Page 26 of Death is Familiar

I pointed at Jack with a wink. He hit the mark.

But when Jack’s response was rubbing his eyes, visibly fighting off sleep, I knew no more progress was going to be made. We had driven over ten hours, to a sleep-inducing motel, and we were running on fumes. It was time to call it a night.

“Pick this up tomorrow?” I stood, metal jangling in my pocket.

Jack yawned in confirmation. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the keys, Delilah.”

Something about his words struck me. I didn’t place a finger on what it was until I replayed it over in my head. Once. Then twice.

Oh my god.

Keys. Delilah. I was such an idiot.

It couldn’t have been that easy. It couldn’t.

Keys clattering on the table, electricity zapped through me as I abruptly left the agents’ room muttering some form of goodbye. I heard a faint murmur of acknowledgment, as I closed the door between our adjoining rooms. An action I knew was out of character. And bound to prompt questions. But those questions would come tomorrow.

Once I was alone, I started rifling through my bag.

Why the hell didn’t I think of this earlier?

The key to the damned Polybius square had been right in front of me. They were Lawrence’s last words for fuck’s sake! He literally told me that I was the key. Yes, he’d been talking about what I meant to the Seal, alluding to the prophecy, but my name was as good a key as any. And it was a lot less random than working my way through a list of five-letter bird names.

My hand gripped the letter I’d tucked away out of sight of prying eyes and fingers, as I pulled it from my bag. Part of me no longer cared if the agents saw the note. Everyone, including their boss, Assistant Director Rochan, knew I planned on finding justice for Lawrence. So, the only reason I’d closed the door was for self-preservation. Not knowing how I’d react if I was able to translate Lawrence’s last words.

I hadn’t cried in front of the agents, not truly, and I didn’t plan on starting now. A couple tears here and there, sure. But not the full forced sob I felt simmering beneath my surface.

I grabbed my notebook and drew a new Polybius square, using the letters in my name as the key. I didn’t even finish decoding the first line and knew I was on the right track. The first word was my name.

“I was so stupid!” I whisper-yelled to myself.

How could I not have thought of that? It should have been the first word I tried.

My hands began to shake. But I kept decoding, one painstaking letter at a time, and I didn’t stop until I translated the message in its entirety:

DELILAH

I FEEL STRANGE

BEING ON A SEAL

ALONE

I MADE A MISTAKE

ITS ALL YOURS

ALL MY LOVE

LAWRENCE

FOUR TWO ONE

GRIFFIN HOME

The shaking didn’t stop at my shoulders. It proceeded down my arms, until my whole body rattled. My emotions were balls of light, thrashing, crashing, into one another for dominance. There were only a few clear thoughts in my head:

One: Lawrence understood working on a Seal alone was wrong.