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"It h the book, stopping to scan a page before turning to the next "Yes," she said with satisfaction "I need you to spell out the letters for me, then write dohat I tell you, Chloe"

"Okay The first one is Y-I-L-D-O-C"

Winifred ran her fingertip down a list "J"

"The letter J?" Chloe asked

"Yes What’s the next set of letters within parentheses?"

"T-S-E-N-I-L"

"That’s an A" She waited for Chloe to jot down the letter and find the next parenthetical set of letters

"J-A-D-H-O-L-N-I"

"That’s a K Next"

"A-H-N-A-H"

"That’s an E Next"

Chloe stared at the letters she’d written down "Gran"

Winifred looked up "Yes?"

"We just spelled Jake"

Winifred nodded abruptly "Then I was right Whoever wrote the essay used the World War II code based on the Navajo language"

"So you’re saying a Navajo wrote the essay?"

"Not necessarily The code was never broken during the war and was kept top secret It wasn’t officially recognized by the Pentagon until 1992 But since then, there have been articles written about the Navajo codebreakers and how the code worked I believe Hollywood even made a movie called Windtalkers about the use of the Navajo code during the war in the Pacific Public knowledge about the subject has definitely increased over the past several years"

"So anyone anted to could look up the code and learn how to use it"

"Technically speaking, yes I’m sure the details are available on the Internet so the code orally would be ale itself is extreible to anyone except a native But to write it--" Winifred tapped the essay in front of Chloe "--that’s quite easy, really All you’d have to do is look up the English letters of the alphabet and the Navajo words assigned to them"

"But these don’t look like words"

"I know Whoever wrote thelected to hyphenate them where needed For instance, ‘yildoc’ is really Yil-Doc, and ‘jadholni’ is Jad-Ho-Loni Nonetheless, it’s clear to me that the Navajo code is the basis for the words enclosed in parentheses"

"And the first word is Jake Why would soiven to me?"

"That’s the real mystery, isn’t it?" Winifred’s expression was soleh the letters in parentheses and see ords we have e’re done"

Several moments later, Chloe and Winifred stared at the three names

"Jake Morrissey, Chloe Abbott and Kenny Dodd," Winifred read slowly "Why is your name here, Chloe? And who is Kenny Dodd?"

"I don’t know, Gran, but I’ to find out" Chloe took her cell phone from her purse and dialed Jake’s number

Six

When Jake received Chloe’s call, Gray was at his apartether, Jake’s Porsche closely followed by Gray’s SUV as they pulled into the circular driveway

Chloe met theaze running over her, searching for signs of dae

"Come into the kitchen Gran can helpbehind Jake "I’lad you’re here, Gray You need to hear this, too"

She led them down the hall to the kitchen and introduced Gray to Winifred

"Sit down, gentleestured at two empty chairs and looked at Chloe "Why don’t you start, Chloe"

Chloe nodded and, as succinctly as possible, told them about the essay and the encoded words