The Puzzle of Piri Reis (20 page)

For an hour, I struggled to make some sense of the
puzzle. I transposed letters, substituted numerals and
various ciphers for letters. Nothing worked.

I leaned back in my chair and studied the characters.
What if the first puzzle was intended to be nothing but
gibberish? What if Odom deliberately set it up, guessing that whoever tried to translate it would figure the
second puzzle was gibberish just like the first?

I turned to the second puzzle.

Print Number Two

To my surprise, I had a little better luck. Using a
combination of Wingding, Webding fonts and symbols,
I came up with a partial translation that meant nothing:

EHHH_ _D_H _DE_H_

Shaking my head, I muttered a soft curse.

There was only one answer. Puzzle King Bernard
Julius Odom had tossed another puzzle into the mix.

I shook my head, frustrated. I tossed my pencil
aside. I'd give it another shot later. Right now I needed
sleep.

The restaurant patio of the Grand Isle Inn overlooked
the River Walk. I was enjoying coffee and a short
stack of pancakes in the brisk air next morning when a
shadow fell over the table. I glanced up into the unsmiling face of an aging man in cowboy boots, washed-out
jeans, and a pearl-button western shirt over which he
wore a red windbreaker with the name Houston Texans
on it.

"Tony Boudreaux?" His voice was gravelly.

I nodded. "Yeah?"

He flashed a badge. "Charley Newton. San Antonio PD" He slid into the empty chair across the table.
"Mind if I sit?"

I chuckled. "Would it do me any good if I did?"

He shrugged his rounded shoulders. "Probably not"

"Then by all means, Charley. Sit." I waved for the
waiter and pointed to the coffee. "How'll you have
your coffee?"

"Black" He leaned back. "You know someone by
the name of Lamia Sue Odom?"

"Yeah.

"What's your business with her?"

I sipped my coffee and grinned. "Didn't Teddy Odom
tell you?"

A flicker of his lips that might have passed for a
grin vanished. "Yeah, but I want to hear what you got
to say."

"Probably nothing to add. Teddy hired me to find a
map, the Piri Reis. There were several interested it the
map, Lamia Sue Odom among them. I talked to her a
couple days ago down on the River Walk below her hotel, the Elena Towers. I haven't spoken with her since.
Can I ask why all the questions?"

"Where were you yesterday afternoon?"

"Have I done something?"

He looked up as the waiter set the coffee in front of
him. "Not that I know of. So where were you?"

"Well, for your information, I left the Odom mansion around two or two thirty. A friend and I drove
around sightseeing for an hour or so."

"Such as?"

I shrugged. "Just driving around. The city is full of
sights. We just-"

"What's this friend's name and where can I find him?"

I gave him Jack's name and the hotel. "If he's
checked out, you can find him in Austin. There's only
one Jack Edney in the phone book."

With a grunt, he nodded. "All right. After you left
this friend of yours, then what?"

"Then I paid a visit to Father Bertoldo Poggioreale
out at the University of Grace and Brotherhood."

"What about?"

"The map. I didn't leave him until after dark. Now,
can you tell me what's going on?"

He grunted. "Lamia Sue Odom was found dead
yesterday"

I grimaced. "Hate to hear that. I didn't know her except for our one visit. Does her cousin know yet?"

"Yeah. That's how we got onto you."

I played dumb. "Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that."

Charley narrowed his eyes. "I bet" He cleared his
throat. "All right, Mr. Boudreaux. That's all I need right
now" He looked down at me. "You'll be around?"

"If I'm not, Charley, you can get me in Austin. I'm
in the phone book just like Jack."

He glanced at his untouched coffee. "And thanks
for the coffee"

I grinned. "Any time."

After Newton left, I decided to pay Leo Cobb a
visit. Other than Ted Odom, he was the only one who
had expressed a dislike for Lamia Odom.

Thirty minutes later, I rang the doorbell at the Cobb
house. The first echoes hadn't died away when it jerked
open and Martha Cobb stared up at me, the expectation on her distraught face fading into disappointment. "Oh,
Mr. Boudreaux. I thought it was Leo" She wrung her
hands.

"He isn't here?"

"No. I haven't seen him since noon yesterday, and
I'm worried sick."

I just stared at her, unable to believe what I had
walked into. One dead and one missing. What was going on with that blasted map? "When did you see him
last?"

"Yesterday, around noon. I was out tending the
flowerbed in back when he came out and told me he had
some business" She hesitated and glanced around.
Realizing we were standing on the porch where the
whole neighborhood could hear us, she invited me. "I'm
sorry, Mr. Boudreaux. I just wasn't thinking. Please,
come in. Can I get you some coffee or lemonade?" she
asked over her shoulder as she led the way into the den.

"No, thanks"

She sat on the couch and looked up at me, her eyes
pleading for help. "Leo said he had business to take
care of. Important business that couldn't wait."

I kept thinking about Lamia Sue sprawled on the
bed in the Cattleman's. Was that the business? If so,
why? "Did he tell you what it was?"

"No.

"Didn't you think that was strange?"

She frowned at me, then forced a weak smile. "Oh,
no. Leo takes care of all our business. He doesn't want
to worry me about things. That's why I was surprised when you mentioned the mortgage company foreclosing on our house" She paused. Her face grew more intense. "After you left, Leo promised me he'd take care
of the mortgage trouble"

I nodded, thinking Cobb should have his rear kicked
for not realizing just what a trusting wife he had. "Has
he ever done anything like this before? I mean, spending the night away without telling you?"

"Oh yes. Several times."
"

If that were so, why was she so upset this time? I
asked her.

"Because of the news."

"News?"

,.Yes. Channel Eleven this morning. Lamia Sue
Odom was found dead in a hotel room." Her eyebrows
turned down, and she chewed on her bottom lip.

Mrs. Leo Cobb really had me confused. "So, why
should her death worry you so much?"

Anguish filled her eyes. She hesitated, chewing on
her bottom lip. Finally, she blurted out, "Because Lamia
Sue Odom was blackmailing Leo!"

Talk about the proverbial kick in the teeth. I think I
staggered back one or two steps. I stammered for words,
then managed the eloquent response, "What?"

She nodded woodenly. "For the last two years or so"

With her revelation, several of the questions I had
about Cobb's financial situation suddenly made sense.
While his income had dropped after losing the slander
case, the loss of income did not appear so severe as to
warrant losing his house. "How much?"

"Two thousand a month. Cash"

"She picked it up?"

With a sheepish grin, she mumbled, "We usually met
wherever she said."

I nodded slowly. Take off twenty-four thousand a
year from his income, and I could see why he had trouble with his mortgage payment. That also answered
another question festering in my simple mind. I had
wondered how she maintained her lifestyle on the five
thousand a month Odom gave her. Her plush suite in
the Elena Towers was at least twenty-five hundred. Patsy
Fusco had said she was only a small-time stringer.

Now, I knew.

And that answer gave birth to another question. If
she was blackmailing Cobb, could she have been doing
the same to others? "Two thousand a month, huh?"

"Yes"

"Why? I mean, what did she have on him?"

"You already know about it."

I arched an eyebrow. "Oh, that Seventeenth Dynasty vase twenty years ago up in Seattle."

She nodded.

"How did she find out?"

Martha Cobb shook her head slowly, her straw-like
gray hair bobbing behind her. "We've never figured
that out"

"So, you've no idea where he is?"

She wrung her hands. Tears glittered in her eyes.
Her frail voice quivered. "I'm afraid what he might
have done"

My sentiments exactly. I drew a deep breath. I had
to go to the police with this.

At that moment, the front door opened, and a bellowing voice called out, "Martha? It's me. I'm home"

She and I looked at each other in stunned amazement.

A sneer played over Cobb's face when he entered
the den. "So, Boudreaux. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit this time?"

Martha jumped to her feet. "Leo! Where have you
been? I've been worried sick."

He looked at her in surprise. "I told you I had some
business. What's the problem?"

His cavalier attitude bristled the hair on the back of
my neck. "I'll tell you what the problem is, Leo old boy.
The little lady who has been blackmailing you has been
murdered, so you better have yourself one good alibi, or
you're going to have one heck of a job to keep from riding the needle up in Huntsville."

Cobb gaped at me in disbelief as he struggled to absorb my words. He turned to his wife. "What's going
on?"

"I was scared for you, Leo. When I heard she was
dead, I remembered you telling me that you were going to take care of business. I was afraid that you might
have..

He closed his eyes and slumped into an upholstered
chair. "You ought to know better than that, Martha. I
couldn't do anything like that. I swear on our daugh ter's head. I had nothing to do with it." He looked up at
me. "It's the truth. A guy called about the Piri Reis.
Wanted me to meet him at the roadside park at the top
of the Devil's Backbone northwest of San Marcos. I
waited and waited but he never showed up."

"That's convenient."

He heard the sarcasm in my tone. "You think I'm
lying?"

I studied him a moment. "It isn't what I think, Leo.
You've got nothing to back up your claim. No one was
with you. No one saw you. If I had to make a choice
one way or another, I'd say `yes, you're lying."'

"But it's the truth. There's a table at the park and a
trash can off to one side."

I chuckled. "There's probably ten thousand roadside
parks in Texas with a table and trash can off to one
side."

Frustration clouded his eyes. "Look, there was a store
nearby. A white wooden building. One side is like a
general store. The other is a liquor store. The old geezer
running it looks like he's a hundred. A full head of white
hair. I went in there around five thirty. I bought two Dr
Peppers and a bag of Oreo cookies. I threw them in the
trashcan when I finished. You can talk to him."

Eyes blazing, Martha asked, "Why didn't you call?
At least I wouldn't have worried so much"

"I tried, but Devil's Backbone is in the middle of
nowhere. Nothing around but live oak and cedar trees. I
couldn't get any cell phone service, and what few stores are around close down at six o'clock. Besides, I've told
you. Nothing's going to happen to me. No sense in you
worrying."

"She does have to worry, Leo," I reminded him.
"And if you've got any sense, you'd better do some
worrying too. Right now, you're a dandy suspect"

He furrowed his brow, his eyes studying mine intently. He pushed to his feet. "I told you the truth, and
I can prove it." He went to the answering machine beside his phone. "I wasn't here when he called yesterday, so he left a message." He punched the rewind
button. Moments later, a guttural voice said, "Cobb, if
you're interested in the Piri Reis, call me at 512-555-
6720 at exactly eleven o'clock." The machine clicked
off. "I checked the phone number. It's a pay phone on
the north side of town. So, I called him. He wanted to
meet at the Devil's Backbone at four o'clock. But he
never showed up. I started to leave half a dozen times
but I kept hoping he might show up. He never did."