Page 80 of The Stone Family Warrior

Chapter 26

Liberty looked on as Trent set the original picture down on the coffee table by the floor-to-ceiling window, next to a book on different guns. “That is so crazy that the gun was a 1911, and the beginning of the address was 1911. I wonder if any of the other numbers coordinate with gun numbers.”

He went to the whiteboard and yanked off a chart he had of all the information from the pictures; it detailed where they’d been taken and what kids were in them. They looked through the chart and started at the beginning. “Trey visits BUD/S training. No gun. Kensi at the Supreme Court. Marshall is at an Army base. Will is in front of a helicopter. What do they have in common?”

The truth was that she had no idea what numbers were associated with guys or what guns were important. But she thought Trent’s idea was a good one. Most of his siblings had guns and were good with them.

Trent continued to process. He pointed to Brooks’s. “Brooks, at the FBI building. No gun. I don’t know if the gun number matters.”

An idea struck her. “The address. What is the address of each one of them? Maybe it’s not the gun. Maybe 1911 is the address.”

He flipped open the computer on the desk and started to type. “Write down the address, Liberty. Get a pen and paper.”

Liberty took the notebook and pen next to him and waited. After five minutes, they knew it was a match.

He tugged his phone out. “I gotta call Brooks.”

Her heart raced. “What does it all mean?”

“I don’t know, but it’s getting us closer and closer. I can feel it. You did that.” He took her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing the back of it. “You did it.”

“This had better be good, idiot,” Brooks said on speakerphone. “You’re the one who reminded me it was Christmas, remember?”

Trent laughed. “Liberty figured it out. At least, she figured something out.”

There was a sharp intake of breath. “Tell me.”

She listened as Trent told Brooks about all the pictures and the addresses, and he explained how all of them went together to form the numbers from their parents’ letter. Trent and Brooks kept talking, but a wave of exhaustion hit her, so she went to the couch in the library and lay down. She closed her eyes, listening to Trent joke with Brooks and analyze things she didn’t understand.

Before she drifted off, she distantly heard Brooks’s voice. “Oh my gosh. Liberty cracked the cipher. It’s numbers and addresses.”

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