One Shot @ Retirement: A Macy Cooper Mystery by D. K. Wilcox

Author:D. K. Wilcox [Wilcox, D. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodgers Creek Press, LLC
Published: 2023-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Can’t we work on the letters today?” Allison asked. She had been wandering through the house throughout the morning sulking about the events of the night before. Several times she sat down, with garbled talk of ‘men’ and ‘childishness’ and ‘stupidity.’

“If you’re up to it.” Macy replied, trying to be patient.

“Yeah, I need to get my mind off of last night.”

Macy smiled, recognizing that Allison was becoming fonder of Derik with each passing day.

Once again, Macy and Allison sat on the bed in the back bedroom staring at the letters laid out in front of them. They reviewed what they already knew including the notes Allison had made in her notebook.

“Perhaps we need to look at a single letter and analyze the hell out of it,” Macy suggested.

“Language, Macy,” Allison said jokingly.

Macy gave Allison a light shove and chuckled.

“Let’s look at this one,” Allison suggested pulling one of the letters forward. She read it aloud but all it contained was a lengthy description of Sam’s day, the food he ate, the weather, and how he had won $20 at poker the night before. The cancelled date on the envelope was April 4 but the date of the letter was June 29, nearly three months’ difference. She then laid it out in front of them. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than the page numbers.

“Put the letter in order by page number,” Macy suggested, “and spread the pages out on the bed.”

Allison proceeded to rearrange the letter and laid each page out in a row. “It makes no sense this way.”

Macy stared intently at each of the six pages. “Write the following letters in your notebook. B-A-M-A-K-O.” A small grin crept across Macy’s face.

“Bamako,” Allison said. “What the heck is that?”

“Maybe a coincidence but I think not.” She gathered up the letter, placed it back in its envelope and laid it on the bed. “Pull out another one.”

Allison selected another letter and Macy read the postmark and date at the top of the letter to Allison who once again wrote it in her notebook. She then spread the pages out in front of her in page-numbered order. “K-A-R-A-C-H-I.” Macy sat back against the bedpost in triumph.

“What does it mean?”

“If you put the letters in order of the page number sequence, then take the first letter of the first paragraph of each page, it spells the name of a city.” Macy pointed to the first page of the letter which began Kudos to my team for …. The next page began Another day in paradise or…. “It spells Karachi, a port city in Pakistan.”

“But the other one said Bamako. That’s not a city, is it?”

Macy nodded. “In Mali.”

“I’ve heard of Mali, some country in Africa,” Allison replied proudly. “Oh my,” she whispered, staring at the letter. She turned to Macy, “Dad was sending coded messages? Why would he do that? Please tell me he wasn’t a traitor.”

Macy took a deep breath. “From everything I’ve heard or read about your dad, he was no traitor.

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