The Sholes Key (An Evans & Blackwell Mystery #1) (29 page)

“It’s never that hard, code solving. Once you have an idea behind it, it is mainly trial and error from there. Substitute letters, ones that fit with ones that don’t.” With that, Sophia walked out of the room. Theo chased after her.

He followed her to his office and watched her rummage through her bag. Holding the code papers, she sat down on the sofa. The room was cold and smelled like stale coffee. “What do you plan to do after this is over?” He placed his coffee on the desk.

Sophia looked up and said, “What do you mean?”

“Your case has ended,” he said. Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought it up.

“The Masters case wasn’t my only case.”

“Oh, so you return to MI5?”

“Have I left?” Placing the papers down in front of her, she sat back on the sofa. “What are you trying to say?”

He shook his head. “Just curious.”

She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling out one strand of hair at a time.

“Do you want me to be quiet?” he asked her.

“Yes. If you want me to catch your killer.” She snatched the papers back up but just as quickly brought them down. “Look, I should have told you about Marc and the case and my job.” She let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. Hopefully I will be the only innocent person injured in this matter. I learned my lesson the hard way. I seem to live my life that way.”

“Are you hungry? I can order some food.”

She nodded. He went to find a takeaway menu somewhere. When he returned to his office with a Chinese menu, he found her curled up on the sofa—asleep.

Chapter 30

Sophia sipped her hot and sour soup while she worked on the code. Theo had eaten his Peking-style spare ribs and now slept at his desk. The soup was just what she needed. At last, she dropped the spoon in her empty bowl and turned toward Theo’s desk.

“Wake up, Theo, you need to ring everyone. I know who the murderer is—and it’s not Ivan Richards.”

Silence.

“Theo, are you asleep?”

“No, but I think I’m dreaming. Did you say you know who the murderer is?”

“Yes. How soon can you gather everyone to the incident room?”

Theo sat up and looked at the clock. “It’s after eight. Everyone has gone home for the night. Just tell me who the killer is; we’ll go pick him up.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“So no one will come?”

“I never said that, but—” he picked up the phone receiver.

“Good.” She walked out of the room.

Thirty minutes later, ten officers in various degrees of irritability sat or stood in front of Sophia. She began. “I’ve placed a computer keyboard in front of all of you. It will help you understand what I’ll be explaining. It took a while to understand the brackets but when I finally did, well, it all made sense. The man who came up with this code was incredibly intelligent. But I believe the cracker has been equally as intelligent.” She smiled at everyone, realizing exactly what she was saying.

“What does it say? Does it give us the name of the murderer?” Deveau asked, slapping Theo on the back.

“Of course it doesn’t,” Sophia replied. “That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it? But he does tell us who he is. And we’ll be able to pick him up first thing tomorrow.”

“Why not tonight?” Deveau asked.

“Because it does not tell us where he lives. It only tells us where he works. And where he works… well, it’s closed,” Sophia explained.

“We could phone his employer, get the employee’s records and pick him up tonight. Where does he work?” Dorland asked.

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“I thought you said—” Deveau started, but Sophia cut him off.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to quickly explain the code first. Then you can give your feedback. If you don’t like the way I solved it, you may not agree with what it has to say. Let me do a quick demonstration of what I did.”

Turning on the computer, she pulled up a blank screen. “The first number was 24, the second was 12, the third 33, and the fourth 23 and so forth. When I figured out the first digit was the row and the second was the finger, I knew it had to be either A, F, or J because a semicolon is not a letter. I assumed it would be the A because that’s a common letter; but I wrote all three down since it could be anything at this point.”

“I’m not following—” Deveau said.

Sophia ignored him and continued, “I started on 12 next, which would be the first row. Now my assumption was that it would be the row that started with the letter Z, which I found to be the correct assumption. So the number 12, according to my understanding, had to be the letter C. Now the third number, the number 33, was to be on the third row and the third finger, leaving us with the letters W or the letter O.”

The men were all running their fingers around the keyboard trying to keep up with her. Some nodded in understanding, others looked puzzled.

“All right, I think I’m getting it,” said Theo.

“That’s when I came to realize where the star came in. It represents the hand, the hand the finger is on. If the number had a star in front of it, it means it was pressed by the right hand. Meaning *33 was the letter O. The fourth was *23 which meant it was the right hand on the second row, with the third finger. That would give us the letter L. The brackets were confusing until I understood what they were for. A typist, when they properly lay their hands on the keyboard—”

“Hands on home row, hands on home row,” said Theo. “I remember typing class.”

Sophia smiled and said, “Which may be harder to understand for those who only use one finger to type. Finger one of the left hand starting at F and the first finger on the right hand starting at J. Then I wondered, what about the letters G and H? That’s where the brackets come in.”

“They point to the letters in the middle,” said Dorland, getting up from his chair and moving closer to the board.

“Exactly. They point to the letters T, Y, G, H, B, and N. Once I figured that out, it was not long before I got both the codes solved.”

“And they make sense?” asked Deveau.

“Yes. The first says:
A collection of good books, with a soul to it in the shape of a librarian, becomes a vitalized power among the impulses by which the world goes on to improvement.
You see what it means, don’t you? That’s why we can’t pick up the killer tonight; we have to find out where he works.”

“What one… what? What the hell are you talking about?” Deveau asked.

“The library,” Sophia said, throwing her hands in the air. “Where the killer works.”

“Are you saying our killer is a librarian?” asked Theo.

“Yes.”

“Why the hell is the librarian killing women?” Deveau asked.

Theo added, “That’s a good question.”

“This is crazy.” Dorland went to his computer and started typing. “What does the second code say?”

“No happy ever after. The end,”
replied Sophia.

“That’s the second code?” Deveau asked.

“It makes perfect sense if you think of it,” Theo said. “There’s something about these women the librarian does not like. It may have to do with their choice of books. Or maybe not. I don’t know yet. He knows where they live because he has access to their addresses. They know him because they see him at the library, and who would suspect a nice librarian of anything devious?”

Dorland was online, checking a library website. “There must be close to a hundred libraries in London. Which library does he work at?”

“I have it narrowed down to three,” said Sophia, the idea finally coming to her.

“Why only three?” Theo asked.

“Because I’ve only been to three different libraries.”

“Do you think this case still revolves around you? Why did the killer single you out?” said Deveau.

“I think the best thing to do,” Sophia replied, ignoring him, “is to go to all three and get a list of names and addresses of all personnel and track down each of them.”

Theo grabbed the mobile from his belt. “We don’t want him to get spooked and escape. We’ll need plainclothes officers to get the information.”

“Yes but—” Sophia started.

“But, nothing. We can’t take any risks, can we?” Theo interrupted.

Deveau spoke up in his booming voice. “Come in at five tomorrow morning. I want to get an early start on these libraries. Go home and get what sleep you can. Everyone better be on top of his game. I want this killer caught.”

“Wait a minute,” Sophia said. “I think I know what library he works at.”

“How?” Deveau questioned.

“It’s a case with MI5 so I can’t tell you any details; but, with that case, I frequent a certain library. Normally, I’m there looking for a specific book but I have, in the past, taken out books on code breaking and cryptography and computer codes and the like.”

“And?”

“I was in that library a few days ago looking for a book, and a man…” Sophia stopped. It had to be that man. She often got help from that particular librarian.

“You think you would know what he looks like?” Deveau asked.

“I can see his face right now.” She shivered.

Chapter 31

Sophia stood with Theo and his team outside the library she had visited only days before, waiting for it to open. Police units had surrounded all three libraries armed with search warrants. She was nervously wringing her hands, twice dropping the books she wanted to return. When a tired-looking, young woman finally opened the library, Sophia handed her the books. “I need to talk to the librarian.”

“She’s not in yet.”

“She? Last week when I was here, a man helped me.”

“We have two librarians, but today is Ken’s day off. Only Nick—”

“How many employees work here?” Theo asked.

The girl stood there holding Sophia’s books, staring at the group of them. “Why?”

Directing the girl by the elbow, Theo led her inside. He handed her the search warrant and took out his warrant card. “Look, I need information and I need it straight away. When will the librarian be in?”

Sophia and the team entered the library, and all of them began searching the aisle for staff.

“She should be in, but she’s just a little late is all,” the girl said.

“All right, and you’re not able to get the list?”

“What list?”

“The list of staff, the—” said Theo.

“What’s going on here?” asked a woman. “Susan, who are these people?”

“This man, he’s police, and he needs a list of all our employees.”

“Why?”

Theo handed her the search warrant. “We need a list of everyone that works here. It’s urgent.”

Sophia asked her, “How old is Nick?”

“He’s about twenty, twenty-one. Why?”

“I will have to see his face, but I don’t think we’re looking for Nick.” Sophia folded her arms in front of her to keep them from shaking uncontrollably. “Don’t worry, we’ll be discreet. It would be helpful if you could get us that list as soon as possible.”

Opening her office door, the librarian sat down at the computer and started typing. Sophia looked around the room. In the back corner, a young man walked toward a mobile shelf carrying an armload of books. Sophia tapped Theo’s arm and pointed toward the man. “If that is Nick, he is not the man I saw a few days back.”

A few minutes later, the librarian held a sheet of paper. There were only two names with addresses on it.

“And that is Nick?” Sophia pointed at the young man who watched the goings on.

“Yes.”

“No, it’s not him,” Sophia said. “Can you check the records of any who have library cards? What I mean is, do you have a way of knowing if someone has a card if I get you the name?”

“Of course.” She tapped nervously on the piece of paper in Sophia’s hand. “Why is this information so important? Is someone who works here in trouble? Is it Kenneth?”

“Please, just check a name. I’ll give you a couple of names to look up. You don’t need to tell me what their addresses are, only tell me if they have library cards.”

“What is the first name?”

“Margaret Hill.”

The librarian typed in the name. “We have two women by that name.”

“What about Carrie-Ann Morgan?”

“Yes, there is a Carrie-Ann Morgan.”

“Lorna McCauley?”

“Yes.”

“What about Helena Smithwick?”

More typing. “No, no Helena Smithwick.”

“Are there any Smithwicks?”

“We have a Jordon. Is her husband’s name Jordon?”

“No, no it’s not. That’s strange. Anyway, thank you.”

Almost at a run through the front door, Sophia and Theo headed for his Jeep. The rest of the team stayed behind to question the staff—especially Nick.

Holding up the piece of paper with the address on it, Sophia said, “We have him. Kenneth Raleigh Houghton.”

Whatever Sophia imagined the house of a serial killer to be, it wasn’t what she found. The house where Kenneth Houghton lived was in a long row of similar homes; and while his neighbors seemed satisfied with the unholy mess of rubbish that littered their front lawns, Mr. Houghton’s yard was immaculate.

No car sat in front of the house. “God, I hope he hasn’t left,” Sophia said as she and Theo walked toward the entrance. Sophia looked along the ground for anything unusual, although not sure what. A man who kept his home this tidy would not make a mistake easily.

Armed officers surrounded the house. Theo asked one of them, “Are the men in position?”

“Yes, sir.”

Theo rapped on the door and pressed his ear against it. When no one answered, he pressed a large green bell on the door frame. The sound echoed throughout the house. Sophia peered in the window. Sheer white curtains revealed an equally clean and tidy house. Light brown hardwood floors and tile stretched as far as she could see. The walls were white, the sofas were white; everything was so clean. Sophia couldn’t be sure the house was occupied at all.

“Did you ring?” asked Dorland, who had made his way around the house to the front. “There’s no vehicle. I don’t think he’s home.”

“I don’t think so either,” Theo said. “Call and get any information you can on the vehicle, anything under his name or this address. I want him found.” He motioned a man over to break down the door.