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"I-I JUST DON'T GET it!"
Lynn heavily exhaled while raising her arm to wipe her forehead, an excessive amount of sweat had drew on her skin while endlessly shoveling dirt for the past hour. Sarah and Kie weren't much help, planted in the old VW van with whatever air conditioning that still worked. John B had given up a few minutes ago, collapsing dramatically on the ground as he claimed there was no more strength left in his body.
That left JJ and Lynn, who had finally in that second finished reburying the casket that belonged to Cecilia Tanny, after Pope had gathered some beautiful white flowers and placed them with her — like a makeshift grave stone to honor her.
Lynn brushed away some of her hair that had inevitably stuck to the sides of her face, tossing the shovel off to the side while she climbed down from the hill of dirt, practically caving to the ground as she leaned against the wooden tree trunk of angel oak. JJ's eyes never left her, even though she felt disgusting in her pile of sweat and sore bones, JJ thought she had never looked more beautiful.
"I mean, you guys saw the map," Pope announced aloud, aimlessly tossing his arms into the air as clear annoyance could be recognized in his tone of voice. "He hides his gold so no one finds it for a hundred and seventy years. And then he sends a message to his son Robert to come here to his mother's grave, but the message never gets to him. Denmark wanted him to find the cross, I know we're in the right spot. It just feels like—"
"—Like we missed something?"
Lynn, along with every other Pogues for that matter, jerked their heads in the direction of JJ's startling voice. His eyes had landed on a spot much higher in the tree branches, where his body was leaning against the window of the van. Jumping up from her previous seat on the ground, Lynn was next to JJ's side within a second.
Her shoulder brushed up against his as she shifted in her position, and JJ had to yank himself from the distracted gaze of Lynn's touch as she climbed up the VW van to where she would be standing on top of it. JJ was right behind her.
"Doesn't that look like..." JJ trailed, his fingers brushing over an opening into the wide trunk of the tree, only shadows could be seen even with the amount of daylight shining in.
"The painting in the islandroom," Lynn confirmed, finishing off the boys sentence as she glanced down towards her best friends for their own reactions — most of them couldn't even believe what they were looking at. "Try it."
JJ simply shrugged, a little worried bob of his adams apple as he stared down the dark hole, "It's worth a shot, right?"
The group of teenagers all chimed in with agreement, and then JJ hesitantly switched back towards Lynn — motioning towards the ominous looking hole in the tree trunk. Lynn flung her arms up in the air defensively, shaking her head.
