Page 43 of Seven Deadly Sins

“To slow us down.” Harper moved to the scissors. “See if you can arrange those three numbers to open this lock.” She headed to the piece of paper and watercolor paint. Picking up the paper, she held it to the light. Something faintly glistened.

She dipped the brush into the paint and swiped it across the paper. “Look in the blue drawer.” Okay. She opened the blue drawer across the room. Inside was a small, locked metal box. She’d need a key for this one. She set the box on the table Liam worked at. “Any luck?”

“Almost…there.” The lock fell off the scissors. “What am I supposed to cut?”

“I don’t know yet.”

She handed him a bunch of popsicle sticks. “Work on this puzzle. Shouldn’t take but a couple of seconds.”

Before she’d reached the new clue, Liam told her it said to pull the string by the door. She glanced back to the door they’d entered through. No string. A string hung from the ceiling on the wall opposite the door. Upon closer inspection, she realized a door was inserted there. A door that blended in perfectly. She reached up and pulled the string.

A large cardboard arrow fell and pointed to a small hole in the door. Heart beating so hard she could hear it, Harper peeked through the hole. “Liam, there’s a girl in here!”

He joined her and peered through. “A mannequin wearing a cheerleading costume. But there is something pinned to her shirt. I can’t read it from here.” He straightened. “Want to bet it’s the name of the person we’re trying to save?”

“You’re probably right.” She stared at the keyhole in the door. “It looks like a regular key like you’d use in your house.”

“Here’s a glass jar with a key inside, but it says not to shake it and the lid won’t open, but it does have a hole in the lid.”

Harper rummaged through a box of odds and ends. She smiled at seeing a magnet. The clues really were juvenile. She tossed the magnet to Liam. It wasn’t the key that would open the door, but it might open the blue drawer.

“Here you go.” Liam dropped the wet key into her palm. “I’ll go try and decipher the Legos.”

Harper picked up a very grainy photograph. What in the world was it a picture of? She turned and stared around the room, finally realizing it might be the wood of a small box in the corner of the room. Something she confirmed once she held the photo next to it.

She opened the box.

Something struck at her.

She screamed and fell backward as a snake slithered from the box.

Liam darted over and slammed a heavy iron bar on the reptile’s head. “Are you bit?”

“No.” Her arms and legs trembled as she got to her feet. The snake’s mouth opened and closed, revealing the stark white inside. A cottonmouth.

Liam cut off its head with his pocketknife. “That isn’t kid’s play.”

“No, it isn’t.” She narrowed her eyes at the red light high in the corner of the room. She’d noticed it when she’d landed on her backside. “We’re being watched.” At least they didn’t have the satisfaction of watching her die, at the least get very ill, from a poisonous snake bite. “Let’s find our way out of here.” And put an end to their fun. She returned to the box and pulled out a cardboard box secured with tape. “Here’s what the scissors are for.”

~

Liam continued to stare at the Legos. That one has one hump. Is that what they called the parts that weren’t flat? Another square had nine. He stepped back and closed his eyes, then opened them and stepped forward. “They’re the letters of the alphabet. It spells out something.”

“I think it goes with this clue.” She handed him a sheet of paper that looked like gibberish. “We have to figure out the code.”

“Find something to write with.”

Harper returned a few seconds later with the stub of a pencil. A few minutes later and Liam had deciphered the code. “Marble run. We need a marble.”

“I’ve looked in every box in this room. There isn’t a marble.”

Liam glanced at the snake carcass. At first, he’d thought the lump halfway down its body had been its recent meal, now he wasn’t so sure. With a shudder, he pulled his knife again and cut into the reptile’s belly. A green marble rolled out. “The snake had been a clue after all.”

“I’ve got the blue drawer open. There’s another box inside with a number lock.” She set it on the table.

Liam dropped the marble into the top cardboard roll of several mounted to the wall. The marble rolled from one tube to the next until landing in one. “Try 589.”

“It worked.” She held up a laptop before setting it on the table and lifting the lid. A message scrolled across the screen. “Ashley Stevenson is waiting.” She met Liam’s gaze. “The name of who we’re looking for?”