Mrs. Torkel after a big bite of cake. “But, I’m on vacation.” She took a sip of coffee. “Now, where was I?”
“Leo Parrish figured out where the treasure was,” said Juliet.
“Oh, yes,” said her grandmother. “He found it—the legend says. And he brought it to Glendale-Marsh in secret and hid it. Not long after, he went off to war—that’s World War II. He was worried about the treasure, so he wrote down where it was in some kind of fancy code that nobody could decipher—and sent the code home in a book. I don’t know anything about what kind of code it was, but since the thirties, we’ve had tourists coming to Glendale-Marsh looking for the book with the code and for the treasure. It was a real popular thing to do back in the fifties and sixties. I reckon poor Leo Parrish’s family land has been dug up from one end t’other looking for that treasure.”
“What happened to Leo Parrish?” asked Juliet.
“He went missing in action. Nobody ever heard from him again. If there ever was a treasure, it got lost with him,” said her grandmother. She stopped talking and ate several bites of her cake.
“The treasure hunters have slacked off for several years. Occasionally, we get a few now and again, but not like we did in the fifties.”
“That’s an interesting story,” said Diane. “You think this might be the code?” She tapped the paper in front of them.
“Who knows?” said Mrs. Torkel. “I don’t know of any other code, but I can’t say how it got in that doll. The doll’s not that old.”
“Maybe some treasure hunter found the code and hid it in the doll,” said Juliet.
“Do the Parrishes still live in Glendale-Marsh?” asked Diane.
“No, they been gone from there for about thirty or forty years. Died out, mainly.”
“Wow,” said Juliet. “Treasure right there and I didn’t know about it?”
“We found lots of treasure in our shells,” said her grandmother. “They seem to have served you well. I imagine you’ve made more money from your interest in shells than you ever would from looking for treasure.”
Diane finished the last bite of her cake. “Juliet . . . ,” began Diane.
“I really don’t want to stay in a hotel,” said Juliet. “I will if I have to, but . . .”
“I’ll have museum Security watch your apartment,” said Diane.
“You think the guy who held you up for the doll is my kidnapper, don’t you?” said Juliet.
“Yes,” said Diane, “I do. I don’t know how it all fits together, but I’m working on it. I really don’t want to alarm you, but I think he may be afraid you remember him.”
“Why?” asked Juliet.
Why? A good question, thought Diane. It was something else that had been nagging at the corner of her mind. Then, like the slow movement of molasses, it simply flowed into her brain.
“I think it has something to do with what you said before you were kidnapped. In the newspaper articles, neighbors were quoted as having heard you say, ‘I don’t know you’ to someone near your backyard. Just before Joana Cipriano was murdered, she was heard to say to a man at her door, ‘Do I know you?’ The phrases are so close, I think her murderer was convinced he was recognized. Joana turned out to be the wrong person, but the conviction that you would be able to identify him carried over.”
“You think it is about the treasure?” asked Juliet.
“He wanted the doll. A code was in the doll. That’s the only story we’ve heard so far that contains a code. So, yes. It may be just a treasure story, but he may believe it to be true.”
“So he was trying to get the doll when he kidnapped me twenty years ago?” said Juliet.
“Maybe. We won’t know that until we find him. But the police are on it. We are taking precautions, so don’t you or your grandmother worry.”
“Maybe we should stay in a hotel,” said her grandmother. “A nice one.”
“Why don’t you do that?” said Diane. “I’ll have someone from museum Security stay next door.”
“That sounds just fine,” said Mrs. Torkel. “They can follow us over to your apartment to get some things, Juliet. I’ll get a chance to see where you live, then we’ll stay in a nice hotel.”
Juliet smiled at her grandmother. Diane got the idea that Mrs. Torkel had mellowed considerably since Juliet was a little girl.
When they finished eating their cake, Diane took them to the Security office and