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“The helping hands clue was different. That memorial is there all year round. But this one? It’s time limited.”
Dawson looked down at the brown bag again. “You think we’ve got this one wrong, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “That’s just it. I don’t. But I think there’s more to this than either of us know.”
He paused and put his hands on his hips. “You could be right. But what do we do about it?”
“Maybe we ask the question when we send in the picture?”
He gave a slow nod. “Okay, let’s do one email, with both of us copied in.”
Piper nodded in agreement. She quickly typed the email, asking the question, copied in Dawson’s email address and pressed send.
“And now?” he asked.
She dug in the brown paper bag. “And now…” She smiled. “We wait, and we eat. Didn’t someone famous once saylet them eat cake?”
“I don’t think Marie Antoinette actually said that.”
Piper shrugged. “Too bad. I was going to change it anyhow, to let them eat lebkuchen.” She took a bite. “Delicious. Now, join in. A girl doesn’t like to eat alone.”
Chapter Six
It was threedays before they heard anything. And it wasn’t by email. Instead, it was again by official letter.
Piper hadn’t even had a chance to open hers when Dawson wandered around her backyard to her greenhouse. “Hello?” he shouted.
She stuck her head outside in surprise.
He gave her a smile. “I was ringing your doorbell for a while. Your car was in the drive so I knew you had to be somewhere.”
Piper walked over to her self-rigged alarm, giving it a shake. It made a dull clang. “This normally sounds when my bell goes. I wonder why it’s not working?”
Dawson leaned forward to inspect it and raised his eyebrows. “Do you really want me to tell you why that’s not working?” He was joking, so she pulled off her gloves and stuck her hands on her hips.
“What did you really want?”
He pulled a thick envelope from his pocket. “The letter. I take it you got one, too?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t know. I’ve been out here most of the day.”
She stepped out the greenhouse and pushed her back door open, leading him into the kitchen of her house. “Have a seat while I check my mailbox.”
She flicked a switch on her coffeemaker and walked through the house, out to her mailbox, and retrieved a small pile of mail. She could recognize the thick white envelope immediately but waited until she was back sitting at the kitchen table with Dawson before she looked at it properly.
“Why do you think we got a letter again?” Her stomach was doing flip-flops.
“I have no idea,” he said nonchalantly, clearly not plagued by the instant worries that she was.
“Have you opened it?”
He shook his head. “Thought it might work better if we did it together.”
Piper couldn’t help it. All her thoughts streamed out of her mouth. “What if this is ayou got it wrongletter. What if everything is all over because we picked the wrong item the other night?”
Dawson looked surprised and his brow furrowed. “And what about the time limit? What if they decided to post us the next clue, rather than send a special delivery service? That could take more time.”
When he said it like that, it seemed much more sensible. Piper tried to be calm. She turned the envelope over in her hands, then stood up and pulled down two coffee mugs from her cupboard. “Let’s be prepared,” she said, pouring the coffee and getting some milk from the fridge. “Here.” She set the mugs down and Dawson gave her a smile.
