Scattered Graves

said Diane looking up from the photo graphs she was examining. She went to the table and picked up the magnifying glass that Frank was using and inspected one of the pictures from the mayor’s library with it. ‘‘You don’t think it was this Shogun fellow who encrypted the computer, then?’’
‘‘Shogun? Now I’ve missed something,’’ said Izzy. ‘‘Jefferies had a book in his library called that. There was a bunch of them by Clavell.’’
‘‘Not that Shogun,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I missed something too,’’ said Frank. ‘‘Why do you think Malcolm Chen is connected to this case? By the way, you never did tell me how you came by the name.’’
Diane used the magnifying glass and looked at a photograph of the library bookcase.
‘‘Jefferies had all the works of Dickens on one shelf in alphabetical order by title. But one is missing.’’
‘‘Izzy, would you hand me your list of books?’’ she said.
He handed her the notebook containing the list in Jefferies’ library. He had abbreviated the titles, but she thought she could decipher it easily enough.
‘‘Are you going to withhold the information?’’ said Frank.
‘‘Do you want to discuss withholding information?’’ she asked.
‘‘No, I suppose not,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s not on here,’’ said Diane, tapping her finger on the list.
‘‘I got the names of all the books. I’m sure of it,’’ said Izzy.
‘‘I’m counting on it,’’ said Diane.
‘‘What’s not there?’’ said Frank and Izzy together.
She handed them the photograph and magnifying glass. ‘‘This picture was taken before Rikki took the books out of the shelves. Look at the Dickens shelf. There’s a book missing between Nicholas Nickleby and Our Mutual Friend ,’’ she said.
‘‘And that would be...,’’ said Frank.
Diane saw him going over the titles and repeating them to himself.
‘‘ Oliver Twist ,’’ said Frank. ‘‘It’s not on the shelf.’’ ‘‘It’s not in Izzy’s notes either.’’
Izzy took the notebook from her and ran his finger down the list. ‘‘Not here,’’ he said.
‘‘The book was taken by someone—assuming the crew brought you all the books they found in the house,’’ said Diane.
‘‘They did,’’ he said.
‘‘If there really was a list, I think that’s where Jeffer ies would have put it. He was into books—actually, he was into a fantasy life. He had sculptures and paint ings of Alexander the Great all over the house.’’
‘‘He had four biographies of him,’’ said Izzy.
‘‘Jefferies liked to see himself as bigger than life, like characters in his books. If he had a hard copy of a list with some connection to his real business, I think it makes sense that he would hide it in Oliver Twist .’’
‘‘Why?’’ said Izzy. ‘‘I hate to admit it, but I’ve never read Oliver Twist . Or seen the movie—or the musical. Evie wanted to go, but I couldn’t imagine sitting in the Fox Theater through a Broadway musical. Wish I had now.’’
Diane told the two of them what she had learned from Loraine Sutton about Jefferies and Peeks meet ing with young people fresh out of high school and college, about getting them jobs in banking, insurance, and government agencies, and giving them expensive watches. About the boy who almost came forward— the boy who matched the description she had built out of the bones from the field Arlen Wilson plowed.
‘‘Jefferies ran cybergangs,’’ said Frank.

Chapter 34
    ‘‘I think your case and mine just came crashing to gether,’’ said Frank.
‘‘You believe it’s the same people?’’ said Diane.
‘‘I’m having an upsurge in identity thefts and you have someone who might be running a cybergang,’’ said Frank. ‘‘It may turn out that Malcolm Chen is alive and hacking his little heart out in his apartment and Jefferies was doing something completely different with his time, but with what we suspect right now, it’s looking very much like they are related. It bears looking into.’’
‘‘What’s with Oliver Twist ?’’ asked Izzy.
‘‘Oliver Twist was an orphan who fell in with a gang of young thieves run by a bad guy,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Oh, well, that fits,’’ said Izzy. ‘‘But what’s cyber gangs? Never heard of them before.’’
‘‘That’s more Frank’s domain,’’ said Diane.
Diane heard a commotion coming through Andie’s office. It was her team. Her team. That sounded good. They were