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Rose spent hours poring over the supposed code she found in her father's wine bottles. It didn't spell anything- not even using some of the numbers as letters and such. She wracked her brain until she thought she was going to go insane. She took a break, and went downstairs. Her pets were awake, keepaway in the hall with a stuffed doll in the shape of a mouse: one of Niko's toys.
Olay! was in the middle, Tuft and Niko on each side.
Rose laughed at them, and continued on into the kitchen for a glass of water. Kipper was curled up next to the pet food bowl on the floor, sleeping.
"And they say cats sleep a lot." Rose mused.
"And dogs don't get tired?" Kipper responded, opening one eye while he spoke, then letting it close again.
Rose laughed. She got her water, and sat at the counter on a barstool.
She drank it a bit, and then realized she forgot the ice. She hopped up and went to the frig, opened the freezer, and grabbed a few chunks of ice. Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes lit up.
Missing. Her ice was missing from her drink. Her father was missing. What was missing from the code????
She slammed the freezer closed and ran back upstairs (almost tripping on her pets on the way) and almost threw herself on her bed where her papers lay scattered.
She looked at the code again, and drew a hasty sketch of the racks. She made rows and columns, and then went through the list, crossing out each spot where a bottle had been missplaced.
She went through the entire list, and looked to see if anything was, indeed missing.
And there it was, clear as day.
There were no misplaced bottles in row F or column 8. But what did that mean? There was no F8, so it wasn't about the bottle. And all the bottles were there, none were missing. The only thing really missing was her father.

Moments later, Rose took one more deep breath before entering her father's room. She didn't know what she was looking for, but it would either be missing, or have something to do with F8. A longshot, for sure, but her only best bet would be in there somewhere. Rose opened the door and turned on the light.

to be continued once i feel well enough to sit long enough without being nausueas... or however you spell that XP
resumed:

Rose glanced around the room. Nothing really looked missing. Dad always kept his things in specific places. He was very neat. Rose circled the room and bathroom a few times, a little frustrated. She plopped down on the desk chair and let her gaze wonder. Was F8 really the clue? Her eyes stopped on the bookcase. There would be so many things to go through there, looking for F8. Still unsatisfied, she gave one more half-hearted look around the room, starting to resign herself to weeks worth of sorting through books for F8. But she instead found herself staring at her father's chess set. He had taught her to play, but not on that set. The board was marble, and the pieces were of malachite and cubic zirconia. The game seemed in the middle of play, as it always had. The story her father told her many times was that her mother was an excellent chess player and that they were in a deadlock on that gmae for two years before mom died. And he never moved the pieces except to clean them.
Rose's eyes charpened, as she looked at the board. F8. Chess spots were lettered and numbered in official play. The malachite queen sat on space F8.
Shrugging, Rose lifted the piece, and moved it off the board. Peering at the black square, Rose could almost make out an indentation. It rose slowly, and became flush with the board. Rose grinned.