“I thought I might ask Kat about the number my dad provided. She does crossword puzzles every day. A clue like this could be right up her alley.”

“It’s fine with me if you ask her as long as we don’t tell her that the number is connected to the hunt.”

“Agreed.”

They made their way to the workroom, where they found Kat stationed in front of the fax machine.

“I wonder if you could help me with something,” Finley said to her. “I received this clue in a brain game thing I’m working on, and I’m stumped.” She jotted 306.8752 onto a nearby piece of paper.

Kat, who considered herself an expert in everything, looked pleased to have been asked. “This was the full clue? Just this number?”

“Correct.”

“Hmm. I don’t think it holds any particular mathematical significance. It’s not pi, nor any of the other famous numbers I know. The decimal is interesting. If you’re looking for a real-world correlation, I’d associate a number with a decimal first with a dollar amount. But this has four decimal places rather than two. My next guess would be that this number represents a temperature. For example, the temperature at which water freezes or boils. Body temperature. However, this number doesn’t represent any of those.”

It would be great if Kat’s superior attitude, which he had to put up with for hours a day, would prove useful for something.

“Decimal, decimal,” Kat muttered. Then snapped her fingers. “Dewey decimal system. Could this be a Dewey decimal number?”

Finley’s face lit. “You know, that just might be it.”

“Type that into your brain game and let’s see if I’m right,” Kat said. “I bet I’m right. I bet the answer’s the Dewey decimal system.”

“I bet it is.”

When Finley didn’t race off, Kat asked, “Are you going to check it?”

“Sure.” Finley slipped toward her office.

Kat followed.

Finley blocked the door. “I need to return an email, then I’ll check it.”

“I’ll wait here.”

“All right.” Finley closed the door. Kat positioned herself an inch from the threshold with self-satisfied body language, waiting for the chance to say I told you so.

Luke went to work. He’d start with the idiotic “It’s a great day to have a great day!” social media captions so he could get them out of the way.

It could be worse. He could have a psychotic puppy to worry about.

After a few minutes, Finley’s voice carried through her closed door. “You were right, Kat! The answer was the Dewey decimal system.”

“I told you so!”

“Thanks a bunch. You’re the best!”

Kat gave him a look that said Top that, buddy as she settled behind her desk.

His phone buzzed, alerting him to a text.

Finley