The Florentine Cypher: Kate Benedict Paranormal Mystery #3 (The Kate Benedict Series) Read Online Free PDF

only a faint indentation. Underneath was the name of the author, Leon Battista Alberti. I knew some of his work, having studied his treatise on architecture at university. But this one was about painting, and I’d never read it.
    Carefully, I lifted the front cover, surprised at its weight. The inside was lined with velvety tan vellum, which hung slightly loose. I realized that it had been cut across the top with a knife or a razor. With care, I probed inside the space between the cover and the lining, but there was nothing. What had been stored in there? And who had cut it open? Ethan perhaps. The knife cut was clean, with no sign of wear and tear, which made me think it had been done recently.
    I turned my attention to the first page, which was of a delicate, ivory-colored paper and covered in dark handwriting. The script had been written in different hands, and the ink was rusty with age. The distinctive smell of old paper reminded me of Latin lessons at school. I peered at the looped script and realized that the words were names, all of them Italian, and each one had a date next to it. Unless I was misreading it, the first date was 1762. No wonder Ethan had kept the book in a safe. It had to be valuable.
    I enjoyed the feel of the fine, gilt-edged paper on my fingers and flipped through the pages. To my surprise, I found that the pages at the back of the book had been cut to create a shallow box, which held a small package, a leather pouch, soft like kidskin, secured with a braided crimson thread. I undid the knot and opened the pouch. Inside was a key. Not the kind you’d use to open your front door. This was heavy and ornate, with a long, narrow shank and a shallow three-toothed bit. At the other end was a solid disc engraved with an image of flames and a letter C.
    Intrigued, I stood up and paced the kitchen with the key in my hand. Why was it concealed in an antique book? Who’d put it there? Was the
Della Pittura
simply a hiding place or did it hold a significance of its own? I set the key on the table and looked again at the lining on the front cover, carefully peeling it back a little more to check I hadn’t missed anything.
    Had the book held a secret, one important enough to drive Ethan into hiding?
    The heating was on, but I couldn’t stop shivering. I was wet through. I took another sip of wine before heading to the bathroom, where I stripped off my clothes and dumped them in the laundry basket. Ignoring my usual concerns about wasting water or electricity, I stood under the shower for ten minutes, waiting for the cold to dissipate. Finally, I felt warm enough to venture out, drying myself vigorously before going to my room to put on my PJs. I sat on the edge of the bed, pulling on some socks, suddenly tearful. I wished my boyfriend were home. Josh was the calm and practical one. He’d have some ideas on how to contact Ethan. But he and our boss, Alan Bradley, had left a week earlier on a trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai, to study super tower structures. Alan had put together a crazy schedule, crammed with tours and meetings so, apart from a few emails, Josh and I hadn’t been able to communicate much. I missed him.
    We’d been dating for two years now and Josh had unofficially moved in with me the year before. He still had his own place, but he didn’t spend much time there except when I was away, usually visiting my dad or going out with my best friend, Anita.
    I pulled at a loose thread on my sock, my vision blurred with tears. I wasn’t a weepy kind of person usually, but the night’s events and Ethan’s aura had rattled me. I put my head down on the pillow on Josh’s side of the bed and breathed in. But I’d changed the linens a few days ago. There was no lingering scent of Josh to be found.
    I stood up. Lying around crying wasn’t going to solve anything, so I padded back to the kitchen and checked my phone. I grabbed at it when I saw that another message had come from Ethan.
    “Take contents