by Cari Cole
"We don't know that," Jane said.
"Why would he come here if he had something to do with Belle going missing?" Lucy said.
"To find her notes. Just like he said," Mae suggested.
The whole thing seemed a little far-fetched to Lucy. Except for the fact that Belle was indeed missing and she was willing to grasp at straws. "I'm more concerned about Belle than some mythical copy of the Declaration of Independence but since we don't have any other explanation for her disappearance, looking for the Declaration seems the only way of looking for Belle." She had to do something more than call the police every hour and worry.
Mae suddenly clamped a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God!"
"What?" Lucy said.
"Maybe the house was open when we got here because somebody took the notes," Mae said.
"So we're screwed," Jane said. "If there was anything here it's gone."
Lucy so hoped that wasn't the case. Belle off on a tear somewhere was one thing. Belle in some kind of danger because of this treasure hunt was another--and something Lucy didn't want to think about. "Let's hope not. Those notes may be our only chance of finding Belle."
"And finding ourselves. We don't know anyone broke in," Mae said. "I think we should still see what we can find."
"Okay then, we search for clues," Jane said. "After we finish coffee and get dressed."
Lucy wasn't excited about the delay but they'd be sharper after caffeine and showers.
###
"Kitchen, bedroom and study," Mae said a half hour later when they reassembled in the kitchen. "We should each take one. That's where the paper is in my house. At least the paper that doesn't belong to the kids."
"I'll take the study," Jane said.
"Kitchen," Mae said.
"Okay then I'll take the bedroom. If anyone finds something labeled 'Declaration of Independence' holler. Otherwise bring everything back here and we'll sort through it together."
They split up and Lucy took a deep breath before heading up to Belle's bedroom.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat when she crossed the threshold into Belle's room. Belle would be fine. She had to be.
Lucy went to the bed and sat down to pull herself together. She loved this room because it reflected Belle's personality perfectly.
Nothing in here matched. The bed was Shaker style covered with an assortment of brightly colored pillows, a crazy quilt and a Navajo blanket. The art on the wall was a mix of black and white landscape photographs, Native American sand paintings and a couple of masks of unknown origin. The bed-tables were made of twigs and had silk scarves thrown over their tops. The lamps were almost certainly Tiffany. The only other furniture in the room was a pair of slipper chairs upholstered in cream colored silk and an old steamer trunk plastered with postcards and other bits of paper memorabilia between them that served as a table. Belle added layers to the decoration over the years, saying she liked to lounge and daydream about all the things she'd seen.
Nothing matched but it all somehow made sense.
Since Belle had a huge, custom designed walk-in closet/dressing room there wasn't a need for dressers or mirrors in the bedroom. And since there were no drawers in the bed-tables there wasn't much to search.
After gathering herself, Lucy shook out the books scattered around the room, noting their titles as she did. No papers fell out but she saw that Belle was going through a Patricia Cornwell phase.
Lucy moved on to the dressing room. There was a lot more ground to cover in here.
She opened drawers, slid her hand between folded sweaters and checked handbags. Luckily all the shoes were housed in transparent plastic shoeboxes so she didn't have to sort through them all--well over a hundred pairs.
Nothing.
Until she found a lined basket on a lower shelf filled with all manner of paper bits. Receipts. Post cards. Notes. Greeting cards. Letters. It looked like a mixture of mail Belle couldn't bear to part with and things she emptied out of purses and pockets at the end of the day. Nothing that remotely related to the Dunlap Broadside, the Declaration of Independence or Colonial era ancestors.
She went downstairs empty-handed and found Jane and Mae shaking their heads. Neither had found anything useful.
"So, someone probably did break in," Jane said.
Lucy hated to agree. It seemed so paranoid except for the fact that Belle wasn't home. She dropped into the chair she'd spent the night dozing on and reached up to pull her glasses off her head.
"Ouch! Damn it!" She tried to free a few strands of hair caught in the nosepiece and wound up with the glasses dangling in front of her eyes. She yanked and blinked back tears when hair came loose with the glasses.
She put the glasses on the end table with a disgusted sigh. "I shudder to think what my horoscope says. Probably lock yourself in the bathroom and come out next year."
"We could start searching the rest of the house," Mae said.
Lucy started to shake her head when she remembered something. "Maybe we won't have to," she said. "I think I know where to look."
Jane and Mae followed her as she went into the kitchen and removed a brick from the raised hearth of the fireplace. "I forgot all about this. Belle showed it to me years ago. She told me I could use it to hide my most secret things when I spent my twelfth summer with her."
Praying she wouldn't find any spiders, Lucy put her hand into the hollow space--and pulled out a bundle of letters tied together with a frayed black ribbon and a folder full of loose papers.
"Jackpot," Lucy said, holding up her prize.
The letters were indeed what they'd been looking for, written by Lucy's ancestor, Paul Morris to his wife Molly during the Civil War. The loose papers were Belle's notes and more computer printouts.
Paul's grandfather, John Morris, was the printer's boy who'd supposedly taken the original Declaration of Independence from Dunlap's in July 1776. Paul had moved south, married Molly, and obtained a homestead grant. Belle had tracked down the Morris' old homestead grant to what was now Cohutta wilderness area.
They struggled to read Paul's chicken scratch, wading through descriptions of military equipment and living conditions and getting misty at the sentimental parts while looking for any reference to the Declaration.
The biggest surprise was the fact that he'd written the letters while wearing a Union uniform. No wonder they'd been worried about losing everything, the Morrises were Union sympathizers.
"This is it!" Lucy said.
"You found something?" Jane asked.
"I think so. He says he hid their most precious possessions in Lover's Cave on the old homestead." She read on, "And he put a map of the cave under the hearthstone at the cabin."
"That doesn't make sense," Jane said. "Why would he need to tell her that if she was living at the cabin?"
Lucy looked at one of the envelopes. "This is addressed to Molly in Atlanta. She must have gone to family in the city when the war started."
"So Belle did have a lead on the Declaration. Our ranger friend said she was planning to find the homestead site," Jane said.
"We have the coordinates of the homestead, right here in Belle's notes," Lucy said. "Maybe we can find the clue there."
"Now?" Jane said.
Lucy nodded. "Yes. If the cops aren't willing to do anything to find Belle, I'm going to do it myself. I can't just sit on my hands and wait."
Break A Leg
They made one stop at a wilderness outfitter for small daypacks and basic supplies.
"I found something that will take us right to the exact spot we want." Lucy held up a phone-sized bit of electronics.
"What is it?" Jane asked.
"Off-road GPS. You just enter the map coordinates you want to go to and follow the arrow."
"Can't you just use the one on your phone?" Jane asked.
"The sales guy says this will work even if there's no cell service and service is bad up in the wilderness area."
"Belle must have had o
ne too, that's why she had those coordinates written down," Mae said.
"Exactly and now we have them. With the GPS and a map of Cohutta, we'll be able to find the homestead with no problem."
"I seriously doubt it'll be that easy," Jane said.
"You really should do something about that pessimism," Mae said.
Jane just shook her head.
Lucy handed over her platinum card. The salesclerk bagged up their supplies.
###
It was almost noon when they pulled into the parking lot closest to the coordinates. Mae turned off the van and Lucy stared through the windshield, speechless. The three sides of the parking area not bordered by the road they'd just left were a horror show of nature run amok. The trees were too close together and the shorter underbrush was lush and tangled. The ground wasn't close to level or even sloped. It all seemed to go mostly straight up or straight down. The whole of it looked like it was made to keep humans out and hide nasty surprises for anyone stupid enough to venture in.
Lucy looked at her compatriots and saw signs of impending mutiny. "Don't worry, the map shows a road. We'll be fine." She opened her door and got out.
Mae and Jane followed suit but neither looked happy about it.
"Maybe we should try the police again," Mae said.
"It's just a hike through the woods for God's sake." Lucy refused to listen to her own doubts.
"Let's just get it over with," Jane said.
They slathered themselves with SPF 100 and tightened the laces on their cross trainers.
Lucy figured they were either completely nuts or incredibly perceptive about their need for a change and their ability to find Belle. Hopefully they'd come out of it unscathed. Or at least not permanently damaged.
She surveyed the perimeter of the parking lot and found a track that seemed to correspond to the map and went in the direction the GPS arrow pointed. Best of all, it seemed to take advantage of the landscape in a way that meant the up and down wasn't as steep as the ground on either side of it. The track was twisty and disappeared from view within fifty yards or so but Lucy was sure it had to be the right way to go.
"All we have to do is follow this until it forks, then go east to Breakleg Creek. The old homestead is on a hill above the creek," Lucy said as she led the way out of the parking area.
The Forest Service map identified the old overgrown track as a jeep trail. No Jeep or any other vehicle had used the trail for years. The Forest Service had closed the wilderness area to motorized traffic a few years ago and the wilderness was taking over again.
Jane cast a wistful glance back toward the parking area as it disappeared from view. "Breakleg Creek? That doesn't sound very promising."
Mae frowned at her. "We're not doing this for fun."
"Ouch! Damn it," Jane stopped and hopped on her right foot muttering more curses under her breath.
"What now?" Mae asked.
"I stubbed my toe on a rock. I think it might be broken."
"It's not broken. You'd still be yelling if it was broken," Lucy said.
Jane gave her the evil eye. "Well it hurts."
"Just sit down for a minute," Mae said.
Jane looked around at the foot high weeds on the track and the dense forest on either side and shuddered. "No thanks. Anything could be crawling around in there. I'll just walk it off. The throbbing is slowing down."
"Next time we should probably wear hiking boots," Mae said.
"There isn't going to be a next time," Jane said. "If we had any brains, there wouldn't be a this time."
"Let's just keep moving, before we change our minds." Lucy was already starting to miss the air-conditioned van. But she'd gladly put up with some sweat and a stubbed toe if it meant finding Belle in one piece.
They trudged on for another fifteen minutes before Jane started muttering under her breath.
Lucy didn't blame her. Mid-August in the deep South is hot, humid, and generally miserable even up in the mountains. Today seemed especially stifling without a hint of a breeze. Pushing through the heavy, still air was a chore.
"How far was the fork supposed to be?" Jane asked.
"A little less than a mile from the parking area."
Jane stopped and slapped at a mosquito. "Shouldn't we be there by now?"
"We should be close," Mae said.
Lucy's tee shirt was starting to stick to her body and she had a sick feeling her deodorant was going to fail soon. She eyed her companions.
Jane didn't look any better, her blond hair was two shades darker with sweat and plastered to her head.
Mae didn't exactly look fresh but she didn't seem to have as many working sweat glands. Her hair still had some shape to it and her high-tech tee shirt wasn't sporting sweat marks under the arms.
Chances were huge they were in way over their heads but she didn't see that they had a choice. Waiting until Wednesday and relying on the cops wasn't an option.
Jane slapped at another mosquito. "What the hell were we thinking using Skin So Soft instead of Off?"
"We'll live," Mae said. "Aunt Belle needs us and I'm tired of being boring and predictable."
"Didn't you tell me you actually went deer hunting and killed a deer?" Jane said. "I hardly call that boring or predictable."
"I was twenty-two and still trying to convince Chip we were compatible." Mae paused, looking smug. "I'm still a great shot. We go skeet shooting every once in a while. It makes Chip crazy when I outshoot him."
"So why not try out for Olympic skeet shooting or something?" Jane slapped another bug and made a face as she wiped the remains on the back of her khaki camp shorts.
Lucy stepped on something hard and sharp and felt it through the sole of her tennis shoe. No wonder they made hard-soled boots for hiking. "I'm not sure they have skeet shooting in the Olympics. But I've seen it on ESPN."
Mae nodded. "I've seen those women on ESPN too. They wear pretty cute outfits even if they are plastered with sponsor logos."
"So you think you might actually try some competition shooting?" Lucy asked.
"Who knows? A woman with a tattoo is capable of anything," Mae said.
Jane looked at Lucy. "What're the odds this is a wild goose chase?"
"I have no idea. I assume the map of the cave is still hidden where Paul put it unless Belle already found it. Either way we'll learn something."
Jane didn't say anything.
Lucy gave her a quick pat on the shoulder. "We'll get through this. You'll see. Maybe we'll find Aunt Belle and the Declaration."
Jane bared her teeth in the semblance of a smile and kept trudging.
They reached the fork in the track five minutes later and stopped to look for the best way to head through the woods to the creek.
"Time for you to dazzle us with your compass skills," Jane said.
"I don't need skill. That's the beauty of GPS. I'll just get it to remember this place." Lucy tapped the screen. "And then find the homestead coordinates I put in earlier . . . And presto, an arrow pointing the way we need to go. That way," she said. The arrow pointing to the right.
Jane walked to the edge of the track and looked down. "This is such a bad idea."
Lucy stepped up next to her and saw what she was worried about. The land dropped off sharply for fifteen feet or so and then rose again for twenty. The ravine or dip or whatever you wanted to call it, cut across the direction they wanted to travel. The underbrush was so thick you could hide an elephant. Of course you'd never be able to get an elephant in these woods to begin with.
"They aren't kidding when they call this a wilderness area."
"Didn't you ever play in the woods when you were a kid?" Mae asked with determined cheer as she stepped up next to Lucy and looked over the edge.
Jane just stared for several seconds. "This is crazy. I don't think this place is for amateurs. I'm not even sure we can get down there without a rope."
"It's not that bad," Mae said. She paced several yards in either dir
ection before stopping and pointing. "There's a trail right here."
Lucy and Jane looked where Mae was pointing.
Calling the narrow, ill-defined gap in the trees and brush a trail was giving it way too much credit. It did seem to meander in the general direction they wanted to go, but the terrain still looked dangerously steep.
Jane rolled her eyes. "Maybe a rabbit would call that a trail. I call it an invitation to disaster."
"We have to at least try," Mae said. "I'll go first." She was looking a little pale, but before Jane or Lucy could object, Mae took one sidestep over the edge.
"See," she said, "you just have to take it slow," she lifted her second foot, "an----OH!"
Her foot slipped out from under her and she started sliding down the hill on her side.
"Shit," Jane said.
"Double shit," Lucy said.
They stared for the several long seconds it took Mae to slide to a halt in an awkward sprawl on top of a laurel bush two thirds of the way down.
"Are you okay?" Lucy called down. Just how guilty would she feel if Mae had something broken?
Mae managed a weak wave but it looked like she was having trouble catching her breath.
Seeing her in distress made Lucy wince. "We have to get down there." She tried to act confident, but she figured they were all going to break their damn fool necks.
Jane nodded. "Let's go." She followed Mae over the edge.
"Be careful. You don't want to wind up on top of her." Lucy stepped off the road. What was a broken neck between friends? Besides, they deserved whatever they got for not being better prepared. Of course, getting better prepared would have taken precious time. Time that Belle might not have.
It wasn't possible to walk down the hill, it was too steep. It required a combination of sliding, crawling and sidestepping, but they finally made it down to Mae's side.
She was struggling to get her limbs back in the right places so she could sit up. Jane gave her a hand and she managed to flounder her way upright.
"Guess I should have been a little more careful." She reached up to brush leaves and dirt from her hair. "At least we're almost down the first hill."