“She claims she was with Davis the night of the murder.”
My husband whistled softly. “That explains why neither one of them volunteered the information. I wonder what Davis’s wife will think when she finds out?”
“Are you going to tell her?” I was surprised by the comment, since my husband was normally the model of discretion.
“Not me, but it’s a small force, and husbands talk to wives. She’ll find out soon enough.”
“You’re going to confirm it with Davis, aren’t you?”
“I have to,” Zach said, “though I’m not looking forward to it. Way to go, Savannah. If this checks out, you’ve just eliminated two suspects with one confession.”
“It wasn’t exactly freely given,” I admitted. “I threatened her with you.”
“However you did it, good work.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Do you mean after I talk to Davis? If it checks out, I’m going to focus on Grady. I was pretty sure he was the killer before, but now I’m almost positive. I just can’t believe one of my closest friends is capable of murder.”
“Are you going to arrest him?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t have enough real evidence yet. But trust me, I’ll get it.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Zach,” I said. “You know the temper Grady has. He could do anything.”
“Trust me, I’ll be careful. What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“Does that mean I can’t come along with you when you corner Grady?”
He laughed. “Not a chance in the world, and you know it.”
I glanced at the clock. “I don’t feel like waiting around for lunch with Sherry. I’m going to call her and see if I can come by early. I didn’t even have a chance to eat my breakfast.”
“Have a good time, and send her my love.”
“I will. Zach, I meant what I said. Be careful.”
“Always,” he replied as he headed for the door.
I just wished that were true.
I SPENT AN HOUR AT SHERRY’S BUT IT WAS CLEAR TO BOTH of us that I was worried about my husband, and we broke it off early, with the promise that we’d get together after all of this was over.
As I drove back to the hotel, I knew that Zach was closing in on the killer, but I believed in my heart that Grady had to have slipped up making that puzzle for us to decipher. If I could find a signature clue there, it would make my husband’s case that much stronger.
I might not be able to help in most ways, but I could at least do that.
When I got back to our suite at the hotel, I tried to look at the clues we’d been given with fresh eyes. No matter how much I tried, though, I kept coming back to the last note’s odd appearance. It was so different from the others that I couldn’t get my mind off it. Had I missed something there before? It was so strange.
And then I realized what was so troubling to me about it.
There wasn’t a single letter or number on it.
Or was there?
Chapter 20
I STARTED LOOKING CLOSER AT THE OBLONG CIRCLES AGAIN, and then I suddenly realized that there might have been a clue there all along, but we’d all just missed it.
When the sheet was examined closely, it was clear that the lines were broken in many places. At first, I’d just assumed that it was from the way it was copied, but as I stared harder at it, I began to see that there was more than just a series of oblong circles.
Zach had a magnifying glass on his key chain, and I prayed that he’d left it behind, since he wasn’t driving our car. For my husband’s fortieth birthday, I’d gotten him a magnifying glass, though miniaturized, like Sherlock Holmes might have used. It hung from his key chain, and even sported its own little case.
Thankfully, it was still on the dresser. I took the shade off one of the lamps and held the copy up to the bulb. Without the magnifying glass, I could really see the breaks with my naked eye, but when I saw it under magnification, my heart started pounding.
Those weren’t just lines.
They were a series of numbers, all in the same sequence of number-letter combinations that we’d been getting from the start. In a way, it was exactly like my nightmare.
I had a key to the puzzle now.
It was time to get to work.
AFTER I FINISHED RECORDING THE NUMBERS AND LETters, I stared at the list on my pad. I was happy to see that the sequences we’d already received were included in this list, telling me that my hunch was on the money. I quickly filled in the grid with the new additions, but there were spaces still left open, and several sequences that didn’t seem to fit into the grid.
Along with a series of numbers, there was something that appeared to be a set of other numbers that didn’t fit:
