The Puzzle of Piri Reis (19 page)

"Sometimes, but not October second" She kept her
eyes fixed on mine.

"How can you be absolutely certain?"

Her eyes wavered. Her bottom lip quivered, and she
dropped her gaze to her feet. "Because the next morning was when I learned I was pregnant."

I lifted an eyebrow and nodded. "I see" Nodding to
the male faculty dorm, I asked, "Why didn't he tell me
that?"

Tears welled in her eyes. "He doesn't know yet"

"Oh" I whistled softly. The good father was in for a
nice little surprise. He could kiss the Cayman Islands
good-bye.

I glanced at my watch when I climbed in my Silverado. Six o'clock. Plenty of time to reach the Odom mansion before Edna left. By now, night had fallen over the
city.

When I turned the corner onto Fairchild Street, I
spotted a woman climbing into a dark car on the far
corner of the block. As I drew closer it sped away. I
didn't get the license number. I didn't need to. The
vehicle was a Rolls Royce.

Shivering against the chilly breeze, I knocked on
the door. Ted opened it. I stepped inside and asked for
Edna. "Just missed her. She just left in her cab"

The only vehicle I spotted was the Rolls. "Cab?"

"Yeah. Edna doesn't drive. She takes a cab to and
from work."

I started to ask him if he knew of a taxi company
that had a fleet of Rolls but decided to keep my mouth
shut. Besides, I knew who owned a Rolls. What I
couldn't figure was why Edna, if the woman I saw was
her, was getting into a car with Joe Hogg? From what I remembered of our earlier conversation, though brief,
she had not much use for the man.

Ted shivered. "Care for a drink? It's getting cold
out there. I think the temperature's dropped fifteen degrees in the last hour."

"Might as well." I didn't really care for a drink but
I figured Ted was going to need one.

He led the way into the den. "Bourbon all right?"

"Yeah. Neat"

The books in one bookcase were stacked neatly on
the floor. Over his shoulder, he explained. "I figured I
might have overlooked something that would lead me
to the map"

"What about the puzzles? Did you try to figure
them out?"

He handed me my drink. He had the same, straight
bourbon, no ice. With a sarcastic grunt he nodded to
the books. "I don't know even where to begin. You have
any luck?"

"Haven't started yet"

He plopped down on the couch and sipped his drink.
"How did that telephone call work out? Any help?"

I studied him for a moment, searching for some body
language that might suggest something other than the
genuine concern he exhibited. "In a way."

Ted looked up at me expectantly.

"It wasn't good, Ted" I paused. "Get a grip." His
brows knit in puzzlement. "Your cousin is dead."

He stared at me as if he hadn't understood my words.
"What?"

I nodded. "She's dead. Lamia's dead. Someone strangled her."

He just continued staring at me without comprehension. "I-I don't understand. What?"

"The phone call, Ted. The one about the map. It was
a setup"

"But-Lamia? Why, she-"

"I'm surprised the cops haven't contacted you yet.
That means whoever killed her removed all identification, so it'll take some time to ID her."

He buried his face in his hand. "I can't believe it."

"It's true. And I'm telling you something else you
can believe. Your father was murdered also. Something
is going on around here that neither of us knows about"
I hesitated and stared at the thinning hair on his bowed
head suspiciously. "At least, I don't know about it."

The sharp tone in my voice caused him to look up.
"What are you saying? You think I had something to
do with all this?"

I studied him for several moments. "I'm going to
tell you something, Teddy boy. Anyone who can lay
down five or ten grand on the nags has reason to worry
if his father has been murdered, especially since his
father was rich."

His face blanched. "What are you talking about?
I'll have you know that-"

"Cut it out, Teddy. I talked to Patsy Fusco. You've
been playing the horses for ten years" I paused. "When
it comes to stealing the map, you don't fit. It's yours.
But when it comes to the murder of your father, your half-million inheritance plus your gambling history
makes you one juicy suspect. You follow me, Teddy
boy?"

I didn't think his face could grow any whiter, but it
did. He jerked his head from side to side in denial. He
gulped down the remainder of his bourbon, then scurried across the floor to pour another. "I tell you, I had
nothing to do with it," he said over his shoulder.

"That remains to be seen"

He turned to face me. He fought to contain the panic
evident in his eyes. "All right. I gamble. I've lost thousands, hundreds of thousands, but I did not kill my father."

I sipped my bourbon. Smooth, but then rich people
always buy quality booze-if not for the taste then for
the prestige of brand. "The police will come see you,
Teddy. If not tonight, tomorrow. If you ever want to
find the Piri Reis, you forget I told you about Lamia's
murder."

He frowned.

I explained. "Listen to me carefully. I was the fall
guy today. When I entered room 223, I found Lamia on
the bed. She had been strangled. Moments later the police arrived. That was too convenient. I managed to
duck out ahead of them"

The perplexed look on his face told me he wasn't
following me.

As simply as I once labored to explain the difference in nouns and pronouns to my tenth grade English
students back in Madison High, I explained the situa tion to Teddy. "If I had been caught in there, it would
have taken weeks, months to straighten it all out. Those
would be months lost in finding the Piri Reis, which in
turn would give whoever is after it that much more
time. Now do you understand?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Now I see."

"When the investigators get here, don't make up
anything. Tell them the truth. Just don't let them know
you were aware of her murder. You understand?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. "

I studied him another moment, my misgivings
mounting. I wished I had said nothing to him about
Lamia's murder but the damage was done.

Just as I headed for the door, the bell rang. Ted and
I exchanged frantic looks. He nodded and gestured to
the kitchen. "Out the back."

I wasted no time. Five minutes later, I was on the
sidewalk outside the mansion. Staying in the shadows,
I circled the block. I froze at the corner, spotting two
darkened vehicles in front of the house.

Crossing the street, I made my way to my pickup
and moments later vanished into the traffic. I whistled
softly. Cutting it close, Tony, I told myself as I slowed
for a signal light at the end of the block.

Traffic, surprisingly enough, was light. I wondered
about Lamia. Who would have something to gain by
killing her and blaming it on me? I knew the why but
the who slipped through my fingers just like I was trying to grab water.

Cobb didn't think much of her, I reminded myself, remembering his remarks concerning the dead woman.
Maybe I needed to pay him another visit. See what else
he knew or had to say about Lamia Odom. I glanced at
the clock on the radio. Almost 8:30. For a moment, I
vacillated between visiting Cobb tonight or waiting until in the morning.

Pulling into the parking lot of the inn, I decided to
wait, reminding myself that Janice was to arrive
around noon the next day. If I left early next morning
for Cobb's place, I would be back in time to meet her.
I hesitated, realizing I had given no further thought to
her suggestion of marriage. In a way, I dreaded the
next day.

Back in my room, I pulled out the portfolio Ted had
sent and retrieved the copies of the prints. Now, I hate
puzzles, but that doesn't mean I can't work them. A
few years earlier, I'd had to figure out a couple to help
me find a missing teenager whose body had been hidden in a barrel of aging bourbon for years.

Booting up, I went online and into my folder of favorites where I pulled up my code-breaking manual. I
glanced at the puzzles once again.

Print Number One

Print Number Two

Back at the mansion, I'd taken a wild guess that the
symbols were nothing more than transitional ciphersthat is, pictorial characters substituted for alphabetical
characters. And now, the more I studied them, the more
firmly convinced I became that I was right. The old
man had just claimed they were hieroglyphics from an
obscure era to throw off everyone.

Now, all I had to do was figure out which symbols
stood for which characters; but that proved to be as
simple as stacking BBs.

For the next half hour, I cataloged the frequency of
the symbols in the first print, then tried to match them
with the frequency of the letters in the alphabet.

To my growing frustration, I ended up with only gibberish, which is the most forgiving and generous adjective to describe the resulting answer, RDDOB AECDUF
TPHXNS BAZ.

I leaned back and studied the symbols in the puzzle
again. I'd seen some of them before, but where?

Suddenly, an idea hit me.

I pulled up my word processing program and went
to the Insert Symbol chart. Those symbols were similar. In fact two or three matched those of Bernard Odom
but that was it. They signified nothing.

The feeling gnawed at me that I was staring straight
at the answer but was too blind to see it. On impulse, I
went to the help function on my word processor and
pulled up symbols, thinking perhaps something there
might jostle my memory.

I couldn't help noticing several of the help options referred to Fonts, so I immediately accessed the font
menu and scrolled down through it.

When I hit the W fonts, I caught my breath. There
were four: Webdings, Wingdings, Wingdings 2, and
Wingdings 3.

I held my breath. Was this the solution, something
this simple? Quickly, I typed the alphabet in each font.
Upon comparing them to the puzzles, I realized Odom
had used a combination of symbols from each font.

Print Number One