Word to Death Read online

  “Agree, not until the meaning behind it is made clear.”

  “Let’s remove this small bit with the tree on it and hide it when we get home.” I placed the scrap inside a business envelope. “Before we go, I’m going to check my messages and send one to Inga. I haven’t heard from Maggie in a while, either.”

  The website had ten messages, most of them pertaining to the houses. Three caught my eye.

  The first read:

  It’s lost but not forgotten.

  The second:

  You’re entering the waters of the unknown.

  The third was cryptic and gave me the creeps. It read:

  Miss Olivia, Follow him to the grave, that’s where you’ll find it. Seek and ye shall find, but make sure you watch your back.

  “Aaron, come here. You have to read this!” I turned the monitor so he could see it better.

  “I’m calling the station, don’t delete it.”

  “I won’t. They’re being forwarded right now to the detectives.” I logged into my personal e-mail account, where there were several messages that needed replies. Maggie had written to ask if the four of us could get together soon for dinner, and I replied positively. Inga sent a message saying she was back to work, and that Holly was working more hours to help her out. In my reply, I told her what had happened with the toy bear and about the embroidered oak tree. All relevant information pertaining to the Masonic Lodge was relayed before I sent the message. Afterward, the message went in the Mary Lincoln file. I noticed that all my messages in the file were in a different order.

  “Honey? He did it again. My files are rearranged.” When I didn’t hear Aaron coming, I called, “Aaron!”

  “I’m right here,” he said. “What else?” He stood with his hands on his hips.

  “The Pennies jar.” I looked under the counter for it. “Have you seen the jar?”

  “Nope.” He shook his head.

  “Me neither.” I looked where it was usually stored. “Gone.” I snapped my fingers. “Better call the police. Besides the messed up files, the missing jar, there’s a cryptic message in my webmail.”

  “What next?” Aaron said. “Let me in there. You did forward the messages to Mergens, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.” I walked away so he could read them. I went to get the miniature dollhouses and removed each from its box. I carefully made sure they were in perfect shape before setting each dollhouse on the shelf, beginning with Dolley’s White House, Abigail’s, and then Jackie’s. The Rose Garden looked magnificent after a bit of rearranging. “Jackie, now your Rose Garden looks as beautiful as you.” After they were properly displayed, the next job was to pick up the ruined pieces of the Lincoln house. Painstakingly, I picked up each piece. A tiny table leg went into the nearby basket—ruined. The table top, the war room where the desks were lined in a row like soldiers going to battle, one by one, they all went into the trash. Lincoln’s watch. His bedside table. Mary’s mirror. Such a waste.

  When I closed my eyes I could see Mary stitching. In and out. In and out. Snipping, and sewing the tiny family tree with the nut on the tallest branch. She glanced in the mirror, but what had she seen? Whom had she seen? Had someone tried to kill her for the speech?

  Chapter Nineteen

  “The image of the toy bear reappeared as my desktop background. I’m letting the detectives know,” I said.

  “Go ahead. Something’s not right, honey.”

  The Lincoln desk fit into the room better when it was relocated to the side and out of the way of prospective customers. I had previously shifted the Rose Garden scene from one of the other dollhouses, now it needed some readjustments. The chinaware in a couple of the houses needed attention, so I saw to that as well. My cell phone beeped when I finished.

  I read the message out loud so Aaron could hear. “They’re sending someone out tomorrow to take a look at the computer. We’re not to touch anything.”

  “They’ll get to the bottom of it,” Aaron said. “Let me recheck my messages.”

  “Then we’ll lock up. I would venture to say that once they hear about the bear, the detectives will be over themselves next time they’re on duty.”

  “You’re probably right.” I opened a new response from Inga. “Listen to this… it’s from Inga. She wants to know if we’ve found a hidden compartment in the desk.”

  “Hidden compartment? I’ve looked all over it, but there’s not one to be found. What’s she talking about?”

  “No idea.” I shrugged.

  “Where would it be? I’ve searched the desk high and low.”

  I logged out and shut the computer down. “Here’s another thing I forgot to tell you… the computer was on yesterday morning, and I always shut down before I leave.”

  “Maybe the detectives are making better progress than we are.” Hand in hand we walked into the workroom where we put on our jackets. “Let’s go.” I grabbed Tad’s uniform with Aaron taking the box.

  “Brrr.” I shivered as the cold, late afternoon air hit my cheeks. “At least it’s staying light longer… a sure sign spring’s around the corner.” We rushed to the car, popped open the doors, and jumped inside. My phone rang, and I answered when I saw it was Grandma.

  “Grandma, we’re doing fine,” I reassured her. I told her about our day, but kept Inga’s message to myself, as well as the discovery of the embroidered nut and the ripped-up bear. I promised to keep her informed.

  “Let’s work on the concentric puzzles tonight, honey,” I said to Aaron after I’d ended the call. “We should also take another look at that uniform, too.”

  Once home, we settled in the living room. “The diary is in the back bedroom. I’ll go get it.” Aaron turned on the television in the meantime.

  I came back and plopped down beside Aaron with the book in hand. “I forgot to make copies of the pages,” I brooded. “We almost need to have one for each of us.”

  “We can try studying them together.” Aaron reached for his cell phone. “I’m ordering a pizza. I’m starved.”

  I stared at the already-bookmarked pages, which led me to wonder why these few pages would be included in Mary Lincoln’s diary? She may have hidden something in plain sight. As I studied the handwriting, it looked shaky. I thought about Mikal’s explanations of certain aspects of Dolley Madison’s handwriting. I recognized the letterform as Victorian in style. The boldness of the lowercase letters plus the way they started and stopped were clues that it actually was written by the same person. The upper case letters were very much the same. Before I began trying to figure the puzzle out, I decided to send Maggie a phone message. Sure you don’t want to try concentric puzzles?

  Her immediate response was: Sorry, but no, they’re impossible.

  I was on my own. I knew Aaron wouldn’t be able to help much, since we hadn’t made copies of the pages.

  The circular pattern of the words didn’t add up as I turned the first page around and around. “Hmm.” I went for a sheet of paper and a pencil, then began scribbling down letters to try and make sense of it all. Nothing came to mind. On the second page I tried only looking at the lower case letters in an attempt to make words. “Pizza’s here.” Aaron brought it to the coffee table. “Decode anything yet? Catch anything that makes sense?”

  “Nope!” I set the diary aside. “I’ll get some soda.”

  “Figures.” He bit into his slice of pepperoni pizza. “You may as well forget trying to decipher them until we get copies made.”

  “Thought the same thing.” Different ideas rolled through my brain. “It’s as if the killer is everywhere. Doesn’t it feel that way to you?” I looked at Aaron. “Like we’re being watched. You know?”

  “I hear what you’re saying. He seems to know everything about us—like he’s spying on us.” Aaron frowned at me. “All the more reason for me to stay close to you.”

  “Thank you. Really and truly, I’m scared to death.” I grimaced. “But, we’ll get through this, won’t we? This mystery
was dropped into our laps for a reason.”

  “Yes, but God only knows what it is.” He took a sip of soda. “Or why us.”

  My cell phone rang. “Bill Williams here. I changed the class around. I’ll have the nut, or should I say necklace, re-silvered as good as new. It should be finished by two tomorrow, if you’d like to stop by and pick it up. I’ll leave the results and necklace with my secretary if I’m not in the office.”

  “What about your payment?”

  “No problem. Call it public relations.”

  “Thank you so very much.” I disconnected and set the phone down, told Aaron what Doctor Williams had said, and then added. “I’ll call the detectives and let them know.”

  “Great.” Aaron reached for the final slice and took a bite. “That Doc Williams is a good guy.”

  “Yes, this was very helpful of him. I’ll ask Grandpa if he smokes cigars and buy him a couple of good ones, if so.”

  “August probably has a few extra lying around.”

  “Good idea. I think he has some Cuban cigars we could give him, now that they’re legal again in the states.”

  I went over all the uniform seams again during the rest of the evening. It seemed as if I was searching for the world’s tiniest diamond.

  After watching some television, we retired for the evening and I slept peacefully, knowing the police were working to solve the strange goings on.

  In the morning, Aaron leaned over and kissed me. “How’d you sleep?”

  “Wonderful.” I smiled at him. “I’m going to make it through this. Are you coming to the store with me today?”

  “Of course.”

  I noticed on the way to work, that the warm, mid-February sun had melted the ice on the streets and sidewalks, making them even more slushy. As we parked in our usual space I said, “Business should be picking up with the warmer weather, don’t you think?” In spite of the sun outside, it seemed chilly inside the shop, so I turned up the thermostat before removing my jacket. My task for today was sewing all the tiny, cut-out pieces lying on the table. I’d certainly put off the work lately. I should stay one evening to sew inaugural gowns for several of the First Lady dolls, plus dress the presidents. I was behind on everything and chastised myself for not keeping up with the task. I grabbed the feather duster and went out to the showroom.

  Standing near the FD Roosevelt house, I said, “Mrs. Roosevelt, your radio addresses were superb, and so were your newspaper articles, ‘My Day.’” My perusal of the shop was interrupted by a background buzz, and I realized the computer was on. Perplexed, I stared at it with my hands on my hips. I knew for certain I shut it off the day before. I left it alone, knowing the detectives would be arriving soon. At the front door, I turned the sign to Open.

  As I dusted, the sound of the humming computer continued to bother me. Certain that the killer had tracked me with it, I was relieved to see a familiar police car parking out front. At the same time, I heard Aaron’s footsteps on the hall floor.

  “You’re just in time for the detectives.”

  They slammed their car doors and were soon entering through the front door.

  “Back again, eh?”

  “Yes, for more complex and not-making-any-sense at-all clues,” Erlandsen said, giving us a wry grin. “Why is it that I feel something else has just crept up?”

  “Because something has. We shut the computer off before leaving yesterday. See? Now it’s on.” I nodded at the computer. “I haven’t touched it.”

  “You two give me massive headaches,” Erlandsen said, scratching his head with his pencil. “Okay.” He scribbled something on his pad. “Anything else?”

  “The Lincoln house was trashed,” I said. “Unbelievable,” Erlandsen said. “That all?”

  “Nothing that’s apparent except there’s a memory stick in our kitchen drawer that we recently re-discovered. I found it on the sidewalk outside the night of the murder but forgot all about it.”

  “That might be what we need to tie the case together,” Mergens stated.

  “Duly noted,” Erlandsen said.

  “Okay. Our computer guy should be coming anytime.” Mergens shifted his legs. “Let’s go over it again, Liv. Start again at the top.”

  “Well, this has to have something to do with the Lincolns, and in particular, finding the Lost Speech.” I glanced at one detective and then the other. “We have found clues that seem to all have Masonic roots. Besides that, there’s the acorn necklace we found in the bottom of the hatbox—a hat that had belonged to Mary Lincoln. I’m picking up the results of the testing at two. I believe it will be revealing, but for what purpose, I haven’t a clue.” I ran my fingers through my hair.

  “You’ve researched the symbols?” Erlandsen asked.

  “Yes. They all leave me to think they mean ‘origin.’ It can’t be God, per se, because that wouldn’t make sense. However, what the sketch of a staircase has to do with anything has me perplexed. Any idea?” When both shook their heads, I said, “See? Beginning of what? The speech? Where it was spoken? There can’t be anything there except the plaque. Is it in the old law office? If so, it would have been found by now.” I suddenly remembered the message from Inga. “Inga asked in last night’s message if we’d found the hidden compartment in the Lincoln desk, but neither of us found anything.”

  “I believe that these people are keeping tabs on you to discover the location of the speech,” Mergens said, staring at me. “Everything happens around you. Not to you. And they seem to know you’ve been doing all this research just by hacking into your files.”

  “I understand all of that.” I crossed my arms. Aaron placed his arm across my shoulder.

  “Well, here’s another thought to add to the above,” Mergens said. “We believe the copy of the Mary Todd Lincoln letter you received anonymously was sent by the hacker who has been spying on your computer.”

  “Why would they do that?” I asked in confusion. “You meant they’re helping me find the speech.”

  “No,” said Erlandsen. “They’re hoping you will figure it out and lead them to the speech.”

  “That can’t be good,” I said.

  “It’ll all work out.” Aaron squeezed my shoulder. “Who are your leading suspects?” I asked.

  “We’re mainly looking at two people,” Mergens said.

  “I can only think of one, Luke. It’s weird having such a large employee turnover.”

  “We’re on top of it,” Mergens answered without answering a thing.

  Just then the police department’s technical expert entered, carrying a small tool kit in his hand.

  “Finally got away.” He showed us his badge. “Detective Harris.” He shook hands with the other two detectives.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds—Aaron and Liv,” Erlandsen made introductions.

  After we’d both shaken hands with the tech, I nodded at the computer and said, “There it is.”

  “I’ll get started and then they can fill me in,” Harris said. Aaron and I went to the workroom and sat down.

  “I might have an idea to catch this guy.” I looked around the room. “We should set a trap for him. We can give him hints about the speech, just to see if he’ll bite.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Aaron said.

  “Invite Ronnie in to take pictures of the desk. Or pictures of the cavern underneath the store, which few know about. He might jump at that, since we wouldn’t let him go down there after Jackie Newell’s murder.”

  “Great idea.” Aaron stared at me for a moment. “We’ll have to run it past the detectives.” He glanced at his phone. “I missed a call from Max. I’ll call him back first.”

  I reached into my bag and pulled out the diary. The copier was in the corner and I made two copies of each page. When finished, I neatly placed them aside.

  Just as I was about to figure out where I’d left off with the sewing, Aaron disconnected from speaking to Max. “What did he have to say? When’s he going home?”

 
“His neck and back are still pretty sore. They want to keep him there another day since he lives alone. I offered to give him a ride home tomorrow morning.”

  “If needed, Max can always stay in our spare room,” I said. “He heard that from me, too. I guess we’re both anxious.” Aaron glanced toward the doorway.

  “You’re not alone,” I said as the sound of approaching footsteps interrupted my thoughts. “Yes?”

  “Please come out here, you two.” Erlandsen stood in the doorway. “You’re not going to believe this.”

  We followed the detective into the showroom and over to where Harris sat studying what was on the computer’s monitor.

  “It’s like this, folks,” he said, keeping his eyes glued on the screen. “This guy, or gal, is a computer genius. He’s set up an account with which he can forward your e-mails to an account he controls. He knows your password, everything.”

  “You’re kidding me. Is the screensaver bear part of that hacking?” I asked.

  “You’re partially correct, but this is how you guys can nab him.”

  “And how do we do that?” I asked, giving him a perplexed look.

  He answered with a mischievous smile. “Let’s give him some crumbs.”

  The best way to catch a rat is to set out some tasty cheese in a trap!

  Chapter Twenty

  We locked up the store after the detectives left, but not before I brought the ladies up to speed on the recent happenings. Aaron dropped me off at the university. I dashed into the science building and headed up the stairs to the faculty offices. I wanted to personally thank Dr. Williams. It didn’t take long before the office door with his name on it came into view. I knocked. The squeaky door opened exposing his office, still overflowing with papers. The floor was strewn with folders, papers, and textbooks. It looked as if someone had broken in and searched for something.

  “Doctor Williams?” I whispered. “Doctor Williams?”

  On tiptoe, I stepped farther inside the office, which was when I saw his arm on the floor, sticking out from behind the desk. Did he slip from his chair? I peered around his desk.