Chapter 17
Idaho
“I could not find it, my friend.” Lorenzo Fermi spoke softly, then stopped, and waited for the explosion from the other end of the phone line.
“You’re saying it’s gone?” Bennett roared.
“All I can tell you is that the man asking questions about the old priest is an archeologist named Michael Rempart.”
“An archeologist?” For some reason, the name sounded familiar to Bennett. “Are you watching him?”
“More than that, we searched him and tossed his apartment. As well as checking out Chaldean monasteries. We found Rempart at one of them. I think he doesn’t have the pearl. He told us he didn’t, and if he did, why would he have gone to the Chaldean monastery?”
There was a long silence, and Fermi became hopeful, but then Bennett’s harsh, ugly voice said, “Of course, he woul
