth, who died in his early thirties, according to Scripture. His age doesn't fit, and his mitochondrial DNA makes him an outsider to the Kidron tomb matrilineage. But Max could be a nephew of Jesus."

"Grosset's scroll was supposedly written by someone named Jesus, son of James."

"Exactly. But the tooth could also be from a nephew of Jesus. According to Bergeron, the tooth man died at the age of thirty-five to forty. If one of Jesus' sisters had married a man named James and had a son, that child would have shared her mitochondrial DNA. If these events took place around the time of the crucifixion, the age would fit. The tooth could have belonged to a Jesus, son of James. h.e.l.l, Ryan. Any male in that jumble could have gone by that name. We'll never know."

"Who was the Cave 2001 septuagenarian in Yadin's report and book?"

"Same answer. It wasn't Max, it wasn't the tooth man, but it could have been any male in that heap."

Ryan's next comment went right to the heart of it.

"The kicker is, whoever that tooth belonged to, if Jake's right about the James ossuary, and by corollary the Kidron tomb and the Holy Family, the tooth's presence in the cave places Nazarenes on Masada at the time of the siege. A fact inconsistent with Israel's accounts of Masada."

"Very much. Israeli theologians in particular would view a Nazarene connection to Masada as sacrilege. Consider their reluctance to discuss the cave skeletons or do further testing."

I turned and gestured toward the northern end of the summit.

"There's a small monument off the western side, at the tip of the Roman camp, where all the Masada remains were reinterred in sixty-nine. The Cave 2001 bones could be exhumed, but the Israelis won't do it."

"And the shroud bones?"

"We'll never know. If Jake had been able to get DNA or pursue other testing, maybe scanning electron microscopy of the calcaneus lesion, we might have learned more. As it stands, all we have are the few lousy photos I took in the loculus."

"What about the hair and bone samples Getz recovered?"

"The hair could yield something someday. The bone particles are barely more than dust. I'm amazed Getz spotted them."

"Jake hadn't set some of the shroud bones aside?"

"Never had a chance."

"Is he planning to ask for DNA testing on the James ossuary bones?"

"He submitted a request. The Israelis turned him down and they have the bones. Knowing Jake, he'll keep at it."

"The James ossuary may be fake."

"It may," I agreed.

"Jake's theory may be wrong."

"It may."

Ryan pulled me tight. He knew I was hiding feelings of guilt and disappointment. Max was gone, interred for all time in an anonymous grave. The Cave 2001 bones were gone, interred under one of Israel's most sacred monuments. The shroud bones were gone, destroyed in a holocaust of fuel and fire.

For a moment we stood gazing out at that melancholy rim of the universe. Empty. Dead.

For years I'd read and heard about this conflicted piece of our planet. It was impossible not to.

The book of Psalms called Jerusalem the City of G.o.d. Zachariah called it the City of Truth. Whose G.o.d? Whose Truth?

"LaManche phoned today." I switched back to a world in which some control over my life seemed possible.

"How is the old bird?"

"Pleased that I'll be back on Monday."

"You've only been gone a week and a half."

"He had news. There was an exhumation. Sylvain Morissonneau suffered from congestive heart failure."

"The priest at the abbey?"

I nodded. "He died of a ma.s.sive coronary."

"No wild-eyed jihadists?"

"Just bad heart muscle, probably coupled with an elevated stress level brought on by the reemergence of the skeleton issue."

"Reminds me. Friedman has breaking news. He ran the maid's note past Mrs. Hanani and finally got the story on the B-and-E of your room. There was no B. Hossam al-Ahmed is a hotel cook who's been tomcatting around on his girl, one of the hotel maids. The lady-done-wrong decided to set the cad up. Trash a room, point a finger. Your door was unlocked."

"It's ironic. All our mega-theories to explain Ferris's murder and the theft of Max. Ultra-Orthodox Jews did it. Zealot Christians did it. Islamic fundamentalists did it.

"In the end, it was revenge and greed. Two of the old reliables. No state secret. No holy war. No sweeping question of doctrine or creed. We unraveled the methodology of a murder and we identified a killer. I should be elated, but somehow in the context of the last two weeks the murder seems mundane, almost like Charles Bellemare."

"The stoned-out cowboy stuck in the chimney?"

"Yes. In pursuing our small players over the large stage, I got overwhelmed by the larger context. The murder seemed almost insignificant."

"We both got caught up."

"I read something called the Gallup International Millennium Survey. Researchers sampled populations in sixty countries representing one point two billion souls worldwide, trying to learn how people feel about G.o.d. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents considered themselves part of some religion. Thirty-one percent believed theirs was the only true faith."

Ryan started to speak. I wasn't done.

"But they're wrong, Ryan. Despite the rituals, the rhetoric, and even the bombs, every religion is saying mostly the same thing. Buddhism. Taoism. Zoroastrianism. Sikhism. Shamanism. It doesn't matter. Take your pick."

"You've lost me, cupcake."

"The Torah, the Bible, the Koran. Each offers a recipe for spiritual contentment, for hope, for love, and for controlling basic human pa.s.sions, and each claims to have gotten the recipe straight from G.o.d, but via a different messenger. They're all just trying to provide a formula for orderly, spiritual living, but somehow the message gets twisted, like cells in a body turning cancerous. Self-appointed spokesmen declare the boundaries of correct belief, outsiders are labeled heretics, and the faithful are called upon to attack them. I don't think it was meant to be that way."

"I know you're right, cupcake, but this working cop long ago abandoned any hope of ridding La Belle Province of crime. I don't think I'm up to reconciling the world's religions. Back home there are bodies in the morgue that deserve our attention. We do what we can. And you know what? We're pretty good at it."

One last look over the plain. So breathtakingly beautiful, so filled with strife. Then, reluctantly, I allowed Ryan to lead me from the wall.

Adieu, Israel. I wish you peace.

From the Forensic Files of Dr. Kathy Reichs Most Temperance Brennan novels spring from a mixture of my real forensic cases. I start with a child's skeleton unearthed in a farmer's field, stir in a body part found in a high-rise bas.e.m.e.nt, then blend. This story began with yellowed press clippings, a black-and-white glossy, a lot of bad photocopies, and a very strange tale.

Dr. James Tabor, a colleague at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, wears two hats. He is both a biblical archaeologist and scholar, and an expert on modern apocalyptic religious movements. Wearing the latter headgear, he counseled the FBI on the Branch Davidian conflict at Waco, Texas, and advised me during the writing of Death du Jour. Death du Jour. Wearing the hat of biblical scholar, he has worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dug at Qumran, where they were found, excavated at the "John the Baptist" cave west of Jerusalem, and carried out investigative research on Masada, Israel's most famous archaeological site. Wearing the hat of biblical scholar, he has worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dug at Qumran, where they were found, excavated at the "John the Baptist" cave west of Jerusalem, and carried out investigative research on Masada, Israel's most famous archaeological site.

Monday Mourning was behind me in the autumn of 2003, and I was beginning the mental triage that would eventually culminate in my eighth book. Tabor phoned one morning, and spoke of looted tombs and purloined skeletons. He was writing a nonfiction work, was behind me in the autumn of 2003, and I was beginning the mental triage that would eventually culminate in my eighth book. Tabor phoned one morning, and spoke of looted tombs and purloined skeletons. He was writing a nonfiction work, The Jesus Dynasty, The Jesus Dynasty, in which he intended to present the historical facts about Jesus' family, based on the latest archaeological research and discoveries. Would I like to hear the story for a possible Temperance Brennan plot? in which he intended to present the historical facts about Jesus' family, based on the latest archaeological research and discoveries. Would I like to hear the story for a possible Temperance Brennan plot?

You betcha! I'd started my career as an archaeologist. So had Tempe. Why not involve the old gal in archaeological intrigue? I agreed to meet and, over lunch, Tabor showed me pictures and clippings, and outlined the following.

From 1963 to 1965, Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin and an international team of volunteers excavate the Israeli site of Masada. Twenty-five skeletons and a fetus are found in a cave below the cas.e.m.e.nt wall at the southern tip of the summit. Yadin does not discuss these bones with the press, though he does discuss three skeletons found by his team in the main complex of ruins at the northern end of the summit. Nor are the cave bones doc.u.mented by the project's physical anthropologist, Nicu Haas. Save for mention in an appendix, neither the bones nor the contents of the cave are described in the six volumes of the final Masada Masada excavation publication. excavation publication.

Thirty years pa.s.s. A photo surfaces of a single intact skeleton lying in the same cave from which Yadin's team excavated the twenty-five jumbled individuals. Yadin never described the intact skeleton in published reports or interviews.

Intrigued, Tabor locates transcripts of staff briefings held in lieu of field notes during the Masada excavation. Pages covering the period of the discovery and clearing of the skeleton cave are missing.

Tabors tracks down Nicu Haas's original handwritten notes. It is clear from his bone inventory that Haas has never seen the complete, articulated skeleton.

Tabor researches newspaper articles dating to the period of the Masada excavation. He finds a statement made by Yadin to a journalist in the late sixties that it is not his job to request carbon-14 testing. Tabor checks the journal Radiocarbon, Radiocarbon, and finds that, during the sixties, Yadin did, in fact, send samples from other sites for carbon-14 testing. and finds that, during the sixties, Yadin did, in fact, send samples from other sites for carbon-14 testing.

I looked at the small black-and-white photo of that single skeleton. I looked at photocopies of Haas's notes and of the transcribed staff sessions. I was hooked. But Tabor wasn't finished.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2000. While hiking the Hinnom Valley with students, Tabor and Israeli archaeologist Shimon Gibson stumble upon a freshly robbed tomb. They excavate and discover smashed ossuaries and skeletal remains wrapped in a burial shroud. Carbon-14 testing dates the shroud to the first century. DNA sequencing shows a familial relationship among individuals buried in the tomb. Ossuary fragments bear the names Mary and Salome.

Fast-forward again. October 2002. An antiquities collector announces the existence of a first-century ossuary inscribed "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The collector states that the box was purchased in 1978, but Tabor has found circ.u.mstantial evidence suggesting it was taken during the looting of his shroud tomb two years earlier. The construction matches. The decoration matches. Rumors have surfaced in Jerusalem.

Tabor considers it a serious possibility that he has stumbled onto the Jesus family tomb. In 2003, he requests bone from the "James ossuary" for mitochondrial DNA testing. He wants to compare sequencing from that bone with sequencing yielded by his "shroud" tomb lineage. The director of the Israel Antiquities Authority denies his request, explaining that the case is under investigation and in the hands of the police.

Mysterious skeletons. Missing pages. Looted tombs. The Jesus family crypt? Hot diggety! I would return to my archaeological roots and send Tempe to the Holy Land! My mind was already weaving plots as I studied Tabor's photos and maps. But how to bring Ryan and the others along?

At times, coroners and medical examiners must order autopsies despite the protest of family members. Occasionally objections spring from religious convictions.

During my tenure at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de medecine legale, a number of autopsies have been performed on ultra-Orthodox Jews who have been the victims of violence. Protocol has been modified, to the extent possible, to accommodate religious concerns.

That was it! I would start with a homicide in Montreal, then send Tempe into Jerusalem and the West Bank.

For a year I pored over transcripts, catalogs, and newspaper articles. I studied photos of ossuaries and the Masada excavation. I read books on Roman Palestine and the historical Jesus. With Tabor, I flew to Israel and visited museums, digs, tombs, and historic sites. I talked to antiquities dealers, archaeologists, scientists, and members of the Israel National Police.