Little Black Book

I remember, It was the day I lost my job...

I was packing up my belongings from my desk, in went the family photos, the potted cactus and the small black book of notes, full of ideas.

I wanted to be sure no one got hands on my notes. I have spent 5 years filling it up with content for the days yet to come.

Now that day I feared was here, redundancy is not like retirement, as everyone knows.

A long way to go.

It was going to be a hard road ahead of me,

I had no formal plans, but an idea of what my life could be like, if I followed the notes and met all the people in that book.

So with that in mind, I smiled at the photos, brushed the dust of my cactus, put them into my cheap cardboard shoe box and walked away with my head held high.

I know I'm better than this job, I got stuck and here is the kick up the bum I needed.

A tear was stuck behind my eye, I'm not sure if it was joy or sadness but I just kept on walking.

The start

At home I opened the black book, no time to be upset, just time to focus and get this puzzle solved.

I had this feeling my journalism skills were not about to be wasted. I read my notes, Sally Gorge a single mum followed the path to the nature reserve with the clue.. "Behind the water, read for yourself, no one should get their feet wet"

Reading down lower and saw I had underlined she looked in the reeds by the pond and found nothing.

So what could it mean?

Reading it again "Behind the water, read for yourself, no one should get their feet wet"

It's not "reeds, it's READ"

Sally got it wrong, it's to read something, I opened the small Google map I had printed and stuck in the book underneath. On the map I could see a place marked info, just behind the duck pond. It was then I knew I needed to take a trip there, but not before I checked the other clues.

The next clue

James Hunter a grandfather of two and widower, lived in the next town and was the next person to try and came up with a blank too, what did he miss?

Reading down in my notes, James missed it.... Well what did he miss?

His riddle was different to Sally's

"Look for the patterns in the ripple but don't read too much into it?"

Again a reading clue, I grew excited thinking I was about to crack this and had a second look at my small map.

Sure enough I could see the pond, the reads, the information area, so I'm thinking it's got to be right my thinking?

The question is what on earth, if I was right would I find?

A body or a weapon? If I find this out I can move forward and write the best story I have ever written. I could almost taste the victory, see the headline, 50 year old case solved by newly redundant journalist... I would be tripping over myself for work, the phone ringing the job offers pouring in and the press wanted to talk to me, not to mention the police wanting help to see how I even solved this old case. Wow, OK take a breath... Don't get carried away lets take one step at a time.

Other clues

I begin reading all the other notes, Sarah Patrick, middle aged house wife, same town as me, had a riddle too.

"Water's everywhere, make your bed, now lie in it"

What? No read anything in this clue, but it says water, but laying down in water?

OK it's a body then, but who's?

I could see I had underlined body, sometime ago.

OK I'm driving there to see for myself.

The drive

I grabbed my car keys and the book and ran out of the house, jumped into my old rust bucket and started the engine.

The drive was slow, I knew the forest and nature reserve area of my home town well, as I used to explore it as a child daily, but everything seemed more over grown than ever.

I had an obsession with this place, this was my lifes obsession about to be cracked.

Stories and rumours of a mystery I had grown up with all my life, I knew I was about to crack wide open. A rush of excitement and adrenalin seemed to slow my journey down but I didn't care.

Into the woods

I drove deeper and deeper into the park lands and forest and finally some time later I was by the pond.

There is the information board, the reeds Sally thought she would find something near, the rippling water just under the reads that James thought the clue lead too and the pond itself that was a watery bed in Sarah's riddle???

They all to my eyes meet with the line of that notice board. I was sure I was about to find out what had been hiding in plain sight all this time.

Taking notice

With trepidation, I began feeling around the notice board, the moss had over grown around it and there was ivy growing over parts too. I began to rip and tear away foliage but I wasn't strong enough, luckily I had some tools in the rust bucket and used a small hammer and other impliments I could find and finally I got rid of all the debris.

The discovery

Feeling round the notice board again, now it was clear of plants, I ran my hands up and down and around all corners, contours and holes until I found a piece of stone that was loose. "It's loose" I shouted with excitement wow!!!

I pulled the loose stone away, all I could feel was paper, old paper underneath, like it was plugging the hole... It was stuck so I pulled hard and sometime after tugging it came free.

As it was paper, I was expecting another clue but to my amazement this was more than I had bargained for.

I opened up the paper and saw it was a note, that simply said. You win, no one else could do this only you. Below there was some other information that said a safe number 6266 and gave the plot address of the rumoured hidden cave vault number, vault number 12.

I got back into my car and punched in the address on the paper.

My arrival

I found the vault they were not too far, hidden in a cluster of small caves under the town. The history behind them, was they were once used for mining but later became a good hiding place for vaults and were owned by the city bank.

No one guarded them because the location was not common knowledge although we all knew they existed somewhere.

I began searching for the safe, walking with only the light on my mobile for sight. There it is vault 12, I was struggling to see and my heart was pounding louder than ever.

I punched in the numbers and the safe door opened with ease. Then, there it was a battered case sitting in the dark. So I took it and drove home.

The reveal

Sitting at my kitchen table I opened the case slowly, I was sweating...

What...is this I said out loud, notes apon notes of 20 dollar bills, it took me hours to count and recount just to be sure...but sure enough it was $20,000... I called the police, my last though before I did was... My whole life is about to change forever and sure enough I was right.