The Jerusalem Creed: A Sean Wyatt Thriller by Ernest Dempsey Page A

full black beard that matched the thick hair on his head. He was diminutive, around five feet five inches tall, with dark creamy skin. His arms were hairy, and he wore a blue polo with khakis.
    “Your friend doesn’t seem to mind the khakis,” Sean pointed out as Karem approached.
    Tommy simply shook his head and smirked. “You still owe me a Coke, by the way.”
    He stood up, and Sean followed suit. The three shook hands and exchanged clichéd greetings before getting to it.
    “The car is just outside,” Karem said. “I figured you would want to see where Dr. Ben Asher was working first.” He directed his next comment to Tommy. “If what you say is true, and Nehem was abducted, I fear anything of value in his temporary housing would have been stolen. It will still be worth a look, but I would not get my hopes up.”
    Karem was also a personal friend of Nehem. When Tommy told him what happened, his demeanor instantly became grave. Tommy explained who Sean was and why he was there, which made Karem feel a little better. Still, his hope was tempered by a strong sense of realistic expectation.
    “We should be at the dig site in twenty minutes,” he informed the Americans. “From there, perhaps you can find a clue as to who might have taken our friend, and why.”
    The ride to the valley just outside the city of Jerusalem was a short one, though it was hampered by the crawling traffic. Buses, vans, cars, and mopeds were everywhere. Summer months were a busy time for the area, and the tourist industry was booming, in spite of the conflicts going on with Islamist militant groups.
    On the outskirts of town, the traffic thinned, and the three were able to reach the dig site without any trouble. There were ropes surrounding the area, protecting certain spots from a clumsy onlooker stumbling in and ruining the excavation. Around the perimeter, workers brushed away dirt and clay that had built up over the years as they meticulously continued their search for answers from the past. Some locals in large straw hats sifted dirt through screens and into a plastic bin.
    It was still early in the day, but the sun already felt like a June afternoon in Tennessee, beating down on their skin like a warm fire in the sky.
    They left the car in a gravel lot near the dig site and walked past the ropes to an area where the rolling earth steepened into a hill. Karem pointed to a particular section of the hillside where a dark cavity had been unearthed. It was the entrance to a tomb.
    Two light-brown stone columns, one on either side, supported the entryway. Another stone sat atop the other two over the threshold. Piles of dirt and rock cluttered the ground on either side of the entrance, clearly where the crews had peeled away the layers of time to reveal the ancient doorway.
    “This is what Nehem was working on,” he said as they reached the tomb. “You can see the name engraved in the stone. Tovar, high priest of Judah.”
    Moments like this were always reverent for Sean and Tommy. Standing in the presence of something that had recently been unearthed, not seen by human eyes for millennia, brought about feelings of humility and awe.
    “So this is what he found,” Tommy said quietly, almost to himself.
    Karem nodded. “Please, take a look inside. I have made arrangements with the authorities for you to have as much access as you need.”
    The Americans didn’t wait for a second invitation. Sean removed a pair of flashlights from his messenger bag, handing one to his friend and keeping the other. They switched on the lights and tiptoed through the doorway and into the cool darkness of the tomb.
    The interior walls were roughly hewn, chiseled away without precision, a result of the workmen just trying to get the job done rather than worry with aesthetics.
    Sean wondered about the interior tunnel. “I guess they didn’t treat the high priest like other high ranking officials back then.”
    “Yeah. I was thinking the same thing,”