Hollis called after he’d booked Scot into the jail. He wanted to find out how I was and to reassure me that nothing would disturb my night. “We’ll figure out what the initials mean,” he said. “I knew my wife, and I’ll understand it sooner or later.”

I didn’t think we had “later,” and I didn’t know if understanding Sally would help or not. She’d known exactly what she meant, and she’d been referring to something simple and obvious. With all due respect to Sally, if a girl who’d graduated from Sarne High could make some significant discovery after a glance at her biology textbook, then I should be able to figure it out. So should any number of people, and that was what had me worried. “SO MO DA NO” I wrote on the little pad of paper kept by the phone. I wrote it as one word. I wrote it backwards. I tried to make a word out of the letters. I fell asleep with the pencil clutched in my hand.

thirteen

A pounding on the door woke me up. I rolled an eye toward the clock on the bedside table. It was seven in the morning.

“Who is it?” I asked cautiously, when I’d stumbled over to the door.

“Mary Nell.”

Oh, wonderful. I moved the chair to open the door, and she strode in. “We’ve got to get him out,” she said dramatically, and I felt like smacking her.

“Yes,” I said. “I want him out, too.” If there was a little sarcasm in my voice, it was lost on Nell Teague.

“What have you done about it?”

I blinked, sat on the side of the bed. “I’ve hired a lawyer, who’ll be here tomorrow,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, somewhat deflated. “Well, I called Toby Buckell, but he just laughed at me. Said he wouldn’t take a case unless a grown-up called him.”

I could just imagine. “I’m sorry he treated you with disrespect,” I said, trying hard to sound like I meant it. “I appreciate your effort. But Tolliver is my brother, and I have to be the one who works on this.” I wanted to be nice to this girl, whose only fault was that she was sixteen, but she was wearing me out. Talk about drama. Then I reminded myself she’d lost her brother and her father in a very short period, and I forced myself into a more hospitable mode.

“Would you like some coffee, or a soda?” I asked.