The Lost Souvlakis Mystery: Chapter 28

Chapter 28

            Several weeks passed without incident. Sydney and Sean recovered from the shock of Mr. Glover’s initial phone call and, finding the crisis averted, admitted that they were looking for an excuse to jump ship and get home. Paul and Emily and Ellie made the long slow ocean crossing and returned to Fredericksburg as well. They found the front window repaired and everything in good order at the store.

            There was no word from Deffenbaugh and no news of stolen jewels ever made it onto the news, nor even onto the internet. The Bonney Boys resumed part time work in the store around their regular schedules, and made an outward effort to carry on business as usual. But in their spare time, they read and re-read the Souvlakis notes, hoping to penetrate their meaning.

“Since ewe won’t accept my terms, old ‘friends,’

I’ve changed the plans to meat my ends.

But wood eye leave you dry and high?

Ewe said In TEAM there is no I

Nor in LON nor TGER nor BEAR

I’ve left you what I think is fair.

If my black Owl finds this note

I’ll contact you in time

Till then in Berkeley is the truth

Laid bear and knot in rhyme.

Keep an eye on the

Prey my friend this has a happy end.”

            And the note that Souvlakis had sent directly to Otis.

Peel an I if eye go

When someone asks for me you’ll know

They’re the ones you’ll need to track

Don’t close the net or hold them back

I’ve got things set I’ve got a plan

See indigo and see our man

But if my plan should go awry

And my name is in disgrace

Don’t let me down - ten down each day

Says clearly what I cannot say.

You’re the only one who knows

There’s real Hope for Grace

And the rest is safe through tucked away

In vulnerable but in visible pray

            They boys read them so often that they had them memorized. Some of the lines seemed to relate directly to things they’d already discovered. In the first riddle, everything was accounted for except the last two lines.

            “Keep and eye on the blank,” muttered Cable, as he and Jack walked from the grocery store to the bookstore with a pocket full of hazelnut creamers. “Pray my friend this has a happy end.”

            “When we was talking about eyes and I’s earlier he meant literally in the eyes of the animals. Maybe he means in the ends of the animals,” suggested Jack.

            “The ends?” repeated Cable.

            “You know, their—“

            “Wait for me!” shouted Quinn, speeding down the street on his bike.

            “What is it?”

            “Chad just called the house,” he said.

            “And?”

            “And he says why do you guys bother to carry cell phones if you never answer them?” said Quinn.

            “Because I don’t care who’s going to play him in the movie version of his life,” muttered Cable, pulling his phone out of his pocket. The screen showed two messages, both from Chad.

            “Did you come out here to tell us that?” asked Jack.

            They were almost back at the bookstore. “No,” said Quinn, “I came out here because I just listened to a message that he left us a couple weeks ago. Have you heard it?”

            Jack shook his head. “I deleted everything. I’ve seen him, like, a dosen times since then, so I figured… you know…”

            “So did I. Until this morning. I thought it was a new message, so I listened to it,” said Quinn.

            Cable pushed the voice mail button on his phone and listened. The message Chad had left just moment ago played first.

            “Hey, it’s Chad. I want you guys to take a look at my statement for the police. I think I’ve got it right, I’m worried that it’s too much Raymond Chandler and not enough David Mamet. I want to be terse but not noir, and—“

            Cable skipped the rest of that one. The message from the day of all the excitement played next.

            “Hey, it’s Chad. I’m at the bookstore and I’ve been looking at these crossword puzzle books. There’s like a dozen of them, all filled in, with Souvlakis name in them. Have you seen these things? They’re all done in ink and at first I was like, holy cow this guy is good. But it’s all gobblety-gook. He hasn’t solved the puzzles, he’s just written in random letters. In every fracking puzzle! It’s got to mean something, right? Call me.”

            Cable’s jaw dropped.

            “What is it?” said Jack.

            “The line from the riddle he sent to Otis,” said Cable.

            “What?” said Jack again. “play it for me.”

            Cable handed Jack his phone and Jack cued up the message. When he’d listened, he handed the phone back to Cable.

            “Ten down each day,” quoted Cable, “says clearly what I cannot say.”

            “The crossword puzzle books!” said Jack, “Where are they?”

            “At the store,” said Quinn, “They didn’t seem like anything special. I don’t even know if we kept them.”

            The boys ran the rest of the way to the bookstore. Emily and Ellie were there.

            “Where are those crossword puzzle books?” shouted the boys in unison.

            “I tossed them,” said Emily, “they were all written in.”

            “All of them?” cried Quinn in despair.

            “I think so,” said Emily. “Except maybe there was one I didn’t. One of them wasn’t finished, so I kept it.”

            “That would by the most recent one,” exclaimed Jack, “where is it? Where is it?”

            Emily shrugged. “On my desk? At home? I don’t know.”

            “Ellie,” said Cable turning to his cousin, “have you seen it? This is important.”

            “The yellow crossword puzzle book?” she asked.

            “Yes.”

            “It’s downstairs on the shipping table.”

            The Bonney Boys dashed off down the steps that led to the basement. They found the crossword puzzle book there and brought it back upstairs.

            “They have crossword puzzles in the newspaper every day,” said Emily. “You guys are acting like they were just invented.”

            The boys didn’t respond. They flipped to the most recent puzzle that was finished. The whole thing was filled in, in ink, in Souvlakis handwriting. He’d written 10:30-10:42  and the date in the margin. They scanned the boxes.

            “Chad was right,” said Cable, “it’s just random letters. All of it.”

            “Check for ten down,” said Jack.

            Cable read the clue. “Broadway Baby, perhaps?”

            They scanned the puzzle for what Souvlakis has written as the answer.

            “ARCHILOCHUSCOLUBRIS,” read Jack.

            “That doesn’t mean anything,” said Cable.

            “Check another one,” said Quinn.
            They flipped back a couple pages. Another filled-in puzzle with the date and a narrow window of time written in.

            “The clue for ten down is ‘Jack Dempsey or Barack Obama,’” read Cable.

            “And he’s written CROTALUSATROX,” said Jack.

            “I can’t believe it,” said Quinn. “I was so hoping this was it!”

            Jack was already on another page, “RANAVENENOSA” he read. Then, “LEPIDOTHRIXIRIS,” then, “CERCOPITHECUSKANDTI.”

            He closed the book and tossed it onto the counter. “So much for that idea,” he said.

            “What are you doing?” asked Ellie. “Is this about the Smithsonian adventure?”

            Cable nodded. “We thought we’d figured out one of the last parts of the riddles.”

            “Are you still hoping to find the jewels?” she asked.

            “Of course,” said Jack. “Max said there’s still no sign of them. The whole renovation has been shut down, of course, since Franklin was arrested. So they’re still out there.”

            “You wouldn’t be able to keep them,” said Emily, “you know that, right?”

            “Why not?” asked Jack, “what happened to finder’s keepers?”

            “Good luck,” said Emily.

            Ellie walked over to the computer. “Read me one of those strings of letters,” she said. “doesn’t Google have an automatic word scrambler search?”

            Quinn picked up the book and flipped to the last of the filled-in puzzles. “ARCHILOCHUSCOLUBRIS,” he read.

            Ellie typed in the letters. When the search results popped up on the screen, she did a double take. “You guys are going to want to see this,” she said.

            Quinn leaned over and looked at the search results. “Ruby throated hummingbird,” he read. “What did you search for?”

            “I typed in the letters you read to me,” said Ellie, “that’s what came up. It’s the Latin name for Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.”

            “Ruby throated?!” exclaimed Cable, “Like ruby?”

            “Yeah,” said Ellie, “We have them around here.”

            “Like the gem, ruby?” continued Cable.

            Jack grabbed the crossword puzzle book and turned back a page. “Try this one,” he said, “CROTALUSATROX.”

            Quinn typed it in. The results popped up instantaneously.

            “Latin again,” he read, “Diamond Backed Rattlesnake.”

            Jack and Cable whooped and hollered, “this is it! We’ve found them!”