Read Lowboy for Free Online

nodded absently, spreading the paper out flat. “Will’s nickname for me. My favorite color.”
    “But your given name is Yda? Y-D-A ?”
    “That’s right.”
    “And Heller is your maiden name?”
    Most women would have felt the need to clarify—to explain, for example, that they’d elected not to change their name, or mentioned the father, even in passing—but she did nothing of the kind. She held the note a hairsbreadth from her face and stared at it, then reached down for the cigarette and pressed it to her mouth. Again he felt that he was spying on her.
    “Why did you request that your son remain at Bellavista past the date of his release?”
    But the note took up the whole of her attention. “I can’t read this,” she murmured. “He’s made a scramble of it.” She held the paper at arm’s length now, shaking her head, as though it had beengiven her in error. It was with something close to gratitude that he saw it quivering slightly in her fingers.
    “It’s been translated into code.” He took the note back reverently, touching it only with his fingertips: he was on solid ground again. The text, which apparently meant nothing to her, was as clear to him as his own handwriting. “A cipher, technically speaking.”
    She was sitting forward now, staring furiously at the paper. She was suddenly much easier to make sense of. “You can understand this thing?”
    “Nobody can do that, Miss Heller, without the key.” He laid the note between them on the desktop, sideways, so they both could read it:
    LEVP UCKGER. YKS BVUE RBE JVHE KT V TGKWEP VJL C LKJR. C LKJR BVUE RBE JVHE KT V TGKWEP UCKGER WBY CQ RBVR ?
       
    C TEEG VGG PCABR KGL UCKGER ISR RBE WKPGL CQ AERRCJA BKRREP. EUEPY IKLY FJKWQ RBCQ. EUEPLY IKLY FJKWQ RBCQ VJL MPEREJLQ BE/QBE LKEQJR RBE WVY MEKMGE LCL WCRB HE WBEJ C WVQ QCOF. LK YKS PEHEHIEP UCKGER? APVJLVL OKSQCJQ REVOBEPQ? RBE WVY RBEY LCL WCRB HE VR RBE IEACJJCJA .
       
    RBE WKPGL CQ AERRCJA BKRREP EUEPY LVY. WBEJ MEKMGE QRVPR RK RVGF VIKSR CR RBE PEVGCRY GEVUEQ RBECP HKSRBQ. KQDY C OVJ QEE RBCQ UCKGER MKQQCIGY IEOVSQE CUE IEEJ QCOF. MKQQCIGY IEOVSQE CUE IEEJ VWVY QK GKJA JKW RBVR C OKHE IVOF C OVJ QEE CR .
       
    RBE WKPGL CQ AERRCJA BKRREP JKR QGKW VJL QREVLY ISR GCFE V QJKWIVGG (JKR V DKFE) KP V IKSGLEP AERRCJA TVQREP VGG RBE RCHE. RBCQ CQ
    JKR HY KWJ CJUEJRCKJ UCKGER IEOVSQE C PEVL CR VJL C QVW CR KJ RBE JEWQ .
       
    C WVJR RK KMEJ GCFE V TGKWEP UCKGER. GCFE V TGKWEP LKEQ CJ MKERPY. C RBCJF RVBR HCABR BEGM VQ RBE WKPGL CQ CJQCLE KT HE VJL RBVR WCGG/HCABR BEGM RK OKKG RBE WKPGL. MKQQCIGY. IKLCEQ WCGG BVUE RK AER OKGL JKW UCKGER. HVJY IKLCEQ. VJYRBCJA EGQE CJ RBE WKPGL YKS OKSGL BEGM HE WCRB ISR JKR WCRB RBCQ. CH QSPE YKS FJKW RBVR UCKGER .
       
    VGQK YKS HCABR REGG .
    “It’s a substitution cipher,” Lateef explained. “Each letter in the source message has been exchanged for another letter of the regular alphabet, according to a key. The key can be any word: let’s say ‘cat,’ for example. If ‘cat’ is the keyword, then the cipher alphabet—the alphabet here in the note—would start with the letters C, A, T, instead of A, B, C . The rest would follow normally.”
    She hesitated, but only for an instant. “The whole alphabet gets shifted by three places?”
    “In the system that your son is using, yes. Minus C, A , and T . They’d come only at the beginning.”
    She ran a finger slowly down the page. “You’d still need to know what word he’s picked,” she said.
    “That’s right. Both the sender and the receiver need to know the keyword for the cipher to work.” He sat back in his armchair, aware that he was pausing for effect. “Which sometimes makes it possible to guess.”
    “You’ve figured it out, haven’t you.”
    He felt a rush of helpless pride. “Ciphers happen to be a hobby of mine. Though I have to tell you, Miss Heller, I’ve never actually come across—”
    “What’s the keyword?”
    He pushed a pad of legal paper toward her.