“I just want out of here. Do you know how much time I’ve spent in the hospital-either visiting people I care about or being a patient myself?”
“Yes, but something besides your concussion has you irritated,” he said.
“Right now, one of the suspects I have in mind for the killings of McNair and Stanton is someone I like. And I absolutely hate that. My gut reaction is to just let him go, and I don’t like that feeling, either. I’m at odds with myself and it’s damned uncomfortable. Plus, it pisses me off when a fish steals my bait.”
After Diane had insisted on being taken to the museum instead of home, Frank insisted on an explanation of what happened to her. She fumbled through an account of her intention to use the code to catch the doll thief-and probably Joana Cipriano’s murderer.
“Tell me again, how was this plan supposed to work?” asked Frank as he drove toward the museum.
“I told you, I hadn’t thought it out enough to implement it. He struck too soon,” she said.
“You know, you come up with some of the worst plans,” said Frank. “Remember that one in your museum vault?”
“I wasn’t finished with this one-there was no plan being played out. They just came and attacked me. The result would have been the same had I not been thinking of a plan at all. As it is, they do have the wrong code.”
“You may have delayed them, but how does that get you closer to catching them?” asked Frank.
“It doesn’t,” said Diane. “I was going to use the forged code as bait to catch them. How many times do I have to go over this so that you understand it? There was nothing I did, no plan I put in motion that caused them to come after me. They did this on their own.”
Frank pulled into the museum parking lot and Diane got out. The first place she headed was to Security. Frank followed and started to open the door for her, but she beat him to it. Everyone stopped what they were doing when Diane walked in.
“Dr. Fallon.” The receptionist, a student in criminology from Bartram, smiled meekly. “It’s good to see you. I hope…” She hesitated and smiled, looking embarrassed. “I’ll get Napier. She’s in the video room reviewing recordings.” She left to get Chanell.
I must look a fright, thought Diane. Everyone looks scared.
Chanell came hurrying out of the video room.
“Dr. Fallon, I hardly know what to say. Please come into my office and I’ll fill you in on what we’ve found so far.”
“I’ll hang around out here,” said Frank.
Diane went in the office with Chanell and sat down.
“What have you found?” she asked.
“Like you suggested, we looked at the people who were in the building for classes. We cross-referenced the security recordings to the class rolls. We’ve found a couple of people to look at. However, Dr. Shane-she’s teaching the bird watching series-does not keep good records. We had her in here telling us who all of her students are. There are a couple of new ones she didn’t know.” She stopped and took a breath. “So far, that’s all we have.”
“Do you know how my attacker got in this section?” Diane asked.
“We’re thinking he or she-it could have been a woman-got in during museum hours. There was a period of time when some of the docents and exhibit specialists were away from their usual stations visiting Public Relations. We think he or she stayed-maybe in the bathroom or a storage closet-until closing. No one is on the video slipping in or breaking in the front or back entrance of this wing.”
Diane rose. “Let me know when you have more.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Chanell.
Diane left and headed for the crime lab.
“You don’t have to babysit me,” she told Frank.
“Tired of my company already?” he said.
“I don’t want to keep you from your appointment,” she said.
“I’ve already had my appointment-early this morning. I’m all yours all day to watch your six.”
They rode the elevator to the third floor and crossed over to the west wing. Darth Vader was still on guard.
“I probably need to put him at the front entrance,” said Diane as she crossed over the rope and went toward the door to the crime lab.
“You think you need to slow down a bit?” said Frank.
“Why?” said Diane.
“Because you just got out of the hospital and you have a concussion?”
“I’m fine,” she said, keying in her code and entering the lab.
David looked up from his computer when she entered.
“You’re looking better than when I left you,” he said. “I just called the hospital and they told me you had been released. I figured you’d be back here.”
Diane sat down at the round table. David and Jin joined her while Neva was on the phone. Frank sat off to one side.
“Archie Donahue smokes Dorals,” Diane said. “Those are probably his you picked up at tent city. There is nothing to connect his Dorals with the ones you found on the ridge.”
“But…,” said David.
“But nothing… that’s it,” said Diane.
“That’s not all of it,” said Neva, joining them. “I was talking to someone at the station. Archie Donahue left right after he checked in this morning. No one knows where he went.”
“So it’s in the hands of the police,” said Diane. “Neva, call Garnett and tell him about the Dorals and leave it with him.”
Neva left and made the call to Garnett. It was quick. Diane heard Neva say they didn’t know what it meant; it was just information. None of them wanted the murderer to be a policeman, and if it was, they all had the uncomfortable feeling of not wanting him caught. Not a good philosophy for criminalists.
Neva sat back down at the table. “Garnett asked about you,” she said. “He said he’d drop by later today.”
Diane saw a paper rolled up in Jin’s hands.
“OK, Jin,” she said, “what do you have on the code?”
Chapter 48
Jin looked at the paper in his hand and turned red. Neva and David laughed.
“You don’t have anything, do you?” said Neva.
“It’s not a cryptogram,” said Jin. “It can’t be. I don’t think it’s anything.”
“May I see it?” asked Frank.
Jin handed him the paper, and Frank unrolled the page and examined the letters.
“This is the code that was in the doll you were telling me about?” asked Frank.
“Yes,” said Diane.
“Have you tried other decoding techniques? If it’s not a simple cryptogram, it might be another kind of cipher.”
“Do you think you can decode it?” said Diane.
“Don’t know till I try,” said Frank.
Jin looked more depressed than when the cigarette butts were stolen from him.
“Jin,” said Neva, “you can’t know everything. Don’t look so glum.”
“It’s just, I’m really good at codes,” he said. His entire face was turned down in a frown as he watched Frank studying the string of letters on the wrinkled paper.
“Do you know anything about the guy who wrote it?” asked Frank.
“A little,” said Diane. She related the story of Leo Parrish, the treasure train, and the Labor Day hurricane of 1935.
“So,” said Frank, “this whole thing may be a hoax.”
“That’s what I think,” said Jin. “It’s just a string of random letters.”
“Could be,” said Frank. “You know it’s not a cryptogram because the frequency of occurrence of the letters didn’t lend itself to an answer, right?”
“No,” said Jin. “Nor does looking at the two-and three-letter words or the endings or beginnings of words. Nothing makes sense.”
“Then we need to look at another type of encryption method. You say Leo did his thing in the 1930s?”