Page 60 of Lost Cause
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 scrawledRail 1, Rail 2,andRail 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.”
