Chapter 16
Burke walked beside Abby toward the dining room, pondering this recent find on the way.
He didn’t want Victor to be disappointed over a wife who cheated on him, but he believed she’d done just that.
He understood how the man was feeling. Tiffany had not only fallen in love with his partner, she’d let her deception go on until their wedding day. The worst kind of trust break ever.
On top of it, having a falling out with a brother and never speaking to him again?
Burke couldn’t even comprehend that. Not when he would do anything to have his little brother back.
If he hadn’t been so eager to escape his strict parents, he would’ve stayed at home and seen his brother’s struggles.
Seen his drug addiction. Could’ve prevented it all, and his brother would be alive today.
But Victor didn’t seem to have such qualms about being separated from his brother. He was allowing his anger over Vincent’s interest in Estelle to let this rift continue even after all these years.
Would he have the same outcome as Burke? A deceased brother and extreme guilt over failing him? Burke wouldn’t wish such pain on anyone.
Abby glanced up at him. “Do you think Victor’s right about Estelle not having an affair, but was just hoping to profit from selling the real crown?”
Burke drew his thoughts away from his brother and back to the investigation. “I’d like to think he is, but my past experience says it’s not likely she wasn’t having an affair.”
“Personal or professional experience?”
“Both, but mostly on the job,” He quickly glossed over the subject he still wasn’t ready to share with her. “And I have to believe Detective Orman was on to something when he’d heard the rumors.”
“Who do you think was spreading those rumors?”
“Probably people they socialized with. Maybe a woman scorned by the man having an affair with Estelle.”
“Or could be hotel staff,” she said. “If she met a man there.”
“Problem is, it happened too long ago to find out unless we can get Orman to tell us.”
“His files might hint at who it is, and we can follow up with them. If not, we can talk to everyone he interviewed.”
“Agreed, but I think Estelle’s journals are far more promising. I want to dig into those first.”
“I could have someone on my team do the interviews.”
He shook his head. “I’d want an official deputy to handle them, so it’ll have to be Gabe.”
“I’m sure he’ll be glad to give up his babysitting duties.” She laughed.
Burke smiled, but his phone chimed, and he whipped his attention to the screen. “A text from Deputy Mullen. She has boat registration details.”
Abby got out her phone and held it out to him. “Hayden’s number.”
Burke quickly entered Hayden’s phone number and fired off the owner’s name. “Not that I’m overly optimistic, but let’s hope this gives us something to go on.”
“Sometimes the things you least expect to come through are the ones that do.”
Her melancholy tone hinted at something else beneath her comment, but she didn’t say anything and entered the dining room.
Gabe sat in the same chair, a journal open in front of him. “I thought you two got lost.”
She told him about the trunk and the conversation with Victor.
He tapped the journal he was reading with a gloved finger. “So far nothing here mentioning an affair.”
Abby moved to the end of the room and took the other books from the evidence bag. “Are these dated?”
He nodded. “I’m reading the oldest one, two years before she disappeared. Nothing of interest, but she does mention Vincent flirted with her. She liked it but said it wouldn’t go anywhere.”
“It’ll be interesting to see if her thoughts changed over time.” Burke grabbed disposable gloves from a box on the table. “How many of these books do we have?”
“Eight,” Gabe said. “She doesn’t make a daily entry. Just enters things that seem important to her. Each book covers roughly a third of a year. It’s not consistent though. The last one is May of the year she went missing.”
Abby picked through the journals and retrieved the final book. “I’ve got the last one.”
Burke chose a book and took it to a chair. “I’ll split the difference. This one’s in the middle.”
They sat silently, paging through the books. Estelle’s handwriting with flourishes on her capital letters was neat and not difficult to read. And very distinct, making it easy to tell if someone else had made an entry, but so far no one else had written in the book.
As Burke read, he soon formed a picture. “She once enjoyed living in Oregon, but was getting frustrated with the lack of culture and arts, and seemed interested in moving back to France.”
Abby narrowed her eyes. “Just the opposite of what Victor, Ugo, and Sylvia said.”
Burke nodded. “She also says she needs to get the courage to discuss it with Victor. She doubts he would ever agree to move from this home. No mention of the crown, though. Or of an affair, or someone she was even interested in. And no mention of any letters or contact from Vincent.”
“That all goes along with what Victor told us,” Abby said.
Burke flipped the page and stared at her next entry. Not only was it in capital letters, but it made no sense.
BGYRWPIAAYDYRGAIDACONELCRDMSFNBYROIINLCWREIAUTIDUEFG
“Got something odd here.” Burke looked up. “She suddenly starts writing in gibberish. My guess is it’s some sort of code.”
“No one ever mentioned her being proficient in code writing,” Abby said. “But I suppose she could’ve been.”
“I’ve been known to figure out a puzzle or cipher or two.” Gabe held out a hand. “Let me take a look.”
Burke slid the journal to him.
Abby stood behind her associate. “How does it make any kind of sense?”
“It’s a cipher for sure,” Gabe said. “Odds are good she would’ve used one of the easiest ones out there. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll figure it out.
She squeezed his shoulder, then picked up a new journal. “This one starts in September. Estelle doesn’t disappear for another year.”
“The month she took those pictures with the crown.” Burke wished she would’ve left that one for him to review.
“Exactly why I chose it.” Abby went back to her chair and opened her book.
“Not a Caesar or Atbash cipher or even ROT13,” Gabe muttered. “And clearly not Pigpen or Morse Code either.”
“I assume what you just said is helpful.” Burke laughed.
“I’d call these the top five most common ciphers out there,” Gabe answered without looking up. “Which narrows it down to one she could’ve used.”
“Good news then,” Abby said.
“Paper!” Gabe shouted. “I think I’ve got it, but I need a pen and paper to be sure.”
Tearing out a page from her notepad, Abby took it to him along with her pen.
He grabbed them and scrawled Rail 1, Rail 2, and Rail 3, one phrase above the other.
Burke had no idea what a rail had to do with codes, but he wouldn’t disturb Gabe to find out. Next he began writing the letters from the message, starting with Rail 1, then moving down and plotting the letters next to the different rails.
He entered the last letter and pumped a fist up in the air. “Yes! This is it. A Rail Fence or Zigzag Cipher.”
“I don’t see a message yet,” Abby said as Burke slid his chair down the table to them.
“It’s simple if you know what you’re looking at,” Gabe said. “Follow the letter pattern.”
He tapped the letters, alternating between the three rails. He figured out the first word was big and the second word day. Then, writing in large print across the bottom of the page, he transcribed the note:
Big day. Crown replica ready. Must find buyer for original.
“Replica?” Abby dropped into the chair next to him. “Estelle had a replica made?”
“Could be why she was posing with it.” Burke fought to keep his enthusiasm in check. “It wasn’t the real thing, and she was proud of it.”
“We need to look at those Polaroids again.” Abby pushed to her feet. “If she’s holding a fake, she could’ve put the replica in Victor’s cabinet back then and disappeared with the real crown years ago.”
Abby made quick work of retrieving the old Polaroids from the evidence inventory bin and returned to the dining room to spread them out on the table.
“We can compare these to the picture of the crown Victor gave us.” She found the photo on her phone and held it out so Burke and Gabe could see the real one too.
“Try to stop me.” Burke circled the table to come stand behind her.
She looked back and forth between all the photos, not seeing any discrepancies. “It’s almost like the pictures you see on social media where you have to find the differences. I can do those, but I don’t see any variations.”
“It might be just me or maybe it’s the lighting,” Burke said, “but the jewels on the crown Estelle is holding don’t reflect the light the same way.”
“Maybe.” Gabe glanced up. “Like you said, it could be the lighting.”
Abby studied the jewel placement on each Polaroid picture. “Does the ruby on the right side look like it’s in the same place? It appears further spaced from the emerald to me.”
Burke leaned over the table and picked up one of the pictures. “She’s holding this one in almost an identical direction as Victor’s photo, and I think you’re right. It’s different.”
“Agreed,” Gabe said.
Abby leaned back. “So Estelle might’ve stolen the real crown and our current-day thief has a fake.”
Burke frowned. “It wouldn’t take long for a jeweler to identify the fake gems and tell the thief the crown was worthless.”
Gabe took a seat across the table from them. “If you were the thief, what would you do when you heard that?”
“I’d think Victor tricked me,” Burke said. “That he’d hidden the real crown for safekeeping. So I’d come back to search for it.”
“Could’ve actually happened that way,” Abby said. “And we need to search the house.”
Burke nodded. “I can assign deputies to do that.”
“If it really did happen like this, we could use it to identify the thief.” Gabe shifted to face Abby. “We could catch him in the act of coming back, but we’d have to stay here twenty-four/seven or install cameras.”