AllFreeNovel
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Inside a ring of envy, I’m black and white.
Oliver leans over my shoulder. I can smell his aftershave. Something like the sea and…spice? Cotton? The mountains? Whatever it is, it smells good. “What do you think it means?”
I frown. “Well, it’s probably a location for the book, right? Not an object like I’d be tempted to think with the mention of dice.” I fan myself with the index card, thinking of all the buildings and landmarks in Cherry Creek. There are a lot of white buildings and black shutters and black roofs. But there aren’t any six-sided buildings that I can think of. Not real buildings, anyway. And what about the ring of envy? Envy is the green-eyed monster. Or maybe that’s jealousy. Same thing? Green with envy is a thing, I think. Green. Aha.
I clap my hands. “It’s the gazebo in Cherry Creek Park. It’s white and has a black roof. It’s got six sides, and it’s ringed by a circle ofgreenbushes.” I pause as Oliver applauds me. I laugh. We don’t even know if I’m right. “But why would Sadie leave such a valuable book exposed to the elements like that?” I start the car. “It doesn’t make any sense. Unless she’s purposely trying to destroy her competition.”
“Maybe drive fast.” Oliver buckles up. “Or maybe don’t. There’s still some ice.”
“I’ll try for safe and fast.” I never break the speed limit, but we still make it to the park in record time.
Without further discussion we’re out of the car and running to the gazebo. After hunting around the bushes ringing the white building with their green envy, I finally find a metal lockbox between a bush and the bottom of the structure. “Got it!” I yell, though when I pick it up, it feels far too light to contain the book. It’s also got an added complication in the form of a three-digit combination lock. “Maybe I don’t have it. It’s too light.” I hold the box out to Oliver.
“Is it locked?” He gives the numbers each a whirl and tries to pry the lid up while I study the index card for clues I may have missed. “Yep, it’s locked. What’s Sadie’s birthday?”
I blink at him. “I have no earthly idea.”
“Last three of her social?”
I laugh. “Yeah, right.”
“Street number of her house?”
“12527.”
“Okay. Too many numbers.” He rolls some combinations of the house number. None of them work. “Maybe the answer’s in the clue.”
“Well, there are three lines of text to the clue. Maybe it’s the number of words or syllables or something. The first line has four words, the second has five, and the third has nine. Try four, five, nine.”
Oliver rolls a four, five, nine into place and tries the lid. It doesn’t open. “Try it backwards.”
He rolls a nine, five, and four next. It opens smoothly. “That was easy.”
We both peer inside.
As I suspected, there’s no book. There is, however, another white envelope inside.
“Well, hello, you two!” My sister’s voice rings out behind us as two squishy human balls hurl themselves at my lap, knocking me backwards onto the snow.
I come up laughing and wrestle my bundled-up nephews off me. “Hey, sis!” I smile up at Felicity, who’s standing over us with a knowing grin.
“I brought the boys to the park to run off some energy, and it looks like you and Ollie here are doing something similar…?” She lets her words hang suggestively as if we might rush in to explain why we’re huddled close together by the steps of the gazebo. I shoot an apologetic look at Ollie. I’m sure she’s embarrassing him.
“No. We’ve been making out. We came here to rest,” he answers with a straight face.
My sister’s jaw drops. “Oh.”
I feel my face catch fire. “He’s joking, Felicity! Just joking.”
She regards him with a thoughtful smile like she trusts his explanation more than she trusts mine, but she doesn’t pursue it.
“What’s ‘making out’?” Trace looks up from the snowball he’s packing between his hands.
Oliver has the grace to cringe. “Sorry,” he whispers to my sister.
“You’ll find out when you’re twenty-three,” Felicity tells Trace firmly.
Trace nods. “Must have something to do with work, then. That’s when I’m supposed to get a job after college.”
