Page 18 of Shadow Games

“It's a black, hardbound book with nothing on the spine. About six inches tall. It’s a standard notebook.”

They started with the house, going room to room, and tearing it apart very carefully. There was a library they spent extra time in, just because of all the books. Ken had been an only child and his parents had been especially proud of his Navy service. They found more than one scrapbook of exploits he'd probably been on but hadn't confirmed. And then they found the case with the tri-folded American flag from the funeral last week. Technically, the flag should have probably gone to his widow. But Rowan had passed it on to Polly, who would appreciate it more. Polly had known they were going through a divorce.

Upstairs they went through all the bedrooms. Rowan felt awkward going through her in-law’s bedroom, but it needed to be done. They very carefully went through everything. Then replaced it precisely where it had been before.

“If you finish up in the bathroom, I’ll take the sewing room.”

Wyatt nodded and left her to it. He seriously doubted there would be anything in the bathroom. A few minutes later, he found her in the sewing room. She held a single-page note out for him.

Wyatt looked over the scrawled message.

Mom, please know that I love you with all my heart, and if something happens to me I want you to remember that. You did everything for me and I couldn’t have had better parents. Don’t let my actions reflect badly on you. YOU did nothing wrong.

I left something in the car. If the Navy comes looking for it. Let them have it.

“He doesn’t say anything about the cartel he double-crossed in here.”

Rowan shook her head. “Nope.”

“PS, check the mailbox. I sent you a package.”

They read the note over several times, then Wyatt tucked it into his pocket. “Might make more sense later.”

Rowan nodded and they headed to the garage. Again, they didn't find anything.

“There's a small barn back in the woods,” she told him, thoughtfully. He followed as she led him back through the woods, down a faint, overgrown driveway. “Ken loved this barn. It has his old Mustang in it. His dad gave it to him when he was a kid and he planned on restoring it. This may be the car from the note.”

The Mustang was well preserved in the solid old barn. Wyatt went through the structure itself, but he had a feeling the car would be where they would find the logbook. It was kind of obvious, but Ken had been that way sometimes. Taking the easy road.

“Oh, it's locked. That’s odd,” Rowan said, tugging on the door handle. “I know where the key is. I'll be back.” She took off at a jog back toward the house. Echo paced along behind her. If anything happened Echo would let him know.

It took Rowan a few minutes to return. But she held the key triumphantly over her head as she walked in the barn. “I thought it was on the key rack and I was right.”

They unlocked the car and started going through it. Rowan was the one that found the lead tucked beneath the driver side floor mat. “This is fresh paper, Wyatt. And it looks like the paper the other note was written on.”

She handed it over to him and he looked at it. It was a string of numbers. Nothing he recognized. He looked up at her. “Any ideas?”

She shook her head, taking the paper back from him. She looked at them for a long moment. “Well, duh. 07860 is the zip code here. It’s right in the middle of the six other numbers.” She pursed her lips, before shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

Echo raised her head and Wyatt had a feeling they were out of time, again. He stepped to the door of the barn. There was a gray four-door sedan slowly coming down the driveway. It stopped in the bend, blocking the driveway, and four men got out of the car. Three of them were dark haired. The fourth had a cowboy hat on, and he seemed to be the one in charge. He made a couple of motions with his hands directing the men where to go. Then he started walking down the driveway.

“Fuck,” Wyatt breathed. The men were obviously armed. And they were too far away from the Suburban to making an escape. They would be shot as soon as they left the wood line, probably.

“What do we do?” Rowan asked.

Wyatt shook his head. “I'm really not sure. Let's take cover for now.”

They slipped into the barn, then out a side door and into the woods. Wyatt moved them slowly enough that he hoped they would not be noticed. They climbed a hill to the east of the house, and they were able to look down on the trespassers. It looked like they went through the house, just like he and Rowan had. Eventually, the four of them came out onto the front porch. The man in the cowboy hat made a motion and one of the men leapt down the steps and went to circle the black Suburban. Wyatt tapped his pants pockets.

“Yes,” he hissed. As soon as the Hispanic man got near the truck, Wyatt set off the alarm.

Three of the men began to run, but the man in the cowboy hat stood still, looking around. He knew the alarm had been set off manually. Slowly, he walked down the steps, making a motion with his hand. All four of them headed toward the sedan. Once they got there, they backed up the drive and disappeared. Wyatt looked at Rowan.

“I have a feeling as soon as we leave here, we're going to have a tail.”

Rowan nodded. “So, what do we do?

“Not sure. Let’s give them a little while to cool their heels, then we’ll go down.”

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