41

Kailey

They spread the book out on the table. Axel read off the circled letters.

Parlor. Study Fireplace Mantel. Hallway. Stairwell.

Now they followed Jude into each room. Waiting. Letting his eyes search for patterns that the average eye was oblivious to. Kailey tried—so did Axel—but there was nothing out of the ordinary with the structure, the molding, the wallpaper, or the . . .

“Kay-Kay!” Jude clapped and smiled. It was becoming less of an anxiety and more of a game to him now. He was heard and he knew it. He raced across the room and tapped the window. Some garbling noises encouraged Kailey and Axel to stare at the window and then compare it to the others.

“I see absolutely nothing.” Axel’s elbows jutted out as he perched his hands at his waist.

Kailey squinted. It was like trying to solve one of those things on social media that had something random hidden in a picture filled with a gazillion other pictures.

“Uh!” Jude grunted and slapped the window. His index finger tapped a windowpane.

“Wait. Hold up.” Axel stepped back a few paces. Understanding dawned on his face. “That’s genius.”

“What?” Kailey still didn’t see what her brother had so easily identified.

“The corners of the windows. There’s trim. See? Like lattice in each corner. Only this window . . .” Axel hurried to the window Jude had identified and pointed to its upper right-hand corner. “The lattice makes an X.”

Kailey sucked in a breath. “So how on earth, if we couldn’t see that, would someone else know to look for it? What was Dr. Miranda even hoping for if someone did find his map to the cipher?”

“I think that’s our answer.” Axel reached to give Jude a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, but he stopped just before his hand connected. Withdrawing, he gave Jude a big smile instead. “People have been looking for this for decades. A century. It takes some wicked observation. I’d bet most people even looked for hidden things like paper or clues in books, something like that. Not in the actual manor itself. Mr. Bascom was on to something. He’d figured that part out, and that’s what he and Riley were looking for. Her article mentioned that they were searching for codes in the house itself, right?”

Kailey pursed her lips in realization and nodded. “Yeah. She did.”

“So, back when you and Jude were kids, whoever took you somehow knew that Jude had stumbled on some of the cipher. Since then, no one has found any more.”

“But Maddie’s notebook?” she argued.

Axel grimaced. “Yeah. That I don’t get yet.”

For the next few hours, they worked with Jude and inspected the rooms the old book steered them toward. More of the letters were found in the woodwork, in the railing at the main stairs, and even carefully inserted into a portion of a stained-glass window. When they were finished with the corresponding rooms from the book and had put the letters in the order in which they’d been found, including the ones Jude already scribbled so often, Kailey practically knew them by memory, the cipher was clear. Maybe not interpreted, but it was clear.

Gnqgy xzx jfw. 12 qlwjx. 10 rerv ksog.

Kailey pounded the sequence into the form online that would supposedly interpret it at the click of the submit button.

“That’s all we have,” Axel said.

Kailey glanced at the book. “And you’re sure there’s no more rooms we missed?”

“Yep.”

“Okay.” Kailey typed Manchester Bluff into the key field and paused, her finger hovering over the button.

“Do it.” Axel’s encouragement fed into her anticipation.

Kailey hit the button. In an instant, words formed in the answer key.

Under the fox. 12 paces. 10 feet down.

Kailey couldn’t help the disappointment that flooded her. “That means squat to me. Does it mean anything to you?”

“Not a thing.” Axel slumped in his chair.

A creak sounded in the hall outside the study where they sat surrounded by linen-covered furniture and discarded items. They both waited, listening, but no more sound came.

Kailey thought through her conversation with Gary after she’d left the Bascom house. Anything that might trigger a direction in which to move. She snapped her fingers. “Just a second! Gary gave me a brochure about a museum a few hours south of here. He said it’s the home of a banker who used to be a part of the Confederate movement. He helped siphon funds through his home and to the lake through a series of underground tunnels. The mansion is actually on Lake Michigan.”

Axel nodded patiently. “And this applies how?”

“Well, I’m just thinking . . . tunnels. We know there’s one secret tunnel already, in the turret room. What if there are more? Under Foxglove Manor? That would technically be ‘under the fox.’” Kailey stood, sliding her laptop away from her. “Let me run to my car and grab the brochure. I’d look it up online, but I can’t remember the name of it. It had pictures of the tunnel entrance in that house. Maybe it’ll help give us an idea of where to look.”

“Go for it.”

Kailey moved around Axel, and as she hurried to the door, Axel reached out and snagged the hem of her shirt. He tugged her back before Kailey could prepare herself mentally or emotionally, and his arm slid around her waist as he pulled her against his seated form.

“What are you doing?” His grip was delicious and disturbing simultaneously. Kailey looked down at him over her shoulder.

Axel grinned up at her.

Gosh, she could swim in his eyes.

“You’re kind of cute when you’re on a mission.”

Kailey squirmed. “I’m this close, Axel, this close to figuring this out and putting definition into everything that’s happened to me, to Jude. Even to Riley.”

“And if we actually find Confederate gold?”

“I don’t care about the gold,” Kailey protested. “It’ll be proof, though, proof that someone does. It’ll be something we can take to the police. To your blond detective girl.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re jealous.”

“Not . . .” she started to say, squirming again as his arm around her waist tightened. “Not in the slightest.” She attempted to pry his hand from her side.

“Just be careful, okay?” He leaned into her.

“I’m just going to my car.” Kailey dismissed his worry, while inside her stomach flipped as she remembered. Remembered walking alone on the sidewalk. The van. The arms dragging her into the vehicle.

“Want me to come too?” Axel offered.

“Do you really think it’s that dangerous to walk outside? I mean . . .”

The phone on the table vibrated. “Bad timing.” He reached for it, muttering his surprise it even had enough signal for a call to come through. “I better take this. It’s the police.” He spoke into the nape of her neck, her hair moving with his breath. “Just be aware. Until we figure this out. Okay?”

“You’re being a bit overbearing,” Kailey mumbled.

The phone continued to vibrate in his hand. Axel was bold and nuzzled her neck with his nose. “Raymond has emboldened me to stake claim on my woman—not Detective Finnegan, I might add.”

Kailey pushed herself off his lap and spun around. With an impulsive move, she dipped and planted a kiss on his cheek. “You’re a caveman.”

He laughed as he answered the phone.

Kailey ducked under a branch that overhung the walkway to the gravel drive. Her car was parked facing the lake, its front end still a smashed mess from the accident, the windshield shattered and busted inward. The towing company had brought it here instead of a garage at the request of her insurance company. They wanted to send out an assessor. Kailey wondered if they’d taken into account how far north the poor person would have to come and that someone could assess the car by emailing a picture.

The wind had picked up, and Kailey hunched her shoulders against it as she hoped she could find the brochure where she’d tucked it between the passenger seat and the middle console. Tugging at the passenger door, it gave with a creak and she bent inside, feeling with her hand.

“Bingo,” Kailey declared. She pulled out of the car and pushed the door shut. Turning, she almost collided with Tracee. “Whoa! I didn’t know you were there!” she laughed.

Tracee smiled, her bag slung over her shoulder and her hands in her pockets. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m naturally jumpy. Especially now.” Kailey excused her reaction with the truth.

Tracee nodded, then swung her bag off her shoulder. “Hey, I wanted to show you something.”

“Sure.” Kailey waited as Tracee dug around in the blue-denim bag. As she waited, a slow unease began to build. Axel’s warning echoed in her ear, and her instinctive signal for danger heightened.

Tracee pulled her hand out, and Kailey jumped back. Tracee frowned. “You okay?”

Kailey waited. “Yeah.”

Tracee handed her a green hardcover book, its edges worn and unraveling.

“What’s this?” Kailey reached for it cautiously.

Tracee shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. But . . . well, I know you all were looking for codes and the legendary treasure.” Tracee waggled her eyebrows, and her voice held a singsongy tone. “Anyway, when I was in Maddie’s room, I found that.”

Kailey flipped open the book. A photograph fell out. It was an older picture, but it was obviously Maddie at a younger age—perhaps her sixties—and a young man.

“That’s Mr. Bascom—Riley’s dad. But he’s with Maddie.” Concern reflected on Tracee’s face. “I was going to ask Teri, but she’s been preoccupied with the board trying to restructure now that Mr. Bascom is gone.”

“So, you brought it to me?” Kailey was still trying to assess Tracee’s motive.

Tracee nodded innocently. “Yeah.” She didn’t offer more explanation.

“Tracee, what are you trying to say?”

Tracee crossed her arms and looked toward the lake for a long moment. Her chest rose and fell, and finally she met Kailey’s eyes. “You know it sucks that I really actually like you.”

“Huh?” Kailey edged away from Tracee. Her imagination was on overdrive. So was her sense of caution.

Tracee pressed her lips together tightly before speaking. “You know when you ended up in the lake with hypothermia?”

“Yes?” Kailey answered cautiously.

“You saw things, didn’t you? Like hallucinations? Maybe the ghost of Lucy?”

Kailey’s hand tightened around the now-unimportant brochure.

“It’s a symptom of poisoning.” Tracee gave a weird laugh, one that sounded both regretful and resigned. “I’m surprised Teri didn’t figure it out. Even when I gave her the meds to give you after the accident.”

“Poisoning?” Kailey held her hands up as if to ward off Tracee. “You know, if you want to talk, let’s go inside.” She moved to slip around Tracee, but the nurse stepped back and in her way.

Tracee gave her a sad smile. “Look in the book. On the inside page.”

Kailey did. She expected to see another line of the same mysterious cipher code. Instead, her heart stilled for a moment, and she read before lifting her eyes to Tracee.

“‘Dr. Miranda, ca. 1864. Phineas Crayne, ca. 1885. Lula B., ca. 1915 . . .’” Then a few more lines of names and dates continually progressing to the present until finally, “‘Jim B., ca. 1991. Tracee B., ca. 2018’?”

Tracee seemed to be waiting for Kailey to say more. To connect the dots. But Kailey’s heart was in her throat.

“Tracee . . . I don’t understand.” Kailey tried frantically to put the pieces together.

Tracee tapped the book. “Kailey, it’s a journal. We’ve been keeping records for years. Decades. A century. And see? There?” She put her index finger on one more line on the inner page, written in a script and ink. Guardians of Foxglove Manor.

Kailey looked up. “Please tell me that—”

Tracee’s smile was hardly apologetic. “We’ve been missing one crucial thing as guardians. The full cipher. Once we know the cipher, we would know what the original guardians knew. Where the gold is.”

“What are you talking about?” Kailey eyed the manor. Eyed the front door, wishing Axel would come and check on her.

Tracee didn’t notice Kailey’s shifting gaze. “The guardian of Foxglove Manor was entrusted with guarding the manor’s treasure. The map to finding the cipher was in that stupid book. But, God knows, even you had the book, the ciphers were impossible to find! You’d have to know what to look for. Ever since my great-great-grandmother Lula, it’s eluded the guardians. And then . . . my uncle Jim. When you were here as a kid, he found out your brother was a genius. Being the landlord, he stopped in to chat with your parents and saw Jude writing some cipher. Cipher we’d spent decades trying to find! And Jude didn’t even have the book with the clues to which rooms the ciphers were hidden in!”

It was starting to dawn on Kailey. Slowly. The pieces falling into place. “And then my mom had her breakdown . . .”

Tracee gave a short nod. “Now you’re getting it. Uncle Jim was going to befriend them, ask about Jude. But your mom flipped out—about Lucy, about everything, and the next day your family had up and left Foxglove.” Tracee offered her a smile that was not genuine, nor was it apologetic. “When the Civil War gold disappeared, my family vowed to retrieve it. And we’ll continue until we find it. Thanks to you and Axel, and especially Jude, we’re very, very close. Finally.”

“You don’t know the cipher.” Kailey bit her tongue, wishing she hadn’t goaded the nurse.

Tracee laughed and rolled her eyes. “I know part of it. When you applied here, I helped persuade Teri you’d be a good hire. What luck! I mean, all these years and you show up again? When you arrived, it was a matter of hours before Jude was sketching. I saw part of the cipher and I knew what it was. I jotted it in Maddie’s notebook so I wouldn’t forget it. Figures you’d snoop there too, and that loony Maddie would write what I’d noted in her book over and over again, bringing attention to it.”

“And you let us all think Maddie was losing her mind by making us all believe she didn’t have a son named Jim?” It was all Kailey could do not to slap Tracee.

Tracee blew out a sigh that lifted tendrils of hair from her forehead. Her hazel eyes were glossy, bright, and very pleased with herself. “A little tampering with records, a little classic foxglove in her coffee, and anyone can be erased from an Alzheimer’s patient’s history to make them sound delusional. She and Jim had a falling out years ago. They barely talked, but he fulfilled his obligations by giving her a place to die in peace, not to mention a grandchild in his later years in life. Of course, Maddie doesn’t even recognize Riley.”

“But if Jim is your uncle, then Jason is too?” Kailey struggled to keep up.

Tracee’s hand lifted from her bag, and in a swift movement Kailey felt a needle plunge into her neck. “Shh . . . it doesn’t matter, does it?” Tracee pushed Kailey against the car, shushing her in her ear as she hoisted Kailey’s weight up with her arms. “I really wish you weren’t so persistent. I actually liked you. When my dad told me to get whatever I could out of you when you arrived, all I could think to do was the age-old proven method. Foxglove poisoning. Make you think you were losing your mind, or sick, and let us in on what Jude knew. But—well, you’re tenacious.”

“Tracee . . .” Kailey saw the lake going black.

Tracee clicked her tongue. “My dad has waited years for this. When Uncle Jim and Maddie had a falling out, Jim and my dad were on again, off again. It was a race, really. Which son could find it first.”

“Your uncle Jim?” Kailey heard footsteps approaching at a rapid pace. She tried to speak, but her tongue felt thick. “Maddie is your grandmother?”

Tracee’s smile was lopsided, and her face grew distorted as Kailey tried to focus. “Yeah, well, this place sort of runs in the family, but the gold? It belongs to the guardian, and Uncle Jim was wasting his role. That’s why my dad tried so hard twenty years ago when Uncle Jim told him about Jude’s ciphers. Took you, but you weren’t any help. He even tried with your parents before they ran themselves off the road in a panic after he confronted them. They were drunk. It was an accident. My uncle? Not so much. He was going to report my dad once he found out about Riley.”

Kailey’s head tilted backward. Heavy. It felt so heavy. “Your dad kidnapped Riley?”

“Oh!” Tracee smiled as though welcoming someone at a party. “Kailey, this is my father.”

Kailey looked up into the face of Jason Bascom just as the world went dark.