***The next morning***
Jennifer was up and downstairs when Jonathan came down. She had his coffee all ready for him.
"Morning darling."
"Morning honey".
"Where's Max?"
"Outside with Freeway. He made us breakfast though. Huevos Rancheros."
"Awesome".
"Darling, where did we put the box of paintings from Pa's house?"
"In the downstairs spare bedroom."
"Perfect".
"You want me to get them out?"
"No, no. I just feel like this hunt that Pa has been sending me on is connected to the paintings somehow, and I feel like I might need to get one of them at some point, that's all".
She took her dishes to the sink and rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher.
Jonathan finished his last few bites and brought his dishes over as well.
"So, what is on your agenda today?"
"Well, I have to get to the bottom of the stock sale. And I have a few other projects I am interested in resolving".
"That sounds interesting".
"Darling, why don't you let Max drive you to the dock?"
"No, I'm alright."
"Darling, you have no idea what you are picking up. What if you cannot handle it?"
"I tell you what. If I get there and I need someone, I will call Max, or you."
"Thank you".
He wrapped his arms around her waist.
"I just want you to know that whatever you pick up at the dock, I have no prior knowledge as to what it is. Your father and I were never in cahoots about this, and we never spoke about him doing this for you and what it would entail".
He kissed her forehead.
"I believe you."
"That applies from now till this thing is over, how ever long it lasts".
She leaned up and kissed him.
"Darling, if you want me to stop the scavenger hunt-"
"No, nothing like that. I just want you to realize that regardless of what the notes say, I don't have any prior knowledge of the contents of or the outcome of the scavenger hunt".
"Will you promise to trust Chris?"
"I promise to look at each situation involving him on a case-by-case basis."
"Thank you".
She walked him to the door and gave him several kisses.
"I love you, Mr. H."
"I love you more, Mrs. H."
"Call me after you go to the dock, and please be careful".
"Promise, promise".
She kissed him again and he left while she headed for the study.
She was just about to leave for the dock, when the gate sounded.
"Hello?"
"Delivery for Mrs. Hart".
"Come on up".
She opened the gate and met them at the door.
"Hi, flowers for a Jennifer Hart".
"That's me".
"Sign here. Where would you like me to put them?"
"On the bar, on the piano, on the coffee table. Wherever is fine".
He brought in 4 large bouquets. She tipped him handsomely and then closed the door behind him.
She went to look at them.
One bouquet was all green and white flowers. Peace lilies, gladiolus, carnations, roses, daisies, bells of Ireland, and green orchids. She dug for the card and pulled it out.
"Hope these make you smile today".
No signature.
The next bouquet was yellow roses and white forget me nots, and the card simply said "Forever in my thoughts".
Again, no signature.
The third bouquet was very colorful. It was in a tall square white vase with birds of paradise, bleeding heart vine, yellow and orange gladiolus, pink dahlias, and one perfect purple plumeria. The card for this one said "The sight of you makes me blush. Good thing blushing is my favorite".
The last bouquet was in a crystal vase and was all hydrangeas. Blue, white, green, yellow and pink. The card for this one said "The most gorgeous flower ever for the most gorgeous woman ever. I would give you the world if I could".
She picked up the phone and called Jonathan.
"Jonathan Hart".
"Hi darling. Did you send me flowers this morning?"
"No, I didn't."
"Well someone did. I just got 4 bouquets. And none of the cards are signed".
"What do they say?"
"Well the first bouquet is all green and white flowers and the card says "Hope these make you smile today". Nothing too horrible about that. The second bouquet is yellow roses and white forget me nots and it says "Forever in my thoughts". The third bouquet is all different types of exotic flowers. The card for this one is very strange. It says "The sight of you makes me blush. Good thing blushing is my favorite". And the last one is all hydrangeas and the card says "The most gorgeous flower for the most gorgeous woman ever created. I would give you the world if I could".
"Well, I mirror the sentiment, but they didn't come from me. Look at the cards, are they from local floral companies?"
"Yes. They were all delivered by California Bloomin'".
"Darling, it's not that I don't trust you, but do me a favor and have Max drive you to the dock? Please?"
"Ok, I'll agree to that. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that someone is trying to get close to you for unsavory reasons. I am going to call the flower shop. I think it's too much to assume that they mistakenly left the name off all the bouquets. And I'm hoping they can shed some light on who sent them, or from where they were sent if the sender or senders are anonymous".
"Thank you, darling".
"Love you, baby. Call me when you get back from the dock".
"Love you too". She went and found Max and they left for the dock.
Her crate was on the flat that was up first, and they had it unloaded pretty quickly.
"Ma'am, you are going to have to take the contents of your crate to customs. Second booth on the left".
"Thank you".
Max carried the crate for her and they walked over with the paperwork.
The customs agent interrogated her for what seemed like forever and then finally released the crate to her.
Max drove her home and got the tools out to open her crate.
She pried it open and found a small painting, that depicted a girl on a horse.
It was in a textured gold frame.
On the back was an envelope.
"My darling Jennifer- I saw this painting in Germany and thought of you. Hope you like it as much as I did. Love always, Pa. P.S. Open envelope 3".
She dug out the third envelope.
"My darling Jennifer-by now you have probably figured out where this is going. You always were a smart one. I hope you are keeping track of all these things-that's going to be the key later on. Of course, you are, that's just you, my sweetheart. Ok, so now that you are to the 3rd envelope-go to this address. 7854 Wild Oak Court, in Los Angeles. Ask for Amanda and tell her who you are. Follow her instructions. I love you, Pa".
She grabbed the phone and called Jonathan.
"Jonathan Hart".
"Hi darling".
"Hi, what did you find?"
"It was a crate, that held a painting of a girl on a horse. I cannot tell who it's by, but it's in a gold frame. And he told me to open envelope 3, and that gave me an address".
"What's the address?"
"7854 Wild Oak Court, in Los Angeles".
"Have Max drive you. I will meet you there".
"Ok love you".
"Love you too".
She blew him a kiss as she hung up the phone and turned to Max.
"He wants you to drive me to this address".
"Fine. Ready when you are".
They headed to the car. It took a minute to find the address, but they did. Pretty soon, Jonathan's car was pulling up.
"Right on time".
"Hi gorgeous."
He came over and kissed her and they headed inside.
Max was outside talking to the meter maid.
Jonathan and Jennifer walked in and went to the counter.
"Hi, can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm looking for Amanda. My name is Jennifer Hart".
"Oh yes, I've been expecting you. One moment".
She disappeared behind a door and then came back with a box.
There was a letter addressed to Jennifer on top.
She opened it.
"My darling Jennifer-this is something every little girl dreams about, and every father wants to give to his daughter. I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful daughter like you to give it to. Love, Pa".
She opened the box and found a gorgeous gold and ruby necklace and ruby and diamond bracelet and a pair of ruby and diamond earrings.
"Oh my stars they are absolutely stunning!"
"Wonder where he got these?"
Amanda handed her another envelope.
She opened it.
"My darling Jennifer-it's time to open envelope 4. Love, Pa".
She looked at Amanda.
"Are these mine to keep?"
"Yes ma'am. I'm very jealous-I had no idea that much bling was in there".
"By any chance, do you remember when my father came and set all this up?"
"It was last year, just after Christmas. I was skeptical at first, but he convinced me".
"Thank you".
They boxed up the jewelry and walked out to their car.
"Are you going back to the office, darling?"
"No, I'm all done for the day".
"Find what you were looking for, Mrs. H.?"
"We will show you at home, Max".
Jonathan got in the car and they drove off.
Jennifer dug out envelope 4 from her purse.
"My darling Jennifer- Remember when you were a kid, and you used to swing on your swing set for hours? In order to have a swing, you need wood. You must connect the wood to a chain, one on each side. And you have to put the chain on the branch of a tree. If you look closely in your paintings that you got for your birthday, there is a sketch of a little redheaded girl swinging on a tree. Start there. Love, Pa".
She turned to Jonathan.
"Darling, what did the flower company say?"
"That the sender asked to remain anonymous and used a prepaid credit card to pay for them. They were able to tell me that it was one person who sent all 4 bouquets, but not where they were sent from. They did say that the person took several days to finally purchase the bouquets."
"Why on earth would someone send me 4 bouquets in one day?"
"Not sure. Unless, maybe they thought that you were getting so many bouquets of flowers that you wouldn't notice?"
"Maybe…."
They brainstormed the whole way home but were no closer to figuring it out.
They walked in and Jonathan went to get the box of paintings for Jennifer to look through.
They sat down and carefully looked at each painting.
"Do you have any idea what year you should start with?"
"None".
Jonathan unwrapped each painting while Jennifer looked over each one carefully.
After about 4 paintings, he handed her one of a boat on the ocean with a gorgeous sunrise. She turned it over and found a tiny sliver of white paper sticking out from the back.
"Darling, I think I found it."
"Really?"
"Maybe. Can you help me get this frame off?"
"Sure".
He carefully took the back off the painting and just as she suspected, there was a white piece of paper between the painting and the frame. It was a sketch just as he had described, of a redheaded girl on a swing.
"Who is the sketch by?"
"My mother".
She handed it to him.
"Darling, do you think there are other sketches?"
"Can't hurt to look".
They took the frames off each painting and found several more sketches.
In the last one, there was a sketch and an envelope.
She opened it.
"My darling Jennifer, I see you found all the sketches. Good girl. Your mother loved to sketch you, but she was never confident in her artistic skills beyond that. I just felt that if anyone would get enjoyment out of the sketches, it would be you. Phase 1 of the scavenger hunt is over. Phase 2 will begin soon. Love, Pa".
They put all the paintings back in the frames and Jennifer decided she wanted to frame the sketches in some way. She spent a long time just looking at them. Some of them were her swinging, or riding a horse, or sleeping. Others were the three of them walking down a path or picking flowers.
"I think this one might be favorite one."
She handed it to him.
It was a sketch of Jennifer in a dance pose.
"I like this one too".
She took the jewels and the diamonds from the silver box up to their wall safe and put them in.
For the time being, all the paintings were laid out on the guest room bed.
Jennifer went and took a bubble bath while Jonathan was watching a baseball game.
"Mr. H., how is Mrs. H. really doing?"
"I think she's ok. I have been wondering if this is too much for her, but she swears she's fine. I think each clue and revelation brings it all up again."
"Mr. H., I promise that when my time is up, that's it. No scavenger hunts or clues or anything".
"Thank you immensely".
Jonathan decided to make Jennifer a special dinner, and told Max to keep her busy if she came downstairs. He ran to the grocery store to get everything and then came back.
He was in the kitchen cooking when she came downstairs.
"Darling, do you mind if we just stay in tonight? I'm not feeling up to going anywhere".
"Staying in is what I had planned on doing, so yeah, it's ok".
"Wonderful".
She came over to him and leaned against his arm.
"Can I help?"
"Sure. Chopped salad is one of the sides, so if you want to assemble it, that's fine".
"Are we eating the same salad?"
"Yes, and Max".
"Perfect".
She decided to make a chopped salad bar, so everyone could have what they wanted.
"Darling, I was thinking. We have lots of art hanging in the house, and I love that. But I think I want to hang up some of the pieces from my dad. So, would you be ok with me changing out some of the pieces?"
"Fine with me. Your dad had excellent taste in art, darling."
"I agree. It will be nice to have some of his pieces up around the house".
Jonathan went outside to grill their dinner.
"No peeking, darling. It's a surprise".
"Deal. How about a cocktail?"
"Great idea".
He went outside to grill while she went to make their cocktails.
About 20 minutes later, dinner was ready.
"Grilled steaks, just the way you like them, with Walter's famous seasoning. Steamed lobster tails, green and white rice, and the chopped salad that you made".
"You are wonderful".
She leaned up and kissed him and then started making her plate while he went to get Max.
They walked back into the kitchen while Jonathan told him what dinner was.
"Green and white rice, Mr. H.? That don't sound too appetizing".
"It's called green and white because it has tiny chives and parmesan in it, Max. I promise you, it's great".
"You'll love it, Max."
"No promises, but I'll try it".
They sat down and had a nice dinner, and Jennifer insisted on doing the dishes. Jonathan and Max went to watch a baseball game in the den.
After the dishes were done, she came and joined them. She curled up next to Jonathan on the couch.
About an hour later, she was fast asleep.
When the game ended, Max headed to a poker game. Jonathan eased out from under Jennifer and went to the study to make a phone call.
"Hi Stanley, it's Jonathan. Did you find out anything on those people?"
He listened intently as Stanley told him everything he had found.
He didn't hear or see Jennifer in the doorway of the study.
"Ok, did you get a chance to investigate Mark or Davy?"
He was taking notes while he listened to Stanley.
"Thanks, Stanley, I appreciate your help".
He hung up the phone.
"Did you seriously have someone spy on and investigate my friends?"
He turned to see her, eyes blazing, in the doorway.
