The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,30

Belle . . ."

They walked around to the far side of the chimney. The view was spectacular even with the trees in full summer green. Lucy was in awe thinking about how it would look in October when the fall color peaked. In winter the view wouldn't be colorful, but without the foliage you'd be able to see forever.

"You have to hand it to Paul and Molly Morris, they knew how to pick a spot," Jane said.

"This must have been the back of the cabin. Why not have the front facing the view?" Mae said.

"Who knows?" Lucy said. "But look over there, across the valley."

Jane and Mae followed Lucy's pointing finger to a rock formation on a hillside across a small valley.

"It looks like two people hugging," Mae said.

"Looks like a pile of rocks to me," Jane said.

"Don't you have any romance in your soul?" Mae asked.

"Romance is for suckers," Jane said.

Lucy shook her head. "That is not a healthy attitude. Even after what Gary did to me, I still believe in romance." Well, in theory anyway, and compared to the fear that Belle was in physical danger, Lucy's Gary troubles were barely a blip on her personal radar screen.

"And I don't think that is a healthy attitude." Jane turned away from the view and walked back toward the fireplace.

"Wait," Lucy said. "Remember the letter? The reference to Lover's Cave? I bet it's over there somewhere."

Mae stared at the formation. "You're right. I don't see a cave but I bet the opening is there."

"So we need to find the map or clue that Paul Morris hid under the hearthstone," Jane said.

Lucy turned back to the fireplace, dug around with her toe and quickly found the hearth. Obviously Belle hadn't been here before them so she was hopeful they'd find the map Paul stashed. "This hiding place must be a family trait."

"Let's get busy," Jane said. "The sooner we find that map, the sooner we get back to air conditioning."

Lucy wasn't ruling out the possibility they'd have more searching to do after they found the map but she'd break that news to Jane if and when she had to.

After pulling up weeds around the hearthstones, they found one marked with Paul's initials.

"Well, don't just sit there! Let's pull the stone up," Mae said.

They tried to pry the stone loose from its dirt bed.

It refused to budge.

"We'll just have to dig," Mae said.

"With what?" Jane asked. "Our whistles?"

"A stick or a rock." Mae stood and walked around to the other side of the fireplace. She dug through the weeds with the toe of her shoe looking for something to use.

It didn't take her long to find a palm-sized rock with one pointy corner. "This should work. All I have to do is scrape around the edge of the stone."

Jane and Lucy watched her for a few seconds, exchanged a look, and went to find primitive digging tools of their own.

Lucy scraped dirt away from the edge of the stone and tried not to get her hopes up. Between Gary leaving and Belle going missing it didn't seem her stars were exactly aligned in a positive way at the moment.

They managed to scrape a one inch deep trench around the two exposed sides of the hearth stone, but they still couldn't pry it loose.

"Damn," Jane said. "I think we need real tools. Like a shovel and a pry bar."

"If we can just find the bottom edge and get a gap underneath I think we can do it," Lucy said. No way was she leaving without finding out what was under this stone.

"I think I see the edge," Mae said a few minutes later.

Jane crossed her fingers.

Lucy leaned close and squinted at the stone. "You're right." She assaulted the area with her rock and before long had a gap large enough to get a grip on the stone. "Let me see if I can get enough leverage to pull it up."

The other two moved back. Lucy stood and put one foot on either side of the stone, crouched down, slid her fingers into the gap under the stone and pulled. She put her whole body into it, using her legs the way a weightlifter does.

Just as she started to wonder if she was going to tear a muscle or burst a blood vessel, the stone moved. Just a tremor at first and then it tore free with a sudden soundless pop. She toppled back and wound up on her ass with the stone teetering