The Delaware Detectives

by Dana Rongione

  Chapter Seven:

  The Hunt Continues

  “We found it!” Jamie shouted, pretending to be a cheerleader again. “What does it say?”

  I lowered the heavy mantel back to the floor and looked at the piece of paper I had clutched in my hand. Unfolding it carefully, I scanned the clue and tried to determine the meaning, but my thoughts were interrupted by my brother’s whine.

  “Abby, let me see. What does it say?” He tried to peer around my arm.

  I snatched the note away from his view. “It says, To find the next clue, you must not forfeit, for the answer is there behind Sally’s deerest portrait.”

  “Why can’t they use words I know?” Jamie mumbled as he plopped down on a nearby chair. “What does forfeit mean?”

  “It means to give up or surrender, but I have no idea who Sally is, and whoever wrote this didn’t even spell dearest right. Maybe Pop-Pop will be able to help us. Speaking of which, we probably need to go. I’m sure he’s waiting on us.”

  “But, what about the clue?” Jamie asked as he stood up. “Aren’t we going to look for it?”

  “Not tonight. It’s already late, and without knowing who Sally is, it won’t do us much good anyway. It’s best to go get some rest and start again in the morning.”

  “Okay,” Jamie mumbled, his head hanging down to his chest. I knew exactly how he felt. I wanted to look for the next clue as much as he did, but I knew we didn’t have all the information we needed. There was nothing else for us to do.

  Jamie and I walked the dark path to Pop-Pop’s house in silence. I don’t know what was going on in his mind, but mine was reeling with the possibilities of where the next clue might be hidden.

  While we ate our meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Jamie and I filled Pop-Pop in on the events of the afternoon (although we neglected to tell him about all of our fighting). He told us that Sally was his sister and that she lived a couple of blocks away in the opposite direction of Uncle Harold’s house. Pop-Pop said that we had met her before, but I think we must have been too young to remember.

  Before we could get any more information, Pop-Pop sent us off to bed. For once, I didn’t argue. After sitting down to eat, I realized just how tired I was. Jamie and I hugged Pop-Pop and headed up the narrow stairs to our bedrooms.

  When I reached my room, I changed into my nightgown and crawled into bed. My mind was still twisting and turning, reliving the day’s events, and I wondered if I would get any sleep that night. I didn’t have to wonder long.

  The next thing I knew, it was morning. I rolled over, rubbed my eyes, and stared at my alarm clock. Startled to see that it was already 9:30, I jumped out of bed and rushed next door to wake Jamie. His bed was empty. Shrugging my shoulders, I went back into my room. That's when I noticed his small form huddled under the blankets in the spare bed.

  “Jamie, wake up,” I said. “It’s already 9:30. We have to hurry. We have a clue to find. And what are you doing in my room?”

  Jamie threw the blankets off, groaned, stretched and stared at me with only one eye open. “I’m in your room because that stupid owl is in my room. It hangs there over the steps and stares at me. It really gives me the creeps! As far as getting up and getting ready, who cares if it’s already 9:30? It’s not like there’s an expiration date on the clue. No one has found it in all these years. I’m sure no one will find it in the next few minutes.” With that, he pulled the covers back over his head.

  “But, Jamie,” I said, “last night you didn’t want to leave until we had found the clue, and now you don’t seem to care about it at all. Aren’t you excited? Don’t you want to find the next clue?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I do, but I’m also tired, and I want to sleep.”

  “Well, I’m going whether you go or not.” I hurried to my dresser, opened the drawer and pulled out some of my most comfortable clothes. I didn’t really care if they were nice or not since we were probably going to get filthy again. I got dressed and ran downstairs to see if Pop-Pop was ready to go.

  He was not in his usual place at the breakfast table. After quickly searching the downstairs, I went back to the kitchen and noticed a note lying on the table. It was addressed to us, so I read it. In it, Pop-Pop said that he had been called in to work to deal with some emergency, and he would not be able to join us in our search today. But, he did give us permission to go on our own. He also offered to call the café in town and to have them bring us some lunch later on.

  A few minutes later, Jamie came down the steps, turned the corner, and practically ran to the breakfast table. “Where’s mine?” he said pointing to my bowl of cereal.

  “Up in the cupboard,” I answered. “Get it yourself.”

  He walked over to the cupboard, opened the door, and pulled out a blue bowl. “Where’s Pop-Pop?”

  I told him about the letter and that we were on our own for the day. After a quick breakfast, we were ready to go. I grabbed my emergency bag, which seemed to be getting lighter lately, and we headed out the front door. The walk to Uncle Harold’s was far from peaceful.

  “So,” Jamie said. “Why don’t we invite Phyllis and Scott to come back to the house today?”

  “Why would we do that?” I asked.

  “Well, they know the house really well, especially the secret passageways and all. Maybe they know something about the treasure, or maybe they could help us find it.”

  “I thought about that too, Jamie, but it’s very risky. What if they find the treasure, and then want to keep it for themselves? How bad would that be?”

  “True, but I still think it would help. After all, then we would have two extra sets of eyes helping us look. Plus, it may take us weeks to find all the secret passageways. Please!”

  I stopped walking and turned to look at him. “I don’t know, Jamie. We hardly know them.”

  “Think of today as an opportunity to get to know them better. It wouldn’t hurt your feelings to get to know Scott a little better. Now, would it?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean,” Jamie teased. “You like him. You think he’s gorgeous. You probably even want to marry him some day.”

  “That is SO not true!” I declared.

  “Yeah, right,” Jamie said. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. You bat your eyes like this.” He moved his eyelids up and down in a frantic motion. “And you get that silly smile on your face. You ought to see yourself.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, resuming the walk to Uncle Harold’s house.

  “Whatever, but I think we should stop by Scott and Phyllis’s house. Let’s just tell them we’re on a treasure hunt. We don’t have to tell them anything else.”

  “Fine, we’ll talk to them. Are you happy now?”

  Jamie ran up to walk beside me and nodded his head. “Yes, I am.” Thankfully, we finished the trip in silence.

  Scott and Phyllis accepted our “treasure hunt” story without any questions. They agreed that it would be nice to get to know each other better, and they even agreed to show us around the old house—passageways and all!

  When we arrived at the house, we hit a bit of a snag.

  “It’s locked,” I said, twisting the doorknob back and forth. “I didn’t think to ask Pop-Pop for the key.” Remembering something, I turned to Scott. “You said that you two came in here all the time. How did you get in before?”

  “Easy. The door was never locked. All we had to do was. . .Hang on. Let me try something,” Scott said. He came to stand beside me, jiggled the handle, and the door swung open.

  I felt my jaw drop. “How did you do that?”

  He laughed. “I don’t think it was really locked.”

  “But it was,” I argued. “Remember, I just tried it. It was locked. Plus, I remember locking it when we left last night.”

  “I told you this house is haunted,” Phyllis mumbled.

  “What a baby,” Jamie grumbled.
/>   “I am not!” Phyllis screamed. “But don’t you think it’s weird that the door unlocks itself?”

  “I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Jamie remarked.

  “Come on,” Scott said. “I’m interested in looking for this treasure of yours. Where do we start?”

  After a brief exchange of glances with Jamie, I answered, “Why don’t we go in, and we’ll decide what our plan of attack should be.”

  “After you,” Scott said gesturing for me to go through the front door.

  We walked into the house slowly and in single file. The unlocked door had given me quite a scare, and from the looks of it, I was not the only one. Our heads moved from side to side in search of intruders. The house was still and silent.

  “Hello,” I said in a voice barely above a whisper. I cleared my throat and spoke a little louder. “Hello? Is anyone in here?”

  Screeeech!

  “Did you hear that?” Phyllis asked in a whispered voice.

  The rest of us nodded and looked around the room again. There was still nothing out of the ordinary, so we continued our conversation. Within a few seconds, we heard the sound again, only this time it was louder.

  “Okay,” Jamie said. “Maybe we should come back later.”

  “Jamie,” I answered loudly, hoping that my voice would cover up the sound of my knees knocking together. “Don’t be silly. I’m sure it’s just—“

  At that moment, a black shadow came diving down from the nearest bookshelf. Its landing was followed by four screams. The screams came from us, of course, as we ran out the front door, slamming it behind us. We raced to Scott and Phyllis' house, where we plopped down on the front porch and heaved in great gasps of air.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Scott replied. “But whatever it is, it’s keeping us from finding your treasure.”

  We sat on the porch for several minutes, trying to decide what to do next. We decided to sneak back to the house and see if we could discover what was going on. We walked up the road and ducked into the bushes surrounding Uncle Harold's front porch.

  “Do you see anything?” Jamie whispered.

  “No,” I replied.

  The door to the big house was shut just as we had left it. The only movement was that of the old porch swing as it creaked back and forth on its rusty hinges.

  “One of us should go look in the windows,” Scott said to me. “Rock, paper, scissors?”

  I was not surprised when I lost this game. I always lose at games! Darting from bush to bush, I crept up to the porch. I tiptoed to the window, peeked in and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Jamie whispered from the bushes.

  “It’s a cat,” I said in a loud voice.

  “What?” Phyllis said.

  “The black phantom is a cat. It must have jumped down from a bookshelf or something. It’s just a silly old cat.”

  After a good laugh, we inched back into the house. Seeing our return, the cat hurried out the front door which then closed with a heavy THUD. Creepy! Not wanting to be scared again by a cat or a door, I stood up straight, placed my hands on my hips, and looked directly into the eyes of the other three treasure hunters.“All right,” I said in my most grown-up voice. “We are looking for a portrait. A portrait, as we all know, is just another word for a picture. Now I know there are tons of pictures in this house, so the clue has to be in one of them. The clue will probably be written on a small piece of paper like the others.” Realizing that I had just given Scott and Phyllis too much information, I hurried on and hoped they wouldn’t notice my slip. “We need to search the frames, in the pictures, behind the pictures, around the pictures. . .anywhere you can think to search. Any questions?”

  “Do you think the picture we're looking for is a portrait of Aunt Sally?" Jamie asked. "I don't even know what she looks like.”

  I reached into my back pocket and pulled out an old, wrinkled picture. “This is Aunt Sally. Pop-Pop gave me this last night. But, we don’t know for sure that the picture is one of Aunt Sally, so make sure you check each one.” I took a deep breath and continued. “I also think it would be best if we split into pairs.”

  “You mean, like brothers and sisters,” Phyllis asked.

  “Well, no, not exactly,” I answered. “I was thinking maybe you and Jamie could go together and Scott and I could go together.”

  I looked over at Jamie to see his reaction to my comment. He was batting his eyelashes and giving me the goofy smile he had shown me that morning. I wanted to throw something at him, but unfortunately, I didn’t have anything handy. “The reason I thought this would be best is because Scott and Phyllis both know the house well.” I turned my attention to them. “You two could guide us through the places that Jamie and I still don't know about.”

  “That does make sense,” Scott said, smiling.

  After a few more minutes of planning, we split into pairs and began our search for the clue. Jamie and Phyllis decided to search the upstairs while Scott and I roamed the downstairs. This was fine with me since I knew there were a lot more pictures upstairs, and they would have a lot more to explore.

  Scott and I began our search in the living room. Since it was the room with the most pictures, we both felt it would be the most likely place for the clue to be. There were portraits of individuals, pictures of entire families, paintings of the landscape, and just about anything else you could imagine. It took us a very long time to search each one.

  We worked for a while in silence, the only noise coming from our lifting and moving the pictures. Then, seeing this as a time to get to know Scott a little better, I attempted to strike up a conversation. It didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped. “So, where do you go to school?”

  “Lewistown Central,” he replied.

  “Oh. Do you like it there?”

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  I continued my search around the large room and wondered what I could ask him that would get me more than a one or two-word answer. I finally came up with the topic of sports. All guys are into sports, right?

  “So,” I said. “Do you play any sports?”

  He lowered the painting he had in his hands and turned to me. “Yeah, basketball.”

  So much for a conversation, I thought, but that did not keep me from talking. I told him about how I did not play any sports because I was not very athletic, how I always had my nose in a book, what subjects I liked and disliked in school, and on and on. I didn’t even realize how much I had been talking until I saw Scott staring at me with a strange look on his face.

  “What?”

  He laughed. “I just wondered if you were going to take a breath.”

  I smiled and hung my head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I’ve talked your ear off. I don’t know what got into me. I have never liked the silence. Just one of my quirks!”

  “No, don’t apologize,” he said. “I only stopped you to point out that we’re finished in here.”

  “Really?” I sighed. “We searched them all?”

  “I’m afraid so, but there are a lot of other places the clue could be. Let’s go check the kitchen.”

  After searching the kitchen, the office, the den, and even the bathroom, Scott and I still had not found the clue. We searched every picture we came across, but in the end, we had nothing to show for our efforts. We decided to take a short break and plopped down on the overstuffed couch in the den.

  “I wonder if they found anything upstairs,” I asked as I struggled to put my hair back up into a ponytail.

  “If they had,” Scott answered, “I’m sure they would have come down and told us.”

  “I don’t know. Jamie can be. . .well, let’s just say we don’t always get along.”

  “No joke,” Scott mumbled.

  “What does that mean?” I laughed.

  “Nothing.”

  “We do get along sometimes,” I whined. “In fact, we used to do stuff together all the time, but now t
hat I’m growing up, I just need some space. Jamie doesn’t get that. He always wants to be around me and to do whatever I’m doing. It’s annoying!”

  Scott shifted on the sofa so he could look at me. “Have you ever taken that as a compliment?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” he replied, “I think it’s sweet that your little brother wants to be with you all the time. You must be fun to hang around with. Right?”

  “I guess. I’ve never really thought about it that way.”

  He smiled and gently laid his hand on mine. “Maybe you should start thinking about it that way. It might really change the way you act toward him.”

  “Abby! Scott! Where are you guys?” Jamie called from somewhere nearby.

  I jerked my hand away from Scott’s and called back. “We’re in the den. Did you guys find anything?”

  The weary looking pair entered through the doorway. Jamie was covered in dust from head to toe, and Phyllis had spider webs hanging from her pigtails. From the looks of things, they definitely had the more difficult (and dirty) task of the day.

  “We didn’t find a thing,” Phyllis answered. “How about you guys?”

  “No. Nothing,” I replied.

  With no more leads to go on and knowing that lunch would be arriving soon, we decided to take a break. Pop-Pop had obviously known that Scott and Phyllis would be with us. He'd ordered enough lunch for us all—even if Scott did eat four sandwiches. As we ate our lunch, we talked about other possible locations of the next clue. We went over our earlier search to make sure that we hadn’t forgotten any rooms. We discovered that we had, in fact, failed to search the basement and the attic.

  “The attic!” Phyllis shouted, slapping her forehead with her hand.

  “What?” I asked. “What about the attic?”

  “I just remembered something. There are lots of pictures up there. We’ve been up there before. Right, Scott?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “You're right. I completely forgot.”

  The four of us jumped up from our places at the table and ran toward the attic stairs. As soon as we had pulled down the trapdoor, the heat from the attic hit me right in the face. Phyllis scrambled up the old wooden ladder, turned on the attic light, and motioned for us to join her. When we had all reached the top, she pointed to a set of dressers to her right.

  “Over there. That’s where the pictures are, and there are more in the drawers.”

  On either side of the two dressers was a stack of picture frames. I moved to examine them more closely. The frames were layered with dust and spider webs, but I could still see that many of them were antiques. “Cool!”

  “What?” Scott said. “What did you find?”

  “Oh, don’t mind her,” Jamie grumbled. “She’s a history geek. She loves old stuff.”

  I almost commented on his name-calling, but remembering what Scott had told me, I chose to ignore him instead. As I sifted through the frames, I noticed several pictures that were very similar to the ones downstairs. Then moving toward the dresser, I opened the top drawer and found myself staring at piles of old photo albums. In fact, all four drawers of both dressers were full of photo albums. “This is going to take a while. You guys ready?”