The Secret of the Stones by Ernest Dempsey

Most were
probably never covered in class.   Leafing through a few of the pages, she didn’t recognize anything that
should lead them to any kind of clue.
    “Maybe
it isn’t here.”   She brushed
against him slightly as she continued thumbing through the pages.   
    The
touch of her skin sent an electric chill up and down his spine.   He looked up and smiled at her.   “I’m sorry you’re involved in this.”   His gaze was sincere.
    She
smiled back at him.   “I have to
say, I don’t enjoy being shot at,” she paused, “but this is going to be one
amazing story for the paper.”
    He
snorted a laugh.   Shaking his head,
he continued his search.
    Ten
minutes went by and still the pair had found nothing they believed to be what
Dr. Borringer had been working on.   It was starting to feel like a dead end.
    Allyson
interrupted his beleaguered thoughts, “I don’t know much about Poe, but I don‘t
think that he knew anything about the Golden Chambers.”   Sean spun the chair at the desk around
and plopped down while she perused the pages as she paced the small room.  
    “It
doesn’t look like there is anything to help to us here,” he broke the silence a
few minutes later.   If there had
been anything there, the police or Jurgenson would have certainly found it.   He hoped it wasn’t the latter.   Nothing seemed to point to any sort of
clue and frustration had settled in.   Without a starting point, there was no way they were going to find
Tommy.  
    Allyson
had only begun to pace back from the window in the room when, suddenly, she
stopped.   Lifting her head, she smiled
at Sean.  
    “What?”   He asked and cocked his head curiously.
    Her
smile was joined by a nod.   “I
think I know what we’re looking for.”
    She
took a step over to the desk and set the book down on the shiny black
surface.   “Did you ever read The
Purloined Letter?”   She asked him
as her hand reached down for the envelopes on the table.
    “Not
that I remember.   But high school
English class was a long time ago.”
    “Well,
in that story, Poe’s main character is trying to hide a vital piece of
information from the police and some other villains.   The detectives and other investigators come to search his
house, but they can never find what they are looking for.   Essentially, they completely tear the
house apart, but to no avail.   Finally, the main character’s friend comes over and asks where the
letter is hidden.   He is directed
to a pile of letters that look like ordinary bills and correspondence.   In fact, if I remember correctly, the
protagonist of the story had gone to extra lengths to make the letter look old
and unimportant.”
    “So,
basically, the guy left it sitting right there out in the open where everyone
could see it, but where no one would think something secret should be.   Pretty smart or really stupid.”
    “Yeah,”
she replied, pulling a very ordinary looking letter from the small pile.   “Sean, what is your middle name?”  
    “Matthew.   Why?”   His eyes narrowed in suspicion.
    “I
think we just found what we were looking for.”

Chapter
16  
    Georgia
Mountains

 
    Ulrich
left the car parked on the street in a parallel spot about a half block from
Tommy’s home.   Bringing the captive
archaeologist along would have been too difficult.   Instead, leaving him behind in the care of his associates
seemed the more logical thing to do.  
    As
he approached the house, Ulrich moved stealthily from the open view of the
street to the cover of a neighbor’s home a couple of doors down.   More than likely, if the cops were
there, they would be stationed at the front and back of the house.   He crept around the back porch of the
first house, careful to stay low and in the shadows.   Inside, an enormous flat-screen television was aglow with
some late night police drama.  
    Ulrich
reached the corner and maneuvered to the house directly next to Tommy’s.   There,