“You know when.”
“What month?”
“April,” she said and then thought about it for a second before crawling over to the stack of notebooks. She moved them this way and then that way before saying, “The last notebook is January 2005 through March 2005.” She looked up at Wade. “There’s a notebook missing.”
“Ta-da!” Wade gave her a satisfied grin and a wink.
“I didn’t leave any. I made sure I grabbed them all.”
“She must have hidden it or stashed it somewhere out of sight.”
“No! Oh my goodness. She was still working in it! Come on!” She jumped up, ran out of the room, and flew down the stairs. Wade followed Lilly to her parents’ study, a large room located to the right of the staircase.
Lilly stood at the desk with her back to Wade, head down, and then quickly picked something up.
“Is that it?” Wade asked.
She turned with a red spiral notebook in her hands and leaned against the desk. Opening the cover, she began to read to herself.
“What does it say?” Wade interrupted her reading after a few minutes.
“Mom’s talking about how good it felt to be back home, saying how much she had missed me.”
Wade was afraid it was too much for her, and for a moment thought she would start crying. But she didn’t. She just seemed dazed as she stared down at the notebook, squinting and opening and shutting her eyes.
“Mom goes on about the upcoming lecture. Wait, it says this weird thing here, ‘The forecast for the lecture is 30 degrees 2 feet and 12.9 inches north and 95 degrees 22 feet and 28.42 inches west.’”
“Let me see that.” Wade realized he still had the coffee in his hands so he traded a cup for the notebook. He read for a second before saying, “This is it! Lilly, these are global positioning coordinates. A couple of guys down at the shop go do this all the time. Colt’s even tagged along with them a couple of times. They use a GPS, a Global Positioning System, and go on this website to get coordinates and find treasure.”
She took a sip of the coffee.
“Lilly, are you listening to me?”
“I’m sorry.” She rubbed her eyes. “Treasure? They find what?”
“Well, they call it treasure or cache. It can be anything from toys to a piece of paper to sign.”
“So this is a treasure map of sorts.”
“Better. Your mom is telling us exactly where we can find something. She hid something in this location. We can go get it. All I have to do is see if I can borrow a GPS.”
“This is really good,” she said but her eyes closed. “A hidden treasure. How appropriate for them to leave me clues to a hidden treasure.”
Chapter 6
Saturday Morning – April 30, 2005
For a moment, it felt like the past few weeks had never happened; for a moment, the steady rhythm of Wade’s snores made everything familiar; for a moment, Lilly actually felt safe. However, as she stretched her arms above her head, yawned and opened her eyes, the memory of the night before made her sit straight up. She was in the living room on the couch, and Wade was asleep in the wingback chair.
She smiled at how awkward Wade looked. It wasn’t the first time he had fallen asleep in a strange, uncomfortable place. His snoring and the tiny pocket of drool in the corner of his mouth proved it hadn’t bothered him. She glanced at her watch. “Wade, wake up,” she said in response to the time. She jumped off the sofa and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. Wade did a snort and shuffle but didn’t wake up. “Wade, it’s nine o’clock. You’re late for work.”
Wade’s eyes popped opened. “What?”
“It’s after nine. You’re late.”
He sat up with a growl and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. “I called in.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?”
He mumbled, “It’ll be fine.”
“I don’t see why you don’t go on to work. I can take care of this.”
“I help with the tedious stuff, and now you’re telling me to get lost?”
“No. Well, I have to go home, take a shower, call Ben, and get something—”
“Ben? We haven’t really found anything. We can call him when we’ve got the thing in our hands."
“I want to at least let him know what we found out. Do you think you’ll be able to get a GPS?”
“Probably,” he said. “Are you hungry?”
“What?”
“Food. I could whip us up some eggs and some bacon.”
She didn’t want to think about them as a couple, but the thought of Wade cooking breakfast immediately brought back memories of being woken to the smell of eggs, bacon, and homemade biscuits. When they had first moved in together, she tried going into the kitchen a couple of times, but he would order her back to bed. She soon learned that when she woke to the smell of breakfast, she might as well stay put. After breakfast rituals began to ease into her mind…
“Hello?” Wade said. “What do you say? Food?”
She turned so that he couldn’t see the blush she felt coming on and started combing her hair with her fingers. “The kitchen, Wade, remember? I’ll get something later.”
“Right. Well, we could go somewhere.”
“No, I’m going to head to the house and call Ben.”
“Fine. Go have breakfast with the ten-foot clown.”
“What? Oh my goodness.” She hastily retied the fabric belt on her sundress. “I’m not having breakfast with anyone. I’m going home. I need to shower. Just meet me there this afternoon if you can get the GPS.” She had been around him for too long. She was starting to let her emotions in. She wasn’t ready. She had to stay focused on finding Ben’s statue. And then maybe afterwards she would try and figure out the whole rest of her life thing.
***
As Lilly showered, she felt uneasy and kept hearing noises. Even after turning the water off and grabbing a towel, she stood still and listened. Once she’d recognized the sounds to be the normal first floor apartment noises, she finished drying and slipped on her pink satin robe, hoping she was just being paranoid. In a day, her life had once again turned upside down. It was bad enough thinking someone had killed her parents because they had interrupted a burglary. But this, this was surreal.
Someone had been watching her parents in Egypt. Her parents must have thought the statue was important. Important enough to risk their lives for. Why, she wondered, why is it so important? She decided that she would ask Ben when she saw him. She had the right to know, especially now when her life was potentially in danger.
Lilly dressed in a pair of black Capri pants, a black tank, and her comfy flats. She had no idea where the day would take her, and she wanted to be ready for whatever. She pulled her still-wet hair into a simple ponytail and was applying mascara when she heard the front door handle jiggle.
She tiptoed down the short hall, holding her hair brush for protection, and peeked around the corner as the front door opened. Wade barged in, with what appeared to be Chinese take-out. She was relieved and furious. “What are you doing?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“Why are you here?”
“You told me to come here!” He actually had genuine confused expression on his face, which frustrated Lilly even more.
“I meant later, like after you showered or something and got that GPS.”
Wade held up a cell phone-looking device. “I did get it. I would have gone on to Colt’s, but he’s at work, and I don’t have a key. Besides, most of my clothes are here. I didn’t think it would be a big deal to grab a shower here. I bought lunch. I know how upset you’ve been. I wanted to help.”
“Right,” she said and closed her eyes. Offer him a sip and he’ll gulp it down every time.
“You want me to leave? Fine… I’ll take the food and go to the shop and interrupt Colt to get the key, and then I’ll go all the way back to his house, and I’ll get ready. I’ll eat and watch some TV, and then I�
�ll come back here with this thing and let you know where those coordinates pointed to.”
“Do you already know where it leads?”
“Maybe….” He nodded. “But I can leave, if that’s what you want.”
“No. Okay. It’s fine.”
His eyebrows bounced over his satisfied baby-blues.
She smiled at his familiar cockiness. She hated that he was so familiar and cozy and so gorgeous. The truth was, over the last couple weeks, that’s what she had begun to think was their problem… her problem. When she dug deeper, their relationship seemed so superficial.
Maybe she should have listened to all her mom’s warnings: “I understand why you like him. He’s fun and you’re young. But sweetheart, do you really think he’s the marrying kind? Will he be able to provide for you and a family? What kind of father do you really think he’ll be?”
The truth was, the thought of Wade being at a PTA meeting kind of made her laugh. And she didn’t even want to think about how overprotective he would be, especially if they had a little girl. The subject of children had been brought up a couple of times, and they both wanted them someday. Funny thing was, she wanted to be married first, which had started many arguments. “Then why did you turn me down? Twice?” Wade had asked. She never really answered the question because she wasn’t sure herself. She did think maybe she was waiting to be asked in a romantic way. In a way that would make her feel as though he really meant it, and in turn, would mean a long life together. How could she even really think about children before she knew for sure that she was in a relationship that would last forever? Besides, he hadn’t asked her in long time.
“Come on.” Wade carried the food to the coffee table and sat on the couch. “You need to eat, and I’ll tell you what I found out.”
Lilly told herself she could handle being in the same room with Wade and could look at him and converse with him without the aid of notebooks and sad thoughts of her parents to distract her. But still, she wished she hadn’t have asked for his help last night. Why? Why did she do that? Because now he was in the apartment—the apartment that had taken them forever to unpack because they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other.
“I got you your favorite,” he said unpacking the cartons from the bag. “Moo Moo Guy Pan.”
She knew he’d said it wrong on purpose, but there she was smiling again as she sat down on the floor, crisscross applesauce. She felt comfortable and the food smelled so delicious. Wade sat across from her, blowing his blonde hair out of his eyes as he stuck his chop-sticks into his carton. He brought out a piece of pepper steak and stuck it in his mouth. “So did you call him?” he asked mid-chew.
When their eyes met, she looked down, and it took a second for what he had asked to register. “No, I was waiting to make sure you got the thing.” She took a bite of her noodles. They tasted yummy and her satisfaction came out as a little hum. When she looked back up at Wade, he was staring at her, a sad, gentle stare.
“The Botanical Gardens,” he whispered and went back to eating. “You know, I was thinking we could go on over there and check it out and then give the guy a call.”
“He should come, too. I mean, the message was really for him.”
Wade huffed a little under his breath and began to eat a little more aggressively. “I don’t trust the guy. What do we know about him? Nothing.”
“My parents trusted him. I want to find his property and give it back to him, and then we’ll never see him again.”
Wade gave a nod. “Right. That’s all I want to do, too. We can go and get this thing, call him, meet him, hand it over. Why does he have to go, too?”
“Please just…” He was so exasperating! “Wade, we’ve been over this. Stop.”
“Think about it for a minute. Maybe your parents are dead because they trusted this guy.”
While trying to swallow her food, it caught a little in her throat along with her frustration. “It’s not his fault,” she said.
Wade left the chopsticks in the food container and rubbed his hands down his face. “So you do blame me,” he finally whispered.
“What? No, Wade, that’s…” but she couldn’t finish her sentence because she wondered if she did.
He sat waiting for her to tell him that she didn’t. When the words wouldn’t form, she saw the hurt in his eyes before he stood up and said, “I’m going to go take a shower.”
After Wade left the room, Lilly sat on the couch, bewildered as to what had happened. The tears came next, and she wiped at them feverishly. Not today. She had already cried too much in the last twenty-four hours. This was why she didn’t want Wade around. He caused her too much confusion. She was so confused.
Chapter 7
“You know,” Wade said, “this is something you’re supposed to do during the day.” He held a flashlight and the borrowed Garmin Global Positioning System. The coordinates had led to Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens: two hundred and fifty acres of hiding spots.
Wade walked down a dirt path, Lilly right behind him, and Ben trailed. Ben was the reason they had arrived at the park after dark—after it had closed. They hadn’t been able to get in touch with him the entire day, and Lilly wouldn’t budge without him. And what an uncomfortable day it had been. He hated that Lilly blamed him for her parents’ death. They hadn’t talked about it anymore, but the remnants of the conversation had lingered.
While showering, he’d thought long and hard about leaving, because obviously she didn’t want him around. But he couldn’t leave her. Not in her current state-of-mind. She was doing things she would’ve never done before: like trusting a strange guy she knew nothing about. Wade didn’t trust Ben, and if anything happened to Lilly, when he knew in his gut something was off, that would be his fault.
The idea that Lilly would come to her senses soon and forgive him was not far from his consciousness, and he held onto that. That’s what was going to get him through the night. After they found and gave Ben back his property, things would settle down and Lilly could go back to healing. She’d realize then that he had been there for her the whole time. He just had to keep his cool… But keeping his cool was going to be tough at the moment because their current situation wasn’t helping his anger, at all.
When they had finally reached Ben, after 6 p.m., Wade had suggested they wait until morning, but both Lilly and Ben had insisted that they go that night. They had to park at a strip center, walk down the side of the busy road to the bridge that crossed over the park, and then jump six feet down into the park. They had followed the GPS through a landscaped area with benches and planted trees and flowers, to the wooded trails. The path had begun as gravel but soon turned into dirt littered with roots, rocks, and sticks.
“If it was still daylight,” Wade continued, “we could see. More importantly, we would’ve been able to walk through the front gates like law abiding citizens. Aren’t you even worried about what’ll happen if we get caught? There are a hell of a lot more things I would rather go to jail for. I can’t guarantee that we’re even going to be able to find it out here in the dark.”
“You said that thing was accurate up to a couple of feet,” Lilly said from behind him.
That shut him up. He had nothing else to say to her. Obviously, any comments or concerns of his were overruled by the needs of Lilly’s dead parents and Ben.
After walking in silence, except for the occasional mosquito slap, for half an hour, the arrow on the screen veered to the right. “It’s showing it should be this way,” Wade said, as he headed into the woods.
“In there?” he heard Lilly say. “Are there snakes?”
“Probably, Princess. Why don’t you stay here? I’ll go find it.”
She looked embarrassed and a little annoyed at him calling her Princess, but she didn’t protest.
“I’ll come with you,” Ben said.
“Perfect,” Wade said through his teeth.
They walked through the leftover winter leaves, crunchy pine
cones, and disoriented wild vines and brush. The sky was cloudless and the moon was high, but the dense trees shaded any light.
“We’re close,” Wade said after a couple of minutes. “It should be somewhere around here.” He circled the area with the light. “It’ll be camouflaged under leaves or something so that the average park visitor wouldn’t notice it. Even during the day, they’re not easy to find. My brother told me about this one time he and the other guy searched for like—”
“There it is,” Ben said.
“What? Man, there’s no way. You don’t even have a flashlight.” He watched as Ben bent down and picked up a dark plastic tube. “Lucky... Here, let me see that.” He snatched it from Ben’s hands before he had a chance to protest. He unscrewed the lid. “Well, there’s only this piece of paper. It might not be the right cache. There could be a dozen or so of these puppies out here.” He unrolled the paper. “Dear Ben…” Wade cleared his throat as he glanced up at Ben, who probably expected him to give him the letter. No way. Wade read it to himself before he began to read it out loud, again. “Since—”
“Maybe,” Ben cut him off, “we should go back so Lillian can hear this, too.”
Wade nodded as he said, “Lillian,” mockingly under his breath, wishing he had suggested waiting on Lilly. He rolled the paper back up and stuffed it into his shirt pocket.
“I’ll take that.”
“Forget it,” Wade said to Ben but realized at the same time that the voice didn’t belong to Ben. He shone his flashlight on the two dark figures approaching from behind Ben. The light captured Lilly’s terrified face and the gun, which pointed toward her head.
“For her sake, I suggest you change your mind,” the gunman said.
Before Wade had a chance to flash the light on the man’s face, another person appeared from the shadows. Wade automatically changed the direction of the light. A man approached, his white hair faded into his pale skin and lips. He looked like a ghost, but Wade knew by the way his raw fear rose from his gut to heat his face that he was definitely the boogieman.
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