I Am Pilgrim

The narrative switches to al-Nassouri, heading for Beirut to work on his virus. When his work is complete, he enlists a naïve accomplice to ensure that his deadly vials are shipped to their future location. He buys a cell phone as a gift for a lonely, idealistic boy in his congregation and enlists his promise to help. He misses his family but is comforted by the upcoming date of his perfect plan: Columbus Day, marking America’s rise as a colonial power. He departs Beirut for Germany.

After a series of flights, Murdoch heads for Bodrum, admitting to fear but also declaring, “I was so alive it was almost intoxicating” (298). He is immediately struck by the sight of the large clifftop mansion where Dodge died, the French House.

Murdoch arrives at the hotel, where he is greeted by a particularly effusive manager. The man regales him with tales of recent fireworks in town, the commemoration of a Turkish holiday. He soon realizes that the spectacle took place the evening Dodge fell. After Murdoch confirms he is in town to investigate the death, the manager hands him a message from the local police. In his hotel room, Murdoch makes some discouraging discoveries. The TV does not get the foreign news channels that the mysterious woman used to splice information together for al-Nassouri, leaving him uncertain how she could have sourced the material. The note from the local police informs him that Dodge’s death has been ruled accidental and his presence is redundant.

Murdoch visits the local police station and makes small talk with the secretary, who tells him the lead investigator, Detective Cumali, is at the park with her son. When she arrives, Cumali is frosty and unimpressed, a consummate professional who speaks perfect English and resents his intrusion into her case.

Cumali explains that Dodge tumbled to his death after falling from the fence that protects onlookers from the cliffside precipice, citing evidence of his clothing on the metal structure. The investigators found binoculars near his body, indicating that he was watching the fireworks at the time of his death. He was also using large amounts of recreational drugs and alcohol.

Cumali assures him, using extensive security-camera evidence, that Dodge was alone except for the estate security personnel. Dodge’s wife, Cameron, was at a party and thus has an alibi, despite her status as the prime suspect. Murdoch is struck by her youth and beauty, and lack of her own money, but admits there is no evidence to implicate her. Murdoch takes Cumali’s attitude personally, ordering her to hand over her evidence lest his government retaliate. She angrily does so.

After departing, Murdoch internally upbraids himself, and Whisperer, for assuming the Dodge case would provide infinite cover for his presence. He distracts himself by the town’s phone booths to find the location of the mystery phone call. As he turns back to Dodge’s case file, he begins to wonder why an intoxicated and impaired person would climb a fence to look out over the water, and why binoculars would be necessary to see fireworks.

Murdoch drives to the French House, where a Turkish policeman eventually lets him in. Murdoch is struck by the elaborate wall around the house, indicating that the original owners, years before the resort’s popularity, also sought extreme privacy. He visits the spot where Dodge died, nearly falling himself on the other side of the fence. This convinces him that only an extreme impulse could have led the younger man to risk the fall that killed him, and that the Eastside Inn killer is the perpetrator.

Murdoch enters the house, finding the library where Dodge spent the night of his death. He is immediately struck by two immense mirrors. He is torn from his reverie by an approaching woman and in his fear and surprise pulls out his gun. He soon realizes it must be Cameron and introduces himself as an FBI agent. Cameron assures him of her grief and is honest about the prenuptial agreement that offered her minimal funds in the event of a divorce.

As he drives away, Murdoch has a sudden epiphany inspired by the library’s mirrors. Fireworks are primarily composed of magnesium phosphate, and the two mirrors in the library contain the same substance as in photographic film. The library’s giant mirrors might thus be “developed” in the same way to prove that Dodge was not alone in the house. Drawing on memories with a trip with Bill, Murdoch calls Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, globally famous for its art-restoration department, hoping that they can accomplish this near-impossible task.

Searching out Cumali to explain his plan, he finds her in a park and quickly realizes that her young son has Down syndrome. He reflects that there is something strange in her behavior, as though he had “walked into a secret” (329). He bows to the little boy, charming him, but admits that he would later deeply regret his behavior toward the child. He urges Cumali to come back to the French House, reminding her that ending the investigation too soon could cause an international incident. The Turkish police mock Murdoch’s theory, and the Uffizi only reluctantly agrees to take his project.