The Cantor Dimension (12 page)

One might imagine Joane making such a will disappear, especially in light of the battle that followed which apparently dragged on for a number of years, longer than Joane had been married to Edmond Halley.

Back in those days people did not have such definitive identification cards as we do today and thus names would be spelled differently from one document to another. In the same manner that Sybilla was also spelled Sibella, Sibble and Sible, the name Joane in relation to Edmond Halley was also spelled in a variety of ways. Her name was written as Joan, Joane, Joanne, Joanna, Joannae and even Jane. From the various accounts regarding the legal battle between the astronomer Halley and his step-mother over his father's estate:

Edmond Halley complains also that Joan got married again to one Robert Cleator, gent., of London, and they have taken up the rentals of the property at Winchester Street and on Cannon Street equal to 950 pounds.
The situation was complicated by Joane's remarriage to one Robert Cleeter in 1685, but Halley ended up with all the houses on Winchester Street except the one occupied by his step-mother.

Her new husband, Robert Cleeter, was also spelled Cleator/Cleater and possibly Clator/Claytor and even Chester. The junior Edmond Halley chose Sir John Buckworth to represent him in the estate battle, and Joane chose Richard Young. Documents from
Young v. Halley
showed where the senior Halley had purchased property at All-Hallows-Stayneing from Susan Sandwith. He also collected rent from the
Dog Tavern
in Billingsgate and the
Hen and Chickens
in Whitechapel, London, as well as properties at Winchester and Cannon Streets.

Young v. Halley, 1693, touching the settlement of the estate of Edmund Halley, sen. (who died in April, 1684), mention is made of the payment of a small legacy of 5l. due to Elizabeth Partridge from the will of Humphrey Halley, deceased. The same document sets forth the payment of an annuity from the estate of E. Halley, sen., to Mrs. Susan Sandwith in full till her death for the property at Minceing Lane and Fanchurch Streete in the parish of All-Hallows-Stayneing; Old All-Hallows-Stayneing.
Halley's father died intestate
¹²
, c. March-April, 1684. Litigation ensued between Halley and his step-mother, who remarried; see Edmund Halley v. Robert Chester or Cleator and Joane, his wife...
In 1694, an action was brought by Robert Cleeter, of London, gentleman, and Jane, his wife, (formerly the wife of Edmund Halley, of London, gentleman, who was a citizen and a freeman). The latter's estate...

Joane wasted no time in remarrying after the death of Halley, marrying Robert Cleeter in the year following the murder of Halley. She also wasted no time in going after the entire estate of the wealthy Edmond Halley even though they'd only been married for two years.

Edmond Halley was worth roughly 4000 pounds at the time of his death but according to Joane, he left no will. His entire family including cousins all had very detailed wills but the lack of a will from Halley allowed his widow to go after everything he had with no holds barred. The rents from the various properties that Halley owned brought in 950 pounds.

According to the Hearth Tax returns for London and Middlesex in 1666, an entry appears under the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, Finsbury:
Edmund Halley, IX
. In other words, Edmond Halley was being taxed for nine hearths which in those days indicated a house of considerable size. To put all of the numbers in perspective, we look at wages for that era.

According to the Farmer's Almanac, a labourer's daily wage was 8 pennies in 1688 so if the person worked five days a week for fifty weeks, his annual wage would be 2000 pennies. It took 240 pennies to equal one pound at that time and Halley's estate was worth 4000 pounds or 960000 pennies. In other words, his estate was worth the annual wage of 480 labourers making him a VERY wealthy man, and a prime target for a Black Widow.

Table of Contents

Brody's apartment looked like a war zone after the police left. Sofa cushions had been removed from their slipcovers and thrown carelessly in a corner by the window. Pictures had been removed from the walls and piled haphazardly near the sofa cushions. Furniture was flipped upside down as they'd searched for wads of money or whatever other evidence they'd hoped to find. The trash container in his kitchen was missing and the one in the bathroom had been dumped on the floor. Even Brody's clothes had been yanked out of the closet and individually searched as though their pockets might reveal Max's secrets.

Brody breathed a sigh of relief. He'd gotten the Cantor papers out in time. Cindy had agreed to take them after hearing Brody's story on the condition that he'd let her read them. Cindy was studying to be an astrophysicist, a science that covered everything from meteors to wormholes, and the thought of reading about Einstein and his cronies fascinated her.

As Brody had glanced briefly at some of the papers before giving them to Cindy, he knew that the rest of the Cantor papers talked about sciences and theories which were way over his head and right up Cindy's alley. Though she was still in the early stages of her study at least she'd have some understanding of the technical jargon in the Cantor papers. To that end, Cindy had come up with a workable idea. If the police caught wind of Brody and Cindy's friendship they'd probably decide to search her place next.

Cindy said, "Look, why don't you let
me
read the papers and when I find something important I'll let you know. That way you won't have to spend any time over here and they won't get suspicious. Besides, I'll know better than you what's important and what's not."

It was the perfect plan and Brody had gratefully accepted the offer. It was a relief to have someone on his side, someone to share the burden with. He really needed a friend.

"You better go home now, Brody. We don't want them linking us together right now. Go get some sleep. You look beat."

"Okay Cindy, and thanks!"

She smiled. "Hey, cheer up! We'll find him. Don't worry!"

Brody managed a weak smile and then went home. He flipped the sofa right side up and laid down on it. The coils dug into his back. He let out a string of cuss words, stuffed the sofa cushions back into their slipcovers and put them back on the sofa. He collapsed on it with a loud groan. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

Brody was almost asleep when he remembered Max's fish. Damn! He'd forgotten to feed them in all the excitement. He hoped they'd be okay. He was too tired to drive back to Max's apartment assuming the police would even allow him entry. Somehow he doubted it.

Tomorrow he'd try to pick up Max's fish and plants and bring them home with him. He didn't have to worry about the mail and lights and curtains anymore since the police had Max's apartment under surveillance. There was nothing he could do about all of Max's expensive equipment, assuming the police hadn't confiscated or destroyed it. Only an idiot would try to break in now. Brody giggled. The would-be burglar would get a whole lot more than he bargained for if he entered Max's apartment. He'd probably get thrown in jail on suspicion that he was Max's accomplice come looking for his share of the booty!

Brody had a hard time falling asleep. The police had done everything but rip his bed mattress open and they'd even threatened to do that. Brody wasn't exactly the neatest person in the world but it was awfully hard to relax in the middle of such a mess. It would take him weeks to put it all back together and what bothered him even more was that he had no idea what, besides his garbage, they had actually taken from his apartment.

He rolled over so that he couldn't see the mess and buried his face in the crook of his arm. He wondered if they'd found the towels he'd swiped from the Hilton a lifetime ago. The faded blue "H" in the corner of each towel was still visible and it clearly labeled him as a thief.

He also had an ashtray from the Playboy club and a set of salt and pepper shakers he'd filched from the diner down the street. There was no way to identify the salt and pepper shakers as stolen, though. Max would have chastised him for his guilty conscience, contending that since he'd taken these things when he was a kid and didn't know any better, and since he wouldn't have done it now, it didn't count any more.

Max always knew how to make things okay. He had a logical explanation for everything. Max could even justify a murderer's reasons for killing and they used to spend hours debating the rationale behind the various motives for crimes they read about in the paper. Max would have made an ideal investigator or lawyer with his quick mind and sharp analysis of people's hidden agendas. Brody wondered how Max would analyze his own situation right now.

Brody ran his fingers through his dirty hair, grimacing at the oily residue. He hadn't had a shower in nearly two days. He grabbed the throw pillow he'd been laying on and threw it forcefully across the room. He couldn't do much more damage than the police had already done and the act of helpless rage somehow made him feel better. If only he knew where Max was, if only he knew what Max was doing, if only he could dispel the doubts that gnawed at him, then maybe he wouldn't feel so desperate and frustrated.

Then he remembered that he'd found a few more papers after he'd turned the boxes over to Cindy and he'd shoved those in his pocket. The police had searched his apartment but they hadn't searched him. Unable to fall asleep, he took the papers out to read them and what he read put Max's meteorite collection into a whole new light.

Betyl Stones, also known as Baetylus or Bethel Stones, were sacred stones believed to be endowed with life. According to legend they were actually meteorites. Bethel Stones were mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis. As the story goes, Jacob, after sleeping with his head upon a stone, had a strange dream in which many angels were traveling to and from heaven to the place where he was sleeping. God himself then appeared and made promises to Jacob.
When Jacob awoke, he named the place where he had slept 'Bethel' and called that place the 'gate of heaven.' As a gate is simply a doorway from one place to another, and heaven is not of our dimension, one might hypothesize that the Betyl Stone could be used to open a doorway into another dimension.
The biblical story of the Betyl Stone is reminiscent of the story of Thomas Aquinas, the priest who possessed the Philosopher's Stone, and who experienced a supernatural event so profound that he refused to talk about it - an event which changed his beliefs. Whereas Aquinas had been a prolific writer, after his supernatural experience he refused to write stating that, "All that I have written seems like straw to me." Whatever he experienced shook the very foundation of life as he knew it.
If the Betyl Stone was indeed a meteorite it would surely be of an exotic variety. The rarest of the meteorites are the stony-iron meteorites which make up less than 2% of all known meteorites. The two types of stony-irons are the Pallasites and the Mesosiderites. The Pallasites are the most valuable, especially when they are made of abundant quantities of olivine crystals, at which time they become known as the gemstone 'peridot.' Gems from the Marjalahti meteorite in Russia were used to set the quality standard for the gemstone peridot as we know it today.
Among its many powers, the Philosopher's Stone was thought to transform ordinary crystals into precious gems. What could be more precious than a meteorite with crystals so pure that they set the standard for our gemstones today?
The three sub-groups of Pallasites are the Eagle Station group, the Pyroxene group, and the main group. The Eagle Station group is rich in olivine crystals and they are related to the II-F iron meteorites. Only three locations make up the Eagle Station group: Eagle Station, Cold Bay, and Itzawisis.
The Eagle Station, Kentucky find occurred in the year 1880. The Cold Bay, Alaska find occurred in 1921. Cold Bay included many meteorites, all of which were corroded. The Itzawisis, Namibia find included a single meteorite which was found in 1946. The Itzawisis meteorite was discovered stolen from the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2001. No one knows how or when the theft occurred.
It was later discovered that a man who went by the name of 'Jerome' was selling rings made from a Pallasite meteorite, which was thought to be the stolen Itzawisis meteorite. While some of the rings were recovered, they do not account for the entire meteorite. It is assumed that there are more of the Pallasite rings from Itzawisis.

Brody was starting to see connections among the various subjects that Max had been studying. Namibia, South Africa, was where many of the Knights Templar had ended up after being chased out of Europe. One thing that Brody had discovered in the Cantor papers was that no topic was random. Every subject, no matter how isolated it first appeared, led to something else. Somehow it was all connected: the Knights Templar, Temple Farm in Kent, Edmond Halley, Georg Cantor, the Philosopher's Stone, meteorites, and maybe even men with tails. The man with all the answers was missing and wanted by the police and Brody was left to connect the puzzle pieces that Max had left behind. The next piece of the puzzle revolved around meteorites.

There is a confusion regarding the naming of the Pallasite meteorites. A common error is to associate their naming with the 2-Pallas asteroid, but they are actually named for German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas. They do not come from the Pallas family of asteroids that generate the Geminids meteor shower as one might suspect.
The annual meteor shower known as the Geminids is believed to originate from object 3200-Phaethon, a B-class asteroid composed of dark material, which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid of the Pallas family of asteroids from the main belt of asteroids.
The Pallas family includes 2-Pallas, 3200-Phaethon, and other smaller asteroids. Scientists believe that 3200-Phaethon may have broken off from 2-Pallas. While most meteor showers come from comets, the Geminids come from a single asteroid. The meteors that make up the Geminids however, are more numerous than the single asteroid could possibly provide, shrouding the origin of the Geminids meteor shower in mystery.
The origin of Pallasite meteorites is much debated. Infrared spectroscopy has marked three asteroids as being the potential source for the Pallasites: 246-Asporina, 289-Nenetta, and 446-Aeternitas. Asporina is an R-class asteroid in the main belt of asteroids. Nenetta is also a main belt asteroid, as is Aeternitas which is an A-class asteroid.
The stony-iron meteorites are thought to come from the collisions of various asteroids during the early days of the solar system in the region of Mars and Jupiter. New evidence, however, places them in the vicinity of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, where they eventually became part of the main asteroid belt.
Pallasite meteorites are exotic cumulates consisting of jewel quality olivine crystals, iron-nickel, troilite, chromite, schreibersite, pyroxenes, whitlockite, stanfieldite, farringtonite, and merrillite.
Most troilite found on earth is from meteors. It is often found in meteors from the Moon, Mars, and possibly Jupiter's satellites Ganymede and Callisto. An Italian Jesuit by the name of Domenico Troili is widely credited as having written the first description of the fall of a meteorite.
Schreibersite is also known as 'Shepardite of Haidinger' and its crystals belong to the tetragonal group of crystals. It is unknown what type of meteorite that Jacob slept upon in the Book of Genesis, but it is interesting that Jacob, who lived at a time when shepherds were common, may have slept upon a meteorite that consisted of a mineral known as Shepardite.