The B Girls (10 page)

"Don't be so sure," Mae said as she
walked back into the kitchen. "Didn't you hear Lucy say his research
matches a family legend? I say it's a sign."

Lucy could see where this was going. "It's
just a story. And even if it's true the Declaration is long gone."

"A sign of what?" Jane wanted to know,
ignoring Lucy's attempt to bring the discussion back to reality.

"A sign that we should declare our
independence from suburban stereotypes. If we could actually find the
original
Declaration of Independence
wouldn't that be proof we're destined for more than life in McMansion
hell?"

"I think you're absolutely right," Jane
said. She turned to Lucy. "We have to try."

Lucy still thought it was a good possibility the
whole thing was a wild goose chase.

"What if Belle did find something? What if it
has something to do with her being missing?" Mae said.

Hearing Mae voice the idea made Lucy think she
might not be as paranoid as she'd feared.

"That's just crazy talk," Jane said.

"Why?" Mae said. "The Declaration is
bound to be worth a lot of money."

"Belle didn't find anything because there's nothing
to find," Lucy said. But she was beginning to wonder. Perry certainly
thought there was something to find.

Maybe.

Could it have something to do with Belle's
disappearance?

Probably not.

"But suppose someone believes she knows where
to find the Declaration?" Mae said. "If what Perry said is true it
would probably be priceless."

"I'm sure the only person who would know is
Perry and he obviously doesn't know where Belle is," Lucy said.

"We don't know that," Jane said.

"Why would he come here if he had something to
do with Belle going missing?" Lucy said.

"To find her notes. Just like he said,"
Mae suggested.

The whole thing seemed a little far-fetched to
Lucy. Except for the fact that Belle was indeed missing and she was willing to
grasp at straws. "I'm more concerned about Belle than some mythical copy
of the Declaration of Independence but since we don't have any other
explanation for her disappearance, looking for the Declaration seems the only
way of looking for Belle." She had to
do
something more than call the police every hour and worry.

 
Mae
suddenly clamped a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God!"

"What?" Lucy said.

"Maybe the house was open when we got here
because somebody took the notes," Mae said.

"So we're screwed," Jane said. "If
there was anything here it's gone."

Lucy so hoped that wasn't the case. Belle off on a
tear somewhere was one thing. Belle in some kind of danger because of this
treasure hunt was another--and something Lucy didn't want to think about.
"Let's hope not. Those notes may be our only chance of finding
Belle."

"And finding ourselves. We don't
know
anyone broke in," Mae said.
"I think we should still see what we can find."

"Okay then, we search for clues," Jane
said. "After we finish coffee and get dressed."

Lucy wasn't excited about the delay but they'd be
sharper after caffeine and showers.

###

"Kitchen, bedroom and study," Mae said a
half hour later when they reassembled in the kitchen. "We should each take
one. That's where the paper is in my house. At least the paper that doesn't
belong to the kids."

"I'll take the study," Jane said.

"Kitchen," Mae said.

"Okay then I'll take the bedroom. If anyone
finds something labeled 'Declaration of Independence' holler. Otherwise bring
everything back here and we'll sort through it together."

They split up and Lucy took a deep breath before
heading up to Belle's bedroom.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat when she
crossed the threshold into Belle's room. Belle would be fine. She had to be.

Lucy went to the bed and sat down to pull herself
together. She loved this room because it reflected Belle's personality
perfectly.

Nothing in here matched. The bed was Shaker style
covered with an assortment of brightly colored pillows, a crazy quilt and a
Navajo blanket. The art on the wall was a mix of black and white landscape
photographs, Native American sand paintings and a couple of masks of unknown
origin. The bed-tables were made of twigs and had silk scarves thrown over
their tops. The lamps were almost certainly Tiffany. The only other furniture
in the room was a pair of slipper chairs upholstered in cream colored silk and
an old steamer trunk plastered with postcards and other bits of paper
memorabilia between them that served as a table. Belle added layers to the
decoration over the years, saying she liked to lounge and daydream about all
the things she'd seen.

Nothing matched but it all somehow made sense.

Since Belle had a huge, custom designed walk-in
closet/dressing room there wasn't a need for dressers or mirrors in the
bedroom. And since there were no drawers in the bed-tables there wasn't much to
search.

After gathering herself, Lucy shook out the books
scattered around the room, noting their titles as she did. No papers fell out
but she saw that Belle was going through a Patricia Cornwell phase.

Lucy moved on to the dressing room. There was a lot
more ground to cover in here.

She opened drawers, slid her hand between folded
sweaters and checked handbags. Luckily all the shoes were housed in transparent
plastic shoeboxes so she didn't have to sort through them all--well over a
hundred pairs.

Nothing.

Until she found a lined basket on a lower shelf
filled with all manner of paper bits. Receipts. Post cards. Notes. Greeting
cards. Letters. It looked like a mixture of mail Belle couldn't bear to part
with and things she emptied out of purses and pockets at the end of the day.
Nothing that remotely related to the Dunlap Broadside, the Declaration of
Independence or Colonial era ancestors.

 
She
went downstairs empty-handed and found Jane and Mae shaking their heads.
Neither had found anything useful.

"So, someone probably did break in," Jane
said.

Lucy hated to agree. It seemed so paranoid except
for the fact that Belle wasn't home. She dropped into the chair she'd spent the
night dozing on and reached up to pull her glasses off her head.

"Ouch! Damn it!" She tried to free a few
strands of hair caught in the nosepiece and wound up with the glasses dangling
in front of her eyes. She yanked and blinked back tears when hair came loose
with the glasses.

She put the glasses on the end table with a
disgusted sigh. "I shudder to think what my horoscope says. Probably lock
yourself in the bathroom and come out next year."

"We could start searching the rest of the
house," Mae said.

Lucy started to shake her head when she remembered
something. "Maybe we won't have to," she said. "I think I know
where to look."

Jane and Mae followed her as she went into the
kitchen and removed a brick from the raised hearth of the fireplace. "I
forgot all about this. Belle showed it to me years ago. She told me I could use
it to hide my most secret things when I spent my twelfth summer with her."

Praying she wouldn't find any spiders, Lucy put her
hand into the hollow space--and pulled out a bundle of letters tied together
with a frayed black ribbon and a folder full of loose papers.

"Jackpot," Lucy said, holding up her
prize.

The letters were indeed what they'd been looking
for, written by Lucy's ancestor, Paul Morris to his wife Molly during the Civil
War. The loose papers were Belle's notes and more computer printouts.

Paul's grandfather, John Morris, was the printer's
boy who'd supposedly taken the original Declaration of Independence from
Dunlap's in July 1776. Paul had moved south, married Molly, and obtained a
homestead grant. Belle had tracked down the Morris' old homestead grant to what
was now Cohutta wilderness area.

They struggled to read Paul's chicken scratch,
wading through descriptions of military equipment and living conditions and
getting misty at the sentimental parts while looking for any reference to the
Declaration.

The biggest surprise was the fact that he'd written
the letters while wearing a
Union
uniform. No wonder they'd been worried about losing everything, the Morrises
were Union sympathizers.

"This is it!" Lucy said.

"You found something?" Jane asked.

"I think so. He says he hid their most
precious possessions in Lover's Cave on the old homestead." She read on,
"And he put a map of the cave under the hearthstone at the cabin."

"That doesn't make sense," Jane said.
"Why would he need to tell her that if she was living at the cabin?"

Lucy looked at one of the envelopes. "This is
addressed to Molly in Atlanta. She must have gone to family in the city when
the war started."

"So Belle did have a lead on the Declaration.
Our ranger friend said she was planning to find the homestead site," Jane
said.

"We have the coordinates of the homestead,
right here in Belle's notes," Lucy said. "Maybe we can find the clue
there."

"Now?" Jane said.

Lucy nodded. "Yes. If the cops aren't willing
to do anything to find Belle, I'm going to do it myself. I can't just sit on my
hands and wait."

They made one stop at a wilderness outfitter for small
daypacks and basic supplies.

"I found something that will take us right to
the exact spot we want." Lucy held up a phone-sized bit of electronics.

"What is it?" Jane asked.

"Off-road GPS. You just enter the map
coordinates you want to go to and follow the arrow."

"Can't you just use the one on your
phone?" Jane asked.

"The sales guy says this will work even if
there's no cell service and service is bad up in the wilderness area."

"Belle must have had one too, that's why she
had those coordinates written down," Mae said.

"Exactly and now we have them. With the GPS
and a map of Cohutta, we'll be able to find the homestead with no
problem."

"I seriously doubt it'll be that easy,"
Jane said.

"You really should do something about that
pessimism," Mae said.

Jane just shook her head.

Lucy handed over her platinum card. The salesclerk
bagged up their supplies.

###

It was almost noon when they pulled into the
parking lot closest to the coordinates. Mae turned off the van and Lucy stared
through the windshield, speechless. The three sides of the parking area not
bordered by the road they'd just left were a horror show of nature run amok.
The trees were too close together and the shorter underbrush was lush and
tangled. The ground wasn't close to level or even sloped. It all seemed to go
mostly straight up or straight down. The whole of it looked like it was made to
keep humans out and hide nasty surprises for anyone stupid enough to venture
in.

Lucy looked at her compatriots and saw signs of
impending mutiny. "Don't worry, the map shows a road. We'll be fine."
She opened her door and got out.

Mae and Jane followed suit but neither looked happy
about it.

"Maybe we should try the police again,"
Mae said.

"It's just a hike through the woods for God's
sake." Lucy refused to listen to her own doubts.

"Let's just get it over with," Jane said.

They slathered themselves with SPF 100 and
tightened the laces on their cross trainers.

Lucy figured they were either completely nuts or
incredibly perceptive about their need for a change and their ability to find
Belle. Hopefully they'd come out of it unscathed. Or at least not permanently
damaged.

She surveyed the perimeter of the parking lot and
found a track that seemed to correspond to the map and went in the direction
the GPS arrow pointed. Best of all, it seemed to take advantage of the
landscape in a way that meant the up and down wasn't as steep as the ground on
either side of it. The track was twisty and disappeared from view within fifty
yards or so but Lucy was sure it had to be the right way to go.

"All we have to do is follow this until it
forks, then go east to Breakleg Creek. The old homestead is on a hill above the
creek," Lucy said as she led the way out of the parking area.

The Forest Service map identified the old overgrown
track as a jeep trail. No Jeep or any other vehicle had used the trail for
years. The Forest Service had closed the wilderness area to motorized traffic a
few years ago and the wilderness was taking over again.