Page 140 of Risky Obsession

I assessed where she pointed on her map and checked it on mine. “Maybe if we lay the maps on top of each other again, something will show up.”

Working together, we adjusted the maps on top of each other so the lion’s fangs were in position on top of the phone light.

She leaned closer to me, and I could almost feel her mind ticking over as we studied the map.

“I don’t understand this wavy line.” She pointed at the mark again. “Do you?”

“Nope. And what about these.” I pointed at four straight lines that looked like the outside of a square that was incomplete.”

Lacey gasped.

“What?” I blinked at her.

“What about if we turn Gunter’s map this way?” She adjusted the top map lining up something that only she could see. “Yes. Look.”

She pointed at the markings that I thought were a square.

“A swastika,” we both said at that same time.

“Good work.” I grinned, and she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth like she was trying not to smile.

“And look, now the maps are perfectly lined up.”

We both leaned over the maps, and excitement surged through me. It took me back ten years to a time when Pops and I put clues together.

I studied a faint, wave-like pattern of overlapping arches or semicircles, hoping to make sense of them. Lacey seemed to be looking at the same spot.

“I feel like it’s right in front of our face,” she said.

“Me too.” I moved to a different position, so my shadow didn’t cover the map. “Holy shit! It’s a submarine.”

“Where?” She jumped to her feet.

I pointed at the barely perceptible outline of a submarine’s elongated form that was nearly obscured by the wavy lines around it.

“Yes, I see it. There’s the periscope.” She squealed and slapped my arm in excitement. “What does it mean?”

She swept her gaze up to me and excitement shimmered in her eyes.

“Archer said the Nazis used a naval base in Cuxhaven to house their submarines during the war.”

She cocked her head. “So, you think we need to go there?”

I frowned, trying to piece the clues together. Near the outline of the submarine were four straight lines that made absolutely no sense. I shook my head. “I think it would have been harder to hide the gold bars there. They would have been found by now.”

She put her hands on her hips, thrusting her boobs out, and although I didn’t want to notice her nipples, they were impossible to miss.

“Maybe those wavy lines are the ocean?” She pointed at the marks on the map.

“That makes sense considering the submarine image.”

She tilted her head to look at me. “What about those stairs that went down to the ocean? Maybe they took the gold down those steps and hid them down there?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Let’s see if we can find them. I think we’ve exhausted looking here, anyway.”

I handed her the top map to fold, and I did the same with Pops’ map.

“I feel like we’re missing something,” I said.