At First Light(Dr. Evan Wilding #1)(113)

This time, Evan did manage to sit up a little. “Tommy helped solve the mystery. He should be awarded something. A medal.”

“I’ll make sure it happens,” Addie said, then continued.

Both Sally Osborn and Ralph Rhinehart were dead. Rhinehart’s other two children—Osborn’s stepbrothers—were already on their way here from the UK. Over the next days and weeks, she and Patrick—with Evan’s help—would sort through both Osborn’s and Rhinehart’s lives, trying to fit all the pieces together.

She said, “Rhinehart thought by pushing his neo-Nazi theories, he was leading us away from his daughter.”

“But she was connected to Raven,” Evan finished. “All three were into sorcery, in their own fashion.”

“She was our leak.”

Evan nodded, then regretted it as a headache announced its presence. “Because she needed to have her story told.”

“We found her journal. In the pump house.”

“You will let me take a look.”

“Of course. One thing we learned is that Osborn had not only gone to your public talks, she’d audited several of your lecture classes and likely attended one of your end-of-year parties. That would explain how she got the code to your house and stole your copies of Beowulf.”

“It’s never a good idea,” Evan murmured, “to invite the monster in.”

“Worse is to not change your security code after the monster has come through.”

After a time, Addie’s voice trailed off into silence. Evan felt inexplicably sleepy. A side effect of shock, no doubt. And the aforementioned touch of hypothermia. His eyes drifted closed.

“I should go,” Addie said.

He blinked and dug his voice out of a deep recess. “Diana has never killed anyone before.”

“Neither have I,” Addie said softly. “We had no choice. We’ll be all right.”

“I know.” He didn’t want her to leave. “How’s Claymore?”

“Who?”

“Clayton L. Hamden, attorney to the stars.”

“We just caught a serial killer and you nearly died and you’re asking about him?”

“Yes.” A man had his priorities, after all.

“Well, Clayton and I . . . it’s over. Being with him was kind of like having a silverback gorilla banging around the place, beating his chest and trying to lord the manor.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. But he wasn’t sorry at all.

“Don’t be. He wasn’t anything much.” She stood. “I’m going to let you sleep.”

“I’ll sleep better if you’re here.”

“Really?”

“Most definitely.” He roused himself.

She sat back down and took his hand. “Then I’ll stay.”

“Don’t you have detecting to do? Murders to attend to?”

“Friends first.”

He smiled. “Valkyrie,” he whispered, too softly for Addie to hear.

He knew he was still smiling when sleep came.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As a child and young adult, I fell in love first with J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and then with his famous trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps that is what led me to focus on medieval works of literature as an undergraduate. The power of poems like “The Wanderer” and “Dream of the Rood” wove a spell around me from which I’ve never recovered.

I hope those readers who are knowledgeable about the English runes will forgive my simplification of the three-step process of transliteration, transcription, and translation. In creating the runic version of the killer’s poems, I’m indebted to several books, most especially Runes: A Handbook by Michael P. Barnes.

For Christina’s explanation of skaldic poetry, I am grateful for “Skaldic Poetry: A Short Introduction” at the website https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/resources/mpvp/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Introduction-to-Skaldic-Poetry_Debbie-Potts.pdf.

The character of Christina, in my novel, is correct in reporting a recent surge of scholarly interest in Grendel’s mother. For those who want a modern-day rendition of the world according to this powerful woman, I recommend The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley. Headley’s translation of Beowulf is equally brilliant and was only excluded from At First Light by dint of its 2020 publication date.

The translations of Beowulf mentioned in this book are those by poet and scholar Seamus Heaney and by Oxford don and writer J. R. R. Tolkien. Each translation is powerful and thrilling in its own way.

Concerning Norse mythology, you can’t go wrong by picking up Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman.

And for all things Vikings, I’m especially grateful for the brilliantly written and highly entertaining Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by archaeologist Neil Price. This book opened up my understanding of the Viking Age people in astonishing and delightful (and sometimes horrifying) ways. At nearly six hundred pages, the book is a tome. But it is well worth the time it takes to peruse its fascinating and surprisingly cheerful pages.

Finally, for details about the work of semioticians and forensic semioticians in particular, please see Signs of Crime by Marcel Danesi and Murder in Plain English by Michael Arntfield and Marcel Danesi.