Part 5

“It’s just a bunch of books,” Eddie remarked, looking at the contents of the box.
“Journals, moleskines, actually,” Fabian pointed out.
“My dad kept journals in moleskins,” Nina whispered. “When I was little he used to read to me out of them, the journals of where he and mom traveled, from France, Australia, England, and stories he used to write.”
“They’re numbered,” Fabian pointed out.
“Well, then let’s start with number one,” Eddie suggested.

Nina pulled journal one out of the box, “It’s my dad’s handwriting,” still talking in a whisper, “‘Nina,’” she started to read, “‘First off I want to apologize for keeping secrets from you, but we didn’t have much of a choice.’” Nina fought to hold back tears while she continued to read, “‘Read each of the books and at the end you will find,’” Nina stopped.

“Well go on,” Eddie urged.

“I can’t, the rest is in code,” she flipped the pages of the book.
“Are all of them in code?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah,” Fabian said, flipping through every book.
“Uugggghhhh,” Eddie rolled his eyes. “We are never going to figure this out.”
“Nina, does any of this look familiar?” Fabian asked.
Nina flipped through another book, “All I know is that the squares are spaces.”
“And how can you be sure of that?” Eddie commented.
“When I was little, my dad and I used to make up secret codes and a square in between every word always meant a space,” Nina explained.
“Wait, you and your dad made up codes?” Fabian frowned like he did when he concentrates.
“Yeah, it was like a hobby.”
‘He might of used one of the codes you guys made up!” Fabian exclaimed. “Do you remember any of them?”
“Uh,” Nina thought, “there was one where the letters were written down the page instead of across. And one where the words were backwards and there was one where the letters were diagonal.”
Fabian was making a list of all the possible codes, “Is that all you remember?”
“Yeah, I’ll try to think of others,” Nina responded. The three got to work trying to figure out the codes of the books. The first book was written down the pages instead of across but none of the other books were. Realizing they would need thirteen different codes for each book the team brainstormed again.
There was a knock on the bedroom door, “Eddie,” Patricia’s voice came through the door. Nina and Fabian scrambled to put the things back in the box as Eddie opened the door.
“Hey,” Eddie said to the edgy red-head.
“Want to go see a movie tomorrow night? They have this new horror movie out.”
“Yeah, sure,” Eddie responded.
“Oh hi, Nina, Fabian, do you guys want to come too?” Patricia invited.
“Thanks, but horror movies aren’t really my thing,” Nina told Patricia. “Maybe next time.”
“Okay,” Patricia smiled, then noticed the box. “What’s that?”
“Nothing just something my dad left for me,” Nina shrugged.
“Dinner,” Trudy called from the kitchen.