“Ross, I need you to accompany me to my house!” exclaiming, Emma stood up. 

Her expressions changed, brows furrowed. Before leaving, she turned towards me to say,

“We’ll be back as soon as I find what I’m looking for,” she said gravely and moved towards the door. 

As Emma left, Rossie followed her. The sound of the door closing behind them left the people inside the house mystified.  

"Do these letters have something to do with Daniella going missing?" Phil said, pointing towards the envelope fluffed up with letters in my hand. Phil's voice was the first to break the reign of silence inside the room.

I gazed at the envelope for a moment before completely emptying it on the tea table. 

"Here, everyone, take one letter each. Try decoding it using all the algorithms you know. We need to do it today! Can't waste more time!" I exclaimed. 

Following my instructions, Jess, I, and Phil took a letter each. Several coding patterns were running through my mind. However, none of them were proving to be effective on this piece of scribbled writings.

I glanced at Phil's and Jessie's expressions from time to time to see how their work was going. Phil, as he was, seemed mostly ignorant about anything related to algorithms or decoding. So, he was off the count. Coming back to me, or Jessie. Jess was a smart girl, and by judging her expressions, it could be said she was engrossed in deep thought processing. 

Hours passed as we sat with our heads under the squiggly papers covering the table. A while ago, Nana presented an offer for tea, and we accepted out of spite. Now, what could be better besides tea, to charge yourselves up while solving brain-storming letters.

If you ask my point of view, tea is a must in every situation, be it good or bad, war or peace. Tea is tea- this never changes. 

Anyways, getting back to the hall room that smelled like roasted brains. Three innocent lives were wasting their cherishable moments of youth in solving some psychopath kidnapper's jumbled words.

Sounds frustrated? 'Cause I was!

However, as soon as Nana entered the room with a tray placing three mugs full of tea, my quick-on-uptake olfactory senses signaled me. And my head sprung up with a jerk only to see my dearly smiling Nana with a tray of large mugs. Mmm! That's what you call a feeling of love. 

After a few moments, three of us were to be seen a bit relaxed, leaning on the couch's cushions. 

"I am a noob in all such things," Phil said, pointing at the pile of papers placed on the table through his eyes. He seemed a little hesitant and embarrassed. 

"Did you guys get any hints?" He asked, raising his deep black brows. Phil was a member of another elite family of Blueball - The Macaskys.

Phil and his sister, Daniella, were the usual spoiled rich children. They cared about no one but themselves. Daniella, however, was better than Phil in her studies. But as for Phil, he was completely useless except in boxing. Boxing was the only thing Phil was good at. He was genetically blessed by this trait. His father was a renowned boxer during his high school days until he took over their family business. Following his footsteps, Phil, too, had gained quite a popularity in the field. 

Phil's appearance was peculiar as he had jet black hair, white skin tone, and a perfectly shaped body. The body of a regularly gyming personality with muscles of his hands bulging out. Even though his facial features weren't too catchy and his height was average, his physique was the one that all boys craved. 

"I tried many combinations. All I knew. None of them worked." Jess replied, sighing. 

"I don't know why, but it feels like I have read something like this before. But I just can't remember where." Jessie added, knocking her forehead as a sign of remembering. 

I sighed. Jessie was right. None of my combinations worked either. 

"What about you, Ann?" Jess asked, turning towards me while taking a sip of tea from her mug. 

"Umm… I don't know. I have even tried one of the ancient techniques, where you use the first and last words of the sentence to deliver a message. But..." I sighed once again. And looked on both Jess and Phil's anxious faces. 

"Nothing works. My feelings are mutual with you, Jess," I said, turning towards Jess helplessly. 

I was puzzled and in deep thought. It was such a weird code word. How did Daniella understand it? Who taught her all this? 

When we were all entangled in figuring things out, suddenly a phone rang and caught everyone's attention. It was Phil's mobile phone. He received it and was listening to the one on the other side. 

"Okay, okay, Mom! I'm coming," he gave a halt for a moment and then said,

"Mom, please! I'll be back when I'm done," he said and turned off the phone in annoyance. 

He then turned towards us and saw both of us staring at him. 

"Sorry, guys," he said, placing his hand behind the head to scratch his hair, showing hesitation. 

"After Daniella, Mom has grown a bit protective," he added. 

"No worries!" I said. "You must go. She might be worried." 

"After all, she is a mother," Jess added with a sad smile lingering on her lips. 

Phil nodded in approval and stood up. He turned to leave, and Jess moved behind him to close the door. Before leaving, Phil turned back to where Jess stood holding the door. He glanced at her for a few moments and then said,

"I am sorry! For everything, I did to you," his gaze lowered. He looked hesitant. 

He kept squeezing unseen dirt under his toes while fidgeting his fingers nervously. Embarrassed, he started saying,

"I know I have always been quite harsh to you. And I know you hate me for it, but when Angie left and things started happening around your family like Mari--”

“You still here Macasky?” I said, coming from the hall room and standing behind Jessie.

I had my arms folded on my chest. Although I appeared to talk friendly and pleasantly, my eyes flamed with anger and warning for Phil. Hearing my voice, Jess turned too. However, she wasn’t able to grasp the sense of alarm bells my voice carried. But the message was received by the one it was meant to be delivered. Without wasting another second, Phil abruptly said,

“I was just leaving. Bye, Jess! Bye, Angie!” he said, compelling a fake smile on his face. And then turned away. 

When the door was closed after he left, I saw Jessie’s sharp, suspicious glancing all over me. I walked uncomfortably in the direction of the couch and then turned towards her. 

“What?!!” I asked aloud, suddenly feeling insecure. 

Jessie kept staring at me for a few moments before saying,

“Are you hiding something from me?” she asked suspiciously. Her voice was filled with doubt, worry, hesitation. 

Her question made me more uneasy than I was before. I shifted in my place nervously. 

“You’re suspecting me for what?” I counter questioned, making my voice as bold as I could.

“Answer the question,” she said with the same calm yet dubious voice. She had her hands folded on her chest as she kept staring at me with narrowed eyes.

“Listen, we all have secrets, and it's best if we don’t try to scrape them out. What’s hidden is best hidden!” I saw her reactions on hearing my answer. As I didn’t want to discuss this topic anymore, I changed the topic of conversation, saying,

“Now, should we continue or clean up to have a nice cooked Nana meal?” I asked, looking at the scattered piles of paper all around the sitting area.

“What did you say?” Jess said as if she was in some other world.

I turned back on my heels on hearing her deep-in-thought voice. As I glanced at her face, I noticed her wandering in her own ideas.  

“About what? The meal?” I asked with a puzzled face. 

“No, before that," she said, looking right into my eyes with hope and thrill.

"The secret thing? What's hidden is best hidden," I repeated, raising my brows in confusion. 

I wasn't still able to get what she was trying to get at. 

"Yess!" Jess chirped as she remembered what she wanted to. 

"What's hidden is best hidden!" she murmured to herself. 

"These letters…" she pointed towards the papers. 

"I know how to solve them!" She said with her voice filled with enthusiasm. 

And, in no more than the blink of an eye, Jess sat down, holding a blank paper and a letter in her hand. Her hands were working speedily. As a result of her eagerness for decoding the letter transcripts, Jess didn't even realize that she hadn't placed herself on the chair. Instead, she sat right in front of it on the floor. 

I stood behind Jess, slightly bent, trying to figure what she had already figured out. 

Meanwhile, some distance away, Emma and Ross stood in Dylan's study near one of the racks. The drawer was open, and the contents were unloaded. Emma had a paper in her hand, and Rossie was peeking at it from the side. It was sort of a letter which ended with,

"See you tonight, Sneakster!

Yours,
Franklin Dickinson."