“The Singer’s hid a note and key inside the teddy bear.”
How they’d survived this long was a miracle. The plastic protecting the note inside the bear had all but disintegrated; one more wash might have destroyed it completely.
I placed two plastic bags on the table. One protected the key, the other protected the faded note—a riddle, from what we could read.
“Can I see it?” Jack asked, reaching for the note.
Jack read it aloud, “Where the sun and moon align, the treasure resides.” Then he handed the note to Jamie.
“The key’s engraved,” John said. Squinting, he read the letters, “Love?”
“That’s less than helpful,” Jack said with a chuckle.
“On a phone they represent 2, 6, 8, and 3,” Jay said.
Jack wrote the riddle on his legal pad, and the letters and numbers below it.
“The key looks like a safe deposit box or locker key, so we want to start there first,” Gibson said.
“Any chance you can narrow down the location?” Jamie asked. “The world is a pretty big place.”
“We snuck a peek at Nina’s adoption file—”
Jay cut G off, “Hacked.”
Gibson shot a glare Jay’s way before continuing. “The Singers didn’t have any local ties to the area.”
“Then how’d Nina end up here?” Jamie asked.
“We’re not sure; we still haven’t found the connection between the Singers and the Fosters.”
It was possible the Singers placed the Fosters in WitSec—God knows their name is a little on the nose—but we still hadn’t found any evidence. If we dug deep enough, we might find their real identities, but even I didn’t have that kind of clearance.
“Any chance she was abducted?” Jay asked.
“There’s no evidence to suggest it. I stand by our assumption that the Fosters were protecting Nina.”
“That’s one hell of an assumption,” John argued.
“You know what they say about those who assume?” Jay added.
“Everything we’ve found so far indicates the Singers wanted to protect Nina. If the daughter of two CIA officers went missing, there’d be evidence they looked for her.” Gibson leaned his elbows on the table and answered calmer than I would’ve expected.
“Dallas is the nearest big city to the Fosters, so it makes sense to start the search there.”
Jack finally lifted his head. “The sun and moon could be a business name, or represent two neighboring businesses. I’ll search for business names with those words and variations, and see what I find.”
“You can narrow the search to those near banks and buildings with public lockers in them, like train or bus stations.”
“It’s been twenty years; what are the chances the business is still operating?” John asked.
“Or the building still standing?” Jamie added.
“We know it’s a long shot, but we have to try.” Going on a wild goose chase was better than sitting on our asses waiting for our unsubs to make their next move.
“Jack, can you ask Meg to order lunch?”
“I’d like to talk to Nina,” I said. “We don’t mind waiting until her shift is over.”
