“Hey, don’t knock free money,” he said with a little wink. “But this might be a little better.”
“What might be?”
“Solved the cipher.”
My heart picked up speed. “What? How? You can’t solve a book cipher without the key text, and we don’t know what the key text is.”
“Don’t we?”
Oh, the way he lit up. He could barely contain himself, rocking on his toes.
“Seb Jansen, if you don’t spill it, I’m going to strangle you slowly.”
“Promises, promises.” He gestured with his hand, urging me to follow him to the cottage’s front window, where he tapped on the glass and pointed. “Was right there the whole time.”
I peered through the glass to see where he was pointing.
A copy of Wyrd Jack’s “Prison Poem” had been written in fine calligraphy by one of Nana’s old friends and was framed under glass, hanging on the wall near the living room fireplace.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “You’re lying—there’s no way.”
“Keep telling yourself that. Sometimes this mind of mine isn’t completely useless.”
I rushed to unlock the cottage, and when I got inside, pulling out the envelope scrawled with numbers, I could hear Seb and Punkin come in behind me as I made a beeline for the framed poem.
“Okay, so three numbers in the cipher coordinate to—”
“Line number, word number, letter number,” he supplied helpfully.
The first numbers I’d written down last night were three, eighteen, and four. I found the third line, eighteenth word, fourth letter.
“‘D,’” I said excitedly. “Oh wow, okay, okay. I probably should write this down.”
“Don’t bother. ‘Drop anchor at Pinemoon Cave.’”
I swung around. “What?”
“The cipher. ‘Drop anchor at Pinemoon Cave.’ Sorry to spoil your fun, but I gotta get to work.”
Pinemoon Cave? Childhood memories flooded my head. That cave was on a tiny island in the middle of the Little River. Wherethe Wags treasure-hunting crew would meet up when we were kids.
The only way there was by water. Back in the day, the Wags would use canoes to get there.
He stuck his hand in his pocket and jingled coins. “I see the wheels turning, Professor Paige. If you’re thinking about finding a way to get out to the cave alone, you should know that I’ve already talked to Benny. He’s getting the canoes out of storage.”
Dammit.
“I’ll swing by here tomorrow morning in my trusty Speed Buggy and pick you up,” he told me, gesturing out the front window toward his dented Bronco. “You might want to tell Jazmine to come along. If she finds out we’ve been hunting treasure without her, she’ll be pissed that we didn’t call.”
“But—”
“See you tomorrow, Paige. I’ll take a look at your car then, too.”
He saluted me, winking, and exited through the front door with his dog.
Leaving me astonished, with more questions than answers.
Chapter 5
