[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
room.
That s right, you just got back from, where was it, Nash-
ville? I d think there would be a lot to do in Nashville, said
Kingsley.
I m not much into nightlife, said Frank. Ben, my part-
ner, and I are pretty boring.
Frank gave Kingsley a code sheet with all of Ellie Rose s
little doodles and what they represented. He had another
sheet with symbols for proper names that he couldn t trans-
late.
Most of the names were friends from school, judging
from the context, he said. If I had a list of her friends, I
could figure out who she was talking about in each instance.
Most of what she wrote about was related to the normal con-
cerns a girl her age would have. Lots of drama, but nothing
serious. It s these two names that are the ones of interest.
Frank pointed to two doodled symbols in the list. They are
the only ones she seemed to be truly wary of.
Frank showed Kingsley larger drawings of the two doo-
dles. Diane and I thought this one looked like a stylized
280 Beverly Connor
snake with scales and horns. And the other one looked
like some kind of a masonry ruin bricks or something. I
thought maybe it looked kind of like an igloo at least, the
blocks reminded me of ice blocks. At any rate, the jagged
outline looks like something broken, said Frank. Note
that the snake scales in the first symbol are small versions
of the larger blocks in the other symbol.
You said you had a flash of what they might mean?
said Diane.
If they are names, what if the outline represents the first
name and the inside pattern represents a last name? That
would make these two symbols represent two people who
share the same last name. For example, Ellie Rose might
have represented my name by using a hot dog with small
doughnuts inside it, and my daughter s name would be a
star with doughnuts inside.
Doughnuts? said Diane and Kingsley together.
I don t get it, said Kingsley.
You know, Dunkin Donuts. That s one type of coding
Ellie used a kind of rebus soundalike: Duncan Dunkin .
Diane laughed.
Like the Brick twins, Snake and Jagged, said Kingsley,
grinning.
Sort of, said Frank.
The phone rang. Diane rose from the table, carrying her
coffee with her, and answered the phone.
Diane, uh, Thomas Barclay here. How are you? Read in
the paper you had some kind of dustup at your home.
Dustup? Yes, that s what it was, a dustup. Diane frowned
and sat down in the living room and took a sip of hot cof-
fee. Thomas Barclay was one of the museum board mem-
bers, one whom she struggled to get along with. He was a
bank president with a forceful personality.
Yes, there was an incident here. A man shot the lock off
the door and forced his way in with a gun and tried to kill
me. I m fine. I was able to shoot him before he shot me,
she said. She realized she sounded sharp, but calling what
happened to her a dustup pissed her off.
There were several moments of silence.
My God, a home invasion here in Rosewood. What
were they after?
DUST TO DUST 281
Me, apparently, said Diane.
Barclay seemed to be at a loss for words. Do the police
have someone watching your house? he said.
Yes, they ve had someone with me all day.
Good, good, he said. The reason I called is well, I
got a curious call from a friend. A man I serve with on a
board of directors in Atlanta. Name s Everett Walters.
The name sounds familiar, said Diane. She waited for
him to get to the point.
He s a good man. Usually very sensible. He said his son
over in Gainesville has a very good friend and neighbor
that you ve been harassing. Of course, I told him that was
unlikely. But the thing is, the thing that makes it difficult is,
he insists that the board, the museum board, get rid of you.
Says your behavior is casting a bad light on the museum. I
told him we don t have the power to fire you. He said we
need to do something, that his son s friends suffered a ter-
rible tragedy and now you are causing them immeasurable
suffering on top of it, and you have to be stopped. What s
this about?
It s not about museum business and I m sorry that a
member of the board was dragged into it. You need not
worry about museum involvement. You can tell your friend,
Mr. Walters, that the Gainesville police will be handling
things from here on out, she said. We ve turned every-
thing over to them. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl chiara76.opx.pl
room.
That s right, you just got back from, where was it, Nash-
ville? I d think there would be a lot to do in Nashville, said
Kingsley.
I m not much into nightlife, said Frank. Ben, my part-
ner, and I are pretty boring.
Frank gave Kingsley a code sheet with all of Ellie Rose s
little doodles and what they represented. He had another
sheet with symbols for proper names that he couldn t trans-
late.
Most of the names were friends from school, judging
from the context, he said. If I had a list of her friends, I
could figure out who she was talking about in each instance.
Most of what she wrote about was related to the normal con-
cerns a girl her age would have. Lots of drama, but nothing
serious. It s these two names that are the ones of interest.
Frank pointed to two doodled symbols in the list. They are
the only ones she seemed to be truly wary of.
Frank showed Kingsley larger drawings of the two doo-
dles. Diane and I thought this one looked like a stylized
280 Beverly Connor
snake with scales and horns. And the other one looked
like some kind of a masonry ruin bricks or something. I
thought maybe it looked kind of like an igloo at least, the
blocks reminded me of ice blocks. At any rate, the jagged
outline looks like something broken, said Frank. Note
that the snake scales in the first symbol are small versions
of the larger blocks in the other symbol.
You said you had a flash of what they might mean?
said Diane.
If they are names, what if the outline represents the first
name and the inside pattern represents a last name? That
would make these two symbols represent two people who
share the same last name. For example, Ellie Rose might
have represented my name by using a hot dog with small
doughnuts inside it, and my daughter s name would be a
star with doughnuts inside.
Doughnuts? said Diane and Kingsley together.
I don t get it, said Kingsley.
You know, Dunkin Donuts. That s one type of coding
Ellie used a kind of rebus soundalike: Duncan Dunkin .
Diane laughed.
Like the Brick twins, Snake and Jagged, said Kingsley,
grinning.
Sort of, said Frank.
The phone rang. Diane rose from the table, carrying her
coffee with her, and answered the phone.
Diane, uh, Thomas Barclay here. How are you? Read in
the paper you had some kind of dustup at your home.
Dustup? Yes, that s what it was, a dustup. Diane frowned
and sat down in the living room and took a sip of hot cof-
fee. Thomas Barclay was one of the museum board mem-
bers, one whom she struggled to get along with. He was a
bank president with a forceful personality.
Yes, there was an incident here. A man shot the lock off
the door and forced his way in with a gun and tried to kill
me. I m fine. I was able to shoot him before he shot me,
she said. She realized she sounded sharp, but calling what
happened to her a dustup pissed her off.
There were several moments of silence.
My God, a home invasion here in Rosewood. What
were they after?
DUST TO DUST 281
Me, apparently, said Diane.
Barclay seemed to be at a loss for words. Do the police
have someone watching your house? he said.
Yes, they ve had someone with me all day.
Good, good, he said. The reason I called is well, I
got a curious call from a friend. A man I serve with on a
board of directors in Atlanta. Name s Everett Walters.
The name sounds familiar, said Diane. She waited for
him to get to the point.
He s a good man. Usually very sensible. He said his son
over in Gainesville has a very good friend and neighbor
that you ve been harassing. Of course, I told him that was
unlikely. But the thing is, the thing that makes it difficult is,
he insists that the board, the museum board, get rid of you.
Says your behavior is casting a bad light on the museum. I
told him we don t have the power to fire you. He said we
need to do something, that his son s friends suffered a ter-
rible tragedy and now you are causing them immeasurable
suffering on top of it, and you have to be stopped. What s
this about?
It s not about museum business and I m sorry that a
member of the board was dragged into it. You need not
worry about museum involvement. You can tell your friend,
Mr. Walters, that the Gainesville police will be handling
things from here on out, she said. We ve turned every-
thing over to them. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]