Read Online Blood Will Have Blood by Linda Barnes - Free Book Online

whispered.
    Spraggue nodded solemnly. Georgina’s gray eyes gleamed. She maintained a dignified silence until they marched down the front steps of the theater. Then she looked around carefully before murmuring: “I found the stuff you wanted.”
    With effort, Spraggue kept a straight face. She was playing a part from an old Hitchcock movie. “Yes?” he said.
    â€œFour-two-five-one.”
    â€œHow was it written?”
    She bit her lower lip in concentration. “The four was like Roman numerals, a capital i and a capital v. Then the rest all in normal numbers. No spaces anywhere.”
    Just like the other message.
    â€œDoes it mean something?” Georgina asked eagerly. “Do you know what it means?”
    â€œSuggest anything to you?”
    â€œI was thinking of playing it as my lottery number. Wait! How about a phone number? Is there any exchange that could be IV2? Just a minute!” She dove into the phone booth on the corner. “I is 4! V is 8! Is there a 482 exchange in Boston?”
    â€œNo. And you’re two digits short.” Georgina deflated. “But it was a fine idea,” Spraggue said.
    â€œFour-two-fifty-one.” She was off again. “I-V-twenty-five-one. It’s a clue, right? A message.…”
    â€œCould be.”
    â€œWhat good’s a message if nobody can understand it?”
    â€œExactly,” Spraggue said. “That’s why I think it must be something fairly obvious. At first I thought it was the play—act, scene, and line. Actors would be sure to understand that.”
    â€œAct, scene, and line! That’s good, Michael. It works. Even the Roman numerals.”
    â€œExcept,” Spraggue said glumly, “that it doesn’t. Look at your number. Starts with four. How many acts are there in Dracula ?”
    â€œThree.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œThen it’s probably a five-act play,” Georgina said, “the one the messages are about.”
    â€œThat narrows it down.” He kept the sarcasm out of his voice.
    â€œI’ll think about it, Michael. I’ve got to get back.”
    â€œThanks.”
    â€œAnd I won’t say anything to anyone! ’Bye.” She turned and offered him a flashing grin. “I just hope it’s not Macbeth !”
    Spraggue checked the time, turned, and crossed the street. Two blocks down, he entered a small secondhand bookshop.
    â€œPlays?” said the elderly proprietor. “On your left, at the back of the store. Don’t get so much call for them anymore. Anything special?”
    â€œShakespeare.”
    â€œPlenty of him. Second shelf from the bottom. Soon as the kids finish off reading him in school, they sell the books back to me.”
    Spraggue found a tattered copy of The Complete Tragedies , fumbled through it until he located Macbeth .
    â€œFour-twenty-five-one,” he mumbled to himself. Act Four, scene twenty-five—No. Not even Shakespeare had twenty-five scenes to the act. Scene two, line fifty-one.
    He found it quickly, running a finger down the yellowed page.
    â€œAnd must they all be hanged that swear and lie?”
    Line 51, Macduff’s son to Lady Macduff. Her answer: “Every one.”
    Hanged. Like Eddie in his vandalized room. Like Samuel Borgmann Phelps in his beautiful bankrupt playhouse …
    Spraggue thumbed quickly through the pages. What was that other number? The one in Greg’s sack. 1538. Act One this time. Scene five. Yes, Act One was a long one, seven scenes. Line 38:
    â€œThe raven himself is hoarse
    That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
    Under my battlements.”
    A raven … a raven. A big black bird like the one in Darien’s office.…
    Spraggue paid three dollars for the dog-eared volume and hurried back to the theater.

Chapter Nine
    At first Spraggue wasn’t sure he’d get along with Karen Snow.
    He was five minutes late for their private, Saturday-night