Only The Goode Spy Forever

Chapter 101: The lead

("I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go" -Psalm 32:8)

"Peyton, I'm scared!" Annalise Goode yelled to the handsome boy next to her. He grabbed her hand with his huge one.
"You want answers? This is the way," he assured her. Anna gripped his hand as tightly as she could, looked over the mountain at the water cascading below, and jumped.
10 weeks earlier...

I felt bad pulling the kids out of class, really. I would always flip if I missed school. I can't even begin to imagine how stressed I was making them by pulling them out in their last semester. I leaned against the stone hallway and waited. Eventually, the beautiful girl with the long blonde hair walked out. She looked nervous. She jumped when she saw me.
"Mrs. Goode!" She exclaimed. I stopped chewing my gum so that I could smile at her.
"Please Bree, call me Cammie," I said. I slid my sunglasses down to my nose and winked at her.
"So, what are you doing here?" She asked. I shrugged and tried to act cool.
"Your mom thinks she has a lead. She wants us to follow it," I stated. Bree's face lit up.
"My mom? Is she here?" Bree asked excitedly. I gave her an apologetic look and stroked her hair the way that only mother's could.
"Sorry honey, she was busy," I said with a frown. I took Bree into the grand hall and waited impatiently yet again.
"Cam!" Zach called as he raced down the hall with our son in tow. Chase hugged me. I was glad my son wasn't the typical 18 year old and could still hug him mom.
"Um, what's going on?" Bree asked.
"So here's the deal," Zach began. "Your mom thinks it's your destiny or whatever to finish whatever your great great whoever started." I rolled my eyes at Zach's word choice. "She says your grandma took you all to a cabin that only you can find. We knew you wouldn't go without Chase, so now we're all going on a trip to follow this lead that could be nothing. Sound good? Sounds great."
Zach and I walked the kids to our car. Chase looked it up and down and shook his head. "No way."
"Sorry C," Zach said. "We're trying not to draw attention and we figured a bread truck would be our best bet. He opened up the windowless trunk.
"There's no seats!" Chase exclaimed.
"Hold on tight," Zach said with a smirk. Chase huffed.
"Ladies first," Chase said extending an arm to Bree. Zach swatted at him.
"Um hello, what part of she's the only one that knows where it is don't you understand? She rides shotgun," Zach said. Zach gestured for me to get in the back. I gave him a death glare and that's all it took. "Ya okay, Cam's driving."
* * *
     "So what's up with this place?" I asked Bree as we drove the last dirt road stretch to the cabin.
    "To be honest, I don't know," Bree shrugged. "My grandma just made sure I knew how to find it. I feel like that alone makes it obvious that this will be an important lead." I nodded.
    I turned the corner and the cabin came into view. It was a modest little lodge. Flowers smiled at us as we parked. Bree got out of the car and simply stared at the cabin. No doubt she was experiencing deja vu.  I opened the back and the boys tumbled out. Zach looked sick.
"I am never doing that again," Zach groaned. I smiled at him. He offered his arm and we walked up the steps to the cabin. I grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.
"It's not locked?" I asked. Bree shrugged.
"I guess it doesn't need to be. I mean, before today I was the only person that knew it existed," Bree replied.
I looked around. The wallpaper was floral. There was a beige shag carpet all over the ground. Sunlight was streaming through the windows. There was a little fireplace in the middle of the cabin and a cream colored couch. Chase grabbed the picture frame on the mandolin.
"Is this your grandma?" He asked. "You look like her." Bree grabbed the picture and smiled.
"Yeah, that's grandma Evie. She had the most radiant smile of anyone I ever knew. Grandpa took that picture of her with her sunflower patch just a few weeks before she died," Bree smiled. In the picture Bree's grandma she had on a sun hat and was tipping a sunflower towards her face. It truly was a beautiful picture.
    Us being in a crowd attracted Zach's attention, so he came over to catch a glimpse of the photo. The second Zach looked at it he stumbled back. Everyone turned to look at him.
    "Dad you okay?" Chase asked. Zach shook off his shock and brought back his usual swagger.
    "Never better champ," he replied and gave Chase a friendly punch in the shoulder. Chase shrugged off Zach's behavior and continued to look around the cabin. Zach wasn't fooling me. He knew I was on to him because whenever I tried to catch his gaze he would look away as soon as possible.
    "It looks like your grandma really loved plants," I began. I needed to talk to Zach. "Maybe we should check outside. Zach, come with me."
    "Sorry, I don't want to get a sunburn," Zach shrugged. I cut my eyes at him and he knew to follow me out. "What was your deal back in there?"
    "Cameron I really don't want to talk about it," Zach said. My mouth dropped. He didn't call me by a nickname. Not Cammie, Cam, or even Gallagher Girl.
    "Zach what did you do?" I asked seriously. He huffed and gave me a look I had seen many times in my past. It was a look of shame.
   "Do you remember before Riley was born where I fell into a bad place? You kicked me out of the house because I had the blood of innocent on my hands. An old woman..." Zach trailed off. He gulped and his ghost white face grew even whiter. "It was her. Cam, I killed Evelyn. I thought it was an accident, but it wasn't. I was trying to assassinate someone who was affiliated with my mom. She was talking to Bree's grandma and Bill told me that they both worked for her. Once she was dead he told me he had made a mistake. He told me she was innocent."
    "Zach you were tricked. Bill was arrested. He was a mole, remember?" I said slowly.
     "Yes, but I trusted him. And he wasn't the one the pulled the trigger. I'm guilty," Zach said softly. He hung his head.
    "You've saved Bree. You've paid your debt. You've made amends with your sins," I soothed. "Zach you are not who you were. You came back to me." I kissed his cheek and he hugged me tightly. I laced my fingers with his and we walked back into the house.
    "There's nothing here," Chase grumbled.
    "I beg to differ," Bree said. "There are memories." She pulled a scrap book off of the bookshelf and began to slip through it. She had tears in her eyes as she smiled at the pages. I noticed Zach staring at the bookshelf with a puzzled look.
    "What's up?" I questioned. Zach turned his eyes back towards me.
    "The books. They're all in alphabetical order except one," he replied. I cocked and eyebrow.
    "Little Red Riding Hood," Chase said as he looked at the title out of place. Bree's eyes widened and she rushed to the book.
    "That was my favorite when I was younger," she explained. "Grandma read it to me whenever I cane over. She said it teaches us to never trust anyone, notice things, and trust our instincts."
       She opened the book and gasped. She handed it to me with wide eyes. On the front cover page hand writing scrawled out a note.
                             My dearest Bree,
      If you've found this then what I've prayed would pass has come. Our family is not what you think. You and I are the last living female descendants of Regina O'Dare. Many people want us because we hold the key to world domination. You and you alone hold the key. I have a friend named Jasper. Find him and he will explain everything. He lives in Alaska. Be brave. Trust no one. I love you with my whole heart. -Grandma Evelyn
        "We have a lead!" I exclaimed. "I can contact Ed and get him to locate every Jasper in Alaska and we can narrow our search from there."
     "No," Bree said sternly. We all turned to look at her. "There are moles everywhere. My grandma was right, we can't trust anyone. Besides, this is something I have to do alone. It's my destiny.
    "I will not allow you to be unsafe," I warned.
    "And I won't be. I just need privacy with him," Bree replied. I nodded.
      If only I had known that Bree hadn't been honest with me. The book contained more than she lead me to believe. Perhaps if she had trusted me, her and my son would have never gone missing.