closest to the shore were scrubby and small. But just behind were larger ones. None had branches extending toward the bay, but a lot of years and a lot of storms had passed.
“I’m going up,” Tracy said, pointing. “I think that’s the best candidate.”
“Do you need a boost?” Wanda asked.
“Just what I need, you bruising my butt.”
“See if I ask again.”
Tracy grabbed a limb and swung her feet toward the trunk, inching her way along the limb until she could swing a leg over it. The limb was sturdy but too narrow for comfort. She reached for another, which looked as if it offered more security. She concentrated on inching higher. Years had passed since college and the Outward Bound training course she’d had to complete for one of her classes, but the skills she had learned were serving her well. At last she was high enough in the tree to look down at her friends and wave.
“You see anything?” Wanda asked.
Tracy grabbed a limb above her and slowly stood so she had a better view. The limb holding her weight swayed, and for a moment she thought she was going to tumble to the ground. She gripped harder and slowly turned her head, searching for anything that looked out of place.
“No, nothing.”
“Darn,” Wanda said. “I hoped it would be that easy.”
Tracy tried to figure out the best way down. She was high enough that she could see almost every branch in the tree, and there was nothing unusual here, nothing but bark and leaves and traces of Spanish moss. Climbing higher would be difficult if not impossible. She couldn’t believe a man, much heavier than she was, would have attempted it.
Trying to figure out the best way to lower herself to the limb that bore her weight, she carefully moved closer to the trunk until her back was against it. She grasped a different limb and had begun to slide so she could sit again when something in the next tree caught her eye. She stopped and leaned forward, holding tightly as she did. The branch she was standing on swayed as her weight shifted.
“That’s not looking safe,” Wanda called. “That branch is bending like a twig. You come on down now. I don’t want to have to catch you.”
“There’s something in that tree.” Tracy held on with one hand and pointed with the other. “I can’t tell what from here, but that’s my next stop.”
“You decide that after you get down. Come on now, Ms. Deloche. I don’t like this one bit.”
Tracy stared harder, trying to figure out what she was looking at. She supposed it might be a natural phenomenon, something as distasteful as a hornet’s nest, but she didn’t think so. The shape seemed rectangular, more symmetrical than Mother Nature designed. The reddish-brown color looked like rust.
A metal lockbox.
She shimmied down to the branch, leaned forward and grabbed it, and swung down so her feet were dangling several yards from the ground. She let go and landed hard, but she didn’t topple.
“Nicely done,” Janya said.
“You looked just like a monkey,” Wanda said.
“I don’t have any more time.” Dana glanced at her watch. “Pete could get here any minute. I have to leave if I’m going to have any chance of getting away. I’ve got to get Lizzie, and I’ve got to go. There’s too much at stake to wait.”
“I saw something. I mean it,” Tracy said. “I think it might be a lockbox.” The women were staring at her as she went on. “Dana, can you wait five more minutes?”
Dana looked torn, but she gave a quick nod.
“Wanda, I’m sorry, I will need that boost.” Tracy strode to the tree in question and looked up. A good-sized branch had broken off and lay rotting beneath the tree. She suspected it had once been the first step in climbing higher. “Look, you can see the sky through these branches. You can see heaven.”
“Someday we’ll have a talk about your butt getting bruised,” Wanda said. “For now, Janya, get over here.”
Janya joined her, and she and Wanda crossed their arms and held hands. “Do it,” Wanda said.
Tracy put one foot in their hands and leaped toward the tree. The women lifted her and managed to raise her high enough that she could inch forward until she was lying across the closest branch. From that point she was able to hold on tight and shimmy up until she was sitting.
The vantage point was different, and it took her a