Free The Copernicus Legacy: The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

lamp. “It could be . . .”
    “Oh . . .” Darrell wiped his fingers on his pants.
    “Hold on, now. Blood?” Lily moved closer to Becca. “What exactly are we saying here?”
    Wade took the shard back from his father. He held it gingerly between his fingers and looked at Darrell. “I guess we’re saying that maybe Uncle Henry slammed that guy with this paperweight and that’s how it broke.”
    He seemed to be searching for more words when Roald let out a long breath, shaking his head slowly.
    Scanning the darkening room as if looking for another clue, he said, “If . . . if this paperweight has blood on it, and if the blood belongs to the man at the cemetery, it means that the police are wrong. Uncle Henry wasn’t killed on the street. It may mean that the man at the cemetery killed Uncle Henry. And he may have done it right here.”

Chapter Fourteen
    W ade stared at the bloody glass and his head buzzed.
    Murder. In this room.
    “If this was not a robbery . . .”
    “If this was not a robbery . . .” Dr. Kaplan swung around to Lily. “Bernard Dufort’s fall in the elevator in Paris. Are the police still saying it’s an accident? Can you look it up? Becca, can you translate?”
    “Instantly,” Lily said, tapping her tablet. Becca stood next to her.
    Wade leaned over the dusty table at an angle. The first line was in Greek, not a single word of which he understood, but he knew what it looked like from his astronomy books.
     

     
    This was followed by two lines in code.
     
    Lca Ayulc himab ds lca Cyzb ir Gzjrauhyss
    Rixxio lca nsihis, rixxio lca wxyea
     
    He recognized the first word of the coded part as The . “Dad, Becca,” he said, digging in his backpack for the celestial map. “Do either of you know any Greek?”
    She shook her head. “Baklava and spanakopita. That’s all.”
    Roald snapped to attention. “I only know one line of Greek. Heinrich taught it to me. To all of us in the group. It was a famous quote from . . . wait . . .”
    He pulled out his student notebook and went directly to the end. He read the words on the table. “I can’t believe it . . . or maybe I can. This is it. I wrote the quote in here. Heinrich began his semester lectures with it. It means, ‘Let no one untrained in geometry enter here.’ But it’s also . . .” He closed his eyes. “I’ll remember it in a minute—”
    Becca looked up from Lily’s tablet, her face pale. “Paris police no longer think Bernard Dufort’s death was an accident. There was a fire in his apartment in Paris, and the elevator cables at the newspaper office may have been tampered with.”
    Wade felt his breath leave him. Uncle Henry was murdered in this room. Maybe the man at the cemetery did it. And now, a second murder? “Dad, we should talk to the police. The paperweight is evidence they don’t know about. It’ll help them catch the killer—”
    The traffic grew suddenly chaotic on the street below. Horns blared. There was shouting, a screech of tires. Becca went to the window. Wade peeked out through the curtains next to her. A long black limousine had stopped awkwardly in front of the building and traffic was backing up behind them. Four men emerged from the back.
    “The guy with the bruise!” said Becca. “We need to get out!”
    “Someone memorize the message,” said Darrell.
    “I have a better idea,” said Lily. She stood over the table and snapped a picture with her phone. “ Now let’s go!”
    “Hurry!” Dr. Kaplan tugged Lily and Darrell to the door.
    Everyone dashed out of the room except Wade. He took one last look at the writing on the table, then ran his sleeve across the top. Frau Munch’s coded message, whatever it meant, existed now only as a photo on Lily’s cell phone.
    “Get over here!” Becca hissed from the top of the stairs.
    He jumped down the steps after her and found Frau Munch standing guard in the lobby and pointing to the back door as if she could see it. The front