“Other relatives must have known about the treasure,” said Frank, “The ones who stayed in Glendale-Marsh. Even if they weren’t close to the sister, they knew Leo would confide in her-they were twins. And they could have passed down the story from one generation to the next just like Leo’s family did.”
“Oh, I like that,” said David. “It’s very neat.”
“Whoever it was,” continued Diane, “followed Quinn Sebestyen to Florida, tried to get the information from him, and ended up killing his entire family. Juliet came over to her new friend’s house and found them dead and wrapped up in plastic. She ran home to her grandmother, perhaps being chased by the killers.”
“How did Juliet get the doll?” asked Jin.
“Her grandmother thought she stole it. When she asked Juliet where she got it, Juliet said a friend gave it to her. Juliet doesn’t have much memory of that time,” said Diane. “We may never know. But the killers did not get Juliet or the doll in Glendale-Marsh, and she went home to Arizona. They followed her there to get the doll, not knowing that the grandmother back in Florida had kept it. They were probably afraid that Juliet recognized them. They kidnapped her and when they didn’t get the information they wanted from her, they left her for dead.”
“Why did they suddenly resurface now?” asked Neva. “It’s been, what, twenty years?”
Diane thought for a moment. She looked at Jin; then it dawned on her.
“I think,” she said, “for the same reason that Juliet’s nightmares began again after all these years. The television program. I’m willing to bet that Juliet watched the program or at least caught some of the advertising for it and it triggered the nightmares.”
“And you think the killer saw the same program and was afraid the cold case squad had a renewed interest in the disappearance of the Sebestyen family, and that Juliet might remember something?” said Neva.
“Yes. And it also renewed the killers’ interest in getting the doll and the code they never found,” said Diane.
“You keep saying
“I think there were and are at least two,” said Diane. “A man and a woman. In the very moments before Juliet was discovered missing, a jogger was reported to have fallen in front of Juliet’s home. I think the woman was a decoy to attract the attention of the adults to the front of the house while the man kidnapped Juliet from her backyard. In the library when I heard the odd phrase about palimpsests, I believe it was a woman’s voice. It definitely wasn’t the voice of the man who took the doll from me.”
“It’s a good story,” said David. “It might be true. I think the first thing we need to do is track down the other relatives of Leo Parrish. What were their names?”
“Oralia Lee and Burke Rawson,” said Neva looking at the genealogy chart.
“I’ll start with Juliet’s grandmother,” said Diane. “She may know them, or she may know someone I can call in Florida who knows them.”
Just as Diane was about to get up to call Ruby Torkel, there was a knock at the door. They all looked over at it as if it might be the cardboard cutout of Darth Vader. No one ever knocked at that door.
Chapter 50
“Who could that be?” said Neva. She got up, walked over, and looked out the peephole.
“Kendel,” she said and opened the door.
Kendel, looking tall and sleek in her fur-trimmed chocolate brown cashmere sweater, matching wool slacks, and high-heeled brown leather boots, walked in carrying a package.
“Hi. I wasn’t sure of the protocol for entering this place. I suppose people usually call first. I see Anna found a Darth Vader. She’s been looking for one for a month.”
David brought a chair from one of the workstations and Kendel sat down at the table with them.
“So, it’s Anna I need to thank for that,” said Diane.
“The docents think it hilarious,” said Kendel. “They’re also hoping that the kids will pay more attention to Darth Vader than to the ordinary signs. From what I hear we need to put him in Security. How are you? How is your head?”
“Sore scalp, but otherwise fine,” said Diane.
Kendel winced when Diane touched the back of her head.
“I found the book you were looking for,” said Kendel, smiling and opening the package.
She pulled out a small, very old, blue clothbound volume no more than four by six inches in size. It was frayed around the edges, and the spine was so faded that Diane couldn’t read the lettering. Kendel opened it up.
“It’s volume nine in a series,” she said.
Diane’s face lit up as she turned to page fifteen. There it was.
“How did you ever?” Diane asked.
Kendel’s smile broadened into a grin. “I started with a linguist friend of mine. He parsed the sentence and analyzed the content. From him I found out it was probably in a book of the twenties, thirties, possibly forties, maybe earlier, but probably not later. He also suggested that it would be in a book that covered art, technology, and science because of the content and the syntax. From there I called on a few librarian friends. We found a list of authors who wrote in that domain in the right time frame and looked at some of their work. The style seemed most like the work of a man named Henry Smith Williams. We looked at a collection of his books. His main work was a history of science, but we didn’t find the sentence in those volumes. Then we found a series of Wonder Books. It was in the ninth volume, about art and science.”
“I’m impressed,” said Neva. “You had to read all of those books?”
“There were several of us and we are all fast readers-we mainly scanned the pages looking for the word
“The index didn’t help?” asked Jin.
“Didn’t have one,” said Kendel.
“Kendel, this is a great job,” said Diane. “I’m absolutely amazed. I thought it would be a long shot.”
“I’m glad I can keep my reputation intact. Really, it was harder finding the crystal skull.”
Kendel stood. “I just got back in, so I’m going home to rest on my laurels for a while before I come back to work. Oh, one of my librarian friends said that someone in the Bartram library was looking for books about palimpsests and became quite cross when the librarians couldn’t find the book she wanted. Interesting coincidence, I thought.”
“It is, indeed,” said Diane. The voice she heard in the library, she thought.
David escorted Kendel to the door.
“I’m impressed with the people you have working for you,” said Frank.
“So am I,” said Diane. “Kendel has headhunters after her all the time. One of these days they’re going to be able to lure her away. I hope that’s not for a long time.”
David came back and sat down and sighed.
“What?” asked Neva.
“Nothing. I just wish I could get a woman like that to date me,” he said.
“Have you asked her out?” said Neva.
“No. I just told you, women like that don’t go out with guys like me,” he said.
“I’m not even going to go there,” said Neva. “She puts her panty hose on just like the rest of us. Ask her out. You may be pleasantly surprised. If she says no, then you get to complain to us for the rest of the year-it’s a win- win situation for you.”
“May I look at the book?” said Frank.
Diane handed it over to him. She had been flipping through the pages, looking for inspiration. The key was in the phrase, she was sure, but
Frank took the book and turned to page fifteen. Diane watched him reading the entire page. While Jin and David were explaining to Neva how some women are just unapproachable, Frank took the book to the computer.
