Later that night, Jane sat on the deck, turning the small key in between her fingers. Maura and Christine were doing the dishes while Richard and Maddie were checking out the book. Amy was fast asleep.

The boy could see Jane through the window and wondered what she was thinking when she turned her head towards the starry sky. Was she nervous asking Maura about the girlfriend thing? Maddie slightly nudged him and smiled.

"Maura said that she is going to ask Jane to go steady." She whispered with a grin.

Richard chuckled. "Funny, because Jane wants to do the same thing." He whispered back.

"If you ever made that wish about them being together back at the creek, it worked." She stated. Maddie looked as happy as he felt, and he nodded at her. "I did. But I had not much hope that it would turn out this good." He confided into her.

They sat in silence for a moment and watched Maura walk out onto the deck with two glasses of wine. Jane shifted in her loungechair to make space for Maura who followed the invitation, handing Jane the wineglass. Then they stared into the sky.

R&I

The next day was totally devoted to their vacation as they took a hike to another set of waterfalls. A thorough research had shown that there was only one bank which offered Safe compartments. They would take a drive there the following day.

The whole family had decided that they wanted to enjoy a day of hiking to a nice summit with some hotsprings on the way. Richard was looking forward to take a bath in them after reading all about them.

The hike was fun, and Jane carried Amy for the last part of the way. The girl who had had lots of troubles at the beginning was getting stronger by each day. Living in a small room for all her live hat left her with few muscles.

Richard noted how brave the girl was, taking on each challenge each new day brought. The view was incredibly beautiful. Richard had a hard time taking it all in. He hoped that the pictures he was taking would do justice to the nature.

He noticed Jane wrapping her arms around Mauras shoulders and kissing the top of her head and decided to point his camera into their direction to capture the moment. Both looked very happy.

Mauras hand came up to touch Janes arms and Richard took a few more pictures before turning when Maddie called. She too was taking pics and he smiled into her camera. They made good use of having the summit to themselves and sat down after yet another picture of the whole family to eat their sandwiches.

Amy was a sweet kid, enjoying the attention of all of them. The shyness was completely gone now, and Richard thought that to her the time in prison must feel far away like in a very bad dream. She loved to talk and made them laugh with her antics. Like when she was wiggling her eyebrows importantly when telling a story or chiding the dogs. It was interesting enough that the dogs mostly listened to her and not so much to the adults.

But Richard still secretly had the suspicion that it was because she fed them the most treats. He watched Amy sit in Janes lap, munching on her sandwich while Christine and Maddie had gone to inspect a waterfall.

It was the first time of the day where he thought about the mysterious key and wondered where it would lead to. What was the next clue and what was the goal of their quest? After finding Christine and Amy and the father there didn't seem so much to be open anymore. He still doubted that they would ever find Paddy Doyle.

The mob boss was far too clever to be found and put to jail. He felt his mothers' eyes on him and glanced over to her. She wore a bright smile, and her eyes were gleaming. He smiled back.

R&I

The hotsprings were surprisingly hard to find, even with the thorough description given on the internet. They had left the summit after a group of hikers had summited with a guide. The way down had been spent with laughing and singing Country roads with Amy singing the loudest and full heartedly and terribly out of tune. Not that any of them were good singers but it was all about the fun as Jane explained to them.

After searching a while, they finally stood in front of the springs and Maura handed out the bathing suits and towels. With enough bushes around they had privacy to change. Richard was the first to glide into one of the wholes and he couldn't help but give a deep sigh at the warm water surrounding his spent body. He hadn't really noticed how straining the unused walking had been to his body.

Maddie and Christine soon followed with Amy. He watched them all glide into the water and grinned as they all gave a relaxing sigh at once.

"So, we've been talking while changing." Maddie started and immediately perked Richards' interest.

"We thought that we could give Jane and Maura some alone time. How about we cook dinner for ourselves tonight? Maybe they want to try the Mexican place in town."

Richard didn't have to think long about the idea. It sounded good. Jane and Maura had had little to no alone time over the past weeks.

R&I

Jane and Maura were in a good mood the next morning. They obviously had enjoyed their time and the food at the Mexican restaurant. Today it was time to go to the bank. Richard was curious about the lockers there. As an avid fan of thrillers, he had seen stuff like that in the movies. But would they all be allowed into the bank and was the one key enough?

The drive into the town took about 30 minutes. Their target, the bank, was located on the outskirts and had an impressive appearance with its size and decoration on the façade. The lobby was pretty big too and he took in the statues of some famous town man.

Jane who was leading the pack approached one of the clerks. The elder man was tiny and bald. The way he stared at the lots made it obvious that he wasn't happy about the kids in his bank. Richard wouldn't be surprised if he already had his finger placed on the emergency button.

Even when talking to Jane he kept one eye on them. For Richard this was another opportunity to see Jane in action, despite not hearing what she was telling the clerk. The elder man was obviously hard to convince to let them see the content of the locker because he shook his head several times.

But then – for whatever reason – he suddenly gave in and led them into a room where one locker was aligned next to each other. It was a small room but considering the size of the town it was probably enough. The man pointed to one particular locker at the top on the right corner and pulled out a bunch of keys.

He chose one and put it into one of the locks and then signed for Jane to put in the other. Once the door was open, he stepped back but remained in the room. Richard was curious as to what Jane had said to convince him, but this question would have to wait.

Jane put the little box from the locker onto the table in the middle of the room and opened it gingerly. They all peeked inside – even Amy – who was held up by Christine. And they all stared 4 gold bars and a letter.