Dead Past (40 page)

“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
palimpsests
.”

“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
how
eluded her.

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. 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.

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.”

 

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.”

“The landlady told me the news about Adler. You think Archie is connected with his disappearance?”

“I don’t know, but if you see anything of Archie, call me,” said Garnett.

“I will. My landlady said you arrested Shawn Keith. Is that true?”

“We took him in for questioning and he became a regular magpie. Couldn’t shut him up if we wanted to. Obviously eager to get everything off his chest. He was helping the Stanton kid steal from the university library’s rare book room. Did find out something interesting. That night, when the kid tried to jack your car, he was having an argument with Keith. Keith thought he was high—didn’t realize he was hurt. Keith was trying to get himself and his mother out of the blast area and he saw you behind him. He told the kid you had found out he was stealing from the museum and you were going to turn him in. That’s why Blake came to your car. I don’t like to think about what he might have done if you had driven off with him in the car.”

“That wouldn’t have happened. I know better than to go to a second location with someone holding a gun,” said Diane.

When she got off the phone, Frank came from the kitchen with chicken noodle soup and crackers.

“Your landlady’s a talker, isn’t she?” said Frank.

“She is. She doesn’t even stop for periods. But she is observant. The policeman she described had to be Archie Donahue. I wonder why he came to see me.”

“Forget about that whole business for a while. Eat your soup before it gets cold,” said Frank.

“Did you fix yourself something?” she said.

“I did. I’m heating leftover pizza,” he said, disappearing back into the kitchen.

The hot soup felt good going down. There is something about chicken noodle soup that is soothing—good comfort food. It made her relax.

Diane was surprised to hear what a rat Dr. Keith was. No wonder he was feeling so guilty when he approached her the other day. He should have been feeling guilty. The little pissant Blake Stanton could have had it in his mind to shoot her.

Frank came out with his pizza and Coke—the foundation of the food pyramid as far as he was concerned—and as they ate, she told him about Dr. Keith and his connection to Blake Stanton.

“Keith, your neighbor? The one who feeds the ducks?” said Frank.

“That’s the one. You never know how people really are. Unless you told me, I’d have never guessed you know how to play the accordion.”

“I know, and who would ever guess that you enjoy hanging over bottomless pits on the end of a rope?” said Frank.

They talked about Star and her grades. So far, she was making good enough grades to earn her trip to Paris.

“She’s even doing pretty well in math,” said Frank. He was very proud, since that was his best subject.

Star’s good grades were a relief. Diane finished eating and put her empty soup bowl on the coffee table.

“I need to call Ruby Torkel,” she said.

“Why don’t you lie down and rest a few minutes? You just got out of the hospital and if I remember correctly, the doctor told you to rest.”

“I’m resting now.” She pointed to the throw across her lap as if that was clear indication she was in rest mode. “I’m just going to make a few phone calls.”

She was interrupted by Frank’s cell. He fished in his inside pocket and looked at the display.

“Work,” he said as he answered it.

“Duncan here,” he said.

“Now?” he asked

“OK.” He flipped the phone closed.

“It’s the Rosewood case I mentioned. I have to take care of some stuff. I suppose it would be demeaning of me to ask if you’ll be OK by yourself?”

“Yes, it would. I’m a law enforcement professional. Plus, I have connections with influential people,” she said smiling, and put a finger through a belt loop on his trousers.

He leaned down and kissed her on the ear, which produced an instant shiver in her.

“I’ll be back when I can. I expect to find you here resting under your zebra blanket.”

Frank took another swallow of Coke and left, telling Diane again that she’d better be good and take a nap.

As soon as he was out the door, she called the hotel where Juliet and her grandmother were staying. The number was busy. She lay back and closed her eyes for a few moments. Her head throbbed, but the pain seemed to be coming more from the cut than from her concussion. She decided not to take anything for it. She hadn’t even filled the prescription the doctor gave her. After a few minutes she opened her eyes and tried the number again. Still busy.