The Queen's Cipher (65 page)

“What do you make of that?” Cheryl sounded bewildered.

“That it’s a scene setting shot.”

“Fine, but do you know where it is?”

“Oh yes, it’s a room in the Bauer Hotel facing the Grand Canal in Venice.”

She put her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Glad to have you back, Sherlock,” she warbled. “Tell me how you know that.”

“Do you see the stitched leather hotel room folder on the table? It’s embossed with a big letter B and underneath it are two words, ‘The Bauers.’ Now look at the church. I’d know that cupola anywhere. Santa Maria della Salute is one of Venice’s plague-churches. It’s a famous landmark on the Grand Canal.”

Freddie looked at the next picture and whistled. “You’re going to love this,” he told her.

A grey-haired man in open-necked shirt and slacks was handing a cheque to a man whose back was turned to camera. The donor was a shifty-looking Milton Cleaver. In the next picture he was caught accepting a small calfskin book in return.

The final shot was a close-up of a Bank of America cheque for 500,000 dollars made out to Michael Kelly.

“He paid enough for it,” said Cheryl, holding the print up to the light. “Where do you think the camera was?”

“CCTV cameras can be disguised as smoke detectors but these aren’t overhead shots so I’d guess they were taken by a small camera planted in an alarm clock or attached to a mirror.”

Cheryl picked up the film canister and tried to open it but the lid was secured by sellotape. She pulled away at it and an envelope fell to the floor.

It contained a typed letter, undated and unaddressed.

Dear Freddie,

I want you to have this photographic and film evidence. As you may know, I sold the Bacon treatise to the highest bidder who turned out to be Professor Milton Cleaver. Sorry about that but I needed the money to finance my retirement plans. Even so, I was never comfortable with the idea that an unprincipled rogue like Cleaver should benefit from its purchase. That’s why I arranged to meet him in Venice and had two hidden cameras in my bedroom.

I told you my name was Brennan. It’s actually Michael Kelly and I used to be an IRA man. Should you decide to use these pictures I think even an accomplished liar like Cleaver will struggle to explain why he paid such a large sum of money to a wanted Irish terrorist for a historical record he claims to have found himself.

There is a complete video tape recording of my transaction with Cleaver. I also enclose a roll of 35mm negative film on which each exposure is a separate page from Bacon’s notebook. I’ve read it through and confess to being blown away by the man’s mind and his amazing accomplishments. He was a writer of exceptional genius and deserves to be recognised as such.

You are now in a position to do one of three things. You can use the attached evidence to stop Cleaver from publishing his deceitful book or you can let him publish and then expose his corrupt dealings or, thirdly, you can blackmail him into working with you – Brett and Cleaver, a co-authorship made in hell! The choice is yours.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you find happiness.

See you in another life,

Michael.

Freddie couldn’t believe it. Once again he was beholden to the cold-blooded killer who had orphaned him. But what could he do about that? Hadn’t the time come to make a fresh start? He had a tenured job at Oxford and Kelly had given him all the evidence he needed to sort out the Shakespeare mystery. But, beyond that, his parents would want him to be happy.

He looked up at the waiting girl. “You know what? I think we should buy a flat.”

FACT OR FICTION?

All of the cipher systems mentioned in this book are real and there is clear evidence they were used in Shakespeare's day. I cracked the number code in Anthony Standen’s 1593 report and interpreted the allusive cipher in
Love's Labour's Lost
while the decryption of the cipher square in the
First Folio
dedication was the result of my youthful collaboration with a retired stage actor called Ewen MacDuff whose real name was Donald Strachan. As a tribute to his memory I have included an actor called Strachan in my novel while giving him a very different personality from his flesh and blood counterpart.

I have made the historical chapters as factually accurate as possible. The characters often speak their own words and express ideas that were current in their time. I make no apology for writing a factually based fiction for, as Francis Bacon once remarked, truth is so hard to tell it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank that elegant writer and bon vivant Tim Heald for guiding my early steps in the world of fiction. Later, Hollywood scriptwriter Noah Castro did invaluable work in editing the book. That it got to be published at all was largely due to my family. Daughter-in-law Sophie handled the marketing and advertising while my three sons, Paul, Rob and Corin brought their legal, IT and production skills to bear on the finished product. Finally, a word about my long-suffering wife Laura who has put up with incessant chatter about Shakespeare and Bacon without, as yet, walking out on me.