Simple Genius

He started to say something.

“Not here,” Sean said. “Let’s take a ride.”

Twenty minutes later they were standing next to Michelle’s truck where it was parked under some trees near the banks of the York. The sunlight crept across the surface of the water as Sean and Michelle watched Horatio study the letter and the photo.

“Okay, the return address on the letter is Wiesbaden, Germany. Thankfully it’s in English although the physical writing is that of a very old person whose first language is not English. And it’s addressed to Monk Turing from…” Horatio squinted at the signature and adjusted the reading glasses he was wearing.

“Henry Fox,” Michelle said helpfully.

Sean explained, “Basically Fox is thanking Monk for helping him get back home to Germany.”

Horatio looked at the top of the letter. “Dated nearly a year ago. So before Monk went to England and Germany.”

“At least the last time he went. Now check out the last two lines of the letter,” Sean said.

Horatio read, “‘Now that you’ve helped me, I will, as agreed, return the favor. I have it. And it is yours when you come for a visit.’” Horatio looked up. “So Fox had something he wanted to give to Monk Turing in return for him helping Fox get back home?”

“Looks that way,” Michelle said. “And Monk went to Germany to get it. And on the same trip he went for a jaunt through his family history with Alan Turing in England.”

“So what did Monk get from Fox?”

“We don’t know that yet,” Michelle admitted.

Horatio said, “So Monk helped Fox back to his homeland, but Henry Fox doesn’t sound like a German name.”

“I have a theory about that,” Sean said mysteriously. “But I have to wait for confirmation.” He picked up the photograph. It showed three people sitting on steps in front of a large building. One person was Monk Turing; a younger Viggie was sitting next to him. The third person was a smallish, very elderly man with a white beard and shrewd, blue eyes. There was a date at the bottom of the picture.

“This was taken over three years ago,” Michelle said. “Viggie told me that she and her father lived in an apartment in New York City then. She said they had no friends except for a very old man who talked to her father about old stuff. She also said he talked funny.”

“Probably meaning with an accent, a German accent,” Sean filled in.

“So presumably the old guy in the photo is Henry Fox?”

“Right,” Sean said. “This explains a lot but it doesn’t tell us what Fox gave Monk.”

“Viggie said that the old man would write letters down on a piece of paper and challenge Monk Turing to, I guess, decipher them,” Michelle added.

Horatio broke in. “Wait a minute. South Freeman said that one reason the military was keeping the presence of those German prisoners secret is because some of them might have had knowledge of the Enigma code. I did a little history reading after I talked with South. Each of the German military branches had different networks of the Enigma they used. The naval code was thought to be the toughest of all. The folks at Bletchley Park, Alan Turing included, couldn’t make a dent in it. And the Germans and their U-boats were murdering the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic. That is until some German naval codebooks were successfully obtained by the Allies. With that information the folks at Bletchley Park worked their magic and the tide began to turn.”

“How does that help us?” Michelle asked.

“South also told me that the war in the Atlantic began to turn in favor of the Allies after those German POWs were taken to Camp Peary. And those POWs came from boats and subs that had been sunk. That means the POWs at Camp Peary could’ve had German naval Enigma codebooks and other intelligence the Allies could use.”

“So you’re thinking that this Henry Fox might have been one of the POWs?” Michelle said slowly.

“He’s the right age, speaks with presumably a German accent, writes codes down on a piece of paper and talks about the war. Yeah, I think the probability lies in that direction.”

Sean said, “And that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Because we need to find out what Fox gave Monk Turing, the thing that’s referenced in the letter.”

Horatio looked puzzled. “Me? How should I know what Fox gave him?”

“Viggie slipped this letter and photo to Michelle while she was sleeping. I think she did it because she trusts Michelle.”

“Okay, but where do I come in?”

“Might Turing have left all these clues with his daughter and told her to only give them out to someone she comes to trust?”

Horatio nodded. “That’s entirely plausible. Viggie is highly intelligent, but quite capable of being manipulated. She’ll sometimes give you whatever answer you put in her head. I saw that quite clearly in my talk with her.”

“But Michelle spoke to Viggie after she gave her these items and the girl just clammed up. She wouldn’t even acknowledge that she’d given Michelle anything. Why would she do that?”

Horatio didn’t speak for a bit. When he did his words came slowly. “As funny as it sounds, I believe that Monk Turing hasn’t simply manipulated his daughter but programmed her.”

“Programmed her?” Michelle exclaimed.

“I’d suspected this before, but what you’re saying now makes me think I’m closer to the truth than not. I think that brilliant father gave brilliant but naive daughter information, and he trained her to release that information only under certain circumstances. Viggie played the song for Michelle because she was nice to her and Viggie felt she could trust her. Then Michelle risked her life to save Viggie, so Viggie went a step further and gave her more information.” Horatio looked at her. “It’s curious though that she would give you this after what happened with the truck.”

“Truck, what are you talking about?” Sean asked.

“Viggie and I worked it out,” Michelle said hastily, averting her gaze from Sean’s questioning look. She plunged on. “I doubt I’ll be saving her life again, at least I hope I won’t have to. So what else do I have to do to get her to give up the rest?”

“I don’t know the answer to that.”

Sean mulled this over. “So we’re at a dead end for now, until Joan comes through, or Alicia decrypts that song.” He put the articles away in his pocket, stretched and yawned. “Well, since we’re up early we might as well go eat.”

Michelle checked her watch. “Let’s make it quick. Champ is picking me up at nine for our flight.”

“You’re still going?” Sean said harshly.

“I’m still going.”

“But he doesn’t have an alibi for the time Rivest was killed.”

“I doubt we’re going to get any good information from innocent people.

So it makes far more sense to go after the ones we think might be guilty.”

“My gut tells me to leave this guy alone.”

“Yeah,” Michelle said. “Well, my brain tells me we can’t afford to do that.”

Horatio glanced over at Sean. “Your turn unless you want to concede to the lady.”

“Shut the hell up,” Sean snapped as he climbed in the truck.

Horatio turned to Michelle. “Geez, could the guy be any more obvious?”

“More obvious?” she said, puzzled.

Horatio rolled his eyes, sighed deeply and got in the truck.

CHAPTER 72

HORATIO CALLED SOUTH FREEMAN later that morning for two reasons. First, to see if the man had a list of any of the German POWs held at Camp Peary during World War II.