Page 127 of Once a Hero

Jake wondered if he should change his flight schedule from the afternoon to morning so he could fly home at the same time as Beatrice. Should he? Shouldn’t he?

“How about some desserts?” Stella asked. “We can order in.”

“I’ll have to walk it off, but why not?” Beatrice replied. “What would you like, Jake?”

“Me?” Jake asked. “I was going to go back to my room and pack.”

He thought he might see if he could change his flight to the morning so he could carpool to the airport with Beatrice.

“Really, Jake?” Stella laughed.

“Stay. Please.” Beatrice lifted the puzzle box up. “Extra scoops of ice cream if you can figure out how to unlock this box.”

“Ah, a mental challenge. How can I resist?”

Chapter Fifty-One

Charleston daily high temperatures in March fluctuated from the upper fifties to the low eighties. This afternoon, it was a pleasant sixty-two degrees with sunshine all around. Beatrice wandered into the garden, where Benjamin had ordered tulips, daffodils, and gardenias planted in the flower beds leading toward the butterfly garden on the other side of the herb garden.

Beatrice was sure that if Benjamin hadn’t been a treasure hunter, he’d be a gentleman gardener. However, these days he was busy catching up with Dad, filling in the missing years, and then doing father-son things such as fishing…for information.

Often they had spoken about going on an adventure together to somewhere local. They began talking about searching for the lost Confederate gold, which Beatrice wasn’t sure existed. It was certainly a folklore, but was it even true?

Still, it provided Benjamin and Dad something in common to talk about.

As for Beatrice, she was happy that they had found Dad again, although that could never make up for the loss of her biological mother, who had been with them only for the first five years of Beatrice’s life.

Beatrice wandered among the flowers and shady trees, and regretted leaving her phone in the house. All she had with her was a hardcover novel she was hoping to start reading. Stella had given it to her just before she flew out of Zurich back in November.

She remembered that Friday morning, eating breakfast with Jake one last time at the hotel. Since they were both undercover, they had been able to keep their disguises intact.

Jake had tried to put on a happy face, but she could tell that he would have liked to fly with her back to the States. Unfortunately, Jake and Stella had received word that the mole in the FBI was on the move. And off they had gone on their new assignment.

The sun was getting warmer, and Beatrice decided to head back to the house. There wasn’t any bench to sit on among the flowers, and she did not want to sit on the grass where the ants and bugs were.

The porch was empty as was most of the ten thousand-square-foot mansion. The personal chef came at certain times of the day. The maids cleaned the house at certain days of the week. The rest of the time, there were only five people in the house.

With their new mission, Jake and Dad kept Kenichi busy. Kenichi had seen his own potential of working with the hackers at Binary Systems, Inc., with whom he had collaborated to track down Molyneux. Now Beatrice and her brother were concerned he’d leave them for greener pastures.

To this day, Kenichi was still waiting for a call from Leland.

“Why go there when you get paid twice here?” Benjamin had blurted one fine day, pretty much confirming that Kenichi was working for Benjamin as well as Beatrice at the same time.

Double pay.

“I wish I could get double pay for the same amount of work,” Beatrice whispered into the wind as she climbed the porch.

When she looked up, there he was.

Sitting on a rocker.

His hair was trimmed short. He was clean shaven. And he wore a plaid shirt and a pair of khaki shorts over hiking boots.

“Hey.” Jake got up from the rocker and walked toward Beatrice. “Some hideaway you have here. No wonder your brother wouldn’t leave.”

Beatrice stood there at the edge of the porch.

She didn’t know what to think.

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