Dead Past

From her vantage point it looked like he was trying out a couple of words-with no success. Then she saw the familiar twinkle in his eye. She watched for a moment before she spoke up.

“You have it, don’t you?” she said.

The others looked at her, then Frank.

“What?” said Jin. “When we weren’t looking?”

He jumped up and started to go over to the computer for a look, but Frank was already printing something out. He brought it to the table.

“What was the word?” asked Diane.

“Roman,” said Frank.

“Roman? How did you come up with that?” said Jin. He took the book and looked at the page.

“It was actually the simplest part of the cipher. The sentence has nine words. I went nine lines down from the key sentence and nine words over. The word was Roman, so I gave it a try and… here we are.

With a flourish he tossed the printout on the table. It spun around and slid almost off before Jin caught it. He read it out loud.

The private family cemetery of James Vann Llewellyn in the city of Glendale-Marsh Florida Three feet under the headstone of Leander Llewellyn A cheer went up from all of them and Jin patted Frank on the back.

“It’s real, then?” said Neva.

“The message is decipherable,” said Frank. “Whether or not there is a buried treasure there is anyone’s guess.”

“Now what?” said Jin. “We go look for the treasure?”

“No,” said Diane. “The treasure isn’t our concern. We need to find the murderers. Jin, you call the authorities in-where did the Sebestyens live?”

“Indiana,” said Jin.

“Call them and see if they’ll share information. I’m sure they’d like some new leads. I’m going to call Ruby Torkel and hope that she’s in the nice hotel room I put her in.”

Frank caught her hand as she was about to get up. “Why don’t you go home for a while? Get some rest. Call her from there.”

“Why don’t you?” said Neva. “We can handle things here. I know it’s hard to tell sometimes by our intelligent conversation, but we’re really pretty reliable and on top of things.”

Diane smiled. She was feeling tired. She supposed she could call Mrs. Torkel from her house just as easily as she could from her office.

“OK. But let me know if anything develops,” she said.

“Of course,” agreed Neva and David together.

Diane called Andie and told her that she was going home for a while and that, since Kendel was also at home, Andie was in charge of the museum.

“Great,” said Andie. “I’ve got some really cool things I want to order for the Dino room.”

Diane smiled as she hung up. “OK, I’m gone.”

Frank drove her home. He pulled in just behind her car with its new paint job-her mechanic had delivered it while she was gone. She gave it a brush with her hand as she passed. Nice.

On the way into her building she ran into her landlady. She was a kind and good-natured woman, but Diane hated running into her. She loved to talk.

“Did you hear what happened to poor Dr. Shawn Keith?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “The police arrested him. Can you beat that? A nice man like Dr. Keith-so good to the ducks in the park. I help him feed them, you know. The police wouldn’t tell me why, but I can’t imagine what a man like that would do to get arrested. I don’t know where I’m going to find another tenant like him; he always paid on time, he was never noisy, and he didn’t smoke. You know, a lot of people say they don’t smoke when I tell them it’s a nonsmoking building, but then they try to sneak and smoke with the window open, but I can always tell-the smell you know, it permeates everything, and that poor Marvin Odell, he hates cigarette smoke and he always complains if he thinks someone is smoking. Between you and me, I don’t know why he can’t be arrested, but they are good tenants, too; they always pay on time and they don’t smoke, though Veda Odell burned a turkey one time and we had smoke all over the place; that was before you got here… ”

Diane was wondering if the woman ever took a breath. She started to tell her she had to go in. Frank grasped her arm and started moving her toward the staircase.

“Of course, some guests think they can smoke, and I have to tell them they can’t. I don’t like to, but I do… like that policeman who came to see you today, he was smoking and I told him he had to stop or go someplace else. I’m sorry, but I can’t have…”

Diane put a hand on her arm. “Who came to see me today?”

“A policeman. I didn’t think they were allowed to smoke on duty… ”

“Did he give a name?” asked Diane.

“No. He just said he wanted to see you. He waited for a while; then he left when I told him he couldn’t smoke. I don’t know why he didn’t go to the museum; everyone knows that’s where you are in the day… ”

“Can you describe the policeman?”

Interspersed with more monologue about how smoke permeates the draperies, carpets, and upholstery, and how the policeman smelled of cigarette smoke, the description she gave Diane of a middle-aged police officer in uniform fit Archie Donahue perfectly, down to his bloodhound face.

“Thank you. I believe I know who it was. I need to go up to my apartment now and give him a call to find out what he wanted.”

Archie, she thought. He came to see me. Why? Diane started up the stairs. Frank followed.

“It’s just awful the things that go on,” said her landlady. “I just don’t know what the world is coming to. That business with the explosion and the fire and all those poor students, and now that councilman’s gone missing… Of course he wasn’t no good no way.”

Chapter 51

Diane stopped on the staircase and turned back to look at her landlady-the kindly elderly lady who wore her gray hair in a bun, dressed in running clothes, and who made sure that no one smoked in her building. She was smiling up at them.

“What councilman?” said Diane.

“That moron Adler. He’s gone missing. It was on the news. I hope he’s gone far from here.” She turned around and went back into her apartment.

Diane and Frank exchanged glances and walked the rest of the way to her apartment. Inside, Frank told Diane to get comfortable on the couch and he would heat her some soup. Warm soup sounded good. Soup was about all she felt like eating. She curled up on the couch, pulled a zebra throw that Star had given her for Christmas over her lap, and reached for the phone. She dialed Garnett’s cell.

Several rings went by and she thought it was going to roll over to voice mail when Garnett picked up.

“I know you’re busy, but my landlady just told me a policeman was here to see me. From her description, there’s little doubt it was Archie Donahue,” she said.

“Archie was there? When?”

“This morning. He must have known I was in the hospital last night and thought I would come straight home, but I went from the hospital to the museum.”

“I could have told him that,” commented Garnett. “How are you feeling?”

“A little sore in the back of the head.”

“I’m sorry not to have sent a detective over to interview you at the hospital, but… we’re stretched a little thin here-ironic for Councilman Adler at the moment, considering his cutbacks in the department’s budget.”