Read The Key in the Attic Online

Authors: DeAnna Julie Dodson

Tags: #Mystery, #Fiction

The Key in the Attic (6 page)

BOOK: The Key in the Attic
9.71Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“I wish I knew what was going to happen, Ian. Right now, I’m just praying hard and keeping my eyes open.”

“I guess that’s the best thing any of us can do right now.” He stood up and gave her shoulder a pat. “If there’s anything I can do for you, Mary Beth, you let me know.”

“I will.” She followed him to the front door. “Um, you will let me know before there’s anything final about the sale, won’t you?”

“I thought Mr. Huggins was holding off until the end of next month.”

“Oh, he is. But I know he’s got a pretty hard situation to deal with, and if the Burly Boy people put more pressure on him, he might change his mind. I couldn’t really blame him.”

“But he’d have to have approval first from the planning and zoning commission and the council before that kind of deal could go through,” Ian reminded her.

“I know. So I figure you’ll know about it if anything changes.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “All right. If I hear any news like that, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, you keep those eyes open.”

“I will.”

Again he patted her shoulder. “And don’t worry—OK?”

“Thanks.”

She shut the front door after him and turned around to find Mandy right behind her.

“Oh!”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, Miss Brock. I’m done though, and I thought you’d want to take a look.”

Mary Beth forced a smile, not sure what her book wall would look like now, but the smile soon widened into a genuine grin.

“That looks great, Mandy. Everything is so neat and well organized.”

Mandy fairly beamed under the praise. “Thanks. I hope I did it all right.”

Mary Beth wrapped one arm around the girl’s shoulders. “You did it perfectly. Now, if you still want to help, I’ve been wanting to reorganize my patterns too. I think between the two of us, we can just get it done before closing time. Can you stay that long?”

“Sure. Just let me call my mom and let her know.”

While Mandy was calling home, Mary Beth was surprised to see Kate come into the shop.

“Hi there!” Mary Beth hugged her. “I didn’t expect you in today.”

“I’ve been busy during my time off.” Kate held up an overstuffed tote bag. “I’ve printed up a bunch of copies of my new patterns, and I was hoping you’d have room for them in the display.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Mary Beth hugged her again, almost in tears. “Thank you for being so understanding about this whole mess, Kate. You don’t know how much I miss having you in the shop every day. I hope it won’t be long before I can bring you back full-time.”

Kate gave her a hopeful little smile. “I was thinking about that. I’ve been busy working on patterns and packaging them for sale. I thought—if you don’t object, that is—I could do that here as easily as at home. Then I could help out with customers, too, if you needed me to. No wages required. What do you think?”

“Oh, Kate, really?”

Kate nodded eagerly.

“No, I couldn’t.” Mary Beth shook her head. “I couldn’t take advantage of you like that.”

“What advantage? I told you I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing at home right now. Only it’s not nearly as fun doing it by myself and without someone to bounce ideas off of. You’ve always been such a help to me when I’m working up a new idea. What do you say?”

Mary Beth gave her an enormous hug. “Welcome back!”

6

The rest of the afternoon flew by, but Mary Beth was pleased with how neat and appealing the shop looked after a little straightening up, and she was thrilled to have Kate in the shop again. By the time she got home, her telephone was ringing. She tossed her purse into a chair and picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

“You know, Mary Beth, I really don’t appreciate you using Amy to try to manipulate me!”

“Melanie?”

“I know you’ve always felt like I had it easier than you, but I’ve worked for everything I have. I took chances to make it big instead of being satisfied with a one-off little craft store in a town nobody ever heard of. Now you think
I’m
the one who has to bail
you
out? You could have gotten into the business when I did. Mother would’ve found a place for you somewhere, I guess. But you had to waltz over to Hickville in the backwoods and be on your own. Well, this is the ‘on your own’ part, sister.”

“Well, how nice to hear from you, Melanie. How have you been?”

“Don’t be cute. You’re not the type. And I don’t appreciate what you’re trying to do.”

Mary Beth clamped her jaws so tightly shut she was surprised they didn’t creak, but she was not going to give her sister the fight she was obviously looking for. She merely counted to ten.

“Mary Beth? Are you listening to me?”

Mary Beth let her breath out slowly and forced a smile that she hoped would show in her voice. “Of course I’m listening, Melanie. I just don’t know what you’re talking about.” She sank down into the chair and then shifted to pull her forgotten purse out from under herself. “How about starting at the beginning and telling me what’s going on?”

“Don’t try that on me, Miss Innocent. I know you talked to Amy today.”

“Yes, I did. She is my niece, you know.”

“That doesn’t mean you can use her to do your dirty work, Mary Beth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She asked me to make you a loan. Don’t tell me you didn’t put her up to that.”

Mary Beth leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Think whatever you want to, but I didn’t. I don’t know why you’d think that. I don’t think she’d even say I’d do something like that.”

“She told me it was all her idea, but don’t think for a minute I don’t know you didn’t call her up to complain about how bad things are for you. But—with the Lord’s help, of course—you’ll make it through somehow.”

Her sister’s voice had turned into a mocking imitation of a pathetic whine, and for some strange reason, in a bad southern accent on top of it all. Again, Mary Beth had to count to ten.

“Look, Melanie,” she said finally, “Amy is a sweet girl, and it’s good of her to be concerned about me, but I would never ask her for anything. I certainly wouldn’t ask her to ask
you
for anything. And heaven knows, the last thing I would do is expect anything from you. I told her, and I’ll tell you right now, honestly, sincerely, and with no misunderstandings and no hidden messages: I will work this out. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ll figure out something. And yes, with the Lord’s help—thank you very much—I’ll be fine.”

Melanie only made an impatient little huffing sound.

“I know you don’t understand me, Mel. You never did. Mother never did. The fashion business is just not important to me. I would hate living your life. I know you have the money and the fame. I know you go everywhere and know everyone who is anyone and are in all the fashion magazines. I’m glad you have what you want. Honestly, I am. But I could never live that way. I love Stony Point and A Stitch in Time. I love my little house and my ordinary friends and my quiet life. And I know you think it’s just hysterically funny, but I do believe God will look after me and show me what I need to do when the time comes to close the shop.
If
the time comes.”

“You tell yourself whatever you need to, Mary Beth. Whatever gets you by. But don’t bring Amy into it! Do you understand?”

“I didn’t bring her into it. In fact, I told her I absolutely did not want her to do anything. And believe it or not, I don’t expect anything from you either. We’re both grown up. We make our decisions, and we deal with what comes of them. I’m just sorry that you feel like I’m trying to manipulate you or Amy.” Mary Beth swallowed hard. “And I’m sorry the only time we ever talk is when something is wrong.”

The only answer she got was a click followed by a dial tone.

****

As soon as Annie and Alice had finished their lunch with Ian at The Cup & Saucer, Annie went on a fact-finding mission that took most of the afternoon. The minute she got home, she dropped in over at Alice’s.

“Do you have time for company, Alice? You won’t believe what I found.”

Alice snorted. “You won’t believe how many rivers they have in Scotland. That’s one clue that’s going to be hard to pin down. Come on in.”

“Hmmm, so that’s not going to help us get started.” Annie followed Alice inside, and they both made themselves comfortable on the couch. “Any luck on any of the other clues?”

“Well, thanks to the Internet, I found out that an old English measurement that happens to be 45 inches is called an ell. I’m thinking ‘Roadside Refuge’ is an inn.”

Annie dug out her copy of Geoffrey’s clues. “OK, I guess we can pencil those in. Anything else?” She cleared her throat and read the paper aloud:


England’s 45 inches

Twice indebted

Katherine at home

Blue and twinkling

Roadside refuge

Turn to the right

Twice beholden

Scotland’s river

Busy sweets maker

Twice obliged

Katherine to her friends”

Alice wrinkled her forehead in thought. “‘Blue and twinkling’ I was thinking could be eyes or maybe just eye, but it doesn’t make sense. Eye Inn? Do you suppose that was a tavern or something back then? Maybe that’s where he hid the next letter Angeline was supposed to find.”

Annie swatted herself on the forehead. “I can’t believe I’m so stupid. The letters she was supposed to find aren’t the kind you write
to
someone. They’re the kind you write
with
. They’re all right there. Not the words ‘eye inn’ but the letters ‘IN.’ That spells ‘in’! Ell, the 45-inch unit of length in England, is for the letter L. ‘Katherine to her friends’ must be Kay, the letter K.”

“Wait, wait! I’m trying to write these down. Then a ‘busy sweets maker’ has got to be a bee—the letter B.” Alice giggled. “It’s pretty easy when you know how.”

Annie frowned at the piece of paper she held. “I don’t know. What word starts with L and ends with K and has only three letters? The middle has to be a vowel, but none of them make this a real word. The same with the last three lines. B something K. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does. Think about it. ‘Indebted,’ ‘beholden,’ ‘obliged’ all mean the same thing, or the same letter. And the ‘twice’ just means that letter is used two times.”

Annie went through the vowels in her head and suddenly laughed. “Of course.
Owe
. I can’t believe I didn’t get that right off. That just leaves us with ‘turn to the right’ and ‘Scotland’s river.’”

Alice went to her computer and clicked a few keys. “Well the only river I see that is also a letter would be the river Dee.”

“Perfect.” Annie penciled in the letter D. “Now, what do we have? ‘LOOK IN _OOD BOOK.’ There are only a few letters that would fit there and make a word: F, G, H, M, and W, and I don’t think he would have had a ‘hood book’ or a ‘mood book.’”

Alice snickered.

Annie tapped her pencil on the table, thinking. “So that leaves F, G, and W.”

“A wood book?” Alice asked.

“Maybe, but F and W aren’t words by themselves.”

“And G is? I don’t know. And what does it have to do with turning?”

Annie caught her breath. “No, no, that’s it! Didn’t you ever read the
Little House on the Prairie
books?”

“No, but I watched the TV show. Does that count?” Alice asked dubiously.

Annie laughed. “Maybe. What we keep forgetting to do is keep in mind when this clue was written: 1861 or so. They used to shout ‘gee’ and ‘haw’ as a voice command to oxen or horses to get them to pull right or left. I never could remember which was which, but going by this, ‘gee’ must have been right.”

“‘LOOK IN GOOD BOOK.’ Umm. And what was his idea of a good book?”

“Alice! Not
a
good book,
the
Good Book—the Bible!”

“Oh, duh! That must be where the numbers come in. Let’s see, there are four in each line. Umm … book, chapter, verse and word?”

“We won’t know till we try. Do you have one handy?”

“Yeah,” Alice said, “hang on.”

Alice disappeared into her bedroom and came back with her Bible.

“OK, the fiftieth book is … Philippians.”

“Right,” Annie said. “Listen to make sure we’re doing it right, let’s both look these up and compare answers. Do you have another copy?”

“Sure. The old one my grandmother had. Let me get it.”

They both flipped pages and made notes until Alice finally put down her Bible with a sigh.

“I think we have the wrong book, Annie. Or we have the wrong idea about what the numbers mean. It doesn’t make sense.”

Annie glanced over what she had so far. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

“‘Each in the table no the they secret and.’ Something’s wrong, or he’s the worst clue writer ever.”

“Alice—”

“I mean, who writes ‘no the they’?”

“Alice, which Bible are you looking at?”

“The one I always use. The NIV.”

“And how many copies of the New International Version of the Bible did they have in the 1860s?”

“Ohhhhh.” Alice laughed. “OK, so what did you and your King James Version get, smarty?”

“‘Look in the writing table in the deeper secret place.’”

“Yeah,” Alice deadpanned, “now
that
makes much more sense.”

“So it’s a little odd, but it’s better than ‘no the they,’ isn’t it?”

“Hmm … Did Mary Beth say her great-great-grandmother had left her a writing table?”

“I don’t remember,” Annie admitted. “Maybe we’d better give her a call.”

“First you have to tell me what you found out. You said something about it before we got distracted with solving this.”

“Tell you what,” Annie said, “why don’t we go see Mary Beth? Then I can tell you both at the same time. I’m not sure how much help it will be at this point, but I think it’s something Mary Beth will want to know.”

“Great! We’ll take the Mustang.”

****

Alice’s red Mustang had them at Mary Beth’s house in record time. Annie had called Mary Beth on the way, and she was waiting for them when they pulled up in the driveway.

“Oh, hurry! I can’t wait to hear the news.”

“Which do you want first?” Alice asked, her blue eyes twinkling. “The answer to the puzzle, or what Annie found out about the guy who wrote it?”

“Oh, the puzzle.” Mary Beth hurried them into her living room. “I’ve had so much going on, I haven’t had a chance to really look at it.”

They sat down, and Alice spread her copy of the clue on the table. “It was actually fairly simple. Each word sounds like a letter, and the letters spell out the clue: LOOK IN GOOD BOOK.”

Mary Beth’s eyes lit. “Then the numbers are all Bible references.”

“Exactly,” Annie said. “But only the King James Version.”

Alice laughed. “It makes a difference. Trust me.”

Mary Beth picked up the page, squinting at Annie’s erased and rewritten words. “‘Look in writing table in the deeper secret place’?”

Annie nodded. “Did your great-great-grandmother leave you a writing table or a desk of some kind?”

Mary Beth’s face fell. “Yes. Oh Annie, she did.”

Annie glanced at Alice, seeing the bewilderment on her friend’s face. “Can we see it?”

“I sold it to Bob Kelsey last month.”

BOOK: The Key in the Attic
9.71Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Historical Lovecraft: Tales of Horror Through Time by Moreno-Garcia, Silvia, R. Stiles, Paula
The Fields of Death by Scarrow, Simon
Happy Again by Jennifer E. Smith
Nadine, Nadine vignette 1 by Gabriella Webster
The Death Factory by Greg Iles
Loveweaver by Tracy Ann Miller
Oliver by Caitlyn Willows
Kissing Maggie Silver by Claydon, Sheila