AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dawson sat down to check over the footage of the interview he’d done earlier that day. An old-time baseball player. If he’d played these days, he would be a millionaire. But his baseball playing days had been forty years ago—long before the large pay checks had followed the sports stars. The simple fact was Dawson had been in awe of the man’s knowledge, expertise, and humility. He’d been happily married for forty-five years with six grandkids. He still loved watching the game and played in his yard with his grandkids.
This was the kind of guy Dawson wanted a place for. A place where he could come down with his grandkids and let them hit a few balls. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and leaned back in his chair.
Today’s clue had been tough. It had only been because of a flash of something in his head that he’d made the connection about opposites. His stomach clenched. If the other clues were just as tough, there was a chance they might never get the strange inheritance that Margaret Smith had potentially left them.
Dawson let out a long, slow breath. He couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t let that happen. Now he had this opportunity, he wouldn’t let it slip through his fingers.
Something played on his mind. A different kind of idea. He couldn’t do it without telling Piper. That would just be… wrong. But it might be worth a discussion.
The photo was uploaded and sent to McNally, Travers, and Sully. Would they send another clue tomorrow—or make them wait some more. He had absolutely no idea.
But in the mean time?
In the meantime, Dawson McLeod could plan.
*
By four o’clockPiper Davis was officially antsy. She hadn’t heard from Dawson all day. A little part of her brain wondered if he’d already had a reply from the attorneys and not let her know.
The other part of her brain was telling her that they’d made a deal. They’d shaken on it, and Dawson McLeod wasn’t an angry little boy anymore. He was a trustworthy adult.
She’d googled him last night when she’d got in. Of course, Piper hadn’t meant to. But before she’d known it, she’d climbed into her bath with eucalyptus scents and started browsing on her tablet. Dawson McLeod had lots of hits—unsurprisingly. Just about everything was around sport. But there were a few articles about women he was reportedly dating, or celebrity friends that he’d hung out with. There were no cautionary tales. No wild headlines. A few polls that had named him in the most handsome ranks. But nothing that would make her think he would go back on his word to her.
Some of his talk last night had surprised her. It was likely easy for him to tell her to spend time with her family at Christmas, and she might have snapped at him, if he hadn’t already told her his mom had died a few years before, and he’d not mentioned any other family. Maybe Christmas made him melancholy, and this could be a distraction?
Her ears pricked up to a noise. When she was out in her greenhouse, she’d frequently missed deliveries at her front door, so she’d set up a makeshift system that set off a buzzer in her greenhouse at the same time. She was quite sure a million catalog companies could sell her something more high-tech these days, but her old buzzer worked fine.
Piper pulled off her gloves as she walked around the side of her house. A large black limo was parked outside her house. This wasn’t any regular delivery.
“Can I help you?” she asked, trudging her way through the snow at the side of her house.
The man tipped his hat. “Special delivery for Ms. Piper Davis.”
“I’m Piper,” she said, holding out her hand to sign his electronic device. He handed over a thick white envelope and walked back to his car.
Piper could feel her heartbeat quicken. She’d seen an envelope like this before. She unlocked her front door and went inside. She should take her time, but before she’d even sat down at her table, the envelope was open and she was pulling the thick card from inside.
The silver typography was identical to the previous card, and she ran her finger over the raised surface.
In a weekly, monthly, or yearly place,
In tribute to one group of the city’s ancestors,
Find a mix of two traditions where celestial being,
And honey, ginger, and cinnamon meet.
Her phone started to buzz in her pocket and she pulled it out. Dawson McLeod.
“Did you get it?” was his opening sentence.
“A card with a clue—yes. How did you know?”
“They must have delivered them at the same time.”
Piper was still staring at the words. “Isn’t that a little odd. Why didn’t they just email back, or call us into the office again?”
“Who knows, do you have any idea what it means?”
