“What’s wrong? You’ve been out of sorts for weeks.” Sadie had finished all the thank-you notes and already slipped them back into her tote.
“I don’t like it when people are mad at me.” This statement was the truest way to explain. I didn’t like having anyone upset at me, and I tended to put up with way too much for way too long to avoid this scenario. However, the thing with Amy was killing me.
Sadie patted my hand. “I wasn’t really mad at you. Now, Greg got called a few choice words by me before Pastor Bill got me calmed down. But that’s just about me protecting my baby.”
“I wasn’t really—”
She didn’t let me finish. “I know, he’s not much of a baby anymore, but you’ll understand when you and Greg get married and start having kids. You just want their lives to be smooth, you know?”
“You think Greg and I are going to get married?” I hadn’t even got that far. I was having trouble saying the three little words, and Sadie had us married off and popping out young ones.
“Of course, everyone can see how great you are together.” Sadie’s eyebrows furrowed. “Greg’s not mad at you for this little trip, is he?”
Not yet. I shook my head. “I wasn’t talking about Greg, or you. I am glad to know you aren’t mad at me anymore, but I was talking about Amy. She’s still hot about me not supporting her when she really wasn’t right in what she wanted.”
“That’s what friends do. We might not totally agree, or do what the other person wants, but we always support them.” Sadie pointed to the upcoming road sign. “Looks like it’s the next turnoff. What did you say to Amy that has her this upset?”
“All I said was no.” I turned on my blinker and angled the Jeep up the ramp to the parking lot. It was the same place we’d been yesterday when Amy and I had gotten into it, again.
“Well, maybe it’s the way you said no.” She pointed to an empty row of parking spots near the front of the trailhead. “Park there, it’s close to the entrance.”
I followed her directions and thought about my abrupt answer to Amy’s request. I could have been nicer, but honestly, I didn’t think at the time that Amy was taking this so personally. Now that I knew it was her project, I understood her reaction a lot better. I just didn’t know how to fix our problems, and I was pretty sure cookies and cheesecake weren’t going to do it this time.
We climbed out of the Jeep. Sadie carried our water bottles, and I brought another muffin. I took two waterproof jackets out of the back of the truck. “I might be being hopeful, but it still looks like rain.”
Sadie looked up at the clouds and shrugged. “Maybe, but it doesn’t smell like rain. You know how it smells like metal just before it downpours?”
I thought about her description and it was spot-on. “Humor me about the jackets then. I’ll carry yours back if it’s seventy by the time we get this cache found.” I locked the Jeep and studied the handheld locator. I had my phone in my pocket, just in case. Sadie’s water bottle was hanging around my neck and I was munching on my second muffin of the morning. I’d say I was prepared for a hike.
I pointed to the trail in front of us. “Looks like we follow this for a while.”
An hour later, we were at the location Ginny had mapped and were looking for some sort of cache site. The place was pretty isolated, so I was sure there wasn’t another cache set up by one of the club members nearby. Soon I found a metal box wedged into an opening in the rock side of the mountain. “Here we go.”
Sadie hurried over to watch me open the box, but inside was another sheet of paper. “Read it and tell me who killed Kacey.”
My heart sank as I read the note. Instead of a name, or the name I’d expected, another set of coordinates were written on the paper, along with another notation, ‘one of two’. I began to think that Ginny was just pranking us and she didn’t know squat.
“Key it in, we didn’t come this far only to go halfway.” Sadie watched as I keyed the new coordinates into the locator. This time we were to head east, toward the mountain range. Twenty minutes later, we’d found the new site. A cave opened up in front of us on the side of the mountain. I looked at Sadie.
“You don’t have rope and a couple of flashlights in your tote, do you?” The cave was big enough to walk into, if we bent down a bit. But who knew how far back it went or where Ginny had hidden the box?
“Sorry. Should we go back?” Sadie leaned her head into the cool cave. “It looks like we could walk forward for a bit.”
I fumbled with my cell. “I’ve got a flashlight app. Hold on.”
The light blazed as I turned it on and I held it out toward the cave. We inched our way in, then a bang sounded behind us. A grate had slipped over the entrance, locking us in. We ran toward the opening, only to stop when Taylor Archer appeared, a gun in his hand.
“Well, look what I just caught. Two big ol’ snoopy people.” He grinned. “Get it? Snoopy, like the dog?”