Page 30 of Evidence of a Folktale

“I will love you in every lifetime.” He put his spoon down and captured her face in his hands, pulling her close to kiss her with such hunger that when they broke apart, Bel was lightheaded and flushed.

“Okay, back to the cipher.” Eamon winked at her.

“Right, um… numbers,” she blushed as she tried to reign in her very different train of thought. “How can we decode this without the number used to create it?”

“We’re lucky. This is a short phrase with short words. Three or four-letter words always have one or two vowels, and identifying those will make decoding easier.” Eamon pulled the paper closer and studied the coded message.

Cngz hom keky eua ngbk

“Okay, here.” He grabbed the pen from Bel’s grasp and pointed with its tip. “The letter G shows up a few times, as does the letter K. Those might be vowels based on where they are in the words, and if not, one of these letters is. Process of elimination. There are five vowels in the alphabet, so we’ll test each one.”

“I’m glad you’re here.” Bel leaned over the jumbled words. “This would’ve taken me forever. How did you notice this so quickly?”

“I had my own Roman Empire… as in it was the Ancient Roman Empire… although, if you were to ask what it is now, I’d say you in my tee shirts.”

“A Roman Empire is something you think about all the time,” she corrected.

“I know. For you, it’s probably your dog, but for me, it’s you in my shirts. Ireallydo think about that all the time. The way your legs peak out.The way youlook so small inside the fabric, yet so sure of yourself. All. The. Time. Detective.”

“You’re right, my Roman Empire is my dog,” she teasedin a dismissive tone.

“I knew it.” Eamon rolled his eyes in mock defeat.

“So the Roman Empire? What was that like?”

“A lot of blood and a lot of death. How do you think it went?”

“You were a monster.”

“Yes. And one who ate well,” he said. “That’s where I picked this up. It’s easy for me to recognize the patterns even now. So, I believe K and G are vowels. The G is in the middle of two words, soit might be an A. The letter K appears at the end of one word and twice in another. That’s maybe an E. Let’s see. If G is A, and K is E, that’s six spots.So, now, wejustcount each letter backward by six.”

He fell silent as he deciphered the code, writing the new letters below the old, but when he was finally done, his eyebrows pinched at his handwriting.

“Well, subtracting six certainly creates real words, but that’s not saying much,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Here.” He shoved the decoded message across the table, and as she read the five-word sentence, she understood what he meant. The phrase was no longer a jumble of letters, yet itwas equally as confusing.

What Big Eyes You Have.

“I’ve never been sohappy to see you walk through my doors,” Lina Thum said as she wrapped her arms around Bel. “Don’t ever end up on my table again.”

“I don’t intend to.” Bel recovered from her surprise and returned the medical examiner’s embrace. Thewomenhad never hugged before, so it took her a second to respond.

“Sorry I didn’t welcome you back properly yesterday,” Lina said. “I wasn’t expecting to find a woman torn apart in the woods.”

“None of us were.” Bel released the M.E. and followed her into the back to prep for the morning’s autopsy.

“Some welcome home, huh?”

“I’ll say.”

“If the exam becomes overwhelming for you, let me know,” Lina said as they donned their protective gear. “I’ll get Gold to come down instead.”

“Olivia isn’t coming?” Bel’s stomach dropped.

“No, since you’re here to collect the evidence, she said her time would be better served elsewhere. But again, if it’s too much for you, I’ll call her.”

---