Chapter 4

They get back to the room, Carole had put everything away back into the box, Cole hands her, her tea "So, we will get a move on the road in about ten minutes, you can bring the cups for all I care, we will take separate cars as after I show you around I need to go to my team and help them on their site." Carole looks at Cole and nods "That's fine don't worry, we can handle the rest after you show us around." Cole places his cup down and walks over to the box, grabbing it to put in the car, "We will bring this with us so we can update the information, we will also check in with you as well around 4 p.m. as that's when we have a tea break." Carter looks at Cole taken back slightly and smiles, "Of course, let's head over now so you can get started." Cole nods, as Carole grabs his cup of tea, and all three of them walked to the elevator to go down to the lobby.

Once they get there, Cole walks out to the car, and places the box on the back seat and hops in the driver's seat putting the window down, "We will wait here for you so you can show us the way." Carter nods and walks into the garage as Carole gets in the passenger side of the car with Cole. Carter pulls out of the garage and starts towards the road with Cole and Carole behind him. It takes them about 20 minutes to get there, when they do they pull over to the side of the road and hops out, Carole goes to the trunk and grabs the bag full of cleaning equipment along with the backpack with all of the examining equipment, while Cole grabs the box from the back seat and they both followed Carter into the house, placing everything on the table by the front door. Carter gives them the tour of inside the house and head outside to the back yard, Carter explains to them the history about the shed that is in the backyard and the house.

After about thirty minutes of giving a tour and explaining what his team and himself did, Carter leaves, saying goodbye while Carole and Cole get to work. Cole heads out to the back yard and starts looking at all of the risen roots. He notices the root that looks exactly like the one in the photo does and he walks over to it examining it, Carole walks over to him and looks down at what he is looking at and says; "Cole, does that say... 'hidden'?" Cole looks over at Carole then back to the root and wipes some of the dirt away, "Yeah it does, go get me a shovel, the small one, I don't want to disturb the tree..." Carole looks at him weirdly and chuckles; "Alright, I'll be back." She leaves and comes back with two small garden shovels and hands them to Cole, he takes them and starts to dig around the root, until he saw ratted looking fur. He started using his hand to dig it up and gently e grabs it, realizing it's a stuffed animal. Carole takes it while he grabs a piece of paper that seemed to be under the stuffed animal. "Cole... look, it's all dirty, missing an eye, and I think it has some mud stains as well..." Cole looked up at her; "You're right it is and look at what was under it," he shows her the piece of paper and opens it; "It says 'I am near nor far, you will not find me up high, so look down, far(e) nook of the yard,' what do you suppose it means and why did they parenthesize the letter 'e'..." "The way that they word this, Cole... I think that the next item is underground, in the nook of the yard, but which nook? And why the letter 'e'." Cole gets up and takes the stuffed animal into the house and cleans it off placing it in the evidence box. He starts writing notes down as Carole walks in and looks over his shoulder reading out loud; "Probably fond of animals which made me "a protector" and soft things were a sensitive spot." Carole chuckles shaking her head knowing that he was being bluntly serious. Looking at his face she noticed that he had a strange look on his face; "Cole, what is it?" "The letter, when it says, "In the far(e) nook of the yard," what if 'e' means east... think about it, there are 3 "nooks" to the yard, and two of them don't begin with 'e'.". Carole looks at the note and nods, "Well, it wouldn't hurt to go look there..."

They leave the house and head to the east nook, with their shovels, they get the east nook and start digging, and digging... thirty minutes later or so they stopped and sat down on the ground panting slightly, "Let me see the note again," Carole says putting her hand out. He hands her the note and she read it again' it. "Cole... this says FAR east... not just east," Carole chuckles handing the note back to him, "Oh, I thought I missed something, good thing you caught that, huh?" Cole chuckles getting up wiping his hands on his pants and snatches the photo back and puts it in his pants pocket as he picks up a shovel and looks over at Carole, "Off to the FAR east side nook of this yard," he chuckles the last part and looks back over at Carole and motions her follow him. She shakes her head and follows him as they walk over to the Far East end of the yard. Once they get there, they both start digging and digging. After ten minutes of digging Carole hits something metal, they look at each other and drop the shovels as they both start to use their hands. They move the dirt away from the sides and realize it is metal box. They dug down further under it to get it out. Once they get it out, they place it on the ground and fill up the hold as much as they can. Then they head back to the other place where they were before and fill in that hole as well. They then head back into the house and to the kitchen, where Carole places the metal box on the table and goes to their equipment bag and grabs a screwdriver and a hammer. Cole sits down and opens a new folder as he takes out his notebook, noticing the box wasn't in very bad condition - a little rust and mold but that's all - as Carole starts trying to open the metal box.

Once she gets it open, she finds acrylic paintings that look like they were being preserved, she hands one to Cole so he can write a detailed description on it.

'March 25th 3010, @ 11:48 a.m.

· Painting looks to be about 5 inches wide and 6 inches wide

· 'Sunset' -some of the colors are red, yellow, orange, black, green and white.

· Two clouds - both have a white outline while it looks as if the sunset is reflecting off the clouds

· The trees that are closer are green while the others are black.

· Is signed 'Olivier' along with a perfect 1

He flips to a new page once he finishes with that one and Carole hands him one that is on a canvas this time;

'March 25th 3010,

· Painting is on a 4 by 8 canvas

· 5 full clouds and 3 look to be combined

· 'Clouds in the purple sky' - some colors; 3 shades of pink, white, 3 shades of purple and black

· Clouds have a pink ombre, and there are stars and shooting stars behind them

• Has a nice blend from light purple to black'