Page 20 of Holidate Fail
Was she putting him on? Kelly spread his arms. “The clue could have also read Grace or Brannigan.”
Ah, there it was. The lowered eyebrow and nose scrunch that indicated Dahlia was thinking. “Are you… is the answer Kelly?”
“I’m a crossword clue. Proudest moment of my life.”
She laughed and reached for his arm before realizing she’d breached his space and drew back. “Usually, if I’m in a crossword puzzle, it’s a clue like ‘murder flower.’ Not very appealing.”
Kelly went back to the puzzle and she leaned in close. When he was done, they went over the open clues. There were more coincidences like the sudoku, like an answer about a candy shop.
“Done!” Heath slapped the pencil on the table and held up the sudoku.
“And, we know what the clue means.” Lacole held up her phone with latitude and longitude coordinates. “Heath figured it out. And why else would we be sent to a place with maps and topography if we weren’t meant to follow the numbers?”
A large group of people entered the café, gathering at the hostess stand. None of them looked like scavenger hunters, but the foursome leaned in close so they wouldn’t give anything away.
Heath took over. “We checked the coordinates for each row and one of them came up as Newnan.” He pointed to it on the map. “It’s a bit of a drive, but it’s definitely the place.”
“That seems really far away,” Kelly said. “There’s no way we’d get there and back before the race ended.”
“Yeah.” Dahlia nodded. “Plus it’s way outside the boundaries of the tri-county area.”
“No, this is it.” Heath said. “I’m sure of it.”
“So let’s go!” Lacole said.
Dahlia took a deep breath. “I’m not so sure.”
***
Three pairs of eyes turned her way, but this time, Dahlia faced it head on. Let them laugh if they disagreed. She could take it, because she was right.
And why did Kelly’s marriage end?
Argh, not her business.
“Dahlia.” Kelly said her name with some humor in his tone. “What’s going on in that brain of yours?”
Instinct and logic. “First, Newnan is way too far away for this. The hunt is supposed to be over in, like an hour. No way can we travel there and back to Fountenoy Hall in time. And second,” she said before Heath could interrupt. “I know it sounds weird, but the lady with the cookies specifically mentioned doing sudoku and other puzzles we may have come across. And the crossword puzzle clues said ignore sudoku. Don’t follow numbers. And buy a lollipop. I didn’t think about it until you gave the coordinates. Don’t follow the numbers. Ignore sudoku.”
“What crossword puzzle?” Lacole asked.
“I don’t remember that at all,” said Heath.
“We got it at our first stop from Crissy the Librarian,” Kelly said.
The fact that Kelly backed her up made her warm inside. “At first I thought it was just a weird set of clues, but it fits. We should buy a lollipop.”
“I still say we go to Newnan.” Heath held up a finger. “One, we spent a lot of time on this. Why would we get a decoy puzzle? And two,” he continued.
Dahlia held back her argument. He’d been courteous and kept quiet while she presented her thoughts.
“There are a lot of people in the candy shop, and it would take half an hour just to buy the lollipop. And if we didn’t remember the crossword puzzle, then I’m sure others didn’t, either.”
“This isn’t about other people,” Dahlia said. “This is about us.”
“I say we go to Newnan.” Lacole possessed the self-assured confidence of a natural leader. Dahlia almost wanted to agree.
“And I think we should stay here.” Kelly leaned slightly in Dahlia’s direction. She didn’t even think he was aware that he’d done it.
