David Baldacci - Hour Game

"It's clearly a guy thing, Savannah," commented Michelle, shooting her partner an amused glance. "I didn't know you were so into racing boats."

"It's easy to be when you can't afford them."

There was a bit of silence, and King slowly put down his beer and looked at the youngest Battle with a serious expression.

"You didn't come here just to admire me in my bikini and lust over our boats, did you?" she asked, returning his gaze with a hopeful look that held out the possibility that that indeed was all he was interested in.

"We do have some questions to ask you."

Savannah immediately looked away and her expression became pained. "Sally?"

"Among other things."

"That's one reason I came down here to go sailing, to get away from it." She shook her head. "I'll never get that out of my head. Never. It was so awful, Sean, so awful."

He put his hand over hers and squeezed for a moment before letting go. "But it only gets worse if we don't catch the person who did it."

"I told Todd and Agent Bailey everything I know. I didn't even know Sally was in the stables until…"

"And then you ran to your brother's home?" said Michelle. Savannah nodded. "Dorothea answered the door. How did she seem?"

"I don't really remember. I was hysterical. I remember her going to get Eddie, but then she couldn't wake him. Then all hell broke loose. I just stood over by the door the whole time. I was afraid to move. When they came and got Eddie, I ran back to my room and pulled the covers over my head." She put her drink down and went over and sat on the dock, her feet in the water.

King stared at her curiously. What the hell was gnawing at his brain, begging him to decipher it? He finally shook his head in frustration. It just wasn't coming.

"Is your mother home?" he asked.

"No, she went out. Something to do with the lawyers and probate."

"Would you mind if we took another look at the closets in your parents' bedrooms?"

She swiveled around on her bottom to look at him. "I thought you already did that."

"Never hurts to check a second time. It might help."

They climbed in the golf cart Savannah had ridden down in and headed up to the house. Savannah led them in through the rear entrance and up the stairs to the third level.

"I keep telling Mama that if she's going to stay here, she needs to have an elevator put in."

"Climbing stairs is good exercise," said Michelle.

"Don't listen to her," said King. "Get the elevator."

Savannah opened the door to her mother's bedroom and stopped dead. "Oh," she exclaimed. "What are you doing in here?"

King moved past her and looked at Mason suspiciously.

The butler gazed back at them unperturbed. "Just tidying up your mother's room, Savannah. The maids rarely do a good enough job." Now he looked at King and Michelle with equal suspicion. "Can I help you with something?"

"Um," began Savannah, her upper teeth biting into her lower lip.

"You're dripping on the rug," Mason pointed out.

"We were swimming in the lake," explained Michelle.

"Nice day for it." He continued to stare at them questioningly.

"We're here to take another look at Remmy's closet, Mason," said King. "As part of the investigation."

"But I thought because Mr. Deaver is dead that there's no longer an investigation to pursue."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you, but that's not actually the case," said King politely.

Mason turned to Savannah. "Have you checked with your mother about this?"

King answered, "She took us through it once before, Mason. I can't imagine she'd have a problem with a second time."

"I always like to make sure of these things, Sean."

"You see, because we know Junior didn't do it and Remmy is now friends with his widow, it's up to us to find out who did take those things. It's in Remmy's interest of course to see that happens. But if you want to call her and bother her while she's with the probate lawyers, that's fine. We'll just wait right here."

King could see Mason working through all this in his head. Finally, he shrugged. "I can't see that it will hurt anything. Just try and keep things neat. Mrs. Battle is very particular."

"Yes, she is," said King.

Mason left, and they went immediately into Remmy's closet and accessed the hidden drawer, examining it minutely but finding nothing.

"Maybe you'll have better luck in Daddy's room," said Savannah.

As they were leaving the closet, King stopped to look at some photos on the shelf across from Remmy's bed. Savannah stood next to him.

"That's me when I was twelve, fat and ugly. God, I can still feel those braces on my teeth."

King held up another photo, an old one, with two babies in it.

Savannah pointed as she spoke. "That's Eddie and Bobby Jr. I never knew him, of course; he died before I was born. No, I'm sorry, that's Eddie on the left and Bobby Jr. on the right." She still looked unsure. "Well, that's embarrassing, not knowing your own flesh and blood."

"Well, they were twins," said King, putting the photo back.

They moved to Bobby's bedroom but had no success there either, at least not at first. But as King went over the drawer inch by inch, he stiffened. "Can you get me a flashlight?" he asked Savannah.

"Mama keeps one in her nightstand in case the power goes out." Savannah ran and got it.

King shone it in the drawer. "Look at this." They all peered in.

"It looks like letters," observed Michelle.

"That's definitely a k, and either a c or an o. "

Michelle looked more closely. "Then there's some space, and that's a p followed by what looks to be either an a or an o. "

King straightened up, looking thoughtful. "It appears something was lying in this drawer, and those letters somehow stained the wood, imprinting it."

"It might have gotten wet," suggested Savannah.

King leaned in and took a long whiff of the drawer. He looked at Savannah. "Did Bobby drink in his room?"

"Daddy drink? He has a whole bar in that piece of furniture that looks like a credenza across from his bed. Why?"

"Because it smells like Scotch in the drawer."

"That might account for the moisture," said Michelle, who took a whiff. "He was looking at whatever it was, spilled his drink in the drawer, and the letters got transferred from the paper to the bottom of the drawer."

King went into the bedroom and came back with a pen and paper he'd taken from Battle 's desk. He wrote the words down with the approximate spaces in between.

Kc____________________ pa, Ko____________________ pa, Ko____________________ po

"Kc-pa, Ko-pa, or Ko-po," he said slowly. "Ring any bells?" Savannah shook her head.

"Obviously, there are letters we're missing. If we were playing Wheel of Fortune, here's where I'd ask for a couple of vowels," said Michelle. "What do you think, Sean?"

He took a moment before answering. "Somehow this may be the whole key right here, if I can just think of what it means."

Michelle had a sudden inspiration. While Savannah was scrutinizing the letters King had written down, Michelle whispered in her partner's ear, "Maybe it's from Battle 's holographic will that Harry thought might exist?"

None of them heard the bedroom door close quietly behind the person who'd been listening in. Nor did they hear the sound of soft footfalls moving down the hall to the stairway.

SEAN KING SAT STRAIGHT UP IN bed like someone had frisked him with a cattle prod.

Seven hours! My God, seven hours! But not really seven hours, more likely longer than that. The seven-hour reference had made him think about Sally's death. She had died barely seven hours after telling him about Junior. That was one major point. However, the seven-hour time difference had just now made him recognize a startling fact, so startling that with that one revelation everything else started tumbling into place.