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“A bit of background. The Voynich manuscript was stolen from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University last year. At the end of her press conference, Isabella Marin made a plea for the thief to return the manuscript so it could be reunited with the lost pages. I believe Dr. Bruce stole the manuscript and decided he wanted these papers, too. Why did he graduate to murder and kidnapping? We don’t know yet.”
Gareth paused a moment. “As you already know, there was a very strange signature at the crime scene—the dual holes in the victim’s neck, directly into the jugular vein. It matches a number of European murders by someone Interpol calls the Vampire Killer or Dracula. All the victims were exsanguinated. However, in this instance, Gil Brooks wasn’t. Didn’t the killer have time? We don’t know. Dr. Bruce is now our leading suspect for these crimes, as well.”
Mike said, “Gareth, do you have access to a facial recognition system? I’d like to run the photograph of Bruce through and see if anything pops. Something about him feels familiar to me.”
Gareth nodded. “We do, but our Police National Database is more limited than yours in the FBI. Though if I have a direct match, I can certainly use it as confirmation. That said, I’d be happy to let you send the photo to your folks if you’d like.”
“I would, Gareth, thank you. The NGI database is cutting-edge and can work with a profile shot. I’ll send it in immediately if you have a computer I can use.”
“Use mine.” He unlocked the machine, and Mike got to work. The photo was uploaded into the system in a matter of minutes.
She said, “And now we wait.”
* * *
They didn’t have to wait long. The computer flashed a match two minutes later.
No wonder the photo of Dr. Laurence Bruce in profile felt so familiar to her. The falcon on the windowsill, it all made sense.
Gareth was looking over her shoulder when the match appeared. “Holy crap.”
They looked at Roman Ardelean.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Mike called Nicholas immediately. “Roman Ardelean murdered Gil Brooks and kidnapped Isabella Marin. I ran a photo of the man from the apartment video through NGI. Ardelean’s been posing as a Voynich scholar using the name Laurence Bruce for years—and, Nicholas, he also has the Voynich pages Isabella found at the British Museum.”
He was silent for a moment, then, “Despite what my father says,
it’s time to go public. I’m going to have Ian put together a release, and meanwhile, we will double our efforts to find where Ardelean lives. Anything on the tape that might help?”
“No. You’re going to have to work fast, Nicholas. Wherever he took Isabella, the quire is, as well. We need to find her, but we need to be careful. We don’t know what he wants with these pages from the Voynich, but he wanted them badly enough to kidnap her and kill her fiancé.”
Nicholas said, “Do you think he committed the vampire murders in his search for the pages?”
“I don’t know, but all I know is we’ve got to hurry. Why would he keep her alive if he’s got the pages? If that was his purpose?”
She heard Adam’s excited voice in the background. “I think I’ve got something. Nicholas, I’m sending it to your screen. Mike was right. The car was the key.”
“Hold on, Mike, let me see what this is.”
Adam had the video from the garage up and running. “Here’s Ardelean’s BMW i8. You can see him turn left out of the garage. Mike’s idea was brilliant. I cracked his GPS system and downloaded the last several days’ worth of coordinates. I can find him.”
“You heard that, right? Mike, get back over here as soon as you can. The moment we know where Ardelean is, we’ll go in.”
“On my way.” She hung up. “Gareth, any chance you can get me a lift to MI5?”
“I’ll take you myself. Let’s go.”
* * *
The command center of MI5 was up and running when Mike returned with Gareth Scott. She saw a large glass room with screens from top to bottom, advanced telemetry and visuals from overhead drones, CCTV feeds, and multiple people in headsets. Harry and Nicholas stood against the back wall, both with arms crossed, both looking deadly serious, ready to lower the hammer.
But when Nicholas saw Gareth, his smile was huge. “Good grief, why’d she haul you along? Mate, it’s been too long.”
They hugged, slapping each other’s backs. “That’s what happens when you run away. Have you found him yet?”
“We’re narrowing it down. Adam and the team are looking at the last-known GPS location from the car and plotting it on a map. We’re up to yesterday—”
