Jamie Brodie 02 - Hoarded to Death

up Pete’s decision to leave the police force and go to graduate school. Things were a lot better for gay and lesbian cops than they used to be. But there were still plenty of guys on the force, like Belardo, who thought we were deviant scum.
    I hoped that we wouldn’t be involved in this investigation beyond today.
    Belardo did most of the talking this time and told us that Wally’s name was actually Howard Wallace. He covered the same questions as before, which was what I'd expected. Then he started asking about what had happened the previous day - had we noticed anything odd about Wally's behavior, or anything like that. We told him about Wally’s scrutiny of the magazines and newspapers we were throwing away.
    Then he sprang the big news on us.
    "We found something clutched in the hand of the body. Does this look familiar to either of you?"
    The detective held out a plastic zip top bag, containing what looked at first glance like a scrap of old paper. I took it. The paper was either very old or artificially aged to look very old. It looked like the corner of a larger page, about 4 or 5 inches wide, with decorative writing on both sides. "Wow. This looks like it could be a page from an illuminated manuscript."
    Belardo frowned. "What’s that?"
    "Illuminated manuscripts are usually all or part of the Bible, produced by hand by monks back in the Middle Ages. It's how the Bible got reproduced in those days, before the invention of the printing press. Some of them were decorated very lavishly, and this looks like one of those."
    "Is it old?"
    "If it's authentic, it is. There are ways to reproduce them and make them look old when they're not. An expert would have to look at it."
    “You’re not an expert?”
    “No. My degree is in ancient history, but I don’t know how to tell the good fakes from the real thing.”
    "How old might it be?"
    I thought. "Well, the European Middle Ages lasted for about a thousand years, from the fifth to the fifteenth century. Any time within that time frame. So at least 600 years. Again, if it's authentic." I handed the bag to Pete, who started examining it. “I can't imagine what Jennifer would have been doing with a page from an illuminated manuscript. Or, in this case, the corner of a page.”
    Belardo nodded. “The way the vic was holding it in his hand, it looked like there had been a struggle that might have resulted in the paper being torn. The argument may have been over the paper.” He looked at me. “If it’s authentic, would it be worth a lot?”
    “ Oh yeah. Depending on how old it is and what book it’s from, it could be worth a good bit.”
    Pete turned it over, frow ning. “The writing is in Latin.”
    “Yeah, this is really elaborate.” I pointed to the page. “And the ink here looks faded. And this is some kind of stylistic animal.” I raised my head and stared at Pete, not seeing him. “No. No way.”
    Belardo leaned forward. “What?”
    I shook my head. “It’s not possible. The Book of Kells is missing about thirty leaves – sixty pages – but they went missing around a thousand years ago, in Ireland. I don’t see any way possible that a page from the Book of Kells could have made it to an apartment in Culver City.” I took back the bag and looked again. “My bet is that it’s a reproduction. It’s beautiful, but it’s probably not authentic.”
    Pete, Belardo, and Eckhoff all looked confused. Eckhoff asked the question. “What’s the Book of Kells?”
    “It’s an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament. It was created around the year 800, at a monastery on Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. When the Viking raids on Scotland started, it was taken to Ireland, to a monastery at Kells, for safekeeping. It was stolen from the monastery in the year 1007 and found a couple of months later, with the gold cover and several pages missing. Now it’s kept in the library at Trinity College, Dublin.”
    Pete asked, “ What makes you think of the Book of Kells?”
    “ The colors, and the art, especially the figures and animals. Other illuminated manuscripts were done with very fancy writing and colorful alphabet, and sometimes some pictures, but the Book of Kells is known for its colors and the way animal and human figures are woven into the text itself. Very unusual.”
    Eckhoff still looked mystified. Belardo said, “But it’s as you say. How would pages from a thousand year old book in Ireland end up in the