Page 85 of The Devil in Oxford
“Artifacts. Antiquities. Objects that had been stolen from their homeland. Julius and I were…” she hesitated, wetting her lips “Collecting… with the intention of repatriating them. Sending them home where they belonged.”
Repatriation?I’d not heard of such a thing. “And that’s how Julius Harker crossed Laurent initially?”
Reaver took another sip of the amber liquid. “Mmm. I believe that is what started their animosity, yes. Laurent would likely have continued on as he had been, quietly amassing power, surrounding himself with those who would do his bidding without question, dealing in cocaine, and buying up antiquities had Harker not tweaked his nose. At the time, I did not know that Leona had become involved in Harker’s scheme. It was an honorable pursuit, truly. He would quietly acquire small pieces, then larger ones, building a cache for safekeeping until it could be returned to its country of origin. From time to time, he would ask my opinion, and I would quietly help him determine provenance of an object.”
“You are Mr. Aldate then,” I asked, referencing the letters I found in Harker’s home. The person who clearly cared a great deal for Harker.
Reaver gave me a sad, small smile. “Yes. I could not correspond with him openly. But we used to work together at the University. We used to frequent a pub along St. Aldate’s and it seemed an appropriate enough name. I’d always been fond of him. Julius was a passionate man, a good one—if incautious—but recently he’d started behaving erratically. We went along this way for years, corresponding with one another about this artifact or that. If something was dubiously acquired, then Julius would go about and acquire the object and return the items to where they belong. Thatwas how he met Leona the first time, back when we were all in Egypt. It was where I met her as well.” His gaze settled warmly on Leona as she flushed beneath his attention.
I stared at the two of them, unable to form words. It was unconventional. It was radical… it was…extraordinary. I could not help but be impressed, and a little part of me wished I’d thought of it myself. It certainly would be a better use of my funds than supporting Mr. Owen’s expensive book habit.
Leona tugged her jumper tighter around her.
“But the drugs? Were either of you involved in that?”
Leona shook her head. “Harker needed money to keep up the acquisitions. It was as I told you before—I’d not believed he was serious about it. There isn’t much money in archaeology, you see. At least if one has a moral compass. I tried not to ask too many questions, but Julius grew bolder and bolder with each item he recovered. He hated Laurent for his avarice. The way the man would buy up entire collections and lock them away in his home.”
“But wasn’t Harker doing the same thing with his museum?”
“The museum was an illusion. It created a veneer of respectability and a place to hide the true objects amongst fakes. The museum allowed Harker to acquire things, create forgeries, then secrete the authentic ones back to where they belonged with no one suspecting.”
“It’s a rather clever scheme.”
Reaver nodded in agreement. “It was. I admired him for it, even if I couldn’t say as much publicly. But Leona—for a time, she served as a go-between for Harker and me. As I mentioned before, the Home Office had been watching Laurent for years, waiting for the moment to strike. Then when Julius Harker was found dead…”
“It brought it all to a head,” I finished.
Reaver confirmed it with a sigh. He rubbed at his temple. “I did not realize anyone knew of Harker’s connection to Leona, but Laurent must have found out about their collaboration somehow.”
“I am sorry that I ever thought you the villain.”
“As am I. We were both mistaken.” He gave me a rueful smile. “Though I grant you most people do dislike me. The only reason I am telling you this now is you have seen too much, and honesty at this point is better than continuing as we were.”
I opened my mouth, then snapped it back shut, glancing between the two of them. Seconds ticked on in silence before I finally managed to voice the question lingering at the edges of my mind. “Where is the remainder of Harker’s collection? The items that he was intending to repatriate?”
“It is all safe,” Leona said softly. “That’s all you need know.”
“Does the government know about what he was doing?”
Leona glanced across the table at Reaver. “No. No one knows but the three of us now.”
“And theRadix?Jonathan Treadway? How do they fit in?”
Leona shook her head, moving to the far side of Reaver’s office and pulling out a large book from the shelf, which she laid on my lap. “Julius was brilliant at forgeries.” She gave me a faint smile. “He was convinced that someone would steal theRadix. Julius asked his old friend Jonathan Treadway to retrieve it again and to hide the original somewhere that not even he could find it. Then, not long before he died, he’d arranged for a forgery to be made, a duplicate of the book. We’d hidden the forgery in Harker’s own collection. Eventually, we were going to move the fake back into the Bodleian, keeping the original safe. But the forgery had been stolen from Harker’s museum before we could complete Harker’s plan to switch the trueRadixwith the false one.”
“Who has the forgery now?”
Reaver winced. “I think it was on the canal boat.”
I let out a startled sound. Well, we certainly wouldn’t get it back then. I lifted the hide-bound cover, revealing the brilliantly colored title page with the wordsRadix Maleficarumin a strong and artful hand.There was a bit of foxing on the pages there. My fingershovered over the paper longingly. It must have been more recent than first assumed. I was told it was written in conversation with theMalleus Maleficarum, but it was unusual to see foxing in fifteenth-century books. “So this is it.… The original?”
Leona nodded. “It is. It’s been here all along, in Freddie’s office. Hidden in plain sight.”
I wet my lips, closed the book, then pressed it into Leona’s hands. “It belongs to the Bodleian.”
Leona took it and quickly replaced it on the shelf. “Freddie will figure out a way to get it back without any questions asked. I think with Laurent dead it should be safe. At least for a time.”
“As always.” Reaver rubbed his temples with a small laugh. “Frederick Reaver, fixer of problems.”
