The girl thought. “Maybe a lipstick.”
“Which is in the drawer now. One of the few ways the two of you look different is Cilla doesn’t use cosmetics. So what do we have on top: the powder puff, a hairpin, two pills and another hairpin. None of these items was there when you were last in the room?”
“I’m not real neat. When we moved across the street I just dumped everything in drawers. Nothing was out but the lipstick.”
“What are those pills?”
“Breath mints.”
“From the container in the drawer.”
“I usually keep them in my bag, if I’m carrying one. I like the taste. I wouldn’t have used those hairpins though.”
“Why not?”
“I have short hair. Only women with long hair wear those; they need pins like that, that are more open.”
Wally picked up the breath mint bottle from the drawer. It was a brand named Tic Tacs. He returned it and sat back on the bed.
“Something went wrong. And quickly. There were no plans to move again that you know of?”
“We’d just settled in here. We wouldn’t have moved across the street if Mr. Rogers hadn’t got sick.”
“Why did his getting sick cause you to move?”
“More room. So he could have a bedroom of his own.”
“Do we assume Mrs. Rogers’s identity has been discovered? The extra signal with the light would seem to indicate that. If she was about to be forcibly moved, unless she was restrained, there are three places she might be allowed to visit, the two bathrooms and her bedroom. I found nothing in either of the other possibilities. If there is a message, it must be here. And it must be in what’s on top of that dressing table.”
“You expect to find a message in some pills, hairpins and a powder puff? You’re loony.”
Carver went on as though she hadn’t spoken. “We have to assume she knew where they were going, and that’s a bit of a long shot in itself. But she
“She has her own.”
“Cilla knew I’d look for a message. She also knew you would be here too. So she could leave something that calls upon
“I don’t have any `expertise’. Unless you count attracting men. I do that pretty well.” She giggled. “I can wrap any man around my finger.”
“Did you with Frank?”
Loni looked pained. “Yuck. I only turn it on for men I like. He’s a slime ball.”
“You must have
“I work in an office, when I’m working. I haven’t been doing anything the last month.”
“A secretary?”
“Data entry.”
“You mean you sit at a desk in front of a computer screen and you work the keys.”
“There’s a lot more to it than that. I can produce ten times the output of somebody in the old days with just a typewriter.”
“Don’t you use the same keyboard?”
“Don’t you know anything?” She glanced impatiently at Wally. Then, seeing his look, hurried on “It’s set up like a typewriter but it has a lot of extra keys and can perform many times the functions.”
“Cilla said Andre talked a lot about you. I guess we can assume she knew what your job was. Sit down at the table.”
Loni sat in the dressing table chair.
“Put your hands on the table as though you were sitting at your keyboard. Does anything look familiar?”
Loni looked back at him as though he’d slipped a gear.
“Concentrate. You’re sitting at your desk. You’ve turned on your machine. You’re about to type things.”
“After it’s booted I enter my password.” She moved her fingers as though entering the information.
“Look at the items on the table. Would you use anything that looked like them?”
“Pills and hairpins?”
“Think. Is there a symbol that looks like a powder puff?”
“I suppose the asterisk. It’s up on the top row. But only because it’s round. Actually the pills are a lot closer to the size.”
“The hairpins, what would they be? We’re on the top row so let’s stay there.”
“They could be the tents.”
“Tents?”
“The little upside down Vs.”
“Alright. If the pills aren’t asterisks, what would they be?”
“Periods? But that’s on the bottom row not the top.” She studied the five items. “Maybe the powder puff is an `at’ sign, then the pills could be asterisks.”
Carver had taken the pillbox from the drawer. “Isn’t there a symbol that looks like a tic tac toe game?”
“The pound! It’s a crosshatch, a little at an angle, but if it were bigger you could use it for tic tac toe.” Her voice faded at the end. “But so what? I mean what have we got with an asterisk, two tents and two pound signs?”
“How do you type them?”
“I press shift, then the number key they’re on top of.”
“Each one is on top of a number?”
She nodded.
“What are the numbers? In order.”
“The asterisk is on the eight key, the tents on the six and the pound is on the three.”
“So the number we come up with is 86336.”
“A license plate?”
“Let’s check with Bowditch.”
The FBI man was in the living room with the fingerprint crew. “You got it from what?”
“Some items on the dressing table.”
“What items? We’ve gone over each room carefully.”
“A powder puff, two hairpins and two tic tacs.”
Bowditch stared at him. “And that gives you this number?”
“It could. They were carefully arranged not carelessly put down.”
Bowditch glanced at his fingerprint man with a lift of his shoulders. “You know, Mr. Carver, police work isn’t...”
“Could this be a Washington State automobile license number?”
“No, it couldn’t.”
“An adjacent state’s?”
He studied Carver for a long moment. “Mr. Carver, I appreciate your interest, but we are all very busy working on the kidnapping of your daughter-in-law.”
“Cilla Rogers is not related to me.”
“Whatever. I’m told you and Miss Sturgis are to be on a plane today. Do I need to have my people escort you to the airport?”
“No. I gave my word.”
“Good. Please leave investigative work to those trained for it.”
“May I look up the number?”
Bowditch handed him the telephone book. Carver studied a page, then to Loni. “We’re going.”
In the car he turned toward the center of the capitol city, looking at street names and finally stopping in front of the library. “Stay,” he told Loni. He was gone ten minutes.
