Could the sequence of the notes represent the numbers that belonged in the corresponding squares?
I laid out my grid, and started filling in numbers. When I finished, it looked rather stark.
If I only knew what it meant. As a puzzle, it was nearly empty, and if it was one of mine, there was too much information that was still missing.
I just hoped I didn’t run out of time before I unlocked the key.
Chapter 19
“HAVE YOU HAD ANY MORE BREAKTHROUGHS?” ZACH asked as he walked into the bedroom where I’d been working.
“No, I’m afraid I burned out my thought process. How about you?”
He grinned at me in a special way, something I’d seen before.
“You’re on to something, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Come on, don’t hold out on me.”
“I need to sleep on it, and then I have to check a few things out tomorrow.” I knew my husband’s methods. He’d talk when he was ready, and only when he was ready. Otherwise, his internal thought process could short- circuit if he spoke his theories aloud. I understood it completely, and had learned to respect my husband when he was reticent about a case.
“Good enough.” I started gathering my copies and notes.
“You don’t have to do that on my account. I could always crash in the other bedroom.”
“I don’t spend enough time with you as it is. Besides, I’m just spinning my wheels right now.”
“Don’t worry. You always do better in the mornings.”
“We can only hope.”
After we were in bed, I snuggled up close to my husband. “I’m glad you’re with me.”
“Tonight, or all of the time?”
I punched him lightly. “All of the time, and you know it. Can you believe Barton Lane is really my uncle?”
“It’s hard to grasp, isn’t it? How do you think Tom’s going to take it?”
“One thing’s for sure. He’s either going to be thrilled, or he won’t talk to his brother at all. There’s nothing wishy-washy about my uncle.”
“Which one?” Zach asked, and even though it was dark, I could hear the smile in his voice.
“That’s got a nice ring to it.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Zach asked softly.
“What do you mean?”
“He stole from your family, Savannah. I’m sure it was probably everything your grandparents had. Are you going to give him a free ride for doing that?”
“He tried to make amends,” I said.
“Too late to do your grandparents any good, though.”
“Zach, do you think I should turn my back on him because of something he did before I was even born?” While I prided myself on being my own woman, that didn’t mean that I didn’t take my husband’s advice seriously. He was a smart man, and he loved me. I respected him enough to listen to what he had to say, though I didn’t feel bound to follow it. It was a marriage, an equal partnership, at least as far as we were concerned.
“Hang on. I’m not saying that. I’m just not sure you should make it too easy on him.”
“How many hoops should he jump through first? Would seven be too many? Are three not enough? What’s the magic number?”
“Nope, I’m not going to do it,” he said.
“Do what?”
“Let you work out your frustration on me. I know you’re as torn as I am about the whole thing. Let’s table it for now, shall we?”
I realized that he was right. I’d been projecting my ambivalence onto him, and that wasn’t fair for either one of us. “How’d you get so smart?”
“It helps marrying the right person,” he said as he hugged me. “You’ve been training me to be a better man since the day we met. Who knows? Someday you just might succeed.”
“I think we’ve both done pretty well.”
“You bet.”
Soon, I heard my husband snoring softly, but my mind was in too much of a whirlwind to just drift off like that. Zach could turn his thoughts off at night like they were on a switch, but I wasn’t that lucky. How would Uncle Thomas react to his brother? Would they force me to take sides if the two of them clashed? Should I have made it a point to give that money—cash that we could have used—back to a man who was worth millions?
