Free Jimmy Fox - Nick Herald 02 - Lineages and Lies by Jimmy Fox

the exceptions that make life interesting. Besides, I owe Bartly a favor; he fixed a ticket for me. And if we get on the list of experts-for-hire, it might mean a lot of business for us down the line. Then we can charge rate-card times three.”
    Hawty turned back to the computer and deftly manipulated the computer mouse. “What’s this detective trying to find out?”
    “How ‘allégorie’ equals ‘true faith.’” His voice was partly muffled by clothing passing over his head.
    “Now
you’re
talking in code,” Hawty said.
    Nick explained. “That mysterious linguistic equation, with ‘allegory’ rendered in French, with the proper accent, but lacking the initial elision for the definite article—“
    “Which the French are nuts about,” Hawty interjected. “
Le
,
la
, and
les
all over the place!”
    “
Précisément
,
ma chère
! Those words were scribbled on a piece of paper in a coat pocket of the heckler, the fat guy I told you about who attacked Nowell at the hotel seminar. He was found floating in the river yesterday morning, spotted by one of the tourist boats.”
    “I read about that, but I had no idea it was the same dude you mentioned the other day,” Hawty said. “And of course you didn’t tell me.”
    “You’re a very busy woman. I hate to burden you with such trivialities.”
    “Uh-huh,” Hawty replied, unimpressed. “You and your secrets. Two heads are better than one, you know… . The note must have been about the only thing that wasn’t chewed up by the paddle wheel, according to the article. Guess the tourists on the riverboat got a look at one genuine New Orleans sight: a dead body in the Vieux Carré.”
    “Bartly is wondering if there’s a connection between the two murders, Bluemantle and the heckler.”
    “Wayne …”
    “Therman,” Nick said, aiding her recollection. “Bartly asked me to look into it, see if I can decipher the equation, discover any genealogical significance. Seems our heckler was pretty much of a dingbat.”
    “They’ve decided Bluemantle was murdered, then?” Hawty asked. “And the big clue so far is tied to French grammar and genealogy? Cool! right up our alley.”
    “Does the missing
l’
at the front mean simply the writer was innocent of the infernal French grammatical rules? Was Therman the writer of the note? The right side of the equation was in English. Was ‘allégorie’ an English-speaker’s reference to something French that for us conversationally goes without the elided
la
, say a work of art, a poem, or—”
    “A ship … oh,
the
ship,” Hawty said, pausing in her typing, Nick’s speculation having gained her full attention. “That society’s ship. But hold on. If Therman wrote the note, wouldn’t he say something negative about the ship, since you told me hehad some grudge against the society? Saying the ship equals something positive doesn’t seem to make sense. ‘True faith’ sounds pretty complimentary. I don’t understand.”
    “Neither do I—yet.” There were several thumps from the bathroom as Nick put on his running shoes. “We know for sure that Bluemantle didn’t fall down. He was pushed, hard, the coroner says. The missing finger wasn’t the result of your normal shaving accident, either.”
    “Missing article, missing finger … this is getting symbolically very weird! What about Wayne Therman? Could he have killed Bluemantle?”
    “Would have been difficult,” Nick said. “He was in police custody.”
    “Okay, he’s off the hook, but dead. So, enlighten me: where does that leave us, what do ‘allégorie,’ ‘true faith,’ and Bristol have to do with these murders?”
    “Not sure. Maybe this will all turn out to be a pedantic dead end. But just in case it isn’t, I had a talk with Nelson Plumlaw this morning.”
    “The professor at Freret’s Architecture School? He’s a genealogy and history buff, right, especially when it comes to Atlantic colonial emigration records?”
    “Hawty, you