Beverly Connor - Dead Past

“So, it’s Anna I need to thank for that,” said Diane.

“The docents think it hilarious,” said Kendel. “They’re also hoping that the kids will pay more attention to Darth Vader than to the ordinary signs. From what I hear we need to put him in Security. How are you? How is your head?”

“Sore scalp, but otherwise fine,” said Diane.

Kendel winced when Diane touched the back of her head.

“I found the book you were looking for,” said Kendel, smiling and opening the package.

She pulled out a small, very old, blue clothbound volume no more than four by six inches in size. It was frayed around the edges, and the spine was so faded that Diane couldn’t read the lettering. Kendel opened it up.

“It’s volume nine in a series,” she said. “Wonder Book of the World’s Progress, Art and Science.” She handed the slim volume to Diane. “Page fifteen. Second paragraph.”

Diane’s face lit up as she turned to page fifteen. There it was. “The making of palimpsests was possible even with papyri.” Diane flipped through the pages, glancing at the black-and-white pictures of paintings. She looked at the copyright date in the front-1935.

“How did you ever?” Diane asked.

Kendel’s smile broadened into a grin. “I started with a linguist friend of mine. He parsed the sentence and analyzed the content. From him I found out it was probably in a book of the twenties, thirties, possibly forties, maybe earlier, but probably not later. He also suggested that it would be in a book that covered art, technology, and science because of the content and the syntax. From there I called on a few librarian friends. We found a list of authors who wrote in that domain in the right time frame and looked at some of their work. The style seemed most like the work of a man named Henry Smith Williams. We looked at a collection of his books. His main work was a history of science, but we didn’t find the sentence in those volumes. Then we found a series of Wonder Books. It was in the ninth volume, about art and science.”

“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.

The private family cemetery of James Vann Llewellyn in the city of Glendale-Marsh Florida Three feet under the headstone of Leander Llewellyn 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… ”