twenty-seven

After I finished reading the journal, I felt slimy all over, as if I’d been handling snakes. I wiped my hands on my dress. Once again, Coop had withheld critical information about Barb. Why hadn’t he told me about that day in the gazebo? Was it too intimate? Embarrassing? None of my business?

Hot, sour fluid spurted into my mouth, and I cracked open the truck’s door. I hated to be sick on the library’s pavement, so I forced myself to gulp air. If I showed the diary to Red, he would yell at me for taking a foolish risk. He would call the Bonaventure police and make me press assault charges against Norris.

Breathe, breathe, breathe.

I’d promised Helen that I wouldn’t make a fuss. My motives were purely selfish because I wanted to stay on her good side. Barb had slept with A.M. and Lester. There was at least a fifty-fifty chance that Emerson wasn’t a Philpot.

Sir scooted next to me and put his head on my leg. I knew he wanted a reassuring pat, but I couldn’t move. Tears ran down my cheeks, prickled over my raw lip, and curved under my chin. I don’t know how long I sat there. Finally I drove to the Square and parked in front of Baskin-Robbins. It was against the law to bring a dog into the store, but I wasn’t leaving him in the hot truck.

Sir strutted ahead of me into the air-conditioned store. Zee looked up from the glass ice-cream case. “Teeny, that dog can’t come in here.” She broke off. “What happened to your lip?”

“Gop hip.” I led Sir to the counter.

“Who did this?”

“Norrith.”

At the sound of his name, Zee rocked on her heels. Her eyes hardened. “That no-good, pasty-faced pervert. Did you call the police?”

“No.”

Zee made an ice pack and held it against my lip. “You need to report his ass. He beat you.”

“If I do, the Philpots won’t let me get near Emerson.” I spoke slowly, enunciating each word carefully so Zee could understand.

“You shouldn’t be alone,” she said. “What if Norris comes after you?”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I couldn’t go back to Irene’s house. She’d tell Coop about my lip and he was sick. He didn’t need any extra worries.

“I’ll manage,” I said.

She looked at her watch. “My shift is almost over. Keep that ice on your lip. Then we’ll figure out what to do.”

My hands began to shake. “Thanks, but I can take care of myself.”

“Sure you can. You’re like a free-range chicken. And Norris is the hawk.”

Twelve minutes later, I was driving down Savannah Highway. Zee was right behind me in a blue Volkswagen. As I turned down the driveway, I began to see holes in my plan. Irene and Red were probably wondering where I’d gone. I’d need to call and make up a plausible story, or Red would come looking for me.

I pulled up to the house and climbed out of the truck. The sun was almost gone, leaving fiery, pink smudges in the clouds. An unfamiliar white van was parked on the grass. And a strange man sat in the porch swing, hunched over a laptop computer.

Zee pulled in behind me, and music drifted through her open window, Jay-Z singing “99 problems.” She hopped out of her car. “That’s my cousin Asia,” she said. “Like the continent. He’s a microbiologist.”

I stuffed Barb’s diary into my pocket and followed Zee to the porch. Asia stood, gripping his laptop. He wore camouflage shorts and a UGA t-shirt. Long, hairy toes jutted out of leather sandals. His beard was short and sculpted, as if it had been dipped in espresso powder. A Glock jutted above his belt. The same gun Red carried.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said.

“Likewise,” I said.

To my surprise, Sir didn’t bark. One of his ears swiveled toward the orchard, quivering each time a bobwhite called out, and his other ear tracked my movements.

Zee grabbed her cousin’s arm. “Thanks for setting aside your busy-ass schedule to be Teeny’s bodyguard.”

“No problem,” he said. “I just rescheduled my tai chi class.”

Bodyguard? I was too thankful to speak.

“You all hungry?” Asia lifted two huge paper sacks. “I bought take-out from King Kong Chinese.”

“Asia thinks food solves all problems,” Zee said.

I used to think that, too. I unlocked the house. I’d left the air conditioners blasting, but this was Georgia heat and the humidity had seeped through the walls and windows, filling the rooms with a warm, weighted pressure.

Asia set the paper bags on the kitchen table and veered to the refrigerator. He put ice cubes into a dishcloth, then he pushed it into my hands. “Fifteen minutes on, fifteen off,” he said.

“You hurt anywhere else?” Zee asked.

I lifted the hem of my dress a few inches. Just above my boots, my knees were cross-hatched with thin red lines, each one caked with dried blood. And I felt sleepy. I just wanted to curl up in Mama’s old featherbed with my dog and rest for a few days.

“I know you’re hurting, but try to eat,” Zee said, opening cartons. She got a plate and spooned up fried rice, sesame balls, and General Tsao’s Chicken.

Asia put his hands on his hips. “Where do you keep your forks?”

Over Zee’s protests I got up and opened a drawer. I handed Asia the cutlery and started to shut the drawer, but I saw a flash of blue. I lifted Barb’s envelope and walked back to the table.

“What’s that you got?” Zee leaned over my shoulder.

“Barb sent my boyfriend some clues before she died. That’s why I went to the Philpots’ house. To see if I could find anything.”

I handed the envelope to Zee and explained about Emerson, the DNA test, the diary, and the body parts.

Zee opened the envelope and pulled out the blue note. “What is this?”

“Anagrams.” I traced my finger under each line, decoding the words. “I found a key in a fur coat—clues under the fur. I saw a mural in her foyer—clues on the wall. She’d painted a mural. A picture of my boyfriend—and me.”

I omitted the headless part.

“Are these clues, too?” Zee peeked inside the envelope and her forehead wrinkled.

I leaned closer. Barb’s blocky handwriting was scrawled inside the envelope. My heart tripped as I scanned each phrase.

ADULTS GROWLER

HOP TO

TISSUE WHIM WIT

CEDE NEPHRITIS ION UP

NASAL DYNAMICS

BECK YOLK OX

ANAL FINK BERM JINN

A THOUSAND LIVERS

I carried the envelope to the table. “I wish I had an anagram solver.”

“I can find one on my laptop,” Asia said.

“But I don’t have wireless Internet,” I said.

“My laptop is 4g / WIMAX-enabled.” He sat down next to me and opened his Dell. His fingers curled over the keyboard. “What’s the first phrase, Teeny?”

“ADULTS GROWLER.”

He typed in the phrase. Then he whistled. “Wow, 7,215 results. Does LARGEST WOULDST mean anything to you?”

“No.” I leaned toward him and scanned the list. On the fifth row, I saw DRUGSTORE WALL.

“That’s got to be it,” I said. “She put something on the drugstore wall.”

“But why did she write two sets of anagrams?” Zee lifted Barb’s note.

Asia snapped his fingers. “Could the anagrams inside the envelope possibly cross-reference the anagrams in the note?”

“Clever,” Zee said. “Like Russian nesting dolls.”

I handed the envelope to Asia. “Let’s find out.”

Asia typed in HOP TO. Only ten results. But PHOTO was listed at the top of the list.

“So she put a photo on the drugstore wall?” Zee asked.

Asia typed in TISSUE WHIM WIT and hit the return key. A long row of results came up, and nearly every other word was SWIMSUIT. At the bottom of the list I saw WHITE SWIMSUIT. Back in high school, Barb had always worn white suits because they showed off her tan.

Zee scrunched up her face. “Does this make any sense, Teeny?”

“Not yet.”

A clicking sound rose up as Asia typed NASAL DYNAMICS. I half expected it to be the name of a medical company, but it turned out to be CAYMAN ISLANDS. BECK YOLK OX was easy—LOCK BOX KEY. I thought of the little key I’d found in the fox jacket.

Asia typed in ANAL FINK BERM JINN. We scanned the list. He tapped the screen, right next to FABLE MARK JINN INN.

“Could that be a hotel in the Caymans?” he asked.

The results for CEDE NEPHRITIS ION UP produced over 80,000 hits, each one beginning with CEDE. Not a single one made sense. A THOUSAND LIVERS had 10,000 possible solutions, including A HALVED SINUS ROT and A VERDANT SUSHI LO.

“We still lack three anagrams,” Asia said. “Let me type in CEDE NEPHRITIS ION UP again.”

Zee hopped off the table. “I wish we could get inside Philpot Pharmacy and look at the walls.”

“We can,” I said. “I’ve got a key. And the code to the burglar alarm.”

I explained about Kendall’s Hello Kitty key chain and how the code was her birthday.

Asia scowled. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of breaking and entering.”

“We need to see what’s on the drugstore’s walls,” Zee said.

“Are you crazy? It’s Saturday night. The Bonaventure PD has extra patrol cars on the weekend. They’ve got to keep the tourists safe. Besides, what could you find on a damn wall?”

“Barb hid clues,” I said. “I’m guessing they’re in a photograph, or behind one.”

“And if you find this picture, then what?” he asked.

“It may have information about the Caymans bank account. Whatever it is, I’ll show it to my boyfriend. He can talk to the Bonaventure DA. They’ll get a search warrant.”

“I don’t think it works that way,” Asia said. “Where’s the probable cause?”

“That’s right,” Zee said. “On Law & Order, there’s always probable cause.”

“There’s another problem,” Asia said. “We don’t know if we’ve correctly solved these anagrams. DRUGSTORE WALL could also be GORED RUST WALL.”

“It’s the drugstore.” I touched my lip. Damn, it hurt.

“But why did this woman put a clue on a wall that her husband sees every day?” Asia asked. “There’s either a flaw in her logic or yours.”

Zee’s eyes got huge. “Maybe she wanted him to find it?”

“Then why did she send the anagrams to Teeny’s boyfriend?” Asia asked.

I shut my eyes. Barb had used these anagrams to lure Coop, to ensnare him in her problems. She’d wanted to lead him to the drugstore wall. But I couldn’t believe that she’d meant for him to see her diary.

Sir howled and ran to the front door. Asia pulled out his Glock and walked to the porch. Sir raced down the steps. Red squatted behind Asia’s van, writing in a notepad.

“Hey, mutherfucker,” Asia called, holding the Glock in both hands. “Why are you writing down my license tag number?”

“Wait, I know him,” I said, but Asia was already drawing a bead on Red.

“Put your hands on your head,” Asia yelled.

“Don’t shoot.” Red dropped the notepad. He lifted his hands and slowly got to his feet. “I wanna talk to Teeny.”

Sir pranced over to him. Red kept his hands in the air. Asia clicked on the safety, then shoved the gun in his waistband.

Red’s gaze flickered over my lip. His upraised hands curled into fists. “Who hit you?”

I crossed my arms and didn’t answer. I refused to raise my lie tally over Norris.

Red cut his eyes to Asia. Then he lowered his fists until they were level with his hips.

“Don’t go for your gun, Red.” I walked to the edge of the porch. My words sounded muffled, as if I had a mouth full of hard candy.

“I was just worried, homegirl. You took off and didn’t tell us when you’d be back.”

“So?” Asia said. “Teeny’s a grown woman. And you ain’t her man.”

“She’s a trouble magnet.” Red flashed a “just us boys” smile. “Know what I mean?”

Zee straightened up. “What you mean, what you mean?”

“Red, go back to the O’Malleys’ house,” I said.

“Girlie, I can’t understand a thing you’re saying.” He spit onto the gravel. “You should see a doctor about that lip.”

“Fluck you,” I said.

“Let me interpret that for you.” Asia leaned over the railing. “Take a hike.”

“I ain’t going nowhere.” Red’s gaze swiveled back to me. “I wanna know what happened to your lip.”

“She fell,” Zee said.

Red’s chin jutted out. “Who the hell are you guys?”

“My cousin is Teeny’s bodyguard,” Zee said.

“What’s your qualifications?” Red nodded at Asia. “You got a permit to carry that Glock?”

“Red, please leave,” I said.

“Something’s happened to you. Something bigger than Irene and her insults.” Red took a step forward. “Don’t shut me out, Teeny. Why’re you trusting these people and not me?

“The lady has spoken,” Asia said.

“Well, I ain’t leaving. I’ll sleep in my van.”

“No!” My voice held in the air.

Red’s eyes narrowed. “Why the hell not?”

“You’ll roast,” I said.

“Just don’t let Irene eat me.” He winked. “Well, good night. And don’t let the bodyguards bite.”