Free The Copernicus Legacy: The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott Page B

commemorate his wife’s birthday,” she said. “Alas, Frieda passed away several years ago now.”
    Roald’s expression fell. “I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you. Heinrich also passed away. Just two days ago.”
    Frau Hempel put her hands to her face. Tears rose instantly to her eyes. “Oh no. Father loved him so. How?”
    Wade’s blood ran cold when he thought of how . “We’re still finding out,” he managed to say. “But I didn’t know Uncle Henry was married. Dad, did you?”
    His father seemed to retreat into himself for a moment. “No. I mean, yes, but I never met her. He married later in life.”
    Frau Hempel wiped her cheeks. “Oh dear. This is too sad. Yes, Frieda Kupfermann was her name. She passed some years ago. And now him. So sad.” She left menus on the table and disappeared behind the counter.
    Wade sat quietly, looking out at the street and saying nothing, though he couldn’t stop his thoughts from circling his uncle’s death.
    Death? It’s not regular death. It’s murder .
    No one else said anything either until Lily opened her cell phone. “I’m emailing the photo I took of the table in the apartment to my tablet, so we can see it bigger.”
    Wade unfolded the celestial chart on the table. “The first word of the dusty message is ‘the,’ so I’m pretty sure the code number is still four.”
    “Here, use this,” his father said, handing him his student notebook. “I wrote down the decryption alphabet on the plane. We should be keeping all the information we find in one place.”
    “Good idea.” Slipping a mechanical pencil from his backpack, Wade studied the computer photo, noodled around on a blank page of the notebook, and decoded the first line of Frau Munch’s message.
     
    Lca Ayulc himab ds lca Cyzb ir Gzjrauhyss
     
    . . . became . . .
     
    The Earth moves in the Haus of Kupfermann
     
    “Kupfermann?” said Lily. “As in Frieda Kupfermann, Heinrich’s wife? I wonder what that means.”
    “ Haus is ‘house,’” added Becca. “Could Uncle Henry want us to go to his wife’s family’s house?”
    Wade liked how Becca called his uncle her uncle. “Maybe that’s it. But ‘the Earth moves’? What do you think, Dad?”
    His father surfaced from his thoughts. “It might be that. I’m not sure. Haus is a term that in German can mean any number of things.”
    “A shop, for instance,” said Lily. “Like Alsterhaus and Carsch Haus. Those are German stores I read about.”
    “Or a hotel,” Roald went on. “There are also twelve ‘houses’ in astrology. I’m sure Heinrich knew them, even though they were not by any means scientific and none of them are named Kupfermann. I’ll ask Frau Hempel what she knows. Keep working.” He left the table.
    Wade decoded the second line more quickly.
     
    Rixxio lca nsihis, rixxio lca wxyea
     
    . . . became . . .
     
    Follow the gnomon, follow the blade
     
    “ Gnomon ?” said Darrell. “ Gnomon ’s not a word. Do it again.”
    Wade did. Twice. “It still spells gnomon .” It was not a word he or anyone else knew. He wondered about the old saying that two heads are better than one to figure out a problem. Sometimes it probably worked pretty well. But four different heads all chattering about a bunch of dusty words made his own head feel like imploding.
    “I can look it up,” said Lily.
    “No, keep the code on the screen. I’ll try again.” Wade started decoding again when his father returned to the table.
    “Frieda Kupfermann was the last one in her family,” he said. “Their real estate was sold years ago, and there’s no longer any Kupfermann house in Berlin. She did say that Heinrich always joked that Frieda’s name amused him. Frieda ? I don’t get it. I suppose we could try decoding it, but our hostess didn’t know any more than that.”
    “It still says, ‘Follow the gnomon,’” said Wade.
    “Gnomon?” said Dr. Kaplan, pushing his glasses up and leaning over Wade’s translation.