“Think it was something I said?”
We all looked up as Julian shambled in from the direction of the Great Hall. Everywhere he didn’t glisten with sweat, he was covered in a fine grey layer of dirt and dust.
He grunted as he sank into the nearest chair. Reaching into a small cooler at his feet, Chase threw a bottle of water his way.
“Still nothing?” asked Noah.
The stonemason nodded appreciatively at Chase, then wiped his hands on his shirt and shook his head.
“Maybe it’s a goose chase then?”
I could see by his expression it was a hard pill to swallow. Julian usually spent an hour or more each night, continuing my uncle’s investigation of the Great Hall. Taking apart the walls piece by piece, and rebuilding sections he’d already finished checking.
“What makes you think there’s something there again?” asked Chase. “I mean, you never really sat down and told us—”
“It was something my uncle was doing,” I cut in. “Toward the end, he was taking the walls in that room apart. Rather than putting them back together.”
“And he never said anything to you?” asked Noah. “About looking for anything specific?”
I tried to think back on it, and not for the first time. Once again I came up with nothing.
“If it were something important, wouldn’t he have told you?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Maybe not. Travis was usually open with me about everything. Except when he wasn’t.”
Julian downed the bottle in a single long pull, without coming up for air. The plastic crinkled as he crushed it in his hand.
“What were his last words to you?” asked Chase.
Everyone turned to face him. Julian and Noah’s expressions told me they thought the question to be a little fucked up.
“What?” Chase said defensively. “If he had anything to tell her, it would’ve been—”
“I’m not sure exactly,” I answered. “In those final moments, he knew he was going. He said a lot of things, like telling me he loved me. Telling me I was the daughter he never had, and that I should fight to keep this place. He wanted me to raise children…”
The guys looked to the floor at that last part, like they were hearing something not meant for their ears. The truth was though, I had nothing to hide.
“His last words were a little weird,” I recalled, looking off into a dark corner of the room. “He said I should go into his desk. Get everything he needed me to have.”
“And did you?”
“I went through his desk, yes. Most of the stuff I found was personal, though. Nothing really important.”
“The whole desk?”
I nodded numbly. “Every drawer.”
Noah looked thoughtful. “That’s not what he said though.”
The others went silent as I blinked back at him in confusion. “What?”
“He said go into his desk. Not through it.” He paused, wagging a finger. “That’s funny wording.”
“Yeah,” Chase agreed. “And he said to get ‘everything he needed you to have’. Like there would be important paperwork in there, or maybe the deed to the property or something.”
I shook my head. “But there wasn’t.”
Julian sat up a little straighter. They were all looking at me now, with the same level of interest a cat would give to a mouse.