Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Canoodling with the Enemy
EMILY
T he day flew as I tagged along with Christine through panels and roundtables, learning about everything from budgeting for advertising to legalities of copyrighting our work. Today was the business-focused day, and it wasn’t as compelling for me, mostly because I didn’t really have a business yet. I had a freelancing business, I guessed—I’d been writing on assignment for a few magazines since I’d come out of college with a portfolio and a few bylines. But some of these writers had corporations and employees—it was a whole other level of responsibility.
Through it all, my mind wandered widely.
I’d kissed Archie Kasper.
I’d kissed the enemy.
Only, he wasn’t my enemy at all. And I didn’t think he was my father’s, either. He was a scapegoat for my family’s sorrow and grief, and I was starting to see that he carried a heavy enough load of remorse without ours added to his burden. He hadn’t told me that, of course. But it was written in the lines of his face—too many for a man his age. It was telegraphed in the way he stood, as if his shoulders held just a bit more weight than the men around him. And I saw it in his eyes. In his unguarded moments, it flickered there—a dark cloud sweeping through the indigo blue depths.
I knew Ghost was his callsign, certainly because of his last name and the old cartoon, Casper the Friendly Ghost. But it was appropriate for a man who passed through life like a shadow of the guy he could be.
My limbs still tingled at the thought of the kiss, and when I found Archie waiting for me in front of the massive desk in the lobby after I texted him that I was done for the day, I felt a blush climb my cheeks.
He looked handsome standing there, his dark red hair lit by the chandeliers from above. The way it waved over his forehead reminded me of old movie stars with their debonair locks, except Archie’s was artfully mussed, as if he’d had his hands in it through the morning as he worked. He wore another soft-looking button down and a pair of dark brown pants with boots, and a deep russet scruff covered his jaw. The man could have been a model for one of those Americana teen clothing brands—Abercrombie or something.
His lips stretched into a hesitant smile as he spotted me coming from the foot of the stairs.
“Hey,” I said, trying not to feel self-conscious under his gaze. What must he think about that kiss? Did he regret it? We’d had a little to drink. Did he think that was something I did a lot?
It wasn’t.
“Hey,” he said, the word warm and welcoming.
Tension loosened inside me. “You ready to go treasure hunting?” I bounced a little at the idea. Not only would solving the mystery make my career—a cover piece wasn’t easy to come by—but the whole idea was just so...fun.
“Definitely,” he said. “Wiley and Aubrey are going to come along. They have a bit of an ulterior motive though. My sister just decided they should get married before the baby comes.”
I’d seen Aubrey, and it honestly looked like the baby could come in the next five minutes. I tried to push down the jolt of disappointment that came unbidden when I realized it wouldn’t be just the two of us. “Okay. That’s exciting, right? Planning a wedding?”
“It is. Just a bit more...pressure, I guess.” He pushed a hand through that incredible hair, verifying my hypothesis about how it’d gotten mussed. I tried not to think of my own hands in it and failed.
We walked together to the entrance of the bar, and Archie signaled to his sister who was sitting on a stool. She called to Wiley, and soon the four of us were climbing into one of the Kasper Ridge SUVs, which had been waiting at the curb. Archie drove, and Wiley and Aubrey climbed into the back together, Wiley practically lifting his fiancée into the big vehicle. I took shotgun, trying not to focus on how much this felt like a double date suddenly.
“How’s the conference going?” Wiley asked me as Archie guided the car out to the highway.
“Really good,” I said. “It’s my first, so it’s a little overwhelming. A lot of information.”
“Archie says you’re a travel writer and that you’re going to write about us,” Aubrey said, an edge of suspicion in her voice.
“I am,” I confirmed. “That’s part of why we’re going to the church.”
“He told us.” The suspicion was still there. “If you solve the treasure hunt, what’s in it for you? Did Archie promise to share his booty?”
“Aubrey,” Archie groaned.
“No,” I laughed. “Nothing like that. But if I can help, and if we really do manage to get to the end, I’ll get the cover story for the magazine I write for. It’d be kind of a career-maker.”
“Cool,” Wiley said.
“How long are you here?” Aubrey asked, and I had the sensation of being interrogated. I tried to keep my voice light, realizing I would have been protective of Jake, too, if a woman showed up suddenly seeming over interested in him. Had Archie told her about the kiss?
“A week for sure. Maybe longer.” Technically, I was leaving with Christine when the conference ended, but if we were close to the solution of this hunt, I’d stay. I just hadn’t figured out the logistics of that yet.
“Oh, okay,” she said. Her tone implied that something wasn’t okay, though, and I wondered if it would be hard to win her over. Or if I needed to.
“Aubrey, cut it out.” Archie’s tone was light, but his words were not.
“I’m just saying,” she went on, undeterred. “We’ve been working on it for what, three years now? And we found the answer. We just didn’t like it. So what makes you think there’s some other answer, and that you’ll be able to figure out what like ten of us couldn’t in one week?”
It was a valid question, one I’d thought about a lot. “I don’t know that I can,” I said honestly. “I’d just like the chance to try. And maybe I can bring a fresh perspective to it.”
“Makes sense,” Wiley said, his easy nature soothing a bit of the tension Aubrey’s questions brought.
“I guess,” she said, and I was relieved she seemed content to leave it for now.
The sky hung low over the highway as Archie guided the big car around the tight curves, and instinctively I knew some kind of weather was coming.
“Think it’s going to rain?” I asked.
“Snow, probably,” Archie said. “Temperature’s been dropping all day.”
“Snow?” It came out of me like a squeak, and the sound earned me a concerned look from Archie.
“Maybe a bit,” he said, the forehead wrinkling. “Not a big deal.”
Snow was not something I had experience with. And for some reason it was a terrifying prospect, being out on this road in the snow.
“I’ve actually never seen snow,” I admitted.
“Thought you were a travel writer,” Aubrey said.
I turned to look to the back seat, ready to put whatever weird conflict Aubrey had with me to bed. “I am, but since I live in San Diego, I usually sell pieces that focus on southern California. I don’t really have to travel much.”
“You wouldn’t need to, I guess,” Wiley said, and his easy accepting tone was reassuring.
“Snow up here is beautiful,” Aubrey said, seeming to have decided to lay off the questioning for the moment. “And we’re built for it, so nothing to worry about.”
Her words did make me feel a little better, and even though the sky looked ominous as we pulled into a parking lot in front of the Kasper Ridge Lutheran Church, the worry in me eased a bit.
“I called ahead,” Archie told us as we all got out of the car. “Pastor Fred is meeting us here.”
The air circled around us, a crisp chill that felt laced with ominous promise. I shivered as we approached the modest wood and metal structure. I wouldn’t have identified it as a church, except for the metal cross jutting from the top over the peaked doorway.
“Think he’s gonna ask us why he doesn’t see us here on Sundays?” Aubrey asked. As I glanced at her, she paled. “Oh god, Arch. I’m pregnant out of wedlock. What will he say?”
“It’s not eighteen hundred, Aubrey,” Archie said.
Wiley leaned close and I heard him whisper something that sounded like, “If he looks at you the wrong way, I’ll pound him.”
“He’s a man of god!” Aubrey sounded terrified.
“Fine, I’ll just suggest it’s not his business. Politely,” Wiley amended.
They clasped hands as we headed through the heavy wooden door and into the surprisingly office-like lobby. There were two other sets of big doors with small windows in them, and we could see the sanctuary through them—it was much more ornate than this area.
“Hi there,” a man said, stepping from a side door as if he’d heard us come in. His grey beard covered the bottom of a ruddy, but friendly face. Bright twinkling eyes passed across each of us, and he reached a hand out to shake with Archie. “I’m Pastor Fred. You must be the Kaspers?”
“Yes, sir. Archie and Aubrey, and this is Emily and Wiley.”
“Welcome to you all. Would you like to chat in my office?” He waved an arm toward the door standing open behind him.
“Would it be all right if we checked out the church?” Wiley asked, pointing to the doors beside us.
“Oh, certainly,” Pastor Fred said, giving us all a warm smile.
He took us on a brief tour of the building, walking us reverently through the church. I walked silently at Archie’s side, fighting off a feeling that all this was some kind of surreal dream. The combination of the silence of the space and the dampening effect of the weather outside had me in an unfamiliar mental space. At one point Archie’s hand found my lower back, guiding me through a narrow door at the back of the space and the warmth of it was reassuring. Aubrey and Wiley whispered to one another as we walked through the space, and Pastor Fred was gracious, finally returning us to his office and moved chairs around for us to sit.
“So, how can I help?” he asked Archie. “Something about history?”
“Yes, sir.” Archie looked at his sister, who pulled an envelope from her purse and handed it to him. He opened it, sliding out the photo of Marvin and Lola in front of the Worship sign. “Do you have any idea where this was taken?”
The pastor looked intently at the photo and a faint smile graced his lips, gradually widening. “I do, actually.” He glanced up at us, and then returned his attention to the photo. “Might I ask, who are these people?” A thrill shot through me. Could it really be this easy?
“That’s our great uncle Marvin,” Aubrey said. “And his wife, Lola.”
“Handsome couple,” Pastor Fred said. “I suspected it was our town’s namesake. What a nice photo.”
The pastor stared into the long-gone faces for a long, quiet moment as we waited, the growing tension in the air palpable.
“You said you know where the sign was?” Archie cued him.
“Oh yes,” he handed the photo back and smiled up at us. “It’s still there, actually. It’s our summer camp now, about two miles down the highway and off a dirt road in the woods. We take groups of kids there in the warm months for a week at a time. Back then it was probably just a few tents and the summer revival we hold. But it’s pretty built out now.”
Archie and I exchanged an excited look as anticipation built within me.
“Would it be okay with you if we went there?” Archie asked. “Just to look around?”
Pastor Fred’s smile faltered a bit. “Well, sure, but there’s no one there now. And it looks a bit like bad weather coming in. It is that time of year, you know.”
“True,” Wiley agreed.
“But sure, you’re welcome to go look around,” Pastor Fred said. Then he reached into a desk drawer and extracted a brochure, which he slid across the desk to us. It showed kids grinning in front of the same sign in Archie’s photo, and the title along the bottom read, “Kasper Ridge Summer Bible Camp.” “There’s a map in here from the highway.”
“Thanks,” Archie said.
Pastor Fred moved to stand, when Aubrey piped up. “One more thing,” she said, her voice a little shakier than I’d heard it. “Do you ever marry, um...pregnant people?”
The pastor retook his seat, and his friendly gaze passed from Aubrey to Wiley and back. “Of course,” he said. “Are you planning a wedding?”
“We are, sir,” Wiley told him.
“I’d be honored to marry you.”
“We’re not members of your congregation.” Aubrey practically whispered this, as if she was ashamed of it.
Pastor Fred smiled kindly, and then looked to Archie and me. “Would you mind terribly if I spoke to the couple for just a moment in private?”
“Of course not.” Archie and I stood and let ourselves out the office door, shutting it behind us.
“He seems nice,” I said, feeling a tiny bit awkward alone with my growing attraction to Archie Kasper inside a church.
“He does,” Archie agreed. He looked around and shifted his weight. The awkwardness was mutual. “Want to go out to the car?”
“Sure.”
I followed Archie outside and we climbed into the car together. I was eager for the next part of the adventure if Archie was up for finding the sign. Of course with Aubrey along, a hike into the woods was probably not the right plan. Especially if weather was on the way.
“If we know where that sign stands,” he said, “then we have another physical point of reference on the map.”
“Right,” I agreed. “But we don’t really know if your uncle was a stickler for drawing things to scale, and there’s no big red X on that map to show us where to dig.”
“That’s true.” He stared out the front windshield for a second. “But the previous location-based clues have led us to other clues. So maybe there’s something there he wants us to find.”
Excitement swelled within me. Were we on the brink of another clue? This was what I’d come here hoping for. That, and a deeper understanding of the man in front of me. “I hope so.” My eyes were drawn to the thick light of the gray sky, which seemed to be descending around us. “We’d better hurry and look, though, or it might all be covered with snow.”
He nodded, and a moment later, Aubrey and Wiley emerged with Pastor Fred, who waved merrily to us. The couple looked happy and relaxed, holding hands as they came toward the car.
We waved goodbye and Wiley helped Aubrey inside and then walked around to climb in.
“Everything okay?” Archie asked.
“Everything’s great,” Aubrey said. “But I think I want to get married under the sign. Like Uncle Marvin and Lola. The church didn’t feel like the right place.”
“Aubrey, it’s about to snow. You want to plan a winter wedding two miles from the highway? I doubt they plow back there.” Archie said.
“We’ll figure it out,” Wiley said. “I’ll carry her in if I have to. I just want Aubrey to have the wedding she really wants.”
I smiled, charmed at their obvious devotion to each other.
“Let’s go check it out, then,” Archie said, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the highway.