“A single pushpin.” She shook her head. “My uncle left me a single pushpin.” Dezi looked out the front windshield. “I’m beginning to think he had dementia.”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he’s testing you.”
“From the grave?”
Grimm’s eyes narrowed. “Where else did we see pushpins?”
“Today?” Her eyes rounded. “The map in my uncle’s study.”
Grimm turned a corner and increased his speed.
“Are we going back to my uncle’s house?”
“Yes, we are,” Grimm said, concentrating on the road ahead. “That’s not just a pushpin. It’s a blue pin. The map had several different colored pins. Red, yellow, green…”
“And only one blue pin.” Dezi gave Grimm a crooked grin. “Had we not gone to his home, we wouldn’t have found the combination in the photograph, and we wouldn’t have noticed the map on the wall with all the colored pins.”
“That pin has to mark a location he wants us to visit,” Grimm said.
“Now, all we have to do is figure out where exactly that is. It’s not like it’s a street map.”
“It’s a contour map. We’ll have to determine the coordinates. We learned how to read contour maps and determine coordinates in the Army.”
“Then it’s a damn good thing you came with me today. I’d be lost.” She grinned as they turned into the trailer park and drove to the far corner where her uncle’s single-wide mobile home sat, looking old and forlorn.
It made Dezi sad to know her uncle would never come back to his home or follow clues on his next adventure.
“So often people say love the people you have in your life now. They might not always be there.” She gave a half smile. “I wish I’d spent more time with my uncle. I never knew he had a group of friends with whom he played poker. I didn’t know he played poker.”
When Grimm stopped in front of the trailer, Dezi slid out of her seat and dropped to the ground.
“You have to make the most out of the life you have. None of us knows when our number is up,” Grimm said as he joined her at the front of the truck. “My number could’ve been up so many times. Some of my buddies had their numbers drawn far too soon. But we lived our lives doing what we were trained to do, with the men we called our brothers.”
“You’re lucky you had men in your life you considered brothers. I’m thankful for the women I consider my sisters.” She reached for his hand as they walked up to the steps.
“We have something in common,” Grimm said. “We were both only children.
“And we ended up with siblings we’d do anything for,” Dezi added.
As they picked their way up the dilapidated steps to the front door, Dezi fished the key out of her pocket. When she started to insert it into the lock, Grimm’s hand shot out and caught hers.
It was then she realized the door wasn’t completely closed. It had been pried open; the metal doorframe was bent near the handle and lock.
Grimm shoved her behind him. “Get in the truck,” he ordered.
“No. If you’re going in, so am I.”
He heaved an exasperated sigh. “Fine. Then stay behind me and let me clear the building before you come in.”
She waited on the porch as Grimm entered the mobile home. He didn’t take long to clear the small home, and then he was back. “Whoever forced his way in isn’t here anymore.”
She entered the living room, past her uncle’s lounge chair and into the hallway. “Did he take anything?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Grimm said.
Her heart racing, Dezi entered her uncle’s study and stared at the empty wall where the map with the colorful pushpins had hung. “Damn it! Now, how are we supposed to know where he wanted us to go?”
CHAPTER6