By John Leatherman
In an oak-paneled conference room at First Freedom Fiduciary, I scowled from across the oblong table at slick-haired CEO Maurice Meltonshire, whom I blamed for Joe’s death, and a cadre of lackeys and attorneys.
Joe’s attorney, Allison Raymond, clicked a remote, and the video projection screen flickered on with the image of my late husband, balding and paunchy but comparatively healthy before the poison ivy had ravaged his skin.
“I, Joe Enza, do hereby deliver this final will and testament and stuff. I welcome the two claimants to my estate, my widow Lauren and my former boss, Maurice Meltonshire. I’m sure it blew your minds to see me like this again. Why didn’t I just have the will read? Well, let me tell y’all a little story…”
Joe began a rambling account of how he’d developed the efficiency program for the Jakarta office of Meltonshire Global, saving millions in needless transaction fees.
Four-year old Katie, who’d been off to the side on the sofa working on a puzzle book, tugged at my arm. “Is Daddy better now?” She stared at the screen, wide blue eyes sparkling.
Clearly Joe had made the video shortly after his fateful trip to Meltonshire’s Dakar office, during which the freak inhalation of a poison ivy-infused hoopoe feather inflamed the interior of his lungs. He knew it would soon spread and kill him.
Fighting tears, I sighed. “I’ll explain later.”
I turned back to Joe on the screen.
“So, Jakarta was a big success and stuff. Analysts believed that if implemented worldwide, my program could net billions in annual savings for Meltonshire Global. But since Maurice never paid me the Jakarta bonus he promised, I added a tweak to the worldwide program that diverted all saved fees to my offshore account for the first six months as a means of collecting back pay.
“Of course, your legal staff didn’t see it that way, and then I got sick and stuff. This quickly became a question of inheritance. Who deserves these funds? This is the solution we devised.
“The money’s in a custom vault in the basement. My attorney will explain the rest.”
***
Allison gave me and Maurice transcripts of the video, then led us all downstairs to the vault, which had an alphanumeric keypad next to the door handle. “Whichever of you is first to enter the correct ten-character access code will be legally entitled to the contents. You have unlimited tries, but an incorrect entry will deactivate the keypad for six hours. Joe provided these to help you figure out the code.” She produced an identical pair of manila envelopes. On each, Joe had written:
Your clues are somewhere in here.
“Somewhere in here?” Maurice snatched one of the envelopes, ripped the seal, and pulled out a folded map of the world. He groaned. “Oh, very funny, Joe.”
An underling peered over his shoulder. “Hold on, Sir.” He whispered and pointed at the map; then he and Maurice exchanged hushed chatter.
Maurice barked to another lackey. “Gimme that transcript.” After studying it for a moment, he grinned. “Ha! I knew there was a point to that stupid story!”
Scrambling off, he shouted orders to his entourage. “Have my private jet fueled, get me someone who knows Greenland, and…” His voice trailed off as they crammed into the elevator.
Greenland?
Spreading out the map on the floor, I didn’t notice anything in Greenland. Right above it, though, a small blue arrow pointed down. It was alongside down-pointing arrows of other colors in the top margin.
What did they mean?
Maurice said something about Joe’s story…
Checking my copy of the transcript, I understood. blew… read… y’all a… Joe hid colors in his story to tell us what order to read the arrows!
The left margin had a blue arrow too, near the top and pointing right. The blue arrows pointed to a spot smack in the center of the Greenland icecap.
That’s why Meltonshire is headed there!
I groaned. “Didn’t Joe give me any extra help? I don’t have a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate at my disposal!” I finger-pounded the map in frustration. “How will I ever find out what’s here?”
Katie looked up from her puzzle book. “G!”
I stared at her. “What?”
“Where you’re pointing. There’s a G!”
I lifted my finger, revealing the G of GREENLAND.
Wait a minute…
I followed the red arrows. They intersected above Siberia, on the T of ARCTIC OCEAN. The yellows intersected in the Pacific, on the M of MICRONESIA.
Borrowing Katie’s pencil, I circled G-T-M and then solved the other colors. Each coordinate landed in some remote area—squarely on a letter.
“Hmm.” I circled the last. “Nine letters. I need ten characters, and the keypad has digits. Seems the last should be a number…”
Katie smiled. “It looks like a three!” She connected the circles in order, drawing a large, sprawling 3 spanning the continents and oceans.
I entered the button sequence G-T-M-D-S-N-I-E-C-3. The keypad flashed green, and the vault clanked open. The eight-by-eight chamber contained only a briefcase on a table and a wall-mounted video screen.
As Katie and I entered, a motion sensor clicked, and the screen lit with another video of Joe. “Congratulations on your inheritance.”
I popped the lid. The case was full of bundled hundred-dollar bills.
This is a lot, but certainly not billions.
Joe spoke as if in reply. “Turns out Jakarta was a one-off of inefficiency. We only netted about seven hundred thousand worldwide, sadly.”
Sadly? This will cover our mortgage, Katie’s college, IRAs…
“If somehow Maurice is watching this video, I’m guessing you almost recouped what you wasted in Greenland and stuff.”
I chuckled.
“And if it’s Lauren, I knew you could do it. Sorry I couldn’t give you any extra help.”
“What are you talking about, Joe?” I hugged Katie to my side. “You gave me everything I need.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Making his wife and daughter sweat for the money. Classic Joe.
Fantastic puzzle mystery. The underdog theme served the story well.
Glad you enjoyed it. Using someone else’s character is such an interesting writing challenge.
VERY clever! I like this a lot, the characters, the puzzle, the whole thing. (And I was wondering who’d be the first to kill off Joe).
Had to be done. =} It wasn’t in vain.
Enjoyable! I like a “solve the puzzle” story.