Inheritance Of Secrets

The start of the secrets

Jameson slid beside me, "What did we find?"

I raised my eyebrows, "I've possibly found something, you have found nothing."

"Same team Anna. You know something," He smirked as if he was revealing a deadly secret, "You do don't you?"

"Secrets will be revealed with time," I exaggerated watching his face shift with mild uncertainty. Jameson had no clue what I meant. I didn't either, but that wasn't the point.

"How long has this place been bricked up?" Avery called out as she wandered through the room.

There was no response needed. To their thoughts, it had never been touched not since Toby 'died'. It had to stay that way.

I ran my hands on the top of the armoire one last time finding the point to push opening a compartment filled with travel-sized liquor bottles.

"Looks like Uncle Toby was a fan of contraband," Jameson commented looking over towards Avery intriguing her to come over to look. As she walked over I backed up letting the couple have their space. It was hard to look at them when they were acting like this.

"Found a loose floor panel," Xander called from under the bed the tone of his voice was a mix of concern and excitement. When he reappeared from under the bed, he was holding a small plastic bag full of pills—and another one full of powder.

I took the bag of pills from him inspecting it. It was so sort of drug, you would be able to tell without some sort of evidence of a label. It didn't look like anything my mother took, it seemed stronger.

"Do you know what it is Spots?" Xander asked softly purposely trying not to push anything. He was good at it, better than his brothers.

My eyes didn't leave the bag, "Nope."

—-------------------------------

We split up to search the room looking through the many secret hideaways Toby had. I found several underledges or tiles holding different types of secrets. Nothing that would be helpful. Nothing I hadn't already seen before.

"Are you going to tell me your secret now?" Jameson asked bumping into me while checking tiles. He was completely in mystery mode right now. You could almost feel the determination radiating off him.

"If he was in Connecticut pretending to be a homeless man you'd think he would get caught," I muttered fiddling with a loose tile.

Jameson frowned unsure of what I was trying to say, "So you're saying he was found."

I glared at him, "He wasn't that my point. He also survived a fire while being severely intoxicated."

"He had help from someone. Someone helped him."

I nodded a light smile appeared, "Now you're getting it, Jamie."

I felt my hands slip on a tile popping it up. Jameson gave me a knowing look telling us both to be quiet. He helped me lift it. On the back of the tile, there was a poem engraved into the metal.

I was angry with my friend

I told my wrath, my wrath did end

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow

Reached for my phone to take a photo.

"Who is it by?" Jameson asked his voice not making a sound.

I nodded once knowing I wouldn't be able to say it without letting the others know. We both reach for it sliding back into place.

"Aha!" Xander said triumphantly storming into the room with Avery. "I knew you two were being too quiet."

Jameson flashed a wink at Avery as they both squatted down next to us, I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

As the two of them popped the tile back open I stood up and backed away. The poem was by William Blake. I never was able to figure out what the significance was there.

Avery read out the poem leaving the room in silence until Xander spoke, "William Blake."

"Who?" Avery asked, her gaze on Jameson not leaving for a second as he paced up and down. Jameson always preferred to think on his feet.

"William Blake," I repeated with no emotion in my voice. "Eighteenth-century poet—and a favourite of Zara's."

"And Toby's, apparently," Xander added.

I doubted Xander's point, Toby was one to read long literary books but there was a difference in this poem to the rest of the literature he owned. It was a hidden message in his mind. Toby's own secret.

"He was angry about something," Avery spoke. Her face lit up a certain way when she was racing through possibilities it almost looked calming. "Something he couldn't say?"

"Maybe," Jameson replied pensively. "Maybe not."

Xander gave his phone over to Avery. "Here's the entire poem. Long story short," Xander summarized for the rest of us, "the author's hidden wrath grows into a tree, the tree bears fruit, the fruit is poisoned, and the enemy—who doesn't know they are enemies—eats the fruit. The whole shebang ends with a dead body. Very catchy."

The poem was a hint to Tobias Hawthorne, he was the one toby wanted to posen by burning the island. He wanted revenge.

"What the hell are you kids doing in here?" That question sounded like it had been ripped forcibly from someone's throat. My head whipped toward the doorway. Mr. Laughlin stood there, on the other side of the demolished bricks. He looked tired and old and almost hurt.

"Just putting everything back where we found it!" Xander said brightly. "Right after we—"

Mr Laughlin didn't let him finish. He stepped through the opening in the brick wall and pointed his finger at us. "Out."

"Do we have to?" I forced myself to say knowing it would only make it worse.

"Out!"

A/n

This chapter is kinda boring but necessary to the plot.

Thank you for reading :)