The Inheritance Games, #4
The Brothers Hawthorne
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 64: GRAYSON
Overview
Grayson, Savannah, and Gigi open the first layers of Colin’s hidden wooden puzzle box through careful deduction rather than force. Their work reveals that the box is more sophisticated than it first appears and likely designed to keep its contents from everyone except Colin.
The chapter’s key revelation is that the mysterious object Grayson found in Sheffield Grayson’s office is not a USB drive but the key needed for the box’s next layer. This links Sheffield’s secrets directly to Colin’s hidden materials and moves Grayson closer to uncovering the truth behind the Phoenix fraud.
Summary
Grayson, Savannah, and Gigi find Colin’s hidden wooden box behind loose panels in the back of the closet. The box has no visible lid or hinge, so Grayson treats it like a Hawthorne puzzle box and begins testing its seams rather than breaking it open.
Grayson slides out one wooden strip and discovers a concealed tool with a pointed end and a likely magnetic end. Using the magnet on the box, Grayson removes a T-shaped panel, then uses the pointed end to trigger and slide an internal mechanism, unlocking one layer of the box.
Savannah and Gigi suggest cutting or smashing the box open, but Grayson warns that Colin may have protected the contents against tampering. After another mechanism appears, Gigi discovers that the wooden strips can be depressed like keys, and Savannah realizes the box requires a combination.
The three spend forty minutes systematically testing the possible combinations until they hear a click. Grayson removes the top panel, only to reveal a second, seamless layer of polished wood with a small rectangular slot.
Gigi suggests the slot requires something with tiny pins. Grayson realizes the opening is a USB port and connects it to the strange object he previously found hidden in a frame in Sheffield Grayson’s office. That object was not a USB drive but a key for Colin’s puzzle box.
Who Appears
- Grayson HawthorneSolves the puzzle box’s mechanisms and identifies Sheffield’s hidden object as its key.
- GigiEnergetically helps test the box and discovers the pressable wooden-strip mechanism.
- SavannahHelps analyze the puzzle box and recognizes the strip mechanism as a combination.
- ColinAbsent owner of the hidden puzzle box, apparently protecting secret contents from others.
- Sheffield GraysonAbsent but newly linked to the box through the object hidden in his office.