Hiding Places

There is something to be said for punctuality. Dominic said he would be here at 11:00. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he would be here on time, and he knocked on the door at 10:59. I'm glad I followed my intuition to be ready on time. I wasn't sure where we were going for lunch, so I made sure to dress casually in a simple malibu blue maxi dress and nude sandals. He wore khaki shorts, an olive green polo, and Sperrys. We looked ready for a day at the beach.

I wasn't far off in that assumption. We ate lunch at the Farmhouse Cafe in Huntsville. We ordered a combo appetizer platter because I couldn't choose between fried pickles and fried avocado. We both had to have Monte Cristos with Dr. Pepper. We were so full of food and laughter talking about everything from our previous lives. One would think we were on a date. I guess that was the ruse Dom wanted. We ordered Buttermilk pie slices to go.

Dom leaned in for a kiss. "Just play along," he whispered seductively in my ear. "Someone is watching us." We walked to the car paying attention to our surroundings. We went to the campus of Sam Houston State University to meet with the chairperson of the forensic science department. I was not prepared for another adventure today. The dean took our cell phones to check for listening devices and apps. To our utter dismay, the gentlemen that had been following us had indeed cloned our phones from a distance. We were given new phones to use for the day as well as a different car. The university had a bulletproof SUV for us to borrow. A group of graduate students volunteered to drive us out in a caravan. We were being watched now by SHSU forensic students and had ears on the whole drive.

We drove a short way to Lake Raven to a beautiful waterfront home. We pulled into the garage, parked, and were given directions on accessing the panic room.

I kept the conversation in dating mode all day until now. "Why are we being followed? Why do we need to have bulletproof vehicles? Why do we need to be in a panic room?" I would have kept going but was interrupted with a hand in my face.

"One question at a time." Dom was too calm. "We are being followed because we have the book."

"Where exactly are we then?" It turns out we were at a government safe house.

Dom pulled a lockbox out of his pouch and pulled out the book.

"I don't think we should be messing with that book." I felt the beginnings of an anxiety attack coming on. "It did get Gavin killed."

"Don't worry. We need to know what is in the book, meaning the part that is stuck together."

"I have no clue." I cried.

"I know you don't, but we will find out together. Besides, isn't your curiosity getting the best of you?" Dom remarked.

"Well," I jumped at the chance to figure out this puzzle. "I noticed studs on the inside spine."

"What do you mean? Studs?"

"Are there any gloves around here? Good to know. I don't want to touch this just in case." He searched the room and found sterile gloves in a drawer with some other first aid supplies.

Once we both had covered our hands, we felt the spine. We ran our hands down several times, hearing a clicking noise each time.

"It's not a book; it's a puzzle box!" I was getting excited. "But how do we get it open?" His attitude was going to irritate me. I have no patience for things like this. "Can't we just take a hammer to it?"

"Did you just offer to possibly destroy an ancient text?" scowling at me.

"No," growling, I lied.

We felt the spine a few more times before the realization of insanity set in. "Wait a minute!" I yelled as I remembered. "Where's the key?"

"What key?" I moved the book around to show him the keyhole I had found in South Carolina. "This looks like a keyhole."

"Nate gave me…" he stammered as he looked through his bag. "This." holding up a small metal stick. He put it in the hole and pushed. I ran my fingers down the spine of the box one more time.

It clicked. A piece of the spine popped out. We were able to open the book. Inside the box laid a 3x5 package wrapped in brown parchment tied with a worn leather strap. The strap was considerably older than the paper; worn into the leather above the buckle was the seal of Edward the Confessor.

My heart began to race; my hands were shaky. I had never seen this combination before. While I believed the strap to be authentic, the modern parchment baffled me.

With tweezers Dom had found in the first aid drawer, we carefully peeled the strap. I felt sick. The parchment didn't move. It was too crisp to open without destroying a part of it. "If we put whatever is in this package back in the book, we can rewrap it back at the university or museum depending on what it is," I suggested. This was getting stranger by the second.

We got the package open.

"A deck of cards?" I asked.

"All of this for a deck of cards?" Dom replied.

"There has to be something we're missing.

After ten minutes of staring and thinking, it came to me. "This isn't a design; it's a word. It's an ambigram!"

Dom raised his eyebrows, "Are you sure? It reads the same face-up and upside down?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I was getting angry at this point. "Look."

"Tarot?" Dom said.

"Tarot." and with that, we gently turned over the cards.

Using the computer system in the panic room for basic research on tarot. As we put the cards in order, the pictures began to stand out. The images were of historical figures; some more faded than others, some more worn than others.

"Dom, something is wrong." I noticed that while all the cards looked the same, the cards' techniques were very different. I explained this as best as I could.

"So again, you are telling me that this card here, the um Page of Coins, is older than The Fool."

"Yes, by at least two hundred years. Testing will tell you that I am correct."

When we had finished our task of putting all the cards together, we had one card that was completely worn, or almost blank, we didn’t know where it went. We searched the room to make sure we didn't drop or misplace it. Dom hopped on the computer again to look up the significance of the missing picture.

Dom found something interesting. "This card signifies an ultimate surrender, sacrifice, or being suspended in time." After a moment, we looked at each other in shock.

"Oh my god! It's Nate!"