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Daniel stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a furrow creasing his brow. “Jonah ran the numbers in Lena’s messagethrough a decryption program but didn’t come up with anything. We’ve been through them in a multitude of ways. Researched Lena’s last days and come up empty. Maybe we’re looking at this from the wrong angle.”
“What do you mean?” Ellie set her fork down and wiped her mouth.
“We’re trying to decipher Lena’s message using the bracelet, but maybe what we should be focusing on is the timeline.” He pivoted toward her. “Let’s run through everything we know, but not in the order we discovered it?—”
Her eyes widened as she immediately understood his train of thought. “But in the orderLenaintended for it to be discovered.” It was such a simple idea, Ellie felt foolish for not thinking of it herself. She pushed away from the table and grabbed a marker. “First, Lena gives me the bracelet for my birthday. Unbeknownst to me, there is a secret message hidden in the locket charm.”
“Did Lena say anything specific when she gave you the gift?”
Ellie frowned, letting her mind wander back to that day. A pinch of grief threatened to take hold of her emotions, but she pushed it back. “She surprised me with it. In hindsight, I should’ve realized something was off, since we’d never given each other gifts before, but she said that we were friends, and friends celebrated each other’s birthdays. Then she made me promise not to take the bracelet off. That I would wear it always.” She tapped the marker against the table. “Lena was laying the groundwork even then to slip the evidence to me in secret.”
Daniel nodded. “She had an escape plan.”
“I can’t blame her.” Ellie returned to their new timeline. “Okay, Lena gives me the bracelet, then two weeks later she’s murdered.”
“Except she didn’t plan on that. Lena intended to leave town. You would’ve been left high and dry without the evidence she’d promised you.”
“True. Okay, let’s assume this went as planned. One week after her supposed disappearance, a letter arrives by courier to my FBI office.” Ellie tapped the letter. “This would’ve been the first contact I had with Lena after she fled town.”
“The letter is the first clue.”
Ellie pulled it down off the butcher paper and read it again. Daniel drew near, looking at the letter over her shoulder. The warmth of his body radiated against her back and made her pulse quicken. It was as if her body was attuned to his every breath now. She forced herself to focus on the letter.
Elizabeth,
I know you must’ve been angry when I didn’t show at the warehouse, but the risk was too great. Gideon has grown suspicious, and I don’t want to lead him to you. By now, you should’ve found the flash drive. It has everything you need to take him down. I made sure of it. Unlocking it won’t be easy, but you’re smart enough to find the answer.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. Too many. I pray this sets some of them right.
You were a true friend to me. One of the only two I’ve ever had. I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye. Trusting the FBI with my life wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. It’ll be better—and safer—on my own.
Stay safe,
Lena
Daniel tilted his head. “Lena says that between her disappearance and the letter’s arrival at the FBI office, you should’ve found the flash drive.”
Ellie tapped her nail on the table. “I know. That’s why I assumed the message in the bracelet would lead to the next clue. But what if that’s wrong? What if the reference to the flash drive was Lena's way of telling me that it existed?”
“Why not just say that?”
She considered his question. “Because she sent this to the FBI office. She couldn’t ensure that I would be the only one to see it, and wanted it to sound like the evidence had already been passed along… like the job was done. If the mole read this, they'd think the flash drive was already in FBI hands, not still hidden somewhere waiting to be found.”
Daniel’s brows rose. “Smart.”
“She was very smart. Okay, I get this letter and realize there’s a flash drive of evidence.” Ellie pointed to the end of the paragraph. “Here she mentions that unlocking the flash drive won’t be easy… referencing the lock on the bracelet? It has to be. She intended for me to find the message hidden inside.” Deflated, she spun around to look at the writing on the butcher paper. Bestfriends422315730. “That brings us right back to square one.”
“Not exactly. We know that Lena wrote this letter in code. The reference to the flash drive, along with the mention of unlocking and the reference to the bracelet proves that.” Daniel rocked back on his heels, his expression distant, his mind working through the puzzle. “I believe your initial instinct was right. The message hidden in the bracelet is the code to unlock the flash drive. Which means that Lena intended for you to use the clues in this letter tofindthe flash drive.”
Ellie couldn’t argue with his logic. She went back to the letter and read it again, pausing when she hit the paragraph aboutfriends. “You were a true friend to me. One of the only two I ever had…” A buried memory, one that had been niggling at her for days, suddenly surfaced. She inhaled sharply. “Lena once told me about a guy she dated in high school. Someone she loved deeply but left behind because she didn’t want to stay stuck in their small town. She referred to him as a true friend.”
Daniel was already moving toward his laptop. “What was his name?”
“Tyler Mitchell.” It was a fairly common name and might produce hundreds of hits. Ellie hurried to his side. “Try narrowing the search to Briarwood, Texas. That’s the town Lena grew up in.”
Daniel’s fingers flew over the keys, and then a moment later, he grinned triumphantly. “Got him! Tyler Mitchell, born July 30th, 1997. Lives in Briarwood, Texas. Drives a 2024 Chevy Silverado…” He clicked on the screen. “And it looks like he owns a bar called the Funky Monkey.”
A few clicks later and a driver’s license photo popped up on screen. Tyler was movie star handsome with a ruggedly outdoorsy look accented by his jet-black hair, beard, tanned face, and brilliant blue eyes. Ellie had no trouble understanding why Lena had fallen for him. A part of her wished her old friend had stayed in Briarwood and married Tyler, especially after she’d spoken so lovingly of him.