Dangerous Temptations

“We’re meeting my parents in Boston. Remember?”

She tilted her head.

“Goodness, it will take you a good two hours to drive into Boston. I hope you won’t be late,” Sue said.

“It’s an early dinner. My mother is flying out to Chicago later this evening.”

Since my mother had flown back to Chicago two days ago, I knew Sydney would get the hint. We needed to leave now.

“Oh, yes, oh my. I can’t believe I forgot. Seeing all this history had it going poof, right out of my mind,” Sydney said.

I carefully placed the spoon back into the wooden box, then put the cloth and letter inside. I handed it back to Tim.

“Looks like we have a puzzle to figure out,” Tim said.

“Sure wish we could stay and figure it out w

ith you, but we really have to go. Thank you so much for opening your home to us.”

Sue gave us each a quick hug.

“Any time you kids are the area, you stop by and visit,” Tim said, shaking my hand and giving Sydney a hug.

“We will. Thank you for letting us see your home. It’s truly beautiful,” Sydney said as we walked back into the house. Tim set the box on the dining room table and walked us to the door where we said another quick good-bye and quickly headed down the path and up Commercial Street.

Once we were out of earshot, Sydney stopped and looked at me. “How in the world did you find that compartment? I’m positive they had professionals looking at all the artifacts in that house.”

“Colonial America History class. My professor had a box that had been made in the same style. Except there was no symbol carved onto it but there was a name. No wonder they all thought that the Alchemists symbol was an initial.”

“Okay, so what about the numbers on the spoon? And on that other piece of paper?” Sydney asked as I took her hand and we began to walk again. I couldn’t help but notice how she kept looking back over her shoulder. For a moment, she had an uneasy look on her face.

“The spoon most likely is a date; the ones on the paper are not dates.”

“Mike, how do you know? They could be anything.”

“Yes, but I have an idea what they are. We need to get to Boston.”

Tugging on my hand to slow me down, she asked, “Boston? Why Boston?”

I picked up the pace instead, causing Sydney to have to jog to keep up with me.

“Mike! Are you going to tell me?”

We ran up the steps to our rental house, and I punched in the code and opened the front door. Before walking in, I saw Sydney looking around.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

With a shrug, she focused back on me. “I don’t know, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that someone is following us.” I looked up and down the street before turning back to Sydney.