Hour Game

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 ak, and either ac or an o. "

Michelle looked more closely. "Then there's some space, and that's ap followed by what looks to be either ana or ano. "

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.

CHAPTER 80

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