“Oh. Right.”
We lay everything out on the floor between us. The coded poem. The scroll of pictures. The pendant necklace and tiny skeleton key. Gabriel twists the zoom lens, resetting it each time.
Click. Click. Click.
I fold the note and slip it carefully back inside the box, then lay the scroll and necklace on top—exactly as we found it. We filter back down the library stairs and wait at the Civic Center Station. Sunny pointedly avoids eye contact with Cam, even though we’ve all agreed to Julia’s suggestion. It’s strange, because just one week ago, I would have thought that no one could possibly despise Cam as openly as I do. To not be his biggest enemy in this moment feels, well—unexpected, to say the least.
We sit side by side by side on the train, with Gabriel, Julia, and me cushioning the space between Sunny and Cam. My knee bumps lightly into Cam’s every time the driver makes a hard turn. But then we dip inside the Sunset Tunnel, and in the darkness I notice that Cam keeps his knee pressed into mine until we emerge on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park.
Sunny, Gabriel, and Julia get off the train at their usual stops. Sunny narrows her eyes at Cam before she heads down the steps.
He holds up his palms in surrender. “I’m not even doing anything!”
As Julia steps off, she nudges my shoe. “You coming?” she asks.
I shake my head. Cam looks at me but doesn’t say anything. Julia just shrugs and hops down onto the pavement. I take a deep breath as the door closes behind her.
The train rolls down the next three streets, then stops again. Cam stands up.
“Here?” he asks. We’re now two stops past my place and one stop early for his place. But I stand up after him. He knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“Yeah,” I say. “Here.”
We walk out into the usual gust of wind. Mount Sutro is smocked in a gown of clouds. Without a word, Cam turns and strolls onto Sixteenth Avenue. I lean into the wind and follow him up the next block to the first set of mosaic steps and then a few blocks farther to another set that leads to Grandview Park.
This was a spot where we liked to sit and think, especially when we were stuck during the hunt two summers ago. Cam’s a lot faster on stairs than I am—he’s always been faster. But he waits patiently every few steps, making sure I’m still close behind him, before heading forward. We twist down the last block of houses and climb up the final rickety wooden stairs to the top of the park.
Technically, this isn’t really a park. There are no fields or play structures. It’s more of a national park—preserved land. Grandview is one of the last few untouched sand dunes in the Bay Area. Before San Francisco was here, the whole area was made up entirely of sand dunes. Now they’re all covered with houses and roads.
Cam sits at the viewing bench perched on the very top of the dune. He motions for me to join him. We look across the wide rectangle of Golden Gate Park, over Strawberry Hill, to the Golden Gate Bridge at the far end of the city. Cam extends his arm, finger pointing out to the horizon. He draws two invisible slopes in the sky.
“Thinking of the map?” I ask.
Cam sighs. “I was hoping the hats in the picture would line up with our view of the bridge at this angle. They don’t, though.”
“Ah.”
Cam’s hand drops back into his lap.
“You really want me out of the group?” he asks quietly.
“No,” I say, surprising myself. We look across the bench at each other. Cam holds the gaze until I give up first and lookaway. “I’m not sure I want you in this group either, though. Looking for treasure with you is so much more…”
“Different,” Cam supplies, “than looking with them.”
I nod.
“V, I mean this in the nicest way possible—”
“Of course you do,” I mutter.
“—but maybe thingsneedto be different now,” he goes on, “to finish this. You and Sunny and Julia and Gabriel have done great. But I don’t think the rest of this puzzle is going to be solved on a computer screen.”
I feel some of Sunny’s rage seeping into me. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means we need to go back to the way we were before.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “What?”
