Page 19 of Cornered

Greg nodded.

Tate stepped forward. “If you think of anything else, please give us a call.” He handed the man his card and Greg slid it in his wallet.

Steph hugged Greg, then went to tell the children goodbye. Magda clung to her as expected, and she gave the little girl an extra hug and a tickle so she could leave her laughing. Magda ran to Tate. “Hug everyone goodbye?”

Tate smiled and dropped to his knees. “Goodbye, Magda. You sure are a cute little thing.” The child wrapped her little arms around his neck and squeezed, then did the same for Cole.

Greg swung Magda into his arms and kissed her cheek. He looked at Steph. “Thank you all.”

Steph, Cole, and Tate walked out to the car, and Tate looked at Cole. “Looks like we’re going to be going through some numbers for the next few hours. Your place or mine?”

“Cornerstone Café?”

“Perfect.”

“Is it okay if I come along?” Steph asked. “I can work on the code. And besides, I’m starving.”

The men exchanged a glance and Cole nodded. “Let’s go.”

THE THREE OF THEMsat in a booth in the back of the café with another table pulled up to make room for all the papers. The waitress, Jenny, had finally just left a carafe of coffee on the table and said to wave at her if they needed anything.

Steph had pulled out the papers containing the code. She knew her friend best, and if she kept going over the code, she might figure something out. Tate watched her from beneath lowered lashes. It was more entertaining than going over the phone list for the fifth time. Steph was beautiful inside and out. She’d been so kind and gentle with Brenda’s family. And little Magda. His throat tightened as he remembered the feel of the little girl in his arms and her sweet hug.

“Number, number, number, letter, letter, letter,” she muttered. “Number number number letter, number number number, letter. And numbers with lines under them. What do the lines mean?” A groan slipped from her and she dropped her forehead to the pages in front of her. “It makes no sense. There’s nothing consistent except the lettersENNBthat are interspersed throughout the pages.” She went still. “Wait a minute.”

“What?”

She lifted her head. “ENNB. That’s the initials for Bolin’s Nature Nurture Expeditions, only it’s backward. Maybe she did that as part of the code?”

Tate raised a brow. “Good observation. She worked there and they’re one of her clients.”

“Or it means something else entirely, but I’m going to play with that.” Steph nodded and pointed to the page. “Then there are two letters together every so often and they all have aBin them. Like here”—she pointed—“BG. And two pages over,BH. And ... a lot on the third page withBB—Benji Bolin? Gage and Helen’s son, maybe? Continuing with the reversed letter idea,BCcould refer to Cherry Bolin, their daughter. They all work at Bolin’s and the reversed initials thing works for them all.”

“You figured that out,” Tate murmured. “You’re brilliant.”

She flushed and looked down. “Not really. Once I knew what to look for, it was easy. Also not sure if it’s right, but it does work. I just don’t know what the other letters are for. Or the numbers.”

“Keep working. You’ll figure it out.”

Cole stood. “I’m not seeing anything on this list that’s jumping out at me. Let’s both take it with us and study it a little more at a later time. Maybe giving it some space will help. In the meantime, I think we might want to go talk to Gage and Helen. I know them in passing and have always thought they were good people. I have to admit I want to know why their initials are in a dead woman’s coded note pages, though. I’ll call them and see if they have a good time for us to come by.”

“They may not be in town,” Steph said. “They travel a lot. And I do mean a lot.” She frowned. “Once Cherry and Benji were old enough, they dumped the business on them and started doing their own thing.”

“How do Cherry and Benji feel about that?”

“Cherry’s resented it from day one, but feels like she needs to be there to help Benji. She’s always looked out for him and wouldn’t think of abandoning him to run the place by himself.”

Cole frowned. “I never knew all that.”

Steph shrugged. “Cherry told me that a couple of years ago. I feel sorry for her. She’s basically living her life for her parents and her brother. I tried to get her to take a trip to the beach with Brenda, Lainie, Kenzie, and me a few months ago, and she said she just couldn’t leave Benji alone, that he’d run the place into the ground with his immaturity.”

“Whoa,” Tate said. “That’s a pretty harsh statement.”

“I know. When I asked her about her parents, she just rolled her eyes and said some people should never have children.”

“What!” Cole raised a brow. “I always thought they were great parents.”

“I did too until she said that. Then she laughed and said she was kidding, she was just tired and ready for a vacation that she could never take.”

---