The Babylon Rite Read Online Free PDF

stared at Adam as if he was a large and ugly centipede, smiled at her shouted request and brought her drinks over. An action almost unheard of in a British pub.
    Nina smiled, introspectively. There was true sadness there, which made her look quite beautiful – and a little haunting, Adam thought.
    ‘This is your local?’
    She nodded and shot down her Scotch in one gulp. Then she turned to her glass of Tennants, which seemed a bit too big for her very small hands, but she managed to down a quarter of it anyway. Then she said, ‘I’ve got a flat down the road, in the Grassmarket. I like it here, the fact it’s so rough. The fights can be fun. You know in Scottish we have five hundred words for fight: a
stramash
. A
fash
. A
brulzie
. All different.’
    He gazed at her pint glass.
    ‘Yes. And I’m a recovering teetotaller.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘I tried to be sober. But my God, the boredom. Like Byron said
, Man, being reasonable, must get drunk.
I like Byron. You?’
    ‘Uh …’
    ‘Sorry I talk too much. Drink too much and talk too much. Too quickly.’ She set her pint down. ‘Sorry …’ And for a moment the vivacious energy seemed to leave her.
    Adam said, ‘What’s this about a Facebook page, then?’
    ‘My sister. Hannah. Teaching in London, lecturer. She and I both believe it wasn’t suicide. So we’ve set up a Facebook page, asking for help. ’Cause the police won’t do anything. Muppets. They say the car was fine, not tampered with. And I don’t buy it. Hence the page.’ She turned slightly as if to address the pub. ‘Adam, my father was
not
mad. Not a nutter.
I don’t believe it.
’
    ‘You really want to talk about this?’
    ‘Yes! I want to know what
you
think. You spoke to him last.’ Her eyes fixed earnestly on his. ‘What was he like? His mood that day?’
    ‘OK well …’ Adam hesitated. ‘I suppose you could say he seemed pretty happy when I met him. However, he did say something very odd. Which might imply he was – ah – a little unbalanced. Sorry.’
    ‘What? Nina leaned close, but not angrily. ‘
What did he say?
’
    Adam felt uncomfortable. ‘I mean, well, all his life he wrote those academic books, very scholarly works, sceptical, rigorous, highly respected. But then, suddenly, in Rosslyn that day he said to me: oh it’s all true, there really is some truth here. Rosslyn, the Templars, the Norse elements. He appeared to reverse everything he believed. I was quite shocked.’
    ‘You weren’t the only one!
He said exactly the same to me.
A few weeks ago.’
    Her face was flushed. ‘On the phone. He made this strange, passing remark. That his whole life’s work had been pointless, that he had been wrong about the Templars, there really was a deep deep secret. Some mega-conspiracy. Yet he laughed when he said it. I thought he was talking blethers—’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Thought he was talking nonsense. Thought maybe he was drunk. ’Cause he was fond of a dram. The McLintock genes.’
    ‘So what convinced you? And how does that lead to …’
    ‘My thinking he was murdered? Loads of things – his behaviour over the last year or two, for a start. About eighteen months ago he just disappeared, went off on some crazy walkabout. Spain, France, South America even. We had no idea where, or why, he told me and Hannah nothing. When he came back he was richer, quite a lot richer. I mean he was never poor, but he was never rich either, writing books about how there is no Holy Grail and all your favourite fairy tales are pathetic and gibbering nonsense does not necessarily make you loadsamoney, y’know?’
    ‘I can see why.’
    ‘But now suddenly he
had
some money, he bought a flash new car, he indulged himself in antiques. Bought a TV maybe bigger than Canada. And he gave me some cash, and also Hannah, and I’m told there is more cash coming, in the estate: but where did all that come from? And … another thing. He got so happy by the end, he was a changed man. He’d