Swamped

"I think his name's Peter," Penelope says. "His main job is cleaning out Vera Greenwoods' office."

"That's what I remembered, yes," you agree. "Which seems rather odd, doesn't it? It's not the kind of job that's likely to get secret messages... and certainly not from a different officer entirely. Why would you even have a code set up with someone like that?"

Penelope shrugs, though she's clearly thinking along the same lines.

"Maybe the message was really for Vera, and Peter was just going to pass it along?" she guesses. "And he didn't want word to get out that he was sending her a message."

"Doesn't seem likely. There's lots of reasons for officers to send messages to each other. Even if it were something really sensitive, nobody would have thought anything was odd if he'd asked you to deliver it directly."

"Well. What's your guess then?"

You don't respond right away. Instead, you glance down at your notes and start translating the whole message.

"The forest has claimed our treasure, but she doesn't know what it means yet. Make sure she doesn't get the chance."

Penelope just stares at you.

"Forest here most likely means Sergeant Greenwoods," you say. "What this sounds like is, she found something Ash didn't want her to find, and he was trying to act before she figured out what it is."

But just as you finish explaining that, Penelope bolts off. You start chasing her, and calling out after her; but she won't respond to you.

You have no idea what she's thinking. Where is she even running to?