Simple Genius (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 3)
“Why?”
“He’s a piano player, that’s why.”
CHAPTER
66
AFTER WHAT HAPPENED on the river they kept Viggie out of school today,” Michelle said as Horatio and Sean followed her up the walk to Alicia’s cottage. “But I think she’ll only play for me.”
“Horatio brought his recorder,” Sean explained. “We’ll stay out of sight but we’ll still hear the song.”
“And then what?” Michelle asked.
“Then if it is code we can get some help decrypting it. I know at least one genius hanging around this place.”
Horatio placed his sound-activated recorder near the piano, but hidden behind some books. Afterward he and Sean snuck out to the screened-in front porch. Through an open window they could hear the music from there.
Michelle went upstairs, got Viggie and asked her to play the song for her again.
The girl dutifully did and then went back upstairs. Michelle retrieved the recorder and joined Horatio and Sean.
Sean said, “I’ve contacted Alicia at work. She’s coming over shortly. Horatio, in the meantime can you write down the notes to the song she was playing just by listening to it?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Wait a minute, you didn’t recognize the song, did you? If you do we can just check around for the sheet music. She must have it here somewhere.”
“Sorry, that stuff was a little too mellow for me,” Horatio admitted. “I’m more into classic rock.”
By the time Alicia arrived home Horatio had the notes written out. Sean showed them to her.
“So you think these are somehow a code?” she asked.
“That’s right,” Sean said.
“The thing is with musical notes you have only a few possibilities to work with.”
Horatio nodded. “A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Of course you can break them down into sharps, flats, etc.”
“Is that enough for you to work with, Alicia?” Sean said anxiously.
“I won’t know until I know,” she said. “Any idea what the subject matter might be?”
Sean looked at Michelle but remained silent.
Alicia, who’d been watching him, snapped, “Dammit, if you don’t trust me enough to tell me what you’re looking for, go find somebody else to help you.”
“Okay, okay.” He drew a deep breath. “You might want to think about Camp Peary, German prisoners of war and secret flights.”
Alicia’s eyes widened. “Just for the record, I’m a linguist and mathematician, not a cryptanalyst.”
“But some of the world’s best code breakers were linguists and math types,” Sean pointed out.
“Well it would be nice to have some more context to work with. Monk Turing was a very smart man. I doubt it’s something simple.”
Sean cried out, “Turing! Codes and blood. That must be it.”
“What must be it?” Michelle asked, staring at him in amazement.