118

Grand Orient Masonic Hall

Present day

Moutiers returned with a thick volume. He leafed through it as he spoke.

“Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was initiated into the Alsace-Lorraine Lodge on October 14, 1875, just a few days before the formation of the Franco-American Union. A lot of Masons belonged to that lodge, including the historian Henri Martin.”

“Cenevières, Lafayette, Archambeau, and now Bartholdi. That’s a full house,” Marcas said, rubbing his hands together.

“So, if I understand correctly, we’re looking for a murderer who descends directly or indirectly from a certain… Let’s see… Alexis de Cenevières, whose descendants were also brothers. Andrivaux said. “One of them is Louis de Cenevières, who belonged to the Alsace-Lorraine Lodge. But I don’t get what Bartholdi has to do with the story.”

The two brothers looked at Marcas. They wanted an answer, but he couldn’t possibly tell them how he had found the sanctuary under the Statue of Liberty. That was the Bartholdi connection.

“Dumb luck. The more you look, the more coincidences you find,” he said, looking back at the book. “I’m sure Louis de Cenevières will lead us to Paul de Lambre’s murderer.”

“Well, we’ll need weeks to go through the lodge’s archives,” Andrivaux said.

Moutiers shook his head. “Actually, since it was a well-known lodge, the archives are all online.”

“Okay,” Marcas said as they walked over to one of the computers. “Let’s split up the work. I’d like to read the presentations made by Louis de Cenevières.”

“Consider it done,” Moutiers said, typing in the request.

“I’ll go through the list of lodge members to see if I can find more information about this Cenevières,” Andrivaux said.

A window opened on the screen.

“It looks like presentations weren’t Brother Cenevières’s thing,” Moutiers said. “He made only three during his entire Masonic career.”

He jotted down the references and asked a librarian to bring the documents. Meanwhile, the second search came up with a much longer list for Andrivaux and Moutiers.

“And we wind up getting the brunt of the work,” Andrivaux said.

Marcas already has his nose in the three documents. He eliminated the first two, as they were mandatory topics for apprentices. He focused on the third, the only one Louis de Cenevières chose on his own: “Presented November 25, 1891, by Brother Cenevières: The Eiffel Tower.”

He read the six hand-written pages, one after the other, learning in detail about the challenges faced by the engineers and carpenters who built the Eiffel Tower. It would intrigue an architect or engineer, but as far as Marcas, the cop, was concerned, there was nothing all that fascinating in the presentation, except one key part.

As you know, brothers, Gustave Eiffel’s engineering and architecture firm also worked on the Statue of Liberty, which France generously offered to our American friends. You all know the role our lodges have played in the support of the Franco-American Union, which made the dream a reality. Brother Bartholdi gave a wonderful presentation on the thoughts and imagination that led to the birth of his statue.

Without going into great detail, I can tell you that it was the same for Mr. Eiffel’s tower. The most daring mathematical calculations allied perfectly with the metalwork that made it possible, via the genius of reason, to build the tallest tower in the world.

It is a pillar of glory to the knowledge of humanity, like our brother Bartholdi’s statue, which is a pillar dedicated to liberty.

I am proud to have worked as a Freemason on these two perfect columns on both sides of the Atlantic. I would even dare to say that the tower and the statue are like Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars that hold up the universal temple.

Marcas’s heart was leaping out of his chest. He had referred to the two pillars. All the pieces were coming together.

I hope that hundreds of years from now, when we are nothing but dust and lost to the memory of men, that these two marvels, equal to the Great Pyramid of Giza, will still be contributing to a more just and enlightened society.

And I would like to thank three brothers who have had a hand in building these two pillars. They don’t like the limelight, as friends of the golden truth, but I would like to pay homage to them here, as their names will never leave this lodge. I call them my three brothers of the sword. They will understand.

Marcas looked at the names: Lafayette, Archambeau, and… The third name had been scratched out.