The Puzzle of Piri Reis (26 page)

The encrypted code was simple to apply. The first
character in the translation was an E, and the E in
Bernard transposed to a B in the alphabet.

Quickly I transposed the others, coming up with
BY YY in the first word, GY in the second, and in the
fourth, GB Y.

BYYYGYGBY

Nothing! Pure gibberish.

Could it be Bernard Odom was playing one big joke
on everyone? No. I couldn't believe it. The map did
exist. I squeezed my eyes shut in frustration. The map
did exist, but what did that crazy old man do with it?

A knock at the door caused me to jump.

I glanced at my watch, surprised to see it was almost
nine o'clock. I peered through the viewer. My frustration vanished. It was the same young woman I had seen
with Lamia Sue outside the Elena Towers last week.

I opened the door. "Yes?"

The hollow-eyed woman glanced up and down the
hall warily. "You the guy looking for Lamia Sue?"

"Oh? Are you her roommate?"

"Yeah. She's dead, you know."

I stepped back. "I know. Won't you come in?" She
hesitated. I stepped back in the room. "We'll leave the
door open, okay?"

I moved across the room and sat on the couch next to
the outside wall. She followed me in, pausing just before
she reached the bed. Her eyes took in the room with an
animal wariness, and she fiddled absently with a missing button on her blouse. Her wristwatch slid down her
thin wrist.

At that moment, I knew what had struck me as odd about the photograph in Edna's office of her at the The
Clock the night she went to Don Quick's concert. In the
snapshot, her watch was on her left hand, not the right.

The young woman cleared her throat. "The clerk
said you had something for her family?"

"And a nice fee for whoever helps me"

She dragged the tip of her tongue across her dry
lips. "So what is it?"

"Your fee?" I pointed to a sealed envelope on the end
table by the couch. "Five hundred bucks. Interested?"

Her eyes lit with greed. "Maybe"

I leaned back on the couch. "Look, I'm really after information, and it's worth five big ones. Still interested?"

She hesitated, eyeing me warily. "I didn't have nothing to do with her death"

"That's not why I'm here. You won't be involved in
a thing. In fact, I don't even want to know your name."

Her eyes studied me for several moments and then she
nodded. "Name's Leslie. What do you want to know?"

"Were you with her long?"

"Ever since she got back in town about six months
ago"

"Look, I know she was a stringer." Her eyes grew
wide. I quickly reassured her. "This isn't about the
drugs. You know she received a monthly allowance from
her uncle, didn't you?"

"Sure. That was no secret"

I drew a deep breath. "I heard it was close to ten
thousand a month"

The wary tension on her gaunt face broke into a
wreath of smiles. "Ten thousand. I wish. Someone's
been feeding you a line, friend. Five thousand from
the old man. She picked up another three thousand in
cash, but I don't know where it come from for sure."

"Cash?" I frowned, remembering Cobb's monthly
payoff, which was two thousand. Was Lamia Sue blackmailing someone else? I didn't have to pretend I was
puzzled, for I was. Edna claimed Odom gave Lamia
Sue eight thousand. Someone was lying or else my
young friend didn't know what she was talking about.
"Are you sure, Leslie? I would have sworn they told
me ten."

Relaxing some, she replied, "I've seen the checks
when she deposited them. All signed by her uncle."

I studied her another moment. "That three thousand
in cash. Was it from the dealing?"

She shook her head emphatically. "No, that was
extra."

"Any idea where she got it?"

Leslie eyed me for several moments. "Once I was
with her when a small, fat little man handed her an envelope down on the River Walk. There was cash in it.
I guess maybe from him."

Cobb flashed to mind. Had he lied to me? Was he
dishing out three thousand a month to her? Why would
he lie over another thousand? I picked up the envelope
and tossed it on the bed in front of her. "There you are.
Paid in full."

She eyed me suspiciously, then grabbed the envelope and stuffed it in her pocket.

"Are you going to count it?"

A sly smile curled her lips. "It's there" She turned
to the door, then hesitated and looked back at me.

"You a cop?"

"PI"

"You know anything about her death?"

"Only that she was strangled. Do you?"

She pressed her lips together. "Not about that, but I
was with her when she got a call to go down to the
hotel"

I tried to still my excitement. "She say who it was
from?"

"No, but the way she talked, she expected a larger
check in the months to come."

"Are you sure?"

She arched an eyebrow. "I'm sure"

I sat staring at the open door for several minutes after she left. If Lamia Sue expected a larger check, then
she was trying to up the ante on someone, but who?

While the young woman's brain cells were probably down to the last few hundred, Leslie seemed certain about the five thousand dollar allowance. Still, I
reminded myself, her answers could be nothing more
than a residual carryover from the drugs she poked up
her nostrils.

Still, it was something to consider.

My stomach growled. I'd forgotten all about dinner but I was too tired to go out. After a shower, I climbed
into bed and finally dropped off into a troubled sleep.

Rising early next morning, I popped down to the
lobby for coffee and a couple of bagels from the inn's
continental breakfast buffet.

Back in my room, I glanced at the unsolved puzzle.
I was fresh out of ideas, so instead, while nibbling on
the bagels, I turned back to the information from the
night before. According to the young woman, Lamia's
allowance was five thousand. Edna claimed it was eight.

And then Lamia was called to the hotel in anticipation of receiving more money. Instead, she was murdered. By the same perp who murdered Bernard Odom.
Had I not checked Cobb's whereabouts, I would have
figured he was the one but he had a solid alibi.

I leaned back and stared at the pile of note cards, a
sinking feeling beginning to grow in my stomach. She
couldn't have been blackmailing her uncle. Edna would
have known, for she wrote out the checks. And what
about the other three thousand a month? Leslie claimed
she had seen some of the checks. If Lamia Sue was getting the three thousand, where was it going?

Pulling out my note cards, I spread them over the
table.

Starting back at the beginning, I tried to reconstruct
that night. Odom was in his den. After telling him good
night, Edna left at her regular time. She saw a white
car outside, Joe Hogg's, but he claimed he didn't drive up until 7:45, then departed without going inside. Why
would he lie about that? At eight Ted returned Odom's
encyclopedia of ancient maps to his uncle. Then
around 8:20 Maddox arrived. He and Odom argued,
and he shoved Odom to the floor. When Cobb arrived
at nine thirty Odom was dead, suffocated. At eleven
o'clock, Ted Odom discovered his father's body.

I studied the time line. I was missing something, but
what?

At that moment, the phone rang. I glanced at my
watch. Just after ten. It was Jimmy Tamez. "Got your
stuff, Tony"

"Great. Was it what I thought?'

"Not exactly."

I grimaced.

"The woman caught a cab when she left work. I got a
good shot of her. On a hunch, I followed the cab. She
got out at the corner of Fannin and Sepulta and climbed
into a gray Rolls Royce. I ran the tag"

"Don't tell me. Joe Hogg."

"Exactly. I'm sending the shots over to you now."

After hanging up, I went back over my note cards,
rearranging them to put a different perspective on the
case.

I went back and reread the scenario I had just recreated of the night of Odom's death. Halfway through, I
caught my breath. Hastily, I thumbed through my cards,
pulling out one of the first ones I had jotted down when
I interviewed Edna.

"Yes. I came up here that night, and he was sitting at his desk reading one of his favorite books,
the Dictionary of Ancient Phoenician Maps."

Fumbling through my cards, I found the one detailing my interview with Joe Hogg.

"Yeah, I got there about seven forty-five or so, but
I didn't go in the house. I went there to make a final offer on the map. I sat in the car a moment,
then decided not to. I drove away."

I leaned back and stared at the cards on the table before me. After a few moments collecting my thoughts, I
called Chief Ibbara. He was out and wouldn't be back
until after the funeral.

Just before I left for the funeral, Tamez's photos arrived. They were perfect.

Only a select handful of mourners attended Lamia
Sue's funeral at two o'clock that afternoon. I sat at the
rear of the room, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.

After the service, Chief Ibbara and I remained
behind as the small contingent passed in front of us and
climbed into the limousine behind the hearse. I paid
particular attention to Edna. Her watch was on her right
wrist.

After the small procession of vehicles disappeared
around the corner, Ibbara glanced at me. "So, what's up?"

Keeping my suspicions to myself, I headed back in
the house, explaining I'd turned up some puzzling questions about Bernard Odom's finances for the last few
years. I wanted a court order to open the records.

Ibbara jerked to a halt before entering Edna's office. "You're nuts. Why?"

I studied the snapshot of Edna at The Clock. Her
watch was on her left wrist, and it was her left hand
covering the right. There was no brown patch on her
left hand. My eyes moved up to her dress. It buttoned
like a man's, from the right. My heart thudded against
my chest. Struggling to control my excitement, I muttered, "Just say I got an idea. So how about humoring
me? Can you get them?" I looked around at him, keeping my suspicions to myself.

He shook his head emphatically. "Ain't no way. You
know I can't get a judge to authorize something like
that just because I want them. I got no probable cause.
Can you get that for me?"

I glanced at the old watchtower three stories above us,
remembering the years of files stored there. "Maybe" I
paused, then nodded. "Yeah, I think I-"

"I don't want to know nothing. Just get it."

After Ibbara left, I called Leo Cobb. He reaffirmed
that his blackmail money was only two thousand a
month. I headed for Joe Hogg's. While I didn't have
hard evidence, I figured I had enough to make him
wonder. And maybe that would lead me to some. And
maybe it wouldn't.

Hogg answered the door himself. With a genial smile,
he invited me in. "Still looking for that map, huh?" He
gestured to a chair at the patio table. "What's your poison?" he asked, opening up a portable bar in the shade
of the awning.

While he appeared amiable enough, I sensed an undercurrent of uneasiness. "Anything cold"

He mixed us a couple of icy rum Collins, heavy on
the rum, easy on the Collins. He plopped heavily into a
wrought-iron chair that I expected to bend with his
bulk. It didn't, but it groaned. "So, what can I do for you
today?"

I sipped my drink and looked him straight in the
eyes. "First, tell me once again about where you were
on October second"

He pressed his lips together tightly. "I told you
once"

"I know but tell me again."

After a drawn-out sigh, he repeated his story, the
same one he had told earlier.

"And you're certain it was seven forty-five?"

"Yeah. I told you before. And then I went down to
the Alamo Sports Bar. Like I told you before, you can
ask Ca-"

"I know, I know. Calvin. Now, one more thing.
What's going on between you and Edna Hudson?"