The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,24

was anything here it's gone."

Lucy so hoped that wasn't the case. Belle off on a tear somewhere was one thing. Belle in some kind of danger because of this treasure hunt was another--and something Lucy didn't want to think about. "Let's hope not. Those notes may be our only chance of finding Belle."

"And finding ourselves. We don't know anyone broke in," Mae said. "I think we should still see what we can find."

"Okay then, we search for clues," Jane said. "After we finish coffee and get dressed."

Lucy wasn't excited about the delay but they'd be sharper after caffeine and showers.

###

"Kitchen, bedroom and study," Mae said a half hour later when they reassembled in the kitchen. "We should each take one. That's where the paper is in my house. At least the paper that doesn't belong to the kids."

"I'll take the study," Jane said.

"Kitchen," Mae said.

"Okay then I'll take the bedroom. If anyone finds something labeled 'Declaration of Independence' holler. Otherwise bring everything back here and we'll sort through it together."

They split up and Lucy took a deep breath before heading up to Belle's bedroom.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat when she crossed the threshold into Belle's room. Belle would be fine. She had to be.

Lucy went to the bed and sat down to pull herself together. She loved this room because it reflected Belle's personality perfectly.

Nothing in here matched. The bed was Shaker style covered with an assortment of brightly colored pillows, a crazy quilt and a Navajo blanket. The art on the wall was a mix of black and white landscape photographs, Native American sand paintings and a couple of masks of unknown origin. The bed-tables were made of twigs and had silk scarves thrown over their tops. The lamps were almost certainly Tiffany. The only other furniture in the room was a pair of slipper chairs upholstered in cream colored silk and an old steamer trunk plastered with postcards and other bits of paper memorabilia between them that served as a table. Belle added layers to the decoration over the years, saying she liked to lounge and daydream about all the things she'd seen.

Nothing matched but it all somehow made sense.

Since Belle had a huge, custom designed walk-in closet/dressing room there wasn't a need for dressers or mirrors in the bedroom. And since there were no drawers in the bed-tables there wasn't much to search.

After gathering herself, Lucy shook out the books scattered around the room, noting their titles as she did. No papers fell out but she saw that Belle was going through a Patricia Cornwell phase.

Lucy moved on to the dressing room. There was a lot more ground to cover in here.

She opened drawers, slid her hand between folded sweaters and checked handbags. Luckily all the shoes were housed in transparent plastic shoeboxes so she didn't have to sort through them all--well over a hundred pairs.

Nothing.

Until she found a lined basket on a lower shelf filled with all manner of paper bits. Receipts. Post cards. Notes. Greeting cards. Letters. It looked like a mixture of mail Belle couldn't bear to part with and things she emptied out of purses and pockets at the end of the day. Nothing that remotely related to the Dunlap Broadside, the Declaration of Independence or Colonial era ancestors.

She went downstairs empty-handed and found Jane and Mae shaking their heads. Neither had found anything useful.

"So, someone probably did break in," Jane said.

Lucy hated to agree. It seemed so paranoid except for the fact that Belle wasn't home. She dropped into the chair she'd spent the night dozing on and reached up to pull her glasses off her head.

"Ouch! Damn it!" She tried to free a few strands of hair caught in the nosepiece and wound up with the glasses dangling in front of her eyes. She yanked and blinked back tears when hair came loose with the glasses.

She put the glasses on the end table with a disgusted sigh. "I shudder to think what my horoscope says. Probably lock yourself in the bathroom and come out next year."

"We could start searching the rest of the house," Mae said.

Lucy started to shake her head when she remembered something. "Maybe we won't have to," she said. "I think I know where to look."

Jane and Mae followed her as she went into the kitchen and removed a brick from the raised hearth of the fireplace. "I forgot all about this. Belle showed it to me years ago. She told me I could use