Читать книгу Among the Missing - H. R. Devlon - Страница 7

Jack Logan was sitting in the back booth of the Ruby Isle Panera’s, eating his breakfast, and reading the morning paper. As he turned to page 4A, a small picture in the “Regional Briefing” section caught his attention – it was a photo of Adam Barker:

What the hell…Logan thought, Adam’s missing? Since Friday night?

Wait a minute…What was Friday? The 12^th… Friday was the 12^th…When did Adam send that note? The 11^th, I think…I have to check that…

Logan hurriedly finished breakfast, walked the two blocks from Panera’s to his apartment building, took the elevator to his apartment on the third floor, went inside, and immediately started searching in the trash container under his kitchen sink.

A minute later, Logan found what he was looking for – the note and the cryptogram that he’d received the day before – crumpled, but still intact.

He place the two pieces of paper on his kitchen counter, grabbed a roll of scotch tape from one of his kitchen drawers, and proceeded to smooth and tape, smooth and tape, the note and the cryptogram to the counter:

…It was the 11^th…Adam wrote that note the day before he went missing…He must have known something was going to happen… Maybe the cryptogram will tell me something…

Logan studied the cryptogram very carefully. Let’s see…It’s a statement of some type…Subject, verb, object… right… the “ARM” is probably an article… probably “THE”…

Logan wrote “THE” above the first three letters in the cryptogram, and substituted the same three letters wherever they appeared throughout the cryptogram:

…Hmmm…if the last word is the object, the preceding word must be an adjective of some type... probably ending in “ING”…

Logan wrote “ING” above the last three letters in what he suspected was an adjective, and substituted the same three letters wherever they appeared throughout the cryptogram:

“That second word looks like it’s probably ‘SENTINEL’”, Logan said aloud. Then he nodded, and said, “Right. ‘SENTINEL’.” He wrote an “S” and an “L” above the second word, and he substituted the “S” wherever the “N” appeared throughout the cryptogram:

“O.K….let’s finish this”, Logan said. Then he completed the cryptogram by writing what he thought were the appropriate substitution letters wherever they were needed:

“‘The sentinel guards the missing man’… O.K.…that makes sense… Adam is the missing man… right…But who or what is the sentinel?”

Logan frowned. “‘Sentinel’ is pretty ambiguous, Barker… that could refer to the military, to law enforcement, to an insurance firm, or to a protection agency…or it could refer to a newspaper like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel… it could even refer to one of those movies or television productions with ‘Sentinel’ in the title…”

Logan shook his head. “Not helpful, Barker. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Logan was ready to give up in disgust, when he suddenly remembered something very important about Adam Barker: …Wait…I usually did know what you were talking about, didn’t I, Barker? You were very precise and very specific with almost every communication we ever had…so if I don’t know what you’re talking about, then you’ve deliberately picked a reference that…

“Michelle must know, right?” Logan said aloud. Then he nodded. “Well played, Barker. I have to call Michelle if I’m going to discover who or what ‘the sentinel’ is. She has to help me so that I can help her…O.K….O.K….You win, Barker. I’ll call Michelle – but that doesn’t mean all is forgiven…it just means that, even after the betrayals, I can’t let Michelle struggle alone if she truly needs my help. But you already knew that, didn’t you, Barker?”

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