The Delaware Detectives

by Dana Rongione

  Chapter Five:

  Uninvited Guests

  At first I thought I was imagining things, but the more I studied the picture, the more sure I became that the eyes were, in fact, moving. I don’t know how long I stood there, but I was snapped back into reality by a loud sneeze.

  “Bless you,” Jamie said from behind the bookcase where he was hiding.

  I turned and looked at him. “I didn’t sneeze. I thought that was you.”

  “It wasn’t me,” he said in a shaky voice, and we both turned our attention back to the portrait.

  “AAAACHOOOO!!”

  As I watched the eyes in the picture blink and then water, I figured out what was going on. I marched up to the picture, stretched out my finger, and poked it firmly into the right eye.

  “Ouch!” shouted a voice.

  I placed my hands on my hips and stared into the eyes of the portrait. “All right, whoever you are, you’d better come out now. I figured out your little game, and it’s not funny anymore.”

  For several moments I stared at the picture that now had dark holes where the eyes had just been. Creepy! Soon, one of the bookcases to the right of it swung forward as if it were a door on hinges. In the dark opening behind the wall, two shapes were barely visible.

  I took a step back and opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a mouse-like squeak. Forcing myself to be calm (or to at least appear that way), I spoke in a firm—but shaky—voice. “Come on. All the way out.”

  A girl about the same size as my brother jumped out from the opening. She had a round, freckled face and bright auburn hair that was pulled into two lopsided pigtails. After dusting off her pant legs, she straightened and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Phyllis, and this is my brother, Scott.”

  Stunned, I shook her outstretched hand and then looked back toward the opening. For several more moments I stood speechless. Scott was a hunk! I wouldn't mind having a poster of him on my wall! His blond hair was feathered back, but his green eyes were what caught my attention. The left eye was bright and clear; the right one was red and watery from where I had just poked him.

  I realized many minutes must have gone by because Jamie was no longer hiding behind the bookshelf but was standing beside me. Then I realized, with a great deal of embarrassment, that I still had hold of Phyllis’ hand, and she was looking at me strangely.

  I dropped her hand and cleared my throat. “Wait a minute! What are you doing in here? You have no business being in here and scaring people like that. Do you think you own this place or something?”

  Scott moved forward to stand beside his sister. “No, not at all. We live just down the road. We come here sometimes to explore. Sorry about scaring you, though.”

  I let out the deep breath that I didn’t even realize I had been holding. “You didn’t scare me, but you did scare my brother.” Lowering my eyes to the floor, I continued, “I don’t scare that easily.”

  “You were scared,” Jamie said. “I could tell.”

  Ignoring him, I stepped forward. “I’m Abby, and this is my brother, Jamie. We’re visiting our grandfather for the summer. In fact, he’s here now. He might not be too happy about you being in the house. It belongs to his Uncle Harold. Why did you say you were here?”

  Scott answered. “We’ve been over here lots of times. Don’t tell our mom though because she’d be mad. This is a cool old house, and there are rumors that it’s haunted or something. Phyllis and I like to come over just to see if we can find any ghosts or anything. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been in here a lot. We've found a lot of passageways like this one, but no ghosts.”

  I turned in circles and carefully studied the walls. “There are more passageways like this?”

  “Yeah, bunches of them,” Phyllis answered, “but there’s nothing in them. Some of them lead behind pictures like this one. Others lead to different rooms in the house. One of them has a set of stairs that leads right into a wall. It’s weird.”

  Scott walked over to the nearest bookcase and perched on one of the shelves. “Yeah, but the longest one is a tunnel that leads to that old outhouse in the back.”

  “Gross!” Jamie cried as he joined Scott on the shelf. “Why would someone want to build a tunnel to an outhouse?”

  I looked for a place to sit, but saw no empty shelves nearby. Rather than sit on the floor, I decided to remain standing. I shrugged my shoulders in response to Jamie’s question. “I guess if it were cold or rainy, it might be easier to go through a tunnel to the outhouse rather than having to go outside. It makes sense to me.” I turned my attention to Scott. “Would you show us some of the passageways?”

  Before he could answer, the door to the library inched open and Pop-Pop poked his head in. “I thought I heard more than two voices in here. Hi, Scott and Phyllis. What are you doing here?”

  “Oh, they come here all the time, “ Jamie blurted.

  Phyllis glared at Jamie and then turned to Pop-Pop. “We just came over to see if we could help.”

  “Great,” he replied. “We could use some extra help. Couldn’t we, kids?”

  Smiling, I answered, “We sure could.” But cleaning was the last thing on my mind.

  After Pop-Pop left the room to continue his work downstairs, the four of us worked for about an hour finishing the library. During that time, Scott and Phyllis described to us some of their adventures in the house as well as the locations of some of the other passageways and hiding places. Despite the fact that they had given me quite a scare, I was beginning to like Scott and Phyllis. Plus, it was nice to have some extra hands when it came to cleaning.

  Tying up the trash bag I had just filled, I looked up to see how much work was left to do. I groaned. While the room looked a great deal better than it had, there was still a lot of work to be done. I blew my hair out of my eyes and wiped my hands on my dust-covered jeans. I had just started to work on the next shelf when I heard Pop-Pop’s voice from below.

  “Kids, are you done up there?”

  I raced to the door, welcoming the break from cleaning, only to find Jamie standing in my way. “Move! I need to answer Pop-Pop.”

  Jamie raised his arms to block the doorway. “No, I’ll go tell him.”

  “Why you?”

  “Because I’ve been working the hardest,” he said.

  Shaking my head, I commented, “Yeah, right! Now get out of my way.”

  Jamie stood in the middle of the doorway and glared at me. I could have just pushed him out of the way, and I might have had it not been for the voice behind me.

  “You two sure do fight a lot,” Phyllis said. “Scott and I fight sometimes, but not like you. "I thought about Phyllis’ words. She was right, of course. Jamie and I did fight a lot. In fact, it seemed like our fighting had become much worse in the past couple of years. I wondered about the reason for that, but, coming up with nothing, I shrugged my shoulders. I took a deep breath and turned back toward Jamie to apologize. However, I forgot what I was going to say when I saw Pop-Pop standing above Jamie in the doorway.

  “Didn’t you kids hear me?”

  Jamie and I looked at each other, and I could tell from the sudden heat in my face that I was blushing as much as he was.

  “Um, yes, sir,” I replied. “We were just coming to tell you that we’ve still got a lot to do in here.”

  “This place was a real mess!” Jamie chimed in.

  “I know,” Pop-Pop said as he scanned the room. “You kids have worked hard today. How about we take a break? I’ve got some snacks downstairs. Anyone interested?”

  I looked around and noticed that everyone was wearing a smile, but I could tell everyone was completely exhausted.

  Scott and Phyllis set down the books they were dusting and followed Pop-Pop out the door. I walked close behind them but stopped when I reached Jamie who was again standing in the doorway. “I’m sorry for shouting at you. It wasn’t very nice.”

  “You’re right,” he answered. “It wasn’t very ni
ce, but I shouldn’t have been a pest. I’m sorry, too.”

  I put my arm around his neck and pulled him up beside me. “Come on. Let’s go back and check out that globe.”

  “I’ll be right there,” he said turning to look at me. “I need to go to the bathroom first.”

  After watching him walk (or waddle) down the hallway, I turned and headed back into the library. Taking the globe from the top shelf, I studied it in the light that came from the nearby window. I turned it from side to side and finally upside down. Nothing! In desperation, I shook it like a magic eight ball, hoping to hear something rattling inside. Again, I was disappointed. I grabbed the stepladder and climbed up to the top shelf. Besides dust, there was nothing to see. Oh well, I thought. It was a good guess.

  When Jamie didn't return, I assumed he had gone downstairs to join the others. I raced down the steps and had barely reached the living room when I heard Jamie’s voice from upstairs.

  “Abby, come quick!”

  “What now,” I muttered, turning and stomping back up the steps.

  “What?” I asked when I reached the bathroom door.

  Jamie pointed into the toilet bowl and said, “Look in there.”

  “Gross, Jamie! That’s disgusting. I’m not looking at your—um—I’m not looking in there.”

  “No,” Jamie laughed. “I’ve already flushed it. I just want you to look in there and tell me what you see."

  Confused, I asked, “But if you already flushed—“

  “Just look,” he interrupted.

  “Fine, whatever.” I walked over to the toilet and gazed into the bowl. “It’s water,” I said.

  “Right, now watch," Jamie said in an excited tone. He reached up and pushed down the lever on the back of the toilet.

  “Now, it’s flushing,” I said, still not sure what he was getting at.

  “No, it’s going around and around. Don’t you see? The water is going around and around.”

  Suddenly I wondered how I could have been so dense. Of course! But a toilet? Who would hide a treasure in there? I looked at Jamie and saw his excitement as he danced around the bathroom. It was almost enough to make me smile—almost.

  “So, you think the treasure is hidden in the toilet?” I asked him in the most serious voice I could manage.

  “Maybe,” he said. “I saw a spy movie once where this man hid some important papers in a water proof container inside the tank of his toilet.”

  “You watch too much television.”

  “Come on, Abby. What’s it going to hurt to look?”

  I held up my hands and backed away. “You go right ahead. I have no desire to stick my hands in there.”

  Jamie shook his head. “Girls! All you have to do is look.” He removed the top from the tank, and I couldn’t help but inch forward to get a better look. But the look on Jamie’s face said it all.

  “Nothing,” I whispered. Then noticing the look of disappointment on his face, I added, “It was a good idea anyway.”

  After a moment, Jamie snapped his fingers and smiled up at me. “I’ve got it! There’s another bathroom downstairs. Let’s go check that one.”

  As we reached the bottom of the steps, I looked up and saw Pop-Pop approaching us. “Is everything okay?”

  “Oh, um, yes, sir. Jamie just wanted to show me something upstairs.”

  Jamie bobbed his head up and down. “Yeah, I wanted to show her something.”

  “Come on in and get a snack,” Pop-Pop said gesturing toward the dining room. “I called the deli and had them bring over some sandwiches and sodas. You’d better hurry though. Scott has already inhaled three of the sandwiches.”

  Jamie and I looked at each other and then followed Pop-Pop into the dining room. Phyllis and Scott sat at one end of the dark rectangular table. A large round platter sat in front of them. As Jamie and I sat down, Scott reached for another sandwich. I wasn't feeling hungry, but I ate politely and made friendly conversation. However, as soon as the sandwiches were gone (which was quickly, thanks to Scott), Jamie and I excused ourselves to go wash our hands.

  By the time we reached the little bathroom tucked so neatly under the stairs, I was about to pop with anticipation. Jamie flipped the light switch, and we practically bounced the three small steps to the toilet.

  “Well, go ahead,” I said.

  Jamie lifted the top off the tank and set it across the closed lid to the bowl. We both moved forward to peer into the tank, but it was too difficult to see inside. Since the bathroom was under the stairs, the ceiling was at an angle. Unfortunately, the lowest part of the ceiling was only about six inches above the back of the toilet. There wasn’t room above the tank for us to look in. Frankly, I’m not even sure how someone could sit on that toilet without hitting his or her head.

  I looked at Jamie and sighed. “I guess you’ll just have to stick your hand down there and see if you feel anything.”

  This time, Jamie looked horrified. “You want me to stick my hand in there? No way! You do it.”

  “No, this was all your dumb idea. If you really want to find the treasure that bad, you’ll have to do this.”

  Jamie’s cheeks turned red as he blew out a big breath. “Dumb idea? Upstairs you said it was a good idea. You just don’t want to do it!”

  “Duh!”

  “Fine,” Jamie said, pushing up his sleeves. “But if we do find the treasure, I’m not sharing it with you.”

  He took a very long time rolling up his sleeves. Even after they were up as far as they could go, he continued trying to push them up. After several minutes of shifting his gaze from me back to the tank, he finally took a deep breath and plunged his hand into the water.

  I grimaced, even though it wasn’t my hand inside the back of the toilet. “How does it feel?”

  “Wet,” he replied. “I don’t even know what I’m feeling for. I’ve never had my hand inside a toilet before.”

  “Just feel for something unusual.”

  His eyes came up and met mine. “Unusual? I’ve got my hand inside the toilet, and you want unusual?”

  I closed my mouth with a snap and waited quietly. It seemed like hours had passed when Jamie shouted, “I found it!”

  Looking toward the tank, I saw Jamie’s hand come out holding a long gray box about the size of a ruler. I stretched out my hand to him. “Here, let me see it.”

  Jamie shook his head and pulled the box far away from me, using his body as a shield and holding me back with his dry hand.. “You don’t want to touch this. It’s been in there.” He pointed to the toilet with his dripping hand.

  He was right of course, but not wanting to make a big deal about it, I pulled back my hand and said, “Well, open it already.”

  Jamie shook the water from his hand and pulled the box closer to his face. With a quick motion, he opened the box and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I told you! It is another clue.”

  I walked over to stand behind him as he unfolded the paper. Considering he had just taken it out of the toilet, the paper was amazingly dry, and the ink wasn't even smudged. It was written in some sort of fancy cursive writing, so it took me a moment to figure out what it said.

  “To find the next clue, you must dismantle, but be very careful, for it is hot to handle.”

  Jamie looked up at me. “What does dismantle mean?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we could look it—“

  “There you are,” Pop-Pop said as he entered the bathroom. “I was beginning to wonder if you two had gotten lost. What have you got there, Jamie?”

  Oh, boy! We couldn’t lie to Pop-Pop. It just wouldn’t be right. So, at that moment, I decided it was time to let him in on our little secret.