Lily had a stack of telegrams in her hand, including one in an envelope. She dropped the loose ones on the desk, then knocked on the door frame before carrying the envelope into Phillips's office. She didn't linger, but came right back out. Tinker had included a copy of the message Phillips had received in that stack of loose telegrams.
"I'll order prints from the photographer tomorrow," she told Scarlet and Fritz. "The last requests for proof of Jackson's death should show up by morning. I've received over a dozen so far. There have been only two requests on Barnes, and none on Rico or Thomas."
Fritz looked at the clock, and said, "Time to go." Raising his voice, he called, "Marshal Phillips? It's time to meet the prosecutor at the stage."
Phillips stayed in his office, and called back, "I'm busy. Take care of it."
Fritz and Scarlet shrugged. Fritz picked up the file of background information that Lily had assembled and Jimmy's account, to give to Powell to help him prepare for the depositions in the morning.
Phillips read the message he had decoded, wondering who Perry meant as "bounty hunter". "Doctor lady" had to be Mrs. Coatsworth. The rest of the message, about Ray not wanting Archie to talk to the law, caused a little thrill to run up his back. It was the first time he had been ordered to eliminate a threat. He was almost disappointed that nature had taken care of the problem for him, and maybe a little relieved. None of the others needed to be eliminated. He would send the message "Doctor buried him already", instead of anything that tried to claim credit for the death.
Ray probably had agents in town. Phillips winced at the thought of the report those agents would make about his failure to prevent a posse, but then realized that their report would make it clear he had tried to follow orders. Would Ray accept that the failure was his own fault for trying the bank robbery before Phillips had enough time to take control of the Marshal's office?
He decided to read the information he had received about Marshal Ross's deputies. He hadn't read it earlier, preferring to form his own opinions. The folder with that page was in the drawer with the code book. So, Mrs. King had been a bounty hunter, and Mrs. Coatsworth had been a deputy. His respect for Dr. Coatsworth increased, since he obviously had put an end to his wife's delusions. She certainly acted like a proper wife now. It was interesting that Marshal Ross had had two telegraph operators among his deputies, instead of just using the man in town. He needed to learn more about the local telegraph operator, to find out why he had been distrusted.
Before Scarlet and Fritz got back, Phillips came out from the back office, and handed Lily a piece of paper, "Take this to the telegraph office."
"Yes, Sir," she replied to his back, as he returned to his office. She quickly copied the message. When Fritz and Scarlet came back, she headed to the telegraph office. Lily carried both messages home and gave them to Eddie.
Eddie put aside the story he was reading. He tried to put each story aside as soon as he determined that it wasn't the key, but some of the stories just demanded that he read them all the way through. It was easier to avoid getting distracted when Lily was available to help. The two of them had gotten all the magazines sorted and the pages of the different stories marked with tabs of paper before Lily went to the office.
It was easy to decode Phillips's messages, now that he had his own copy of the key. This one read:
doctor buried him already.
doctor lady is not a deputy now.
does Ray want a doctor at the castle.
The latest incoming message was the longest one by far, and the first one that was from more than just CASTLE.
TO PHILLIPS
EL PASO
FROM PW
CASTLE
AAIAZ AALS AALR AALM AALM AAKCZ PBXAZ PBYBZ AAIN AAID AAOW AAKB AAII AAKCZ STOP
AAID AAIN AAKIZ BCOYCZ DCAYYDZ FAIYAZ AALHZ ECQYEZ ECRYAZ SBKYBZ STOP
AAOBZ AAICZ AALM AALS AAKIZ AALAZ AAWYFZ AAIP AALR AAOW AAIN AAJD AAII AALR AALHZ ABRAZ AAOW AAIN AALM AAJD AAIP AAKCZ STOP
DCAYYBZ DCAYYCZ DCAYYDZ FAIYAZ AALHZ ECQYEZ ECRYAZ AANA AALR AALG AALH AAJD AAKIZ AAKB AALG AALH AAJD AAKC AAIDZ FAHFZ AAOS AALR AAOW AAJD AALR AAIDZ AAIP AAIN AAOS AAKIZ STOP
AAEYCZ AAWYFZ GBMDZ GBTBZ GBCZGZ GBUEZ STOP
DCAYYBZ DCAYYCZ DCAYYDZ FAIYAZ GCCCZ GCCDZ AALR AALG AAJD AAIP AAIN AAKMZ STOP
RAAAZ RCJBZ DCAYYCZ DCAYYDZ DCPDZ
There were a lot of repeats in the spelled out words in the message, and repeated words. He thought book code was supposed to be impossible to break without the key book because you didn't have to repeat things. Patches said that patterns of repeating characters were the key to breaking substitution codes. Guessing that the first spelled out word was P O S S E, Eddie started deciphering, and ended up with:
X posse X X archie
ray X A B C D E X
X X spy X X location H castle
F G A B C D E bounty hunter X doctor lady
X X X X X X
F G A B X X X X X H outlaw
X X G A X
He and Jimmy would look for the key book after dinner.